How to Choose the Best Website Platform For Your Business
In coaching, we want our clients to have access to all the tools they need to be successful. We want them to be able to take advantage of the tools our system provides and to reach their goals. The best website platform for coaches is one that makes it easy to manage your account, to access your files, and to get your files organized. It is also important for the platform to keep your data secure and to allow you to add and delete files as often as you need to.
What do you want from your platform? How will clients find you and your services? How will you communicate with them? How will you share information with them?
When you are designing the best website platform for coaches, you need to consider what your customers will be doing when looking for your services. Will they search using keywords? Or will they type in something more specific? If they are typing in a word or phrase, will your platform allow them to include it in the search? Do you want your platform to offer instant searches for popular terms?
Also, do you want to offer the ability to share files with your clients? If you have a blog or an existing website, does it make sense to include a way for your clients to upload files on the fly? Do you want them to have the ability to share documents as PDF’s, Word documents, Excel files, PowerPoint presentations, audio clips and video clips? Do you want to be able to quickly and easily upload files over the network and view them on another PC or Mac?
Do you have to limit your platforms to just the internet? Do you want everything that can be done online and everything that can’t be done online? Is your current platform already equipped to handle this? Does your current platform has the capacity to handle any additional file types?
Are you comfortable with multi-media? Have you considered how having a system that allows your clients to upload mp3’s, video clips and audio tracks would change your business? How would it change the way you conduct your business? How do you feel about integrating social media into your platform? How do you want your search engine optimization to work with these new types of media?
Are you comfortable with adding new plug-ins to your existing platform? Do you want to be able to introduce new products without needing to change the entire server and database? Do you want to expand your services to include chat, live phone support, email and even a support system for Google analytics? Do you want everything to be integrated into one simple program so that you can easily update your clients and search engines as needed? If you have to spend time learning a new plug-in every time you add a new service, what point are you making?
The key is to find the best website platform that provides you the ability to grow your business without worrying about spending more time learning the different platforms. Don’t settle on the first thing you come across because it may not be what you really want. Spend some time doing research on each platform and doing what you need to do to ensure that it’s the right fit for your business needs. Don’t take any shortcuts in this process and don’t rely on what the company selling you the platform says. You need to know what it can do to help your business and what it can’t. That’s the only way to make a smart decision.