Video highlights

• Your website is the hub for all your digital marketing activities
• Any successful website must be mobile-ready
• Each step plays an important role and can’t be skipped or rushed
• Following the 7 steps carefully can lead to a healthy return on investment from your website

Your website is the centre of it all

Besides occupying space on the Internet, your website is:

• Where customers go to get information on your products and services
• The place where all your social media activities lead to
• Constantly being compared against your competition
• A reflection of your business brand
• Taking and processing orders (if it’s an eCommerce site)
• Always ready to do business, 24/7

If any part of it isn’t up to snuff, it’ll cost you traffic and leads, which ultimately mean it’ll cost you customers and sales.

At WSI Milton, there are 7 steps towards having a top-notch website that’s a lead generation machine. Here they are.

Step 1: Discovery – Understand What You Need

In other words: Your website is about you, but it’s for your customers.

Before you start building your website, you must know who you’re building it for.

The best way to do that is to create customer personas: a fictional (but accurate) representation of your customers, their needs, wants and objections.

Step 2: Budget – Think Investment, Not Cost

In other words: Your website will make you money if it’s built properly.

The days of having an online version of your paper brochure are long gone.

Today, when people visit a website, they expect to interact with it. The more enjoyable the interaction is, the more likely they’ll come back again and again until they convert into a lead.

Step 3: Planning – Crucial to Your Success

In other words: Your website is one part (but a big one) of your digital marketing plan.

A great website is only great if your target audience can find it.

So you need to surround your website with a strong marketing plan. This ranges from search engine optimization to content, social to email marketing. The roads leading to your website must be smooth and short.

Step 4: Design and Build 

In other words: If you’ve nailed the first 3 steps, this is where the fun starts.

Your objectives (who the site it for, how they’ll get to it and use it) will guide its construction.

This is where the designers, builders and writers come in to make your website appealing to the target persona you identified in step 1.

Step 5: Test and Debug

In other words: Take your site for a test drive and work out any kinks.

No matter how tempted you are to rush this step (usually because the site is behind schedule), don’t.

Comb through each page and check for spelling mistakes, broken links, poor images, bad navigation or anything else that can lead to a poor customer experience.

Step 6: Pre-and-Post Launch Activities

In other words: What you do before and after it goes live is just as important as the launch itself.

Don’t just push the button before you launch your site and then wait to see what happens afterwards.

Be proactive by announcing the launch of your new site. Post updates on your social channels and send an email blast too. Make sure to listen and respond to what people are saying about your new website.

Step 7: Analyze & Improve

In other words: Launching your new website is just the beginning.

Your website isn’t a Ronco Oven. You can’t just “set it and forget it.”

Once live, it’s capturing tons of information for you. You can see where users are spending their time and where they’re bouncing. Then, you can make any changes to make your website that much better.

Now that you know the steps, isn’t time to finally get more money from your website?

Your website must follow those 7 steps above in order to be successful.

And by having a website from WEB ROI, it will.

Your first step (even before step 1) is to call 1-877-7WEBROI or contact us for a FREE consultation.

That’s all it takes to get your website started on the path to success and profit.