What are the elements of a successful website? If you do it yourself, how would you know what to include or how to make the most of this ever-growing and expanding marketing medium - the Internet? If you hire a website designer, how do you check to make sure that what they're doing is in your best interests? Use this checklist to check your website for success:

1. Do you have a clear strategy for using your website as a marketing tool? Is every element in-line with that strategy?

2. Have you chosen a domain name with the proper suffix (.com, .org, .biz, .info, .net)?

3. Is your hosting company reliable? Check with others hosted by them, and watch out for hidden fees from the big guys...

4. Are your company emails @yourwebsite.com? It's all about credibility. Gmail and Yahoo are for personal accounts.

5. Does the website clearly make it easy for vendors, prospects and customers to learn more about your company?

6. Does the website clearly indicate how to visit your store, contact you, or place a direct order? It's amazing how often this is left out - especially by do-it-yourselfers and IT web developers (non-marketing website designers).

7. Is the website easy to use? Easy to navigate? Does the visitor ALWAYS know where they are on the site and are they led to other pages?

8. Is your website free of errors? Grammatical, spelling, links going no where... all make you look unprofessional.

9. Is the technology used APPROPRIATE for the business or industry represented? Is it overkill? Some developers will, (clear throat), sell you what you don't need...

9. Are the images used APPROPRIATE for the business? Are stock photos properly licensed and model release forms signed?

10. Is the website static or has it been updated in the last 90 days? Keeping up to date with social media, forums, newsletters, trends, etc. is one great way to keep clients and search engine spiders coming back for more.

11. Is your website designed to display for visitors using different browsers, screen resolutions and, yes, mobile devices and smartphones? It may be time for a mobile site as web surfing via smartphones is projected to be up 50 fold by 2015 and already Nielson estimates that 1 in 2 Americans will own a smartphone by Christmas 2011. Don't lose customers because they can't see your website while they're on the road.

12. Do your web pages load quickly?

13. Is my site search engine friendly?

14. Is there anything we've missed? Any opportunities for interaction we can add? Have we tested and retested for functionality and bugs?

15. Do you know how much revenue your website is drawing in? And can you justify the ROI. If not, you may want to talk with a professional marketing team to ensure you're utilizing every opportunity to market on the Internet.

The Internet is always growing with opportunities for small businesses to affordably get in the game with the big boys - in essence, it levels the playing field. Make sure when the team gets out on that field that they're ready for action, and ensure your website is a winner. If you have questions, Inspired 2 Design is here to help. Contact us or call 770-781-3452.