Designing Web Sites For Search Visibility
01 2010 Tuesday
12
By Rob Garner in Web Design
Designing enterprise Web sites for search engine visibility has been a major thread of this column since I started writing for MediaPost several years ago (side note: I will hit my 100th column in a few months). URL structures, redirection plans, dealing with process obstacles, and putting research up front have all been topics I’ve previously covered. Today I am going to build on a column that I wrote almost a year ago, entitled “How Search Fits Into The Redesign Process.” To start, a list of major considerations for designing an enterprise Web site for greater search visibility is provided below. (Please read that column for more info on each of the following points):
I was recently going through a discovery process with a Fortune 500 executive who was guiding his company’s Web site redesign, and I inquired directly about the search aspects of the project. His response: “Search is not relevant to this process.” Contrary to what he was saying, search was in fact critical to the overall process; he was just clearly unaware of his company’s campaign history and investment in the search channel. In light of this response, seemingly old and worn advice is worth another spin or two around the block, especially if it will help convey the natural search value of a legacy Web presence.
In enterprise marketing, it is not a question of whether your company’s site is going to be redesigned or not, it is simply a question of when. Most companies do some kind of major redesign or tweak every two years, and if they haven’t just relaunched, they are planning for the next one. So the “when” is most often “now,” no matter where you are in the process. The important thing to remember here is that search should be a key consideration at every stage of the process, whether it is selecting a provider, setting requirements, producing comps, coding or site deployment.
So how do you fit natural search into the process? Here are a few ideas to start:
Use site language and messaging that is consistent with the user’s perception of your product or service.
For the most part, search engines are still very literal, and truly effective semantic intelligence still lies far ahead. Position content and language that reflects the way users search, in order to rank for those terms. The path to understanding this language is through linguistic and keyword research, and also by studying and knowing your target. Language and keywords impact and guide information architecture and content strategies, among other aspects.Read your log files (and/or review analytics reports).
If you want to know what you stand to lose in a site redesign, take a look at what you are currently gaining in terms of traffic, visibility, revenue, and conversions. Are there any particular Holy Grail terms like “travel,” “shopping,” or “banking” that may be giving you a lot of traffic? See a section of a site that is referring a ton of long-tail terms? You will likely find some areas that are worth preserving.Ensure that RIAs are both crawlable and indexable by search engines.
Rich Internet technologies that are implemented without search engines in mind can instantly render a once-thriving natural search program into total obscurity. Flash and Ajax are key tools in the design and development toolbox, but considerations must be made for search upfront.Avoid the creation of URL canonicalization issues.
When you change phone numbers, the phone company will leave a recorded message telling the new number to the person who called your old number. This is the effect a 301 permanent redirect has on a search engine — it applies the old URL and backlinks to the new URL; the search engine is happy, and your site is happy. A canonicalization problem occurs when 302 redirects are pointed to permanently moved pages. I have seen instances where clients have gone through four or five redesigns using 302s, and a string of six-to-eight redirects points to a single page, each with its own set of inbound links. This basically makes it difficult for engines to determine the “real URL” to show in results and apply backlinks to. How do you fix it? See the next point.Set up a redirection plan.
In just about every redesign project, at least some content is removed, and URLs go away. Help the engines and your users by using a 301 redirect to point them to the most similar page on your site, or the site map, home page, or custom 404 page. Spend the time to map out which URLs are going away, and where they should be pointed. And don’t sit on the plan —do it on the day or evening that a site is pushed out of production.Don’t remove content that supports coveted rankings without assessing risks first.
One mistake I see frequently is when content is removed from a site, with no replacement content to support the valuable rankings and visibility it has previously created. Before axing existing site content, determine how difficult it would be to re-attain the ranking, the ranking’s importance in terms of traffic and revenue, or if it is your CEO’s favorite pet ranking. Then create a plan for bridging new content, or leaving it alone.Include search as both a business and technical requirement before planning has even started.
If search is not a consideration and priority early on, then it will be 10 times harder and more expensive to try to re-engineer at the end of or after the project.Ensure that there is a voice for search within the Web site team structure.
Having a search specialist as part of the Web design team (and implementing their recommendations) will do a lot to ensure a healthy transition in the redesign and relaunch process, in addition to the potential for growth. The list above is useless without some subjective strategy behind it. Get experienced search optimization help that is fit to your company’s unique situation, needs and goals, and make it an integral part of the redesign process.These are just a few considerations to get you started. Feel free to add your own thoughts and considerations for redesign at the Search Insider blog.
Rob Garner is strategy director for digital marketing company iCrossing and writes for Great Finds, the iCrossing blog. Contact him via email at ,and follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robgarner.Don’t Destroy Your Online Marketing Results with Bad Website Design
11 2009 Wednesday
4
By Paul Marshall in Web Design
So, you’ve embarked on a search engine advertising program, maybe even SEO. Whether you’re doing this on your own or using an online marketing consulting firm, there are key points to become aware of.
