Web Wise - How to create and promote a Web site that works by
hafiz lecky
A search is carried out on Google - the most used search engine currently on
the internet - every 0.003 of a second, searching over 8 billion Web pages. If
your Web site does not match the searchers' enquiries your chances of trading
successfully and your business 'making it' on the internet are low. The World
Wide Web is like one huge shopping mall, every Web site offering products and
services; some 'shops' are well lit and easy to access, however, the majority
have the lights turned off, their shutters down and the 'closed' sign on the
door.
Making your company Web site attractive and popular is more than just putting a
picture of the product or a description of the service onto a Web page and
publishing it on the Web. There are a host of issues which need to be addressed
to ensure success, but before a Web developer is even contracted, the bigger
picture of strategic marketing needs to be addressed. It is important to
understand that marketing is not sales, strategic marketing provides the
structure to help us collate information and through it understand our
customers. This is information that we need in order to sell successfully.
Applying this to a company Web site, before any development work is carried out
on the Web site we have to be clear on who the customer is and why they are
likely to buy. In describing the target customer, such factors as gender, age
and socio-economic group are essentials while further information such as
technical capability and language level can also be useful.
By carrying out primary market research - and this means not just reading
reports or looking at statistics, actually get up from your desk and go and ask
your customers - we will be able to find out most of this information offering
a greater understanding of the customer profile. Including this information in
your design brief puts the Web developer in a much better position to produce a
site that the end user will feel affiliated to and comfortable with.
What is the objective of the site? Is it to provide information, to produce
direct sales, or just a brochure-ware site showing the company and its
capabilities? Is it intended to generate enquiries from new customers or to
keep existing customers informed? Objectives will include the detailed
information on any existing brand identity and the image the company wants to
portray to the world at large. Remember your Web site is now the first port of
call for a potential customer. Recent research has shown that viewers will make
a decision on the suitability of a company in 20 milliseconds based purely on
the image they are seeing on their computer screen. What is your Web site
saying about your company? Make sure your Web developer is fully informed.
It is also important to identify the gender of your client base. This has been
much ignored to date, possibly to the detriment of many businesses. A recent
survey reported that women were 'Dunces of the dashboard': many of those
surveyed did not understand the purpose of most of the switches or lights on
their own car dashboard (BBC Breakfast 3/3/06); no comment was made in the
report as to why this is, although it just might be because most cars are
designed by men. Much research and writing exists on how communication differs
between genders; since a Web site is by its nature a communication, it should
make sense to have a Web site targeted at female buyers designed and developed
by a female designer or team. The same obviously applies to a male audience, if
this is your target then contract a male designer to build your site. Recent
research at the University of Glamorgan supports this; it has shown that gender
makes a big difference in the perceptions of the viewer. According to their
research over 77% of Web sites showed a predominantly male design, reflecting
the higher proportion of male designers in the marketplace. An interesting
statistic when according to Judy Hoyt Pettigrew (author of Women Mean Business:
The Secret to Selling to Women), as much has 80% of purchases are made by
women.
Another consideration is geography and culture. Is the Web site going to be
used to target a particular community or sector? Make sure that this is your
focus and provide information that is of value to your viewers. Data that helps
the decision making process can be the difference between a sale and no sale.
In a recent survey from AOP over 80% of business decision makers use the
internet and the content of Web sites to help make a decision on a purchase.
Over half of the respondents also cited their trust in information supplied on
Web sites.
Once we have a Web site that represents the business effectively in terms of
image, content and functionality, what else needs to be addressed? Major
considerations in the promotion of the site through search engine listings (not
paid or sponsored) are the keywords and key-phrases. Over the past eight years
it has baffled me that so many sites are missing this meta-data and have no
appropriate page titles. These are essential if potential customers are to find
your Web site and offerings. Although it is not obvious to the viewer, the
purpose of this information is to provide the search engine with the data they
need to place the site in the correct category in the database, which in turn
helps the search engine respond to search terms entered by users.
To achieve successful ranking in search engines the title and meta-data must
reflect the content of the page it belongs to. Keywords and phrases need to be
researched thoroughly, what exactly are your customers likely to enter as
search terms into search engines. When writing the content of the page remember
that whilst conveying information about the products and services you should
include your keywords and phrases - those terms which you have identified are
used by your potential customer. It is possible to repeat the keywords and
phrases a few times but not too often as the search engines treat this as spam!
Use useful and appropriate page titles - the common use of generic page titles
such as "home page" and "contact us" is a waste of keyword opportunity. No-one
types "contact us" into a search engine, why would they? Carry out a Web search
on these two phrases and see how many there are out there (at the time of
writing this was 3.1 billion & 6.2 billion respectively).
Once completed the search engine submission process can start. Whilst time
consuming review the search engine you have selected and ask if it is relevant
to your industry or whether it is likely to be relevant to your target market.
Start with your own country search engines and submit to them - ensuring you
are following their terms and conditions. Use of free submission services
online is not recommended, consider how they make their money! Local regional
and national directories should also be used. Many are free for basic listings
but there is often a charge for enhanced listing.
In summary the biggest part of the Web site is in the preparation. If you carry
out your research into your customers and understand them then you can build a
Web site which they will find useful and will purchase from. Remember who the
Web site is for - your customers!
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at my first 5+ figure check of $11,823.65 and thought I must be dreaming!
About the Author
hafiz lecky is an oracle 9i database administrator check out how he made close
to $63,450 in 17 days
http://www.DataEntryBank.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=2170
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