We will
help
you to have fun
|
|
One of the fortes of the internet is communication and a large part of it is being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is where you can tell, or better yet, show everyone what you are doing, what is happening.
If you enable your visitors to do (or see) something, something they will tell their friends about and, come back to do (or see) again and again and, if they can, come in to your store/office to see, get, first-hand and face-to-face, what they hae been looking at on the web, then, you have moved up to a whole new level of success. You have moved them from visitor, to participant, to paying customer.
A good site isn't just about what you want, it has to be what your customers want and it has to be presented in a way that catches their eye and maintains their interest. Getting visitors to stay long enough to explore your web site is like convincing them to stay at a store. Like a good store or office, your site must be attractive and professional in appearance.
|
Businesses and organizations are not static and, neither are their web sites. If the site is not as active as the business or organization it represents, people will quit visiting the site.
List all your potential goals, ideas, and thoughts. List the suggestions you get from as many friends and customers as possible too. Look around at (competitors?) web sites you have seen and note what you liked and disliked ( apply what you like and make separate notes to avoid what you don't like, "but don't copy them, learn from them" ).
The basic ideas become your framework; what you use to cover the frame (the "face" you put on it) affects everyone's "first reaction" and how much they might enjoy using your site. Looks and content are both important.
A 'tech' note: Even today (April 2005), almost 30% (29%) of all web site visitors are limited to 800x600 screen resolutions and so an 800 pixel (or about 770-775) is the wall-to-wall screen width limit to avoid making a lot of visitors angry. (the width of the photo at the top of this screen is 780)
Also, a lot of text, which will all load quickly down one page, can be scrolled up and down easily, but becomes a hassel if broken across too many pages.
Also, many visitors do not (yet?) have high speed access so, reasonably fast load times are also important. Many web site designers may try to dissuade you or tell you that you cannot use a photo that would really make your site stand out from the rest - they just don't know how to make a photo fast loading and still look good.
A quote:
On the Web, it's no longer about "location, location, location";
it's all about "marketing, marketing, marketing."
With your prioritized list of goals and a clear vision for your web site (above), you should be ready to decide on the name(s) you want -- if you haven't already.
The main limits on a name are just that it can only contain letters, numbers, and hyphens (-). It can start with a number but it cannot start nor end with a hyphen (and it should be between 3 and 26 characters long (not including the extension: .com, or .org, etc.). For example, if the name of your business is "4-Him-and-4-Her", you can use it litterally but, you could not use "4-Him-&-4-Her" since an "&" is not a number, letter, or hyphen(-).
For more about names, see my domain names page.
this web site is an on-line (Virtual) Asset-project Management System. There are users, managers, and administrators.
Entry is by password only.
One person who regretted not getting a name etc. sooner tells how to display your e-mail address and not get spammed:
www.thesitewizard.com/archive/regrets.shtml
2.) YOUR WEB SITE HOST-LOCATION.
The other piece to the puzzle is the web hosting co. which will provide the hard disk space and the bandwidth to hold your site and to serve it to your visitors quickly. This can be handled later, when the site is approved and ready for "production". This too, is realtively inexpensive at about $100 or $200 /yr. (or more)Looking around, you will find some web hosts that will provide you with a form to fill out as if that is all you need to do to create a web site or going one step further, provide you with downloadable web site software (Yahoo, Yellowpages, etc.) as if you could create a "form" web site better that way, yourself, for "free" not mentioning the time you (or your employee) will spend learning and experimenting, finding out how the form/software works, what it will and won't do, etc. It will be only a simple site, perhaps even looking very "cloned" unless you get help, and you realize you still haven't learned anything about photo software ...! You may have been better off to have hired a professional
to do it for you. And, if you want a professional photographer to take the pictures for you so that they look professional, you need to call a (commercial or portrait?) photographer - one who may not know anything about taking those good [digital prints] and making them good for a web page -- the digital image that is good for an 8x10 print is far too big for a web page.
e-commerce:
an on-line grocery store
3.) YOUR WEB SITE DESIGN.
Some sites use what's called a "splash screen," an introductory page that's more like a magazine cover. This page can add style to the site and act as a ceremonial front door, but because they present less information than a home page, some users find them annoying.