If you miss these, you won’t increase conversions.
What good is a Number 1 organic search engine ranking or AdWords ad listing, if you don’t have increased sales or if you don’t generate more sales leads?
Too often, we get all focused about the Internet marketing — the ads, the offer — that we don’t think the whole process through step-by-step and consider the experience our website visitors will be having.
If we did, we’d be thinking “big picture” and we would head off some of these potential problems before they occur.
Overcoming Your Website Visitors Anxiety
When people come to our website it’s natural for them to feel anxiety. After all, look at all the cr*p on the Internet today, all the too-good-to-be-true products and services.
But when you and I offer REAL products or services, we have to overcome that concern, even if we’re treating our site visitors fairly and not making outrageous claims.
So, how can you overcome these anxieties?
1. Offer more than a 1-page website. Credible companies have multi-page websites, including Privacy Policy, Terms of Use | Service and About Us pages.
They also have more than 1 page about their products or services.
I’m surprised by the number of 1-page websites I see from companies using infomercials to advertise their products. Often, they have the purchase form right on their home page, their only page (and often their page isn’t secured for credit card ordering).
Websites that are only 1-page don’t seem credible. And having the purchase form right on the home page comes across as very pushy!
Doesn’t this type of site seem all about the company and NOT about their customers? Why would we want to buy from that type of company?
What kind of online marketing consulting firm did these companies use…or did they use any??
2. Next to any sign up or contact form buttons clearly state that you don’t sell your customers’ private information and link to your Privacy Policy page.
3. Effectively communicate what your Value Proposition is, also called your Unique Selling Proposition. If you don’t know why someone should buy your product or service versus your competitors’, now is the time to figure it out. (And by the way, based on my experience, if you don’t know this, you’re not alone, by any means.)
But our websites have to be about more than just us. They have to be about our visitors. What’s in it for THEM, to do business with us? What unique voids in the marketplace can we fill?
As a Small Business Owner, Personally Relate to Your Site Visitors and Communicate Directly with Them
People don’t buy from websites, they buy from people! So, how can you apply this to your own website?
1. For many small businesses and solo proprietorships, their website text should speak to your visitors directly in first person.
This should be written from the voice of the Owner or President. They shouldn’t use third person, institutional-sounding language, getting rid of “we” and “our”, using “I” instead, speaking first person, in an actual conversation. Don’t try to sound like you’re Microsoft!
And while your at it, be careful about overuse of words about you…whether “I”, or those words, “we”, “our” or “us”.
Check out the WeWe calculator (Google: wewe calculator). Make sure to focus on customer-focused words and NOT on words about you or your company.
2. Include your picture on your Web pages.
For a larger small business trying to make that personal connection with their website visitors, try the idea used by the nutritional supplement company Lumina. (Google: Lumina Health Contact Us)
In this execution, notice how Lumina gets you to relate to their customer service department. I still remember it was John I spoke with and that’s been over 1 year ago that I called them!
Again, people buy from other people, not from websites.
For us as small businesses, why should we sound large, pretending to be something we aren’t? And why should we run from our advantage of being small: low overhead, friendly, personal service and accountability, among other advantages.
Make Each Step in Your Marketing a Smooth Handoff from One Step to Another
Whether you’re using AdWords, SEO, or both, make sure your title and description matches the experience your website visitor will have when they come to your landing page.
Quite often when I’m Coaching my small business owner clients or performing online marketing consulting, I find the wording for their organic listing or AdWords ad says one thing and their landing page says something that doesn’t sound the same.
This causes confusion is the best case scenario. In the worst case, it causes a lack of trust. Dangerous!
We should understand our products or services. And we know what we want our visitors to do on our site.
Our potential customers may not understand either. We need to think like them, when we explain what we have to offer them and how to use our website to take advantage of what we have to offer.
And when “shifting” from one page to another, we need to hand-off from one page to another naturally and smoothly, like a car with a smooth automatic transmission.
Don’t advertise one offer in AdWords or organic search, only to have your landing page sound like it was written for another advertising offer. I see this problem a lot!
Often times, having an affordable online marketing consulting firm reviewing what you’re doing can offer easy, inexpensive fixes that can yield big improvements in your search engine advertising and SEO conversions.
Your Action Plan
Let’s review what we’ve talked about.
First, overcome visitors anxieties by offering a multi-page website which answers questions about your company and your services or products, while inspiring confidence in your company. Effectively communicate your Value Proposition.
Second, personally relate to your site visitors. Avoid using the wrong words that may put off your site visitors. Use your picture on your Web pages.
Third, hand-off from one page on your website and one step in your selling process to another smoothly and naturally. We should understand what we want our site visitors to do, but they won’t unless we make the process really clear.
Whether your using an online marketing consulting firm or doing the work yourself, if you take these steps, your search engine optimization | advertising plan will convert at a MUCH higher rate, when you take these steps.
