When developing your website, remember one thing: Content is King. You must first create a plan that identifies the type of content you need to meet your viewers’ needs. Why is someone coming to your site? What are they hoping to learn or gain from your site? Once you determine the content, next you need to set up guidelines, i.e. style or voice for your site, legal considerations, response policies for all content to follow, an editorial calendar and schedule of content releases, oversight of search engine optimization (SEO) and metadata strategies and Web analytics tactics for measuring success and identifying revisions over time.

Before developing your site or redesigning an existing one consider the following:

• Deliver valuable content
• Have a direct and clear user interface – intuitive navigation
• Compatible with all major browsers (e.g., Chrome, FireFox, IE, Safari)
• Accessible in all screen resolutions
• Readable text
• Quickly scannable
• Fast-loading pages
• Mobile accessibility
• Obvious access to a corporate blog and social networks

Viewers want the experience to be as straightforward as possible. Create a strategy to help them easily find the specific content they need to evaluate a product, solve a problem or make a decision to work with you. If you provide the content and experiences your viewers desire you’ll reap the benefits.