How Many Websites Should Company Have

That's a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea hasn't crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?

If you're a large corporation, it is fairly obvious that you need a separate site for each brand you offer, and a separate site for corporate background material and perhaps investor information.

But what if you're a small or medium-sized company with a limited number of products or services? Then the question becomes, do your products relate to one another? Does one item flow into the next? Is your audience for each product or service the same? And what about totally different audiences for the same product: audiences that need to be approached with totally different tactics? And then there are special circumstances like new product launches, time sensitive marketing campaigns, and limited availability offers?

Getting Relevant Traffic But No Sales

This problem could signal a technical error or navigation problem with your site. Make sure you thoroughly test all functionalities on various web browsers and systems. Submit test forms. Do a link check to spot possible broken links. Is your web hosting service reliable?

If you've ruled out technical issues as the cause then turn your attention to the content and customer base. Has your market taken a downturn? Can the lack of sales be attributed to the poor economy? Have you fallen behind your competition in product quality, selection or pricing? Does your web site's navigation system confuse users? Your web site is the first line of contact between the business and potential customer, but it's not the only step you need to worry about. Telephone operators or online payment systems can present their own issues.

This is moving away from web site problems but if any part of the sales process takes place away from the site, investigate those areas of your business as well.

If you're pulling out your hair over a problem with your site and these tips still haven't helped, feel free to post a comment and I'll personally have a peek at your site.

About The Author:

With eight years in the search engine marketing industry, John Metzler of FreshPromo knows what works and what doesn't regarding website success. His strong grasp on visitor usability and analysis, along with a highly-skilled SEO perspective, can be seen through his professional SEO services.

Building Successful Business

In this 21st century, doing business will eventually require every company to have a website in one form or another. Whether your site is interactive or simply informational, there are steps you can take to ensure you're on the right track to creating a successful web presence, seven to be exact (at least from our humble perspective).

While following these steps will not guarantee a successful website, it is certainly an intelligent place to start.

Perform Business Analyzing
Perform Research Phase
Develop Design Concept
Develop Website
Choose Right Host Provider
Website Market and Promotion
Website Maintenance

Perform Business Analyzing

What is a business analysis? Simply put, review your business requirements and your objectives. What do you want to accomplish? How does your website fit into your overall business plan? What... no business plan? Develop a business plan first before you go any further into the process.

Your business plan will be your roadmap to success, so make sure the objective of your website fits into your overall business plan. I'll say it again, BUSINESS PLAN, don't have one? GET ONE!

Research Phase Perform

Perform some research, also known as, the Research phase is another good way to build a business.

Research your competition and industry sites. See what kind of competition is out there. What kind of marketing does your competition engage in? Don't look to "reinvent the wheel", take a look at how the current market works; develop a list of pros and cons about your competition and then make your web presence work better

Develop Design and Concept

Finally time for the creative and fun stuff! This involves the selection of specific content, the layout of the site structure and navigation and the overall "look and feel" of your website.

Remember to pay special attention to your navigational structure!!!

If visitors can't navigate your website or feel lost when doing so, your "pretty" site will have been a waste of time; don't go there, keep the navigation simple and for SEO purposes, make sure your navigation is text based. Although Flash driven websites look cool, they are not SEO friendly and can create more problems than the "coolness" factor they express (we'll discuss Flash sites in another article).

Website Development

When considering which technology to develop your website, think cutting edge technology, not bleeding edge. Make sure the technology you use, such as ASP, PHP, HTML, CSS, will be useful for the next three to five years.

Database driven website are ultimately the easiest to maintain through the use of a content management system, but make sure the CMS you use is SEO friendly. An SEO friendly CMS will utilize real URLs, not strange looking query strings with lots of strange characters and question marks. Search engines despise query strings and rank these sites accordingly

Choose Right Host Provider

Choose the right host provider and implement your website correctly is a good way to start building a business. When deciding on a host provider, make sure the host is not only reputable, but has been in business long enough that you can be sure they will be in business next year. Also, ask about site uptime. If your site is down for any reason, this will not only affect your potential and current customers, but the search engines as well. If the search engines decide on a given day to spider your site and it is unavailable, it could cost you your rank

Website Market and Promotion

Register your site with the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Initiate other marketing activities such as an email blasts to prospective customers. Consider "Pay per Click" advertising with the major search engines and don't forget about a long term SEO campaign to drive targeted traffic to your site

Website Maintenance

Probably the most important long term step is continuing to provide current and relevant information on your website. Keep your site content current to encourage return visitors and give them something to return for! Related to SEO, search engines just LOVE sites which provide new content on a regular basis and rank such websites accordingly.

Overall, remember, your website is not just a marketing tool, it's a business tool, and it should be generating a revenue stream for your business

Calculate Your Worth

Figure out what you were earning per hour as an employee, and again add in the costs of vacation days, holidays, ailing time and benefits. There's authoritative aerial too, especially if you able to hire space, say, or charge chic technology.

Depending on the industry, you'll appetite to tack on accumulation allowance of about 20 percent. After trial and error, your pay afore costs should be at atomic double, if not triple, what you fabricated as a W2 drone. Basically, you charge be able to calculate your worth.

It's reasonable to apprehend that you'll absorb 20 percent of your time on administering such autograph proposals, or sending out bills, and addition 20 percent on marketing.

John Stevenson, who has spent a year setting himself up as a turnaround consultant in Plano, Texas was said: "The most interesting challenge is that you need to be involved in every detail of the business," says.

He was previously chief information officer at the U.S. subsidiary of Sharp Electronics. "When you're an executive, other people take care of budgets and presentations," he says. "But to do it on your own, you've got to develop a really broad set of skills."