If you have a website, do you know how effective it is? If you don't have a website and you're thinking of trying one for your business, do you know the difference between an effective website and one that is a waste of money?

The questions that follow will help you plan for the success of your website, regardless of if you're redesigning a website or if you're brand new to this online business marketplace.

• All websites need a goal. Do you know what your goal is with your website? Depending on if your site is designed around generating sales or leads, or distributing information all affects the structure of your website. If you don't plan accordingly, your site won't be as effective at doing what you want it to do.

• Does your website have a specific demographic or group of people in mind? As you make your website, all of your content, pictures, even the specific words you choose will need to be targeted towards your audience. A website for doctors will be different from a website for patients.

• What is the most effective path for your website visitors to follow? Depending on your website goal, you will want most of your customers to enter your home page and then proceed to a specific destination. Map this out before hand to capitalize off of each visitor. Make sure you make your website's links simple and easy to use. Fancy animated links are difficult for the search engines to read.

• Does your website call people to take action? Unless your site is purely informational, the visitors to your site will need to be urged to take action- buy now, click here, sign up now. Whatever it is, make sure you are directing your visitors to take action. Otherwise, they will most likely just click wander and click away from your site.

• What will you use to determine the success of your website? Are you looking for sign-ups to your newsletter? Are you basing success on sales figures? Perhaps you want people to visit a brick and mortar store. Whatever it is, you will need to be able to measure whether or not your website is working for your business. That way you can make educated changes to your website based on real figures and statistics rather than just assumptions.

It doesn't matter if you are doing all your own website work or if you are paying a website professional to do the work for you. You need solid answers to these questions before you start implementing a website into your marketing plans. The better answers you have to these questions, the better your website will be able to help your business grow.