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He’s an Online Marketing Consulting expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Internet Marketing LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.
How to Make a Website: Create a Website for Business or Fun
10 2009 Thursday
8
By Peter Nisbet in Web Design
Knowing how to make a website is essential if you want to make a website, either for business or just for fun. There are many sites online that will explain to you how to do so, but few of them offer a good solution for a beginner. They all seem to need some form of pre-knowledge of many of the factors involved, and they make it look a lot easier than it actually is.
Sure, anybody can create a website that looks passable, but how do you make a website work for you to make money or to get visitors? These are the two reasons for anybody making a website. No matter who you are, or what the site is to be used for, it will meet one of these two criteria.
First it must get visitors: otherwise there is no point in having one. Even if you just want the site to run your hobby, or keep in contact with your family (better with Facebook!), people have to visit. If you also want to make money from it, then you still need visitors, but you have to persuade them to buy. That means keeping in touch with them: you have to collect the names and email addresses of your visitors and then keep in touch with them, making them special offers, providing information, until they eventually buy.
It takes the average person 7 – 8 exposures to your product before they decide to buy it. That’s what advertising is all about: to get these exposures until the prospect finally makes a purchase. However, back to the website.
Most sites that show you how to make a website don’t tell you that once you create a website you have to make it work. It’s like buying a car. You don’t just buy a car, sit in it, and it takes you to where you want to go like a cab does. You have to learn how to drive it. Once you have learned, then you can drive it. However a website is not like that even. Why Not? Because it doesn’t come with all the bits and pieces needed to make it work. These are extras!
Here are the things you need to make your website work to make money for you:
A Web Host The host provides you with the web space for your site. That’s just like a large directory on which you can place your files, such as your web pages, graphics files, products and so on. Your host also provides the means by which you can connect to the World Wide Web.
A Domain Name Your domain name is the name of your website: the bit that comes after http://www. You need it before you can create a website and put it on the web. You can choose from those still available, and then register them with the DNS (Domain Name Service). Your domain name will cost you around $10 a year – you never own it, you just hire it with first refusal every year, though you can pay for it for some years in advance. You will also need keyword software to enable you to choose the best domain name for your site.
Site Building Software You will need an HTML text editor. HTML is the language used to make a website what it is, and most HTML editors offer wysiwyg functionality, so you don’t have to know HTML, and just type in what you want. However, if you want to link to other pages on your site or to other websites, or if you want to add graphics and anything else other than plain text, you will need to know some HTML.
Email Service You will need an eMail service with your site. Nobody will buy from you if you are using a free eMail service to run your website!
Autoresponders Unless you want to be writing and sending eMails manually all your life you will need software that can do it for you. An autoresponder can send an email to people requesting information, take orders, deliver orders for electronically deliverable goods, send invoices and receipts, thank you notes and acknowledgements, and also parts of weekly or monthly courses you might provide to your subscribers, who will hopefully become customers.
Shopping Cart If you are selling goods, even eBooks or software, you will have to provide a means for a customer to order them. You will also need a product catalogue if you sell more than one item.
Payment Processor You will require a means of accepting credit and debit card payments. If you can’t do that, then shut up shop now and don’t even start.
Traffic Analysis You will need software to analyze your traffic and find out what your most popular pages are, what keywords bring most visitors and what pages most visitors leave from without buying. You can them improve these pages to keep visitors on your website where you want them.
Other Software Other software or tasks needed to create a website that works properly include Search Engine Optimization, to make sure your web pages are listed as high as possible on Google and other search engines and once you become more advanced, audio and video software to jazz up your website, graphics software, a blog to market your website and a lot more.
All of these are essentials that you will have to purchase and will have to learn how to use when you set out to create a website. It is possible to get free versions with your cheaper websites and hosting services, but some of these can lack the functionality to make them look really professional and persuade people to buy from you or continue to visit your site.
If that all frightens you then you are right to be scared, because you are going to have to learn how to use them all. However, there is an answer that can allow you to avoid all these, because there are systems online that offer you a website with all of these extras integrated with it. Some are truly integrated with the site so that all you need do is to add the text, while others offer all of these components for you to use to make a website, but you have to learn how each is used separately.
While the latter offers you more latitude in your website design and functionality, the former allows you to create a website from scratch without knowing the first thing about the subject. With these, you can make a website by choosing templates and filling in the blanks. A bit like painting by numbers really!
Peter Nisbet – If you are interested in making your own website, examples of each of these two different ways of making it easier for yourself are offered on How to Start a Website . Although easy to use, they provide you with a very professional looking highly functional website that thousands have used to make their fortunes.Did You Design Your Website with An Exit Strategy?
09 2009 Monday
14
By B Hopkins in Web Design
Web sites for most businesses can perform many of the same basic functions that off-line systems can; sales, market research, branding, customer service, etc. Very few businesses will use their web site for more than 1 or 2 of these functions. Even fewer businesses will create their web site with an exit strategy in design when using their website for sales, market research, etc. When an exit strategy is left out of the equation, a lot of money could be left on the table.
