<p>Last month's Coaching Roundtable participants expressed an interest in knowing more about using the Web to create a prosperous practice. This column outlines a few important concepts.</p><p>The first thing to assess before investing in a Web site is why you want one and how you will use it. Do you intend to use it attract clients? If so, are your prospects online and inclined to look for you there?</p><p>Do you intend to use your site to provide client support and add value? Then find out if your clients use the Web for this kind of support. Learn as much as you can about their level of online savvy so that you design a site that they can use.</p><p>Now it's time to see what other sites offer. Set aside several hours to explore the Web. Think about what you see for a few days, then go surfing again. I know it can be hard to devote so much time to this, and yet it is imperative that you understanding what your competition is doing, what is possible, and what works. </p><p>This checklist will focus your surfing. </p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Search engines.</span> Start here, because this is most likely where your clients will start. Visit the major search engines and directories. Yahoo, Alta Vista, GoTo, HotBot, Lycos, and Google are all good ones to start with. At each site, enter the key words that you anticipate prospective clients using to find you. Visit the top pages and bookmark any that you especially like to visit again. (Keywords are a topic to themselves. For now, do your best to put yourself in the shoes of a prospective client and enter the words you think they will use to find someone like you.)</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Content.</span> Go back to your bookmarked sites and evaluate them based on content. What information do they provide? How easy is it to find? Is it useful? What can you tell about the market for this site based on the content? What ideas do you get for content on your own site? How might your content distinguish you from others? What do you have to offer that is uniquely yours?</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Design. </span>This time when you go surfing, look at the design of each site. What do you like? Dislike? How easy or hard is it to get around each site? Is there a sense of continuity? Of personality? What would you do differently?</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Technical.</span> The technical aspects of a site are those things that work behind the scenes to make the design and content show up the way they are supposed to. On the best sites it may be difficult for you to spot technical features of a site because whoever did the technical work made it transparent and seamless. Some technical features that might apply to a professional services Web site include online order forms or shopping carts, subscription forms, guest books, feedback forms, credit card acceptance, chat, and bulletin boards. What features might you want and how would you use them? </p><p>By the time you complete this survey of the Web, you will have a good sense of which sites set the standard in your profession. This will help you define your niche in terms of tone, content, and benefits to site visitors. Once you know this it will be much easier to plan and implement a site that will attract return visitors who are likely to become clients.</p> 2008-10-21T21:38:13Z -15.6508 333 2019 true 4 7670 using-the-web 0 2008-10-24T16:38:39Z 2008-10-24T16:38:39Z

What do you look for in creating a good website? This check list may help. After reading this you will have a better insight of how your website can set the standard in your profession.

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