8 Simple Rules of Developing a Website

Do you remember the TV show 8 Simple Rules with John Ritter? Well, this blog has nothing to do with that show, but it does have a lot to do with the 8 Simple Rules of Developing a Website.

I recently read a post on Chief Marketer titled “Design Your Site to Meet Customers’ Needs”. It’s a quick read and I suggest you read the full blog, but below are the main points. I agree with most of the rules but also feel it fails to identify what we at Three Hats Marketing think is the most import rule: Define the Business Objectives of your Website. Without first defining how your website is going to support your business in some capacity, you are operating in the dark. I appreciate the importance of marketing you site, but without setting a stake in the ground you really have no direction. So we feel you first have to start with the defining the business objectives of your website and then define how you are going to market it.

The other point we would suggest different is to define the Key Performance Indicators of your site. What equals success? It has to be more than simply how many visitors, length of stay or pages per visit. Some would argue that this is part of defining the business objectives. I agree with that to some extent but feel it is important enough to be a rule of its own. Perhaps it would replace Denise B. Hearden’s rule #4 as I hope it goes without saying – you need someone qualified to define and design your website.

Kudos to Denise though as this is a good list of 8 Simple Rules…

1. Develop a marketing plan for your Web site.

2. While developing your Web site marketing plan, ask yourself “What is the purpose of my Web site?”

3. Understand the users of your site.

4. Make sure the strategy behind your Web site design comes from someone qualified.

5. Don’t try something new because it looks “cool.”

6. Drive traffic to your site!

7. Is your content fresh, or is it the same material you put up there when your site was first created?

8. Monitor and measure your site.

Denise B. Hearden (denise.hearden@johnsondirect.com) is the e-marketing director of Johnson Direct.