What is an exit strategy? In this case it is the way in which you are going to end the ownership of your website. Will you just close your web site down or will you get your investment back and sell it? Most business owners just close their web site down when they are done with it and fail to realize that they could be flushing a valuable asset down the drain. It would be similar to walking away from your store and leaving the inventory, customer list and all of your trade secrets behind for who ever is clever enough to come by and salvage what is possible.
If you have your web site for several years, over that time you have developed a following, traffic, content, gained a lot of knowledge about your niche based upon customer buying patters, or visitor traffic patterns, and so much more. You don’t realize that it is an asset. If you can determine how much your web site makes per month, you can know how much you can sell it for. If you have a sizable email list, you have an asset that a smart email marketer can make use of to generate even more income on a monthly basis.
If you get considerable traffic to your website, and your website is not branded to who you are (such as oprah.com), then you should create an exit strategy based on how much you can get from your web site when you decide to sell it. If your are going to sell off your business, your web site will add that much more to the value of your business when you sell it. How can you know how much to sell your web site for? There are some websites out there that will give you an estimate of how much your web site is worth. Some of the factors these sites take into account include:
- The amount of traffic your website gets
- The number of Inbound links your website has
- It’s popularity in the Web 2.0 Space
- How much it comes up in the search engines.
- Domain Name
How many directories your website is included in
When building and marketing your web site, you will want to incorporate as many of these factors as you can. Be sure to build your web site so you can easily add content, and always add new links pointing to your web site as well through the numerous linking strategies that are available. You want to create your website with as much value as possible. If you create your website with the mindset that you will sell it, you will end up with a web site that has much more value in a few years than if you just put one up as an online brochure.
B. Hopkins creates strategies for low maintenance, high profit websites that will allow you to earn more revenue on a month to month basis. Sign up for one of B.’s Internet Sales Training Denver programs and discover what it takes to create an Internet presence that will generate business for you.
Beyond Your Web Site: Nine Ways To Build An Online Presence
08 2009 Friday
21
By admin in Web Design
Virtually every company has a Web site — that’s a given. But with the volume of professionals going online for work-related purposes, you need more than a Web site to command maximum visibility and generate attention for your products and services.
To compete effectively, it’s necessary to expand and enhance your exposure in the same online sources your customers and prospects use while searching for products and conducting research. A broad and deep online presence gives you greater opportunity to present your brand, message or offer to your target audience — increasing the likelihood of gaining customers.
Here are nine online strategies — beyond your Web site — that will help you build the presence you need.
Get listed in searchable directories and catalogs. Professionals in virtually every industry have preferred Web sites and directories they return to over and over again to find products and solutions. Searchable online directories give you a powerful and highly visible presence in front of customers and prospects when they are searching for answers.
Advertise in industry e-newsletters. E-newsletter advertisements deliver your message directly to the inboxes of prospects and customers. They are a great way to announce new products or your presence at a trade show, or to offer white papers or Webinars to an opt-in audience.
Publish technical articles online. Consider publishing your technical articles and white papers on industry authority sites, content aggregators and online publications read by your target audience. Work to establish relationships with these sites by pitching article ideas and positioning your company as experts for reporters writing stories.
Place banner advertisements. Due to their highly visible nature, online banners offer both branding and lead generation opportunities. But your ads need to appear on the appropriate Web sites. Seek out a media partner that knows the online behavior of your target audience and can help you place banner ads across a network of relevant sites used by your customers and prospects.
Join industry trade associations. Associations typically list members and provide links back to your Web site. Some will allow you to submit your logo, which helps increase brand visibility for your company. Make sure the link back to your Web site goes to a relevant page — it might be your home page, but it also might be a deeper, more specific page.
Use keyword search ads wisely. Most companies are using keyword search ads to some degree, driving traffic to their Web site. If you use keyword ads, choose specific keyword phrases rather than the most popular search terms (for example, “hydraulic linear actuators” instead of “actuators”). This way, you will not waste money gaining visibility with people who are not your target audience.
Comment on blogs; participate in online discussions. Interactive social media such as blogs and online discussion groups devoted to your industry are good ways to get your name out there. Remember to post comments with care — anything you write can be seen by many people and is a direct reflection of your company.
Don’t forget about SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) can draw more attention to your company’s Web pages by helping them rise higher in search engine results for specific keyword searches. Determine how SEO can best fit into your marketing strategy without too much strain in resources.
Consider social media. Social media — including blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook — are another way to promote your company and key messages to your target audience. Although you may not be using social media as part of your online marketing strategy right now, it makes sense to gain a better understanding of it and how you might effectively use it in the future.
Maintaining a comprehensive online presence will help you get your message across to business professionals who rely on the Internet for work-related information, resulting in increased exposure for your products and services.
