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Incorporate questions that are most frequently asked during buying process, perhaps in an online survey that can be e-mailed to you as a lead.
5. Do you want "hits", or qualified leads?
Decide whether you want as much traffic and as many responses as possible from your site, or whether you would prefer only to hear from serious buyers. A nonprofit organization might want many people to see its message, but most businesses have a specific focus.
If you decide to qualify responses that you get from site, how will you do this?
6. Do you have a promotion plan and budget?
Even best designed Web sites need effective online marketing to generate traffic. You will need a strategy to position your site as well as possible in Internet search engines and directories.
There are also many ways to promote your site "Beyond Search Engines" - a tipsheet of ideas for doing this can be requested at http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/
Remember that marketing your Web site is an ongoing activity, and allocate time and resources to this.
7. How will you measure your success?
If you have made decisions on all these issues, you will need a way to evaluate results of your site against goals and outcomes that you set.
Your traffic analysis reports can provide really valuable information about your visitors. This can be used to improve your Web site, and your marketing (both online and offline).
The reports will tell you how many users come to your site, which search engines and keywords they are using to find you, which pages of your site are most popular, and which are rarely accessed. So, think before you leap, and may your business prosper in Cyberspace!
Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet "Beyond the Search Engines" for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com