5 EZ-Steps to Website SUCCESS!

By Bruce Eckman
President/CEO EZ-NetTools

Getting the most out of your website?

If you don’t feel like your website is producing the results you want, it may be time for you to step back and explore the “5 EZ-Steps to Website Success.” These steps may seem obvious and simple but when they have been given the appropriate attention, the results can be dramatically different.

Step 1 - Planning
Planning your web business is probably the most important step and usually the most neglected. A successful Internet marketing program relies on accumulated facts. Goals and attainment plans can be made from analyzing this information. When decisions are based solely on opinions with no goals or prior planning, businesses often wonder why their results don't meet their expectations.

Four steps to planning are:

Market Research and Analysis
Setting Goals (for the site and each page)
Planning How to Get Traffic
Setting a Budget

If you plan where your are going and follow your plan, you will have a much better chance of actually getting there! Begin with the end in mind.

Step 2 - Website Development
Creating an effective website is the next important step toward success. Volumes of information have been written on this subject. Here are just a few things to consider:

Plan each page around only one idea or goal.
Identify the keywords that describe your purpose and website.
Identify your business fully and clearly.
Create a style that is "search engine friendly."
Make text/copy easy to read (less is generally better than more) and keyword rich.
Use a strong "Call to Action".
Get the visitor's attention in the first 5 seconds.
Build trust.

Step 3 - Drive Traffic
After the website is complete, many website owners just wait for the visitors to come. If you build it they will come...right? WRONG! That is like printing brochures, putting them in the closet and expecting results. The web is a big place and in order to get visitors you will have to activily promote your website. Search engines can't be depended upon to drive traffic alone. Some other things you will want to consider:

Pay Per Click
Newsletters
Magazines
Banner Advertising
Email and Email Signatures
Link Exchanging
Web Address on Business Cards and Letterhead
Radio, Television and Newspaper
Any other advertising you can come up with

Step 4 - Convert
After you have visitors viewing the website, the next step is to convert those visitors into buyers. If 8 out of every 100 visitors take your desired action then you have a 8:100 ratio or a 8% conversion ratio. Now compare your conversion ratios to the goals set in the first step. How are you doing? Now on to the last step!

Step 5 - Test & Adjust
The final step is to test, measure and adjust. Variations of important pages should be created and tested by directing traffic to them for a specified period time. Results and conversion ratios should be compared between the different variations to see which page provides the best results. This is one place that EZ-PageBuilder really shines, as it makes creating variations of pages easy. You may consider testing different:

Headlines
Text or Copy
Graphic Layouts
Prices
Discounts
Guarantees
Bonuses
Product Images
Navigation Structures
Product Presentations
Calls to Action

These simple steps provide an outline to get more out of your website. If you don’t like the results your website is getting, step back and apply these steps. Most of the time, it takes just a few adjustments here and there to turn a struggling website into a powerful one that meets your goals.

In future issues of the EZ-NetAdvantage we will discuss each of these steps in more detail!

About the Author

Bruce received his Data Processing degree in 1980 with special emphasis on Computer Programming, Accounting, and Small Business Management. He started a small computer consulting firm while still in school and employed several programmers who developed specialized accounting applications for micro-computer systems.

By age 26, Bruce was President and CEO of Summit Computer, a small corporation with holdings which included a computer store and a software development firm.

Bruce opened Eckman Enterprises in 1986. His company provided marketing, advertising, and computer services to small businesses. Mr. Eckman's company owned and operated its own audio and video production equipment, commercial photography studio and darkroom, and also provided graphic design and layout services.

With the onset of the Internet, the marketing, advertising, programming, photography, and graphic design services of Eckman Enterprises, naturally moved toward Web site design for small businesses. With the growing demand for Web site development, the focus of Eckman Enterprises moved toward the Internet.

In the late 90s, ICServ (EZ-NetTools) was established with a dedicated focus to help businesses succeed on the Internet. As the e-commerce market began to evolve, ICServ developed EZ-Order™ and EZ-Catalog™ for ICServ® clients. Further development of the "EZ" products eventually matured into EZ-NetTools®.