An effective business website should be a revenue generating tool not a cost. Many businesses waste money on fancy branding and graphics without considering how to maximise the ROI on the web development.

Before starting a website development process it is essential to consider what you would like to achieve. What are your business objectives and how would an effective website help? Without a solid understanding of business objectives and marketing plan the website is more likely to be a cost than provide any return on investment.

To be successful a website needs to be found and once found it needs to convert a browser (someone looking for information) into someone prepared to pick up the phone and make contact. The way a website is constructed, the look and feel and, most important, the content and how it is updated have a significant impact on both conversion and the probability a website will be found.

To find information of interest a potential customer will type a search term into their browser. A search engine will then attempt to deliver the most appropriate results for that search term. The way the search engines work is complex, constantly changing and a closely guarded secret. However, there are some well understood basics which if employed will give any website a better chance of being found.

Some basics to address are:

• The subject of the website should be obvious to the search engine – keywords

• The website should have some content (words) which talk about the subject

• The content should ideally be updated regularly

• The website should have some authority – other relevant websites should link to it

• Ideally there should be some social sharing of content – social media

Once a prospect is on the site and they show an interest they must be specifically told what they should do next, be it to contact you, to download further information or to buy. It is therefore crucial that content leads the prospect along a path to achieve this end objective. The construction and layout of the content is therefore important to ensure a website is found and converts.

The issue with websites which concentrate exclusively on branding and creative is they are often strong on graphics and weak on content. The search engines are not looking for graphics and in some cases all they see is a blank space so the site will not rank well.

Graphic intensive sites are constructed in such a way it is difficult to optimize them to ensure the subject of the website is obvious. Also, without appropriate content it is almost impossible to obtain conversions. Of course, there is a balance to be struck as a website with no graphics may be difficult to read but the primary concern is content.

To maximize ROI it is important to know your web development objectives before you start and put appropriate effort into the design and content to achieve those objectives. There is much to be aware of and employing professional assistance can be an investment rather than a cost.