It's a difficult task creating a website that brings you business. It's a full-time job where things seem easy at first but as soon as you start to explore the possibilities and appreciate the complexity of the task at hand it can soon start taking up ever increasing amounts of your time.
There is a plethora of people out there offering you conflicting advice and it's often difficult to know what to focus on.
This article cuts through all that and reveals to you the two most important things you need to know about creating a website that brings more profit to your business..
Secret Number 1 - Information
Yes - that's all it is - information. Just think about this for a minute - what is the sole reason for anyone surfing any website anywhere across the world? Every single one of them is looking for just one thing - information.
The information might take the form of text, an image, a sound file or whatever but at the end of the day it is information. This is the first biggest and best-kept secret of success on the internet and now you know it!
What do you mean 'So what?'. The sole purpose of your website is to provide its visitors with information - think about this the next time some combat-trousered graphic designer tells you a big Flash graphic would be a good thing to have instead of a homepage..
People are looking for information - don't put anything in the way of them getting this. Make sure the information you have on your site is easy to find, worthwhile reading and ideally easy for your visitors to disseminate onto their friends and colleagues.
Information is also essential if you are going to gain any influence with the search engines. They might only be computer programs but those search engine critters can be quite clever at discerning a website that contains nothing of any use and one that has useful information relevant to its target audience.
Lots and lots of high quality relevant content on your website will do more for your website's overall success than a fancy graphic or rotating picture of your head on the homepage.
Secret Number 2 - Interaction
Goto your website. Just look at it. Go through a few pages. Imagine that you had hit 'Print' on each of those pages. Would the experience of reading the pages in hardcopy be exactly the same as reading them on the screen? If it would you don't own a website - you own an expensive brochure.
Interaction is why the internet was born - it is the one attribute and opportunity that sets the medium apart from print and anything else. Your website needs to be littered with things that enable interaction between you and your visitors. Feedback forms, downloads, bookmarking tools, contact options, newsletters etc.
Information and interaction - together these are the only things that matter when it comes to the internet. Now go back, look at your site and appraise it honestly in terms of how well it addresses each of the two facets.
Is it full of interactive features that enable people to get closer to your business and control their browsing experience? Does it provide lots of valuable information that is easy to find? Armed with these two secrets you can start to truly harness the real power of the internet. Good luck!
Michael Cheney is Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM. Take the Free 7-Part Course "Internet Marketing Made Easy" and get your free sampler of 'The Bible' here: http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/marketing/