Go.to/YourStore

CitiLimits Affiliates are now digitizing neighborhood shops in the New York City metropolitan area and are coming soon to your city. Begin now preparing your information for your web site.

Preparing the Information for Your Web Site

Developing a successful Web site requires thinking strategically about a few key issues. First, determine the purpose of the site. For example, is it a public relations tool, an information clearinghouse, or a direct channel for selling products? Next, determine the target audience for the site. Select a style and tone of writing based on your purpose and audience. Be sure to use energetic language to catch your readers' attention.

Previously printed brochures, newsletters, and other marketing materials are a great source of information for your site. Be sure to select material that is still relevant to your readers. A Web site can be ideal for displaying information typically hard for your customers or members to find. Consider looking at Web sites of competitors or similar organizations to spark ideas.

One way to organize your content is to separate items that change infrequently from items that require frequent updating. For example, group together a summary of the organization, core products or services, and location information separately from new product offerings, special offers, press releases, and upcoming events. Organizing information in this way enables you to easily update sections needing frequent revision and also helps readers quickly find the information they desire.

Using graphics and photos can add vitality to your site. But keep in mind they require significantly more memory than text, which means they will take longer to download. When you've finished creating your site, run the Design Checker to make sure the site downloads quickly and to catch problems with page design.

If you plan to sell directly from your web site, you will also want to decide if you want to sell your own merchandise or if you would rather contract the responsibility of order fulfillment to a 3rd party warehousing company. Unless you manufacture your own products, 3rd party fulfillment is the recommended method of adding e-commerce to your web site. 3rd party custom storefronts are much more quickly implemented and they take care of all of the hassles.

Once your web site is deployed to the world wide web, it will be linked into the CitiLimits Network community for your area. It can also be submitted to a variety of powerful search engines so that people who do not know your web site address can more easily find your site.