Angela Hribar is chief sales and marketing officer of GlobalSpec, Inc., a specialized vertical search, information services and e-publishing company serving the engineering, technical and industrial communities. She has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, sales, business development and operations management, and is an expert in building and facilitating a collaborative environment across cross-functional executive teams. She can be reached at [email protected]Why Websites Are Better Than Landing Pages
08 2009 Friday
14
By admin in Web Design
Recently there was an e-book claiming that websites are a less effective means of promoting a real estate business than are landing pages (also known as squeeze pages). As anyone who knows their SEO methodologies can tell you, it ain’t necessarily so.
There are a number of reasons why an actual website is a more effective tool to gather leads and generate business if real estate is your field. While a landing page can be properly optimized for the search engines, the long and short of it is that doing so means one thing – more work for the webmaster.
There are a number of reasons why real estate investors should choose to maintain a traditional web page rather than building a series of landing pages. For starters, real estate is a business where your image matters. Having a professional appearance is incredibly important; landing pages are something which are largely the province of fly-by-night internet marketers (though not always, we’re not trying to give landing pages a bad name altogether here). You can think of it in this way: if you were looking to purchase a property, whether as an investment or as a new home, who would you rather do business with? The realtor with a polished, professional looking site, or one whose web presence is more akin to the virtual take on a used car lot?
In many cases, this appearance corresponds with the behavior of the realtor; basically, landing pages tend to look cheap. Hardly the impression you want to give a prospective buyer or seller, is it? Of course it isn’t, so let’s move on. One of the chief problems with using landing pages is that a single business will tend to maintain a great deal of these pages which are targeted towards slightly different keywords, especially when using PPC advertising to promote your business.
The proponents of landing pages often characterize this as a ‘money funneling system’, something which is not entirely accurate. A better analogy might be a sky full of very dim stars viewed from a brightly lit city center. Those stars aren’t all that visible now, are they? The point here is that landing pages are rarely terribly visible in terms of search results. Since the content of these multiple landing pages is generally very similar, one page often differing from another only in the main keyword used, search engines view them as duplicate content.
What does this mean? It means that search engines largely ignore these pages – so they have little if any traffic or lead generation potential beyond the relatively small number of people who pay attention to contextual advertising. Is this inherently problematic? Actually yes – all of the work which goes into building these landing pages which don’t tend to generate that much traffic, relatively speaking could have gone into promoting your main website and gaining natural traffic. This traffic of course increases your website’s search engine ranking which means even more traffic and a higher profile.
If real estate is a numbers game, it stands to reason that you’d want to actually work the numbers and maximize your traffic to a single source. Landing page proponents will tell you that a traditional website can’t target all of the various keywords that a landing page can. This, of course is nonsense. It’s every bit as easy (if not easier) to add a page to your own website which is optimized for the same keywords – and it actually builds the page ranking of your website, rather than detracting from this important task. I’ll leave you with one other advantage that a traditional website has over landing pages when it comes to search engine optimization and generating leads. Landing pages don’t tend to be re-index by search engines if indeed they are ever indexed in the first place!
A website, by contrast has one possible application which makes it superior to landing pages in every way – it’s easy to deploy a blog as part of your website. Why a blog? Because it’s an incredibly easy way to add new content to your site and keep search engines coming back. This can help build your page ranking and your traffic faster and more sustainably than any number of landing pages ever will.
In the time it takes to put together a single web page, you could add a page to your main site, put work towards other traffic driving strategies or get your site re-indexed by adding a new post to your blog; and you’d still have time to get yourself a cup of coffee, sit back for a moment and congratulate yourself on your business acumen while the people who favor landing pages are still uploading their page. It’s an easy call to make – websites win out over landing pages hands down.
Duncan Wierman is an ex-Software CEO turned Real Estate Investor & Marketer. Discover how you can use creative online marketing methods to do more deals online. For more details on how to use automated internet marketing system for real estate investing, please visit Duncan Wierman’s website and get is free 14 day e-course. http://www.DuncanWierman.comBuilding Credibility With Your Online Marketing Mini Sites!
08 2009 Tuesday
11
By admin in Web Design
What do you write on the main page of your website? I first started the page with a welcome message and a little bit about myself. I wanted to give the visitor a little bit of my personality. Since I can’t personally be on the page to welcome everyone, I always try to put a little of my personality into the words on the page.
I then start telling the visitor about what I am promoting and how it has helped me build my businesses.
To build my credibility I have also placed a few testimonials on my landing page for those who visit my site and don’t know who I am. The last thing I do is give them something for free just like on my salesletter page. This way if they don’t click through to my salesletter page, they are put into my autoresponder, so I may have a chance of getting them to my salesletter page where I can ask them for the sale.
What you need to create an “original mini site” type site:
Domain name, Hosting, Something to promote, Content
I gave the “original mini site” type site its name because it’s like the regular every day site with one exception. It focuses on one topic instead of many. It’s a mini version of an original every day site.
