The 7 Keys to Effective Websites

Ask the question, "What are the keys to an effective Website?" and the answer you get depends upon whom you ask. For example, a sales manager answers by saying, "Providing accurate, benefit-oriented product or service information that creates sales leads." An IS manager says, "Clean programming, integration with existing networks and databases, help-desk support and technological solutions to organizational problems and challenges." A Website programmer might say: "Quality design and content, getting the programming right, a little Flash, the right Web hosting, good Website marketing." A marketing/communications director might answer "making sure the site supports the organization's communication and other goals."

For CEOs and all those in management roles, here's a more comprehensive answer: "The 7 keys to an effective Website are: commitment, teamwork, planning, design, programming, e-mail and detail." Consider each in turn and you'll get the picture – a big one.

First, commitment. Most Websites that fail to produce excellent ROI fail because the organization lacked the commitment, from the beginning, or somewhere along the way, to make the site a success. The lack of commitment might be reflected in failing to allocate sufficient resources (time and/or money). In not bringing together the key team members required for success. Or having pulled the team together, in not executing the plan, including the detail work needed to leverage the site for maximum ROI.

Teamwork is a second key to effective Websites and e-mail. Effective Websites require a team effort, and team members often have little previous experience working together. An effective leadership team often involves VP/directors/managers from information services, marketing/communications, human relations, customer service, product/service managers, sales and more. This group must work together to discuss organizational challenges and opportunities, identify key target audiences for the site, establish goals and measurement tools, plan the site architecture, acquire content, integrate the site with marketing and sales strategies, integrate the site with existing networks, databases, e-mail systems and other technology, and much more. Without team work, key ways the Web can pay off go neglected or unused, content is weakened, and opportunities for new solutions go undiscovered. When the team works well together, new solutions to organizational problems are born and overlooked opportunities are discovered and exploited. In our experience, organizations struggle with getting the team together: geographical, organizational and operational divisions within an organization are some of the barriers to getting the right people on the team.

The team needs to begin by developing a plan for the site. The plan should spell out goals, include an organizational chart for the site's pages, and name a single person who directly manages the site. We recommend the software program "Inspiration" (www.inspiration.com) for planning a site's organization. Inspiration makes planning the site easy. The org chart can even be posted to a Website as an html file for viewing by all. Planning is the time to identify desired results and make choices about phases and priorities. A good team will produce all kinds of interesting ideas for Website content and features. In the end, the question that needs to be asked of each site feature is, "What's the pay off?" Or, "Exactly how will our organization benefit from this particular site feature?"

With the commitment, team and plan in place, design is the next key. A great design will make site navigation easy, be pleasing to the eye, and entice people into staying on the site for longer than they planned. Great design is immensely more difficult to quantify than great programming. Get the programming wrong, really wrong anyway, and a Website fails to link to a live page, crashes or otherwise misbehaves. Bad design can frustrate, anger and drive away site visitors, but you can't measure it as well – unless the design is so bad you average visit time is outrageously short. Here's a design tip though – have a graphic designer design your site, not a programmer.

Getting the technology right is another key, of course, including decisions about whether to use databases and other resources. One way to get the technology right is to get the right IS people on the team.

The last two keys to an effective Website are detail and e-mail. Websites are packed with detail. Architectural detail, design detail, programming detail, content detail. Attend to the details, and the site will shine.

E-mail itself is absolutely a key to Website success. First, the process of developing a Website depends so much on e-mail -- on keeping the team on plan and communicating. Then the site itself will inevitably depend on e-mail addresses – whether they are shown on the site or used to deliver forms from the site or to subscribers. Dealing with e-mail can be surprisingly easy, or complex.

So that's the magnificent 7: commitment, teamwork, planning, design, programming, detail and e-mail. In the end, it's commitment and teamwork that count the most. Without them, no amount of planning, design, programming and attention to detail will ensure effectiveness.

This article first appeared as a column written by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for the Inside Tucson Business and/or the New Mexico Business Weekly.

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