The Seven Secrets

1. Successful websites are a family affair: They are not built in a corporate vaccum.

Before you ever take pen to paper (or mouse to screen), assemble a cross-functional development team with representatives from all areas of your organization – sales and marketing, HR, order fulfillment, technical support – and hear their ideas on how the web can help them help their customers. Successful websites are not built in a corporate vacuum. The ideas that a cross-functional group brings to the table will greatly influence the content, tone and functionality of your website must refelect the interests of this team.

2. Successful websites have a reason for being: They need a mission statement.

Just as a company should have a mission statement, so too should a website. The mission statement should be an expression of goals, a recognition of audience and a definer of messages. Example: "The XYZ Company’s website provides physicians with highly detailed information about our full line of allergy medicines. Further, our website builds brand recognition while supporting our remote sales staff – and our customers—by providing online access to product specifications and the locations of XYZ dealers across the globe."

It’s critical that the site’s mission statement reflect input from the group you’ve assembled in #1 above and that the group buys into the mission statement.

3. Successful websites light the way: They make navigation easy.

There’s nothing worse than making your website visitors hunt and peck for information – they should be able to find what they want or get to where the want to go in no more than three clicks. Give sections of your site intuitive names – "Contact Us," "Customer Service," "Product Information." Don’t put everything under "About Us."

Make the internal navigation system simple to follow, so users always know what section they are in right now, how to go back, forward and home.