If you build it, will they come? This is a question worth asking before building a web site. A website built without considering the resources involved in building, maintaining and marketing the site could end up hidden in a lonely corner of the web, falling short of the grand expectations it likely had before launch. To prevent that from happening, I try to picture how the web site will become a part of my business flow before building a single page. Here are a few considerations I've found valuable:

Five Critical Web Design Considerations

1. Will the site be valuable to users? If I can't confidently answer "Yes" to this question, I know the site isn't worth building. First, what's the point in building something that isn't valuable? And second, it's nearly impossible to market a web site that isn't considered to be valuable by users. For example, high search engine rankings are dependent on high link popularity (other sites linking to your site). Who's going to link to a site that isn't valuable?

2. Will the web site be more valuable than competing web sites? Web users tend to visit more than one web site when doing research or making a purchase. If my site is not the most valuable to consumers (information, best prices, easiest to use, fastest to load, etc.) how will I manage to be competitive?

3. Do I have the resources needed to continually improve the site? If I launch an incredibly valuable web site will my competitors shut their sites down? Of course not. So planning for future upgrades, additional content, analyzing site stats, usability improvements and other tweaks that will help me maintain my competitive edge is critical to the site's long-term success. This involves a budgeting a combination of time, technical skills, and/or money.

4. Am I committed to marketing the web site? Without marketing, steps 1-3 are a serious waste of time. Why create something valuable if I'm not going to tell anyone about it? This also involves time, technical skills, and/or money, but it's time and money well spent assuming I've taken the steps to create a valuable web site.

5. Am I committed to offline success? Having created a great web site and driven targeted traffic to it is really only half the battle. What happens when leads or sales start coming in? Am I prepared to respond to leads in a timely manner? Can I fulfill orders, deal with the inevitable customer service questions and keep inventories in stock? A web site is only a tool that works for a business. Is the underlying business sound?

Do you feel pumped up and ready to build an incredible web presence for your business after reading through the five steps? I hope you're encouraged to use this information to building a website that's both valuable and financially rewarding. Frankly, I think more than 90% of web sites are built without taking the five steps into consideration, which explains why there are so many marginal web sites. Please focus on building great web sites. For your sake and mine.