If you've already got a website and you don't know how effective it is, or perhaps you've finally decided to use a website to grow your business, you'll need to answer a few questions before you can have any chance of success online.

An effective online presence requires forethought and planning. The questions that follow will help your website be successful.

• Does your website have a goal? Many websites are designed to generate sales while others are educational websites. Still other websites' entire purpose is to gather leads. Take the time to think of the goal of your website. The design of your website depends on your goals. If you're not clear on those goals, your website won't be effective.

• Who will benefit from your website? Your language, content, and pictures will all need to be targeted towards your audience. A website for attorneys will be different from a website for people hoping to sign up for a class action lawsuit.

• What is your traffic funnel for your site? Once someone finds your homepage, where do you want them to go next? This question is related to a different question, in that your website's goal will determine the preferred traffic pattern for your site. Whatever your goal, make your website navigation simple and clear. Fancy animated links are occasionally confusing, and the search engines hate them.

• Have you encouraged your website visitors to take action? Nearly all websites, in order to be profitable, will need the website visitor to take action. Your site's call to action should be simple, clear, and easy to accomplish. Words like "Click here to purchase" or "Sign up for our newsletter" should be clearly visible and the task easily accomplished.

• How will you know if your website is being successful? You will need specific metrics in place to measure whether or not your site is working for your business. Again, this goes back to a different question: What is the goal of your website? If you know your goal, you should be able to measure it. This way you will be able to determine future changes for your website as both your traffic and your business grows.

Even if you are hiring a professional website designer to make your website for you, you will still need clear answers to each of these questions in order to have the most effective website possible. The more clear you are in your pre-website planning, the more likely it is your website will help you be successful.