But, there is also a character limit: 160, its just the word limit of 23 is easier to calculate.

Excellent! I'm getting a good handle on this now and I did find the Google Webmaster Tools during my research this morning (I haven't read through everything yet). Eric's 9-point summary is really helpful. Thanks!

One aspect I need to 'deal with' is that the society isn't real internet savvy, and no one has defined their website goals. I achieved 'my goal' of creating a more modern looking website, but that isn't what the primary and secondary goals of the society website should be.

I'm meeting with the Director tomorrow afternoon and will see if we can get a few things written down. I started getting feedback about making changes and it became apparent this was a step that needed to be done in the early stages of the development!

Did I mention I'm not a website designer?

Maybe this will help:

When I go into planning with a client, I express these essentials in this order:

1. Functionality - you want the site to be functional.

2. Optimized - you want the site optimized for speed.

3. Usability - you want the site to be usable across browser and interface (like screen readers, cell phones, etc.).

4. Aesthetic - you want the site to look nice.

5. Dynamic - you want your site to have an interactive interface.

You don't have to do all of these, but you should begin with number 1 and do as much as is applicable for your users.

Hope this helps.

Eric:
Maybe broken was the wrong term, but it is definitely irrelevant. The reason I say that is that I am not an Amazon.com Pepsico or coca-cola. I run a small software business that caters to a highly defined vertical market - Seed cleaning plants in Alberta, Medical billing software for doctors in Alberta only. The rules change in different provinces so the markets are small. The seed cleaning plant software has a total market of 85, the medical billing software about 3000.

My page ranks are 0 to 1 yet I show up in the first few listings on the search results. And that is all I really care about. People call, business happens and no one wants to know why my page rank is only 1.

Most small business doesn't care a hoot about page rank. Page rank although invented by Google, has been brought to the forefront by all the SEO companies out there. Page rank sort of worked for a while then the link farm guys got a hold of the concept of selling you 1000 links to your page for $X. What most businesses / organizations really care about is showing up in the first page or two when someone is looking for what they sell or service they provide. And that can only happen with page titles, keywords and content.

It is broken though in that we have allowed Google so much power and authority over our marketing and advertising.

And Robert, a lot of us here aren't website designers by trade. In the old days we used to crank out our own brochures and mailings and send them out to prospective clients. Now we design our own websites and try to lure prospective clients to our websites. Coffee cup tools are ideally suited to that. It gives us further hope when we see the pros here who make their living building websites also use this software.


Good luck with your stuff.
Raj

Raj,

I see what you are saying from the perspective of a small business owner. However, as one who does web development for their profession, I have to be alerted to page rank because I do have customers ask me about it. As one who offers SEO as a service, it is very much relevant to me and my colleagues. I am in hopes that it becomes irrelevant, as it appears to be, because it really has nothing to do with providing customers with accurate search results. Its more about who can market their site the most using back linking.

I liked what you had to say about CC software and I completely agree with you.

Yes, that's a good list... That said, I'm concerned about an even more fundamental level of "goals"...

Rank the following in order of importance for your website:
Generate leads for potential members, donors, gifting trusts
Delivery of online information, newsletters, house publication
Sales of items, services, information
Website visitor education
Website visitor entertainment
Email address gatherer
Self promotion
Reduction of manual mailing expenses
Increase membership
Announce upcoming events, activities, fund-raisers
Boost organization professionalism, credibility, presence

In other words, "What do you want your website to 'do for you', in order of priority?" The single line categories should probably be broken into individual items, "Sales of items", "Sales of services", Sales of information", etc.

The organization has a good Mission Statement and I believe the website should support those fundamental goals. But translating those concepts into actionable items (I think) is the next hurdle I need to clear! Otherwise I'm going to be "shuffling pages" and "moving content" around endlessly.

I think your three-tiered sales strategy is great. Very concise and clear. Its much easier to work with those broader concepts than to list every detail. Also, do not be afraid to take things slowly and step by step, this will ensure that you are developing each tier efficiently.