Your company’s website is more than just a formality. Done right, it’s an important tool which helps your business grow by providing information, supporting sales, and providing customer support.

Here are 8 tips to make sure your website is built for success.

  • Be clear on the purpose of your website – Why does your website exist? Is it to get leads, be a digital brochure, or convert your customers to sales? You’ll need to take a different approach for each purpose.
  • Understand who will be using your website – Is it current customers, future customers, or someone else? Successful websites focus on whom they serve and how those people want to be served.
  • Understand how people use it – Your website design should reflect the reality of how people actually use your website. The layout is important, focus on what people will want to see first.
  • Build a website which supports the right device – 78% of people are on a mobile device when they search for information. Make sure your website looks good on mobile and tablet. If you don’t, you may lose an opportunity before you knew you had it.
  • Create content your visitors want to consume – You need to create compelling, engaging content to connect with your visitor. Great content speaks to what matters to people, answering their questions and addressing their concerns.
  • Create a consistent brand experience – Your website must match the rest of your brand. If your brand is old, get a refresh or rebrand before you launch your new website.
  • Make sure you have someone to manage your site – Just having a place to host your website isn’t enough. You need someone to protect you from hackers, keep the site updated, and make sure it’s always running.
  • Have a plan to promote your website – Just because you build it doesn’t mean people will show up. Competition for traffic is fierce. If you don’t know how you’ll promote your website, it’s going to fail. And if no one is going to see it, what’s the point of building a new one.

Use these tips to create a plan before you start your new website project and you’ll end up with a website that gives you a serious advantage.

Ryan Englin is CEO at Inspire Business Concepts. To contact Ryan email: [email protected] .