I always get my own domain name when creating an “original mini site” type site. When I pick what my “original mini site” type site is going to be about I want to get a domain name that has my keywords in it. Take for example my site. I use it to promote my joint venture how to package I offer.
“Original mini site” type sites do take longer to build, but because they have more content, you can use SEO to get your “original mini site” type site indexed in the search engines. You should put a lot of time into optimizing your “original mini site” type site for the search engines. It’s the best method for getting free-targeted traffic if done correctly.
“Original mini site” type sites can also help to make you more known and give you credibility. Things aren’t like they used to be. A handshake and a smile don’t go very far anymore. People have to feel that they can trust you before they buy from you or give you their personal information. You can gain their trust by showing them that you are a real person who really does know what they are talking about.
How do you do that? Well, there are a couple of ways to do that.
You can use testimonials. The testimonials don’t have to be yours. If you are promoting an affiliate program via your “original mini site” type site, contact the owner of the product and tell them how you are promoting their product and ask to use some of the testimonials off of their site. If it’s your product, give it away free to people and in turn ask for a testimonial.
You can also gain credibility and trust by writing articles about what you are promoting. Again, if you are promoting an affiliate program, ask the owner of what you are promoting if they have any articles available for you to use for promoting their product. Find out more about affiliate marketing at http://www.honestreview.info/profitlance/index.html
About the Author: Dr. Ross Denvers – Learn more about online business with Profit Lance
14 Steps to Good Business Website Design
07 2009 Monday
13
By Neil Holley-Williams in Web Design
How important is Website Design? Your Website needs to look professional and trustworthy in order to create buyer confidence. A poorly designed Website will cost you sales.
So where do you need to start ?
1. Choose a Domain Name.
A domain name is the web address of your website (i.e. www.bizhelp24.com). All websites must have a domain name before they can go live on the Internet.
If you have an advertising budget to promote your business, then it is beneficial to choose a domain name that is the same as your business or gives people an idea of what you sell. Alternatively, if you do not have a large budget, it may be more beneficial to use a domain name that includes a ‘keyword’ so that when people search for something specific your site has a better chance of being found.
For example if your site is about relieving back pain, a domain such as ‘www.backpainrelief.xxx’ will be more likely to show up in searches.
Either way, you need to use a name that benefits your long-term business aims, and not something that is restrictive. E.g. ‘wellheeled123.com’, might be a clever name for a business that sells exclusive shoes. But if that business then diversifies into other products, the website name is no use anymore.
2. Design Your Home Page.
The Home Page is probably the most important page. It’s the first page your visitors will see, so you need to make a good impression. On this page, you should communicate who you are and why you have a website. You want to make sure that your message is clear and not lost in many long paragraphs. Try to divide your text into sections that you can mark with headers in a larger font or using bold text. Don’t underline text as this can make it look like a link.
One of the most important aspects of the text on your home page is the “Call to Action”.
“Call to Action” is the text that tells your visitors what you want them to do next. Do you want them to call and schedule a consultation, visit your shop, or just browse the other pages in your website? Make this command prominent by changing its color or increasing the font size.
Also consider uploading an image or two onto your Home Page. A colorful image will help to captivate your visitors and they will be more likely to continue browsing your site.
You need a simple Home Page that clearly communicates your website’s purpose and goals.
3. Design Your About Us Page.
The About Us page of your website should be used to reveal a little more about yourself or your business. Consider any additional details that might be important to your customers.
You should also consider having a Map of where you are located. Having a Map on your About Us page creates a very professional feel for your website and makes your small business look big.
If you do not operate out of a physical location, think about other things that your customers would find interesting about your business. Perhaps you have an exciting company background that you could share or more details regarding the services you offer.
Whatever you decide to write, remember to keep the text in short paragraphs.
4. Design Your Contact Us Page.
You are now getting very close to having designed a good 3-page site. The last element that all websites should have is a Contact Us page.
Include the best way to contact you directly on this page. Make your phone number or email address prominent on the page, perhaps with different font styles.
Make sure to keep this page simple though, as you don’t want your customers to get distracted by other content. Ensure each page in your site has something valuable to offer. Don’t design ‘Pretty, But Useless’. Let’s step back and realise that a web page exists to provide something that’s useful or interesting to visitors. If your page doesn’t have that, then you must fix that problem before you worry about how to present it.
What are you offering to your visitors? Why is it worth their time to visit your site? Focus on that before you move on to how it should look.
5.Keep Advertising Ratio 25% or Less
Amazingly, I see some sites that are almost nothing but ads. We know that no one would turn on the telly if it were just adverts, or buy a magazine if it were just ads and no articles. By the same token, a website also has to have more than ads if it’s to be successful. If you are running ads on your website, then you should ensure that the ratio to editorial is no more than 25% to 75%. Your visitors came to your site to see what YOU had to offer.
If you have affiliations and partnerships that are relevant to your site, then by all means include them. Don’t do what I saw recently on a website for a large fabric retailer where the web designer had put her friend’s Aromatherapy Massage practice in as a link. It’s not professional.
