Building a Small Business Online Presence

 ONLINE PRESENCE PLAN

 Step 1:  Plan

During the planning step, requirements for the online presence will be gathered and documented.  This will serve as the blueprint for web developers to build your website, social media, along with other components of your online presence.   During this stage the following types of information will be gathered:

• What are the goals of your online presence?
  
  
• Who is your target market?
  
  
• What are your corporate branding guidelines?
  
  
• What is your corporate messaging?
  
  
• What pages will be required?
  
  
• Do you require a domain and hosting?
  
  
• What functionality will be required in addition to content?
• Forms
• Databases
• Security
• Ecommerce
• Mobile Device Support
• ….and much more
• What keywords will prospects use to search for you?
  
  
• What geographies do you want to market to?
  
  
• Determine who will be maintaining content for your online presence?
  
  
• What methods of search engine optimization are required?
  
  
• How will you handle the leads that you acquire through your online presence?

Step 2:  Build

During the build step, the web developer will take the requirements from the planning phase and begin to build the pieces of your online presence.  This will include the following:

• Visual design and incorporation your corporate branding for each platform (web, social media, blog, newsletter)
  
  
• Building of different types of templates /layouts for the site
  
  
• Building of databases and forms
  
  
• Integration of products that might be required such as shopping carts, payment services, or any other systems
  
  
• Determining the backend for the web such as a CMS (content management system) platform
  
  
• Hooking into Google Analytics 

In addition during this phase, the actual writing of content will be completed:

• Content pages for the web which are search engine friendly
  
  
• Descriptions and Tags for Search Engine Optimization utilizing keywords
  
  
• Content for directories will be written and implemented on the selected sites.

Step 3:  Execute and Measure

During the execute and measure step, the website and other mediums will be implemented and success will be measured on whether the goals in step 1 planning phase are accomplished.

• The website and blog will be launched on the domain and where the hosting will occur.
  
  
• Social media will be implemented on the selected sites.
  
  
• Training will occur on all of the online presence mediums that will be implemented.
  
  
• Analytics will be reviewed and reported back on a regular basis.

Step 4:  Fine Tune 

During the fine tuning  step, the analytics and success of the online presence will be re-assessed on a regular basis.  Online presence is not stagnate and needs to be updated with content and changes to keep visitors coming back.   

It is also during this time when you look for enhancements to your online presence and it is then that you will look to move back into step 1 and look at how the enhancements fit into your overall plan.  The enhancements should become part of your overall online presence and once complete, the cycle starts again.