Understanding the potential of a website

I have written quite a few websites for people. Some are personal pages but most are business related. I have noticed that in terms of the business potential of a website, many people have a limited notion of what it could mean. Quite often, it is not until they have had their website for a while, that they start to wonder what else it could do for them and generally find out that they might need to start over.

The most common initial approach to internet presence is what I call an Online Brochure Site. A person already has a business and they want to add web presence because someone told them they needed to have one in addition to business cards and brochures. The content from the brochure is readily transferable into HTML and Voila, instant website! Their business cards and brochures are then upgraded to carry the URL and they are happy to have the appearance of being "with it."

A few weeks later they come back wondering how to rank higher in the search engines, and I am compelled to explain to them that even though I optimized their site, the most important first step got left out, namely Keyword Research. In my opinion, it is a good idea to do keyword research prior to naming your business and possibly even before deciding what business you are in. Here is why:

A website is not an ad in a local newspaper. With the potential to reach the entire world, it is much more like being a "ham" radio operator. They don't call it the World Wide Web for nothing. This has its upside and its downside. The downside is that since the playing field is relatively level, a person is competing with the rest of the world to get noticed. The upside is that when you DO get noticed, it is the entire world that notices you. The key is to get noticed by those who are looking for someone like YOU.

Keyword Research is important because it tells you:

1. What people are looking for
2. How many people are looking for things related to what you do
3. The words they are using to look for those things

From a marketing perspective this translates to:

1. Potential Markets
2. The size of those potential markets
3. What you need to say to let them know you can fulfill their needs

From a general business perspective this translates to:

1. What businesses you need to be in
2. Who your customers are
3. What you need to say to get their business

Once I explain this to people and provide a few examples the light bulb generally comes on and they start thinking about various ways to re-think their skill set or their product line to be responsive to the needs of the market. (By the way, this is what differentiates marketing from sales. Sales starts with a product and attempts to find customers and close sales with them. Marketing starts with an examination of what people need, seeks to fulfill those needs and gains sales for doing so.)

Once a person has started to re-think their business, they can start to think of a website as more than an online brochure. Any website has the potential to be:

• A billboard
• A magazine
• A storefront
• A library
• A meeting place
• A directory
• A trade publication
• A referral point
• ...and many other possibilities

Next installment: Matching niche markets with your skill set

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