Integrating SEO, Usability, and Internet Marketing for High Performance and Results

We witness the ritual every day. Web sites go live as a result of a multitude of man hours invested in planning, technology, design, copywriting, and managemen,t and released as a product left to sustain itself amidst an ever-changing competitive, sometimes hostile marketplace. The web site launch is celebrated as “success,” when in reality, the success really should be in the RESULTS achieved after the launch.

Every aspect of web site design, content management, search engine optimization, usability, and integration with marketing must be proactively and deliberately infused in order to insure the web site’s ability to support organizational goals and performance.

We’ll explore how mindful and strategic integration of key marketing aspects from the earliest stages of planning can be used to transform a web site from an exercise in technology to a results-driven environment that will support immediate and long-term goals.

• Honor the web site mission more than the project itself.
• Avoid the temptation to use technologically just for technology’s sake.
• Conduct research to know how to strategically position the site against competitors.
• Connect both sides of the brain to appease usability utopia.
• Leverage proactive search engine marketing methods from the earliest planning stages and throughout the life of the web site.
• Challenge your process and methods to include nimble, results-driven adaptation of the site to meet audience response.
• Artfully integrate marketing messages in a way that magnifies the impact of each dollar invested.
• Focus less on the delivery of the web site and more on performance and ROI.
• Give your audience what they want before someone else does.
• Rely on the numbers and analytics to qualify success and drive future development.
• Leverage the behavior of loyal customers to drive the life of the web site.

It may all seem like common sense, but all too often, when it comes to planning and practice, we often let the “next best thing” distract us from keeping our eye on the ball.