It used to be having a website was a novelty; now having a website is a marketing necessity. A website is probably the Number One piece of collateral you should develop for your program.  In my line of work, websites are a big focus for clients, and rightfully so.

But now, more than ever, it is the wrong time to have a website built by your sister-in-law’s brother’s pet squirrel. Here are the import elements and considerations to factor in when thinking about starting your program’s website:

• The Foundational: Please, for the love of horses, DO talk to several website development vendors before starting. In addition to finding a widely divergent array of prices, you’ll find some alarming differences in capability. Some vendors are heavy on the technical side, with no professional visual artists or graphic design capability. Others might look good but have poor back-end software.

• The Functional: It is very expensive to go back and retrofit an existing website. Think ahead now so your website can handle the things you want in the future. Most people today want the ability to change content on their Events page, or add photos to the News section. These folks need a Content Management System (or CMS), integrated onto appropriate pages. Some will eventually sell manuals, T-shirts, or products on their site, and need to plan a shopping cart function. Others want to have a blog.

• The Visual: strong visuals and proper navigation, appropriately and strategically thought out, are enormously important on the Internet. It’s very easy to spot an amateur job from a professional job. Invest in professional visuals so they can be an accurate reflection of your program.

• The Verbal: the effectiveness of beautiful visuals is instantly destroyed by poor written content. Just like the visual, invest in professional writing so that your program is accurately and intelligently presented, with all the right pieces. These pieces include a strong tagline, benefits-driven key message points, language tailored to your customer, and the right balance of information/call to action. And don’t forget to integrate the search engine optimization tactics: keyword saturation, meta tag development, etc.

There are so many other things I could tell you about website development...the latest trends in software, the latest studies in readership style and readability, or the latest trends in layout and design. But hopefully this will get you started

The Riding Writer,
Brenda Dammann