5 tips for website owners

So you've got a website or you're thinking of creating a website? What are the top 5 tips we can give you in ensuring your website is a long term success?

1) Plan, plan and plan some more.

Building a well constructed, targeted, information rich and SEO focussed website takes a lot of time, effort and ultimately money. As the website guardian, it is your job to ensure that all of the long term targets and objectives are met, that improvements and fixes are implemented quickly and that the whole system is meeting or exceeding expectations. With larger e-commerce projects and bespoke web applications the importance in planning increases exponentially. The web site will be interacting with more internal systems, encrouching into other departments remits and generally throwing it's weight around more. The importance of planned introductions and improvements can not be underestimated. Knee jerk reactions to implement a new piece of functionality often causes more problems than leaving things alone.
It is worthwhile investing in a suitable project management solution - be that offline like MS Project/OmniOutliner or online like Basecamp - these systems will help you to plan your workloads, timescales and delivery dates more accurately.

Write a full and detailed website spec

There are a multiple reasons for doing this, but the two main ones are that it ensures you get what you want and deliverables are set and agreed by all parties. It it will also help you to think about all the nuisances of your project - for want of a better phrase, 'it will get the creative juices flowing'. Quite often, it's only when writing the full website spec do you realise, 'Oh, actually I need it to handle the lack of VAT on international exports' etc. Writing a spec is a good thing and will result in a happy website owner/developer relationship.

2) Preparing copy and photographs takes time

Creating interesting, key word rich and well written copy is a skill. If you don't have the skill or time to dedicate to doing this properly pay a professional to do it for you. This is often an area that customers think they can cut some costs and do themselves - and more often than not it's very evident in the final result. Copywriters aren't hugely expensive and they will do a better job than you will!
Similarly good photography can make a website. instead of using the camera on your mobile phone, pay for a professional to come and take some pictures. This is particularly important if it's product photography or location focused.

3) Don't ignore the importance of the Search Engines.

Think of Search Engines such as Google as being the pathways from the street to your company's front door. If you have a fantastic looking building, great products and a happy demeanor it's not going to get the customers in from the streets - the pathway to your door will do that.  So it is imperative that you build your website with the search engines in mind - no matter how big and well known your company is, you will need this at some point. The current economic climate (2009) is proving that even big, well established, brands feel the pinch from time to time.

Have a separate SEO budget.

If possible, keep your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) budget and web development budget separate. Although the two are intrinsically linked, they are two different things and can even be handled by two different companies. Similarly, don't spend the budget for one thing on extra funding for the other. You need a balanced and well thought out strategy. After all, investing all your money in a website that no-one can find is almost as bad as investing all the money in optimising a website with poor design and a lack of features - either way the result is the same: a lack of sales.

4) Keep it fresh.

The initial build of a website is exciting and takes up a lot of resources.  However you must not forget that this is now your mouthpiece to the world - you need to keep the momentum up and the new content flowing. Not only for search engine purposes but also to keep your customers coming back to you. They will be interested to see what you're working on, what new products or services you're offering and how you can help them improve/expand/reach more customers.
So consider it your job to ensure that content is added monthly as an absolute minimum - it will be worth the effort in the long run.

5) Nothing lasts forever

Almost everything has a shelf life, particularly in our 'rapid change' world, where technological advances mean improvements can be made quickly and with sweeping effect. So you need to consider that your website will have a shelf life. What is possible now will be different in 3 years time. What is de-riguer now will be old hat soon. You need to continually evolve to stay with the pack. It is worthwhile bearing in mind that websites typically have a life cycle of between 3 and 5 years.

In Conclusion

Of course there are a million and one things to consider when running a website, but these tips might help you plan for the long term or at least give it a cursory glance.