Online business owners often look at a website as development expense rather than a marketing expense. This is unfortunate and is often the reason why many online businesses under-perform. The Internet is still new and very much in its infancy and our view of how the web should operate, especially in the business realm, is still developing. It's been a slow process, but many business owners' attitudes towards website development and marketing has slowly begun to evolve.

Unfortunately, far too many businesses still don't consider website development as a part of their marketing efforts. They'll pour thousands of dollars into traditional forms of marketing (which often produce significantly less return on the investment dollar) but fail to properly plan and execute their website or invest in effective online marketing strategies.

As you begin to put time, energy and (likely) significant sums of money into your online presence it is important that you consider your website as part of your overall marketing plan. Instead of being viewed as just another IT expense, your website should be considered as a marketing endeavor worthy of being incorporated fully into the marketing budget. Businesses that take this view are setting themselves up to have a long-term presence on the Internet as well as lasting success.

Compiling the Pieces that Build a Full-Service Sales Experience:

With the exception of cloned websites, every website has its own unique characteristics. When building your site there really is no one-size-fits-all pattern to follow. Your site should be built to fulfill your informational and sales needs, while being effective in getting your target audience to take the desired actions. In order to do this there are basic components that almost every website should have in place in order to be effective both with the usability and marketing aspects.

Home Page

Every website has a home page, even if it's just a one-page site. The home page is the single most crucial page of a site because it is the page most likely to be viewed, as well as the page most likely to send people away if they don't like what they see. It doesn't matter what you have beyond the home page if you can't get visitors to click past it and into your products or services.

Your home page must accomplish several things:

Establish Your Brand: Your visitor's need to immediately know where they have landed (who are you), what you do or offer (broad concepts), and you must be able to touch them in such a way that they will be interested enough to click deeper into your site and/or return at a later point.

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