David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist and the author of several business books with topics ranging from Viral Marketing, Public Relations, and Social Media. His latest book - World Wide Rave – focuses on creating triggers that get millions of people spreading your ideas and sharing your stories.

He is a leader of internet marketing. His site,webinknow, published the following post. His points pretty much sum up what’s needed to build a good (or great) website. It’s a competitive market and if you focus on a few of the items below and then expand from there, you’re headed in the right direction.

Steps to a Great Content-Focused Web Site
by David Meerman Scott

There are 14 steps here. You will have a terrific site if you do all the steps. But one of the great things about the Web is that you can build and grow continuously. So pick something and do it. Incremental improvement is better than stagnation.

1. Articulate your goals
2. Conduct a needs analysis
3. Understand user demographics
4. Create “personas” for each demographic
5. Establish (or maintain) a site personality
6. Develop appropriate “self-select paths” based on your personas
7. Create a landing page for each persona
8. Write for your personas, not for you
9. Create content for all stages of the consideration cycle
10. Offer multiple ways for visitors to express interest
11. Photos, diagrams, charts & multi-media content tells your story
12. Push content out via email and RSS
13. Market your Web site
14. Gather metrics for continual improvement

Have any suggestions or ideas of your own, please let us know.