A successful website is something that everyone venturing into new arena of Internet marketing and communications wants to have. Your website will often be a potential client’s first impression of you and your business. That being said, it is vitally important that your website represent you in a favorable manner. Your website is a component of your overall marketing strategy and should be reflective of your business and current marketing presentation. Just as your brochures and other print materials represent a level of quality and professionalism, your website should also represent that same level of quality and professionalism. As a point of comparison, you most likely wouldn’t have just anyone design your company’s marketing materials or for that matter, prepare your tax statements. Similarly, it is important that person creating your website know how to effectively communicate both your message and style, and be able to create an effective experience for those visiting your site.

What does it really take to have your website be successful, and what are some of most important steps you can take to make that happen?

1. If you intend to have a unique domain name for your website, you must first check to see if it is available. You can check to see if a domain name is currently registered at http://www.internic.net.

2. Set a budget for your website. It is important to know how much you can spend on your project. In considering costs, remember that a website is a complex matrix of text and images and a professional execution is very important. As a generalization, larger your investment, greater your return. In order to spread your investment over time, you can also grow and expand your website gradually. Don’t forget to include costs for promotion and advertising.

Now that you have decided that it is time to create a website for your business there are many questions you must answer. One of most important questions is "Who should create my website?"

I like to use analogy of playing music; in as little as a few hours, some people can strum a few chords on guitar and play a song. But to really play instrument and make your instrument sing requires experience and understanding. Likewise, although there are tools which are readily available to assist in process, effective website design requires experience and understanding of many diverse areas including: marketing, Internet graphics options and limitations, effectively creating a site from perspective of search engines, differences and limitations of different browsers and computer platforms as well as knowledge of software and coding required to move beyond simple static html pages.

It is also vitally important that your designer understand you and your business and know how to most effectively communicate you and your uniqueness to your Internet audience. To answer our question, we’ll look at some important pieces of information that you’ll need to find out before you choose your website designer.

What do you want in a website? What are your needs and intentions for having a website? Does prospective designer listen to and understand your needs and intentions? Have you checked other similar businesses to see what they are doing on Internet? Can a prospective designer offer any suggestions for improving upon what others have already accomplished? The more clarity you have about your intended results for having a website, more accurately you can communicate your needs to your designer and more likely it is that you will achieve these results.