I have touched upon this subject very often, and I keep coming back to this topic because I think we still tend not to place much importance to this.

One of my colleagues’, who is an amazing website designer, mentioned that there was a customer who contacted him and asked him to design a website for her. He wanted to know why she wanted a web site. She said because everyone has a website, she wants a website too!

I am hoping there aren’t too many people out there who want a website designed just because everyone has one!

What I am trying to say is; we should have very clearly defined objectives before launching a website. Here are some questions that you need to ask and answer:-

1. Why do I need a website?
2. What do I need in order to launch the website?
3. Am I going to sell anything, or will it be just for informational purposes?
4. Does my product have a USP?
5. Who are my competitors?
6. Who will be my potential customers, as in, who are you targeting your website to?
7. Will I need a team of people to help to maintain my web site?

These are a few initial questions that you should consider asking yourself. If you do not have answers to most of these questions, you may not be ready to start a website.

In order to promote your website online, having ready answers to these questions will help in planning out the Search Engine optimization activities for your website.

Most of your SEO and SEM strategies will be based on your website objective. In order to set up your website for success, before embarking into a project which requires huge commitment in terms of time, money, you might want to consider the long term plans, and the viability of such a project.

SEO can help you gain visibility online, most certainly, but for that to be effective, your website objective, vision, and future plans must be very clearly defined.

Here’s a thought that I will leave you with – Without an objective how will you measure your website’s progress or results?