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Home » The Famous Blog » 5 Factors to Look at This Year in Your Online Business

5 Factors to Look at This Year in Your Online Business

January 25, 2011 - Last Modified: January 25, 2011 by Wasim Ismail

Online Business

Being the first month of the year, many offices and stores would have now reopened fully and day to day business is taking place as usual. The first quarter of the year is always the busiest for many businesses, due to sales in the new year, end of year accounts, planning the business for the whole year, and forecasting. All of this usually happens in the first quarter of the year.

For many businesses, if everything is done well and correct in the beginning months, the year sails by smoothly.  The work that’s done at the beginning of the year is what puts them on track, giving them a focus and direction on which way the business is going.

As part of this year’s planning, many would also be looking into the changes needed to be done on their websites and also where they are looking to take their online business this year.  From redesigning the site, to enhancing the products, to marketing online. you can plan all of this now. This will give you plenty of time to arrange your tasks and to get the work carried out.

I have come up with few quick points to help you in considering what changes to plan for this year.

online business factors

1. Visual Appeal

The first thing you need to look at is the overall appeal and the layout of your site, as this is what your customers see when they first land on your home page. If this is not appealing, they are going to bounce away immediately.

It’s not a luck game when visitors stay on a site. The website needs to make them stay, by putting together good presentation, offering quality products, and making known the brand of your business.

Your customers will stay if they see value on your site. When Google launched site preview in its search results late last year, this forced many serious website owners to re-evaluate their websites’ overall appeal and design.

As part of this years’ site changes, have another look at your websites’ color scheme. More and more websites are using simple white color backgrounds, and they are proving to be a success. If your home page looks too busy with colors and graphics everywhere, perhaps this is what is distracting your clients. It may look good to the eye, but the site is not really doing what it should be doing, which is converting sales or generating leads. Pay important attention to the color scheme as part of your websites’ planning this year.

2. Navigation

Your website navigation is probably the most important part aspect, as without it, your visitors will be stuck. When a site has poor or no navigation, it feels like the visitor is stuck in a room without any windows and doors – no way to get out and explore. Good navigation will guide your visitors to relevant pages on your website, and if you can get the navigation of your site right from day one, you can more or less predict the pages that the visitors will view next. The navigation doesn’t just mean the tabs at the top. It is the links in your content and images as well, which will path the way to other relevant pages of your website.

3. Images

Another aspect to consider is the images that you have used. Over the year the images may have become outdated, or may no longer be relevant to the service you are providing. To kick start this year with a fresh look, change the images that you are using on your website.
Consider taking new images of your office, services, or the main banners of your site. All this contributes toward a new look, and your visitors will notice these small changes. If you have a portfolio of your work (designers, builders, contractors…etc) the beginning of the year is a good time to update your site portfolio.

4. CMS

If you do not have a CMS system on your site, this is a good investment at the beginning of the year, as it will allow you to manage the contents of your website at your own comfort. That means you don’t need to wait around for your developer to update the text and changes. Having a CMS system can also help in setting up a blog on your site and managing the news and events section of your site, as it is much easier to manage these contents in house.

If you have CMS system on your site, ensure it is upgraded to the latest various, so that there are no security leaks.Iif you’re not happy with the platform, consider upgrading to something that you’re more comfortable with and is easier for you to manage.

5. Marketing

One of the points to consider for your website this year should be marketing. How are you going to promote your site this year differently than last year? Having a site is fantastic, but if no one knows about it, there’s not much use. Marketing plays a big part of having a website. This year, you can start by carrying out SEO on your site if you haven’t yet started, setting up profiles on networking websites and being proactive on them, and even considering setting up a blog to promote your site and services.

Having a clear picture at this time of the year of what you want your website to do will give you plenty of time to prepare and get your site to a level that is not just accepted by web users but will also benefit your business.