6. Don’t Distract With Blinking/Scrolling Text Or Auto Play Video/Audio.
Animation and sounds are distracting. How can anyone concentrate on reading what’s on your site when there are things flying around the page? It’s like trying to read a newspaper when someone’s poking you in the shoulder repeatedly.
Scrolling text does nothing to serve the visitor. If it’s on a site it’s because the site owner thought, “Let me show how cool I am.” Don’t design the site for yourself, design it for the people who will actually use it.
If you have relevant audio or video on your site, make it so the visitor can play it when THEY want, not at start up.
7. Don’t Use Image Backgrounds.
Full Image backgrounds mean “amateur”. A site like this can also have extremely slow page-loading times. This is NOT a professional image, and will turn visitors away.
8. Put Thought Into Organization.
Think about what content you have and how it should be organized. This is just as important as what your site looks like, so spend time on it. You are not doing your visitors a favour if everything is thrown up higgledy-piggedly, and they have to leap about the site looking for what they want instead of being informed.
9. Minimize Clicking!
This is so important. Put as few clicks between the visitor and the information as possible. Clicking around will make the visitor abandon the site and go elsewhere
10. Limit Page Length To 2 Screens.
This is where it gets a bit difficult. While you should put a lot into the design to limit clicking, you should also avoid going too far in the opposite direction by putting too much on one page.
You should normally limit a page to 2 screens. Articles by their nature, like this, are exceptions to that rule.
11. Include a Navigation Menu on Every Page.
Always include a menu on the page. This allows the visitor to start all over again at ‘Home’, or to click on another page that interests them.
Don’t put navigation links only at the bottom of pages, because then users will have to scroll down to the bottom to get to them (unless your pages are very short).
12. Website Readability.
A line of text should be no more than about 600 pixels wide. What does THAT mean ? Well it means that your website page should be no wider than say the middle two thirds of your monitor screen. The reason that newspapers and magazines are printed in columns is to make the lines short, so after you read one line, it’s easy to find the start of next one when your eyes flick left.
The problem with wide layout is that the content will be too wide to read easily for those visitors with really large screens as the content expands to fit the screen (or window).
13. Use Contrasting Colours with Text. It is hard to read light text if it is on a light background, or dark text on a dark background.
There are also some combinations that just don’t work. For example I came across a website just yesterday that insisted I try to read a bright green font on a bright red background. I persisted only because the company owner was seeking my advice and help.
14. Seek Advice.
If all this seems too much to take in, remember you can always call in the professionals. A good designer will take all of the above into account, and much more if he or she is considering the area of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for your website. He wants it to work for you. There are many companies around who will do all the above and much more; for just a few hundred pounds.
Neil Holley-Williams is a Specialist Designer of Small Business Websites and Business Identity Products. Neil is also studying advanced SEO techniques for use with his clients. For more information visit http://www.hwmarketing.co.ukWhy Your Website is Worthless
06 2009 Thursday
25
By Sarah Simmons in Web Design
You may have put a lot of money, resources and hours into your website, but if it’s not reaching your target demographic and generating business, your website is worthless! A website that seemed great a couple of years ago is probably not doing the job nowadays without any updates. Read on to find out why your website just isn’t cutting it anymore.
TMI
The popular web acronym TMI, or too much information, doesn’t just apply to people – your website can have TMI too! If people find too much information about your product or service on your site, they won’t be motivated to call you and find out more. Words or text on your website don’t always convey what you are able to do and whether or not you are reliable. Too much information on your website can prohibit the “person to person” sales techniques that have worked for businesses for many years.
Too Little Information/Poor Navigation
While you don’t want to give visitors too much information, you don’t want to leave them in the dark either. If your site has too little information, or poor navigation prevents users from finding the things they want to know, you’re unlikely to get any business.
A Case of Sloppy Site-itis
Sloppy site-itis is how I would diagnose sites that look like the website equivalent of Pig-Pen from the comic strip Peanuts. If your website looks like it was put together in about 5 minutes, without any thought or care, why should someone trust you to put time into their product or service? As little as one hour of maintenance can make a world of difference to the look of your site. Go through your site and make sure all the links work, check for spelling errors, and make sure all formatting, fonts and colors are consistent throughout the site. After a while it’s easy to miss mistakes that you’ve been looking at every day, so it’s a great idea to have a friend check for you too.
People Can’t Find Your Website
More and more consumers are turning to the internet to find the goods or services they need. The most important reason why your website is worthless is if people do not know about your website. You could have a multi-million dollar design, and the best product available, but if people can’t find your website, it can’t generate business. This is simple enough to understand, but short of standing on the corner waving a sign with your web address on it, how can you help people find your website?
Get on the A-List
If you’re not listed with a business directory on the top search engines, many times your website will slip through the cracks. To generate more business it may help to put your website out there on business directories along with a brief ad describing what you do. Ads that are easy to read, informative, to the point, and don’t overload the customer with information they don’t need to know are best.
You don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel, just do your research. See what your competitors are doing; look around on Google and Yahoo! to see what is ranking, and go with what is proven
One of the easiest ways to find reputable online advertising companies and business directories is to Google the keywords you think your customers would search for. When the page pulls up, scroll through the links on the first page and find a good business directory. Getting your website seen through multiple linkings on top business directories will help your website rankings and give you the business boost you need.
Sarah Simmons – TenList creates a win-win situation by connecting local businesses with local customers to provide a business directory with True Local Results for all. For a fraction of what other business directories charge, TenList can drive unlimited search engine traffic to your business.45 Things to Consider Before Choosing a Website Design Firm
05 2009 Friday
29
By Oliver Feakins in Web Design
It seems that everybody knows somebody that does “website design”. The term can refer to anyone from a high school student working on the weekends between book reports to an established professional website designer. Because of this, you need to be careful when choosing a website design company. Choosing the wrong individual or firm can mean the difference between having a website that turns out sales and ending up with a website that turns off customers. You need to do your due diligence when you sit down with your designer (or web design firm) to ascertain the level of competency and professionalism they have. It is important that business owners ask the following five questions in your initial conversation with any potential web design firm or individual.
- Can you show me your work?
Web design companies will tell you that they have done wonderful work for fantastic clients but ask for a list of client names and website addresses. This is the very first thing that you should do and will set the tone for the initial conversation. Reputable firms have a gallery or portfolio of websites that they have designed. This is where the proof is in the pudding. Take the time to actually go to the sites and check them out. Take note on how the site looks, how clear the site’s purpose is and how the site ranks in search engines. It is acceptable to call the design firm’s past clients and ask how their overall experience was during the design process and after the website design services were performed. If you hear a common negative theme, you may want to consider moving on to a different firm but keep in mind that there are two sides to every story and you should check with the firm to verify the validity of the negative comments.
- Can you see the project through to completion?
You’ve seen the work, now let’s find out who’s going to be doing it. It is very common for web design firms to use contracted web designers to assist with overflow and you should ask about this up front. You’ll want to know that this firm has the resources to be able to continue the project if that contracted employee leaves. Similarly, This if you choose to go with a self-employed web designer and that person gets sick, leaves or becomes uncooperative, you have nowhere to turn. Web design firms usually have multiple employees and a chain of command to ensure your concerns are addressed. Just be sure to clarify what will happen should the person working on your project become unavailable.
- How much will this cost?
Cost is a sensitive issue to any website design firm. It’s not unusual for to pay anywhere from $800-$8,000 for a 20 page static website design, depending on the level of design and functionality included. I always consider the level of work the firm can produce, as well as the relationship and customer service. A firm that is going to stick with me and keep my business needs at heart (even after the site is completed) is worth it’s weight in gold. “You get what you pay for” really holds true in website design and development. I’ve had customers come to me because their sites completely crashed a week after launch and they can’t get a hold of their economy priced design firm. There is a tradeoff between price and service and I always suggest that you stay in the middle.
- Do they build search friendly sites?
I have long sung the benefits of working with a web design firm that truly knows the benefits of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its practices. Many firms will say they create SEO friendly websites, but the only optimization on the site are a couple meta tags that give virtually no value. This is NOT and never has been SEO! It is rare to finding a design firm that truly understands how to optimize sites and can create powerful SEO websites but this combination of talents truly separates that web design firm from the rest of the pack.
Ask your web design firm about SEO and see what they say. If they emphasize meta keywords and make no mention of link building or site architecture RUN AWAY! Also, if they promise first place rankings right away, turn and run in the opposite direction since it takes time to rise in the search engine ranks. Test the sites in the firm’s portfolio for SEO by seeing where they rank in search engine results for the company’s targeted keywords. This is the true test of any web design firm claiming to be able to perform SEO
- What kind of feeling do I get with this firm?
As funny as it sounds, first impressions do make a difference and the gut feeling you get from interviewing a firm can go a long way. Whether you feel that you can trust the firm or alarm bells are going off inside your head, listen to your instincts, because they generally are right. To me, the relationship is the most important thing – it is the one thing that will outlast any project and is the most valuable service a web design firm can provide. Without a good relationship, the project is doomed to fail.
Picking a design firm is as important as picking a valued employee and maybe even more so. The design firm will be designing the voice for your company that will be speaking for you 24/7 and all over the world. Take your time and find the design firm that truly fits with your company and understands your needs.
About The Author:
Oliver Feakins is President of the Internet Marketing and Social Media Company WebTalent, a Lancaster web design and SEO firm based out of Central PA. Besides a having a client base throughout the USA, Oliver is a favored speaker at universities and other organizations. He also writes expert articles for outlets such as Promotion World, WebProNews, ITWorld and Social Media Today. Visit http://www.webtalentseo.com for more information or call 877-496-3327.
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