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Filed Under: Design, Online Business

About Wasim Ismail

Follow @wasimalrayes

Wasim’s a project manager at Alrayes Web Solutions along with an online SEO consultant & blogger for business at wasimismail.com, specialising in online business.

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{ 34 Responses }

  1. Murlu says:
    A lot of people completely forget about the CMS part of their business which really goes a long way because when you're able to keep in regular contact with people, you're able to make those sales more readily because your customer knows that you're there.
  2. Garen says:
    Another factor you need to consider is integrating social media properties into your ventures in 2011. I have read numerous algorithm updates that stress Facebook and Twitter will be factored heavily in Google's algorithm in 2011. Do not take these lightly or your rankings will surely drop! Garen
  3. Darren Scott Monroe says:
    Imagaes are becoming BIG...Why? because of the Google optimization opportunities. Great post Wasim
  4. Val says:
    Nice article, I think the points you mention are always good to keep in mind. As many businesses enter a new year, updating their portfolios is especially relevant. I would like to add one more important point to your list. I think every webmaster should think about their content plan. What they will publish during the year, where they will get their writing, how it will provide additional value to site visitors. As for me, I started using more images in my blog posts, and I think it makes the site look more lively and professional. Also, they bring in some additional traffic from image search. I still have a long way to go before I have a polished and effective design that I want, but I'm okay with doing it in small steps.
  5. Caleb says:
    Being that the results from doing SEO takes so long to materialize, it is an excellent idea to start SEO'ing NOW! And its interesting you noted the sites visual appearance first being that most gurus always mention content first while website design sort of morphs over time. But I have noticed some top sites with less than desirable content thrive mainly because of their glorious graphics(of course their higher marketing budgets don't hurt either)!
  6. adnes says:
    Thumbs up for this article. Been looking for some ways how to make my business works online, been reaching to make it better. Looking for strategy to uplift its sales. I'm into media and electronic services.
  7. Ann Karen says:
    For this year my goal is to add mobile marketing and VSEO on my marketing lists. At present, mobile phones almost level up equally as that of our basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter. Initially, they were used by executives and professionals. In no time, you can barely see ordinary individual or even children without a mobile phone. In addition, mobile phones do not just serve the purpose of answering a call or sending messages but are used for web browsing as well.
  8. Dan Lew says:
    I agree, I have gone through and changed my logo for danlew.com and re-designed site for keywordwinner.com I will soon be releasing 2.0 as well! This year is going to be a killer!
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Nice, best of luck this year.
  9. Alex says:
    This certainly makes me think. Visual aspect really has a big importance now, mainly because of the advance in designs and web technologies. You can't slap two images and a table anymore you have to make it interactive, you have to have cool images and a design the flows and complements itself. A CMS is definitely the way to make your life easier. The function that it may offer are sometimes big time savers.
  10. David Bain says:
    Wasim, I think that this year marketing managers are going to finally realise that WordPress is a fully-functional CMS, and not just blogging software. Here's hoping anyway.
    • wasim ismail says:
      Yes there's more to WordPress then just a blogging platform, some amazing websites are built using Wordpress, and also some even use as an e-commerce platform. The beauty is it can be customized to how you want it to work.
  11. Rose says:
    Hi Wasim, Great points. I am thinking to change the color of my blog and website but somehow I think marketing is more important, therefore I only have plan for marketing for the whole year.
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Rose, marketing is defiantly good as you need to get the traffic to your site, but ensure that your site is appealing, so that users stay on your site, as you don't want to spend all the money on marketing and bring traffic in, but they are not converting on your site.
      • Rose says:
        Hi Wasim, Yes, I agree with you. ;) Therefore, I took the last 2 days to redesign my website, and I am very happy with the result!
  12. Chadrack says:
    Hi Wasim, Superb points! I've set out to do just this in the first quarter of this year. I've already re-designed my site, changed the logo and set out a marketing plan. Your post have definitely given me more hope to push on with my plan. Thanks so much.
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Great stuff, let me know how you get along.
  13. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Wasim, Many good point in your article which I have working with for many successful years; Marketing is so important, you must have All in One SEO Pack for your blog and maybe combination it with the program Keyword Winner. Navigation, who want to click and click and click and you still not have come to the page you are looking for. Maximum 2 clicks from the homepage are my recommendation.
  14. Sheila Atwood says:
    Wasim Great point on navigation being much more than the tabs at the top. I like the idea of predicting where your visitors go with good links in your post. You said it well!
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Thanks, Navigation is definitely important :) and play a major part of in the site.
  15. Amr Boghdady says:
    Great post Wasim! I'm actually really thinking about investing in a real CMS instead of the database-driven script I created for my site. The script is working fine and all that, but I'm sure that with a professional CMS, I could find alot of plugins that would save so much work for me!
    • wasim ismail says:
      Amr upgrading to a CMS platform is definitely a wiser option in the long run. Choose a CMS platform that meets your requirements, and fits best for what your looking to achieve.
  16. Mike says:
    The logo, headline and your call-to-action buttons will be the most important, crucial part of your visual appeal thing online. The natural-friendly logo may win big this year since a lot of people are shifting toward green products, don't you agree Wasim?
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Mike, having a good call to action is more important, and the logo is part of your brand, more importance needs to be give to a more clear and a user friendly site that serves its purpose.
  17. TJ McDowell says:
    We usually update all our images on our site once a year. Of course, being photographers, it's probably even more important that we swap our images than it is for other businesses, but it seems like once a year is a good rate to introduce updates for most sites.
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Definitely , once a year is good for many websites, as many of the times, i've seen business owners build a website and leave it untouched for year, which over the year users start to notice the site is outdated and the site starts to lose visitors.
  18. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Wasim, I like your points. Keeping your design uncluttered helps make for a more pleasing experience. Clutter creates chaos in the mind. You want visitors to clearly see what you have to offer them. In addition, you probably want them to take one of a select few calls to action. Tough to do this when your site is cluttered. As for marketing my goal is to make an impact wherever I am. I focus on writing impactful copy, thorough comments and I also seek to strengthen my connections on social network sites like Twitter and Facebook. Wherever you're at, be there entirely. Good tip about images. Keep your site looking fresh and appealing. We are creatures who rely a great deal on our senses and a clear and colorful picture grabs our attention like nothing else. Thanks for sharing your insight Wasim. RB
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Ryan I agree, its about strengthening connections and provide value, where ever you are, whether its social networking site, forums, blogs, if you provide good value, you will always build good strong connections.
  19. Saket Jajodia says:
    Great post buddy, Thanks for sharing... Will I have to think about point No.4 CMS for my blogs and websites... And 1 more thing I would like to tell, if I am not wrong CMS means Content Management System... and you are calling it "CMS system" which means "Content Management System system" which is I think is wrong whether call it CM System or just CMS... Anyways nice post thanks for sharing... :)
    • Wasim Ismail says:
      Yes Saket your correct as literally it should be CM systems, but the reason why i have mentioned CMS is for ease and the way most users generally say it. CMS is definitely a good choice to consider, especially for you blog.
  20. Wonderer says:
    I have read and thought - maybe I should switch my site to cms? Although now he is well structured and have to change its structure. As for marketing - all funds are accumulated for the new year I'm going to spend on the promotion of my project. Thanks for the post, for these tips
    • wasim ismail says:
      Your welcome, yes CMS is always a better solution, as it gives you full control of your content.
  21. Devesh says:
    Great Post Wasim. These are awesome factors to look at. The best is one is marketing, it is something where i need to focus more on. Last year i did concentrate on blog commenting & guest posting and this year one of my goal is to be active on social media sites. I'm trying to be active on Twitter & FaceBook. Anyways, Thanks for sharing this great Post wasim.

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