Short pages: There are two schools of thought about home pages. One is that they should be very short and the entire page should be visible on a single screen. The advantage to a short home page is that visitors don't have to scroll, and they can see everything there is to offer at once.
The disadvantage is that a short home page can't present much information, so you force visitors to click on something, anything, just to get to more information. Sometimes when you present too little information you run the risk of visitors not knowing the purpose of your site or not seeing something of interest they might have clicked on if you'd presented more information. People can be afraid to click on things if they're not sure what they're going to get (yes, you do have to wonder what they think could happen to them if they click on the wrong thing. Not everyone is as adventurous as you ... check out this calendar).
Long pages: The other school of thought, is that the more information you provide, the better. People scroll in their word processor and spreadsheet, so who decided their fingers mysteriously became paralyzed and unable to scroll when they are in a Web browser? That isn't logical.
Studies have shown that Web visitors do scroll, they scroll through just about everyting on their computers -- their emails, their word-processing memos, everything. The more information you give them on a page, the better. Rather than being overwhelmed, you make it easier for them. If people are interested, they will scroll. If they're not, it doesn't matter how short your home page is. ... It's still a good idea to put your most important topics at the top of the page, so they're not overlooked.
REMEMBER:
1. Include your web site on stationery, cards, and literature. This is a no-brainer that's sometimes overlooked. Make sure that all reprints of cards, stationery, brochures, and literature contain your company's web site address. And see that your printer gets the syntax correct.
2. Promote using traditional media. Don't discontinue print advertising you've found effective. But be sure to include your URL (web site address) in any display or classified ads you purchase in trade journals, newspapers, etc. View your website as an extension to the ad. Use a two-step approach: (1) capture the readers' attention with the ad, (2) then refer them to your URL (web site) where they can obtain more information and perhaps place an order. Consider other traditional media to drive people to your site, such as direct mail, classifieds, post cards, etc.
3. Develop a Free Service. It's boring to invite people, "Come to our site and learn about our business." It's quite another to say "Use the free kitchen remodeling calculator available exclusively on our site." Make no mistake, it's expensive in time and energy to develop free resources, but it is very rewarding in increased traffic to your site. Make sure that your free service is closely related to what you are selling so the visitors you attract will be good prospects for your business. Give visitors multiple opportunities and links to cross over to the sales part of your site.
4. Issue News Releases. Find newsworthy events (such as launching your free service), and send news releases to print and Web periodicals in your industry.
4.) PROMOTING YOUR WEB SITE on the internet.
* Google Search Engine
Google is a search engine that makes heavy use of link popularity as a primary way to rank web sites. This can be especially helpful in finding good sites in response to general searches such as "cars" and "travel," because users across the web have, in essence, voted for good sites by linking to them. The system works so well that Google has gained widespread praise for its high relevancy.
Currently Google ranks as number one - with Yahoo in 2nd place - of the Top Search Engines on the Internet.
Pay-Per-Click:
Google has implemented one of the most effective "Pay-per-Click" programs on the Internet. Advertisers pay Google the amount of their bid only when a consumer "clicks" on their listing and actually visits the site. When enough visitors have "clicked from Google" to your site, to reach the maximum you wish to spend each month (example: about $40 per 100 visitors), Google stops displaying the link till next month. This system provides the web site owner with one of the most cost effective ways to drive targeted customer leads to their site.* March 2004: Google is reported to control 30% of all searches on the Internet.
Search Engine Optimization
To Raise Your Rank
To Increase Your Visitor Count
1. good ranking excludes keyword spamming of the search engine
2. ranking results change week-to-week due to competition, so maintaining a top ranking site requires constant keywords monitoring and information rework. Search Engine Optimization never rests, much like your competition.
3. Google's emphasis is on content and link popularity: the popularity of the sites that link to your site, the text in and around the links that point to your site, and the popularity of the sites that you link to.
4. other links are of minimal importance - or in the case of spam they are ignored or even a penalty
Google: "Basically, Google's position is that we prefer no hidden links, no hidden text, no automatic tools used for positioning, and no cloaking. We prefer that Googlebot get the exact same page that users see. In general, you can assume that we're as conservative as possible. We don't like hidden links/text in divs/layers/iframes/css, or links that are inconspicuous. Similarly, we don't like cloaking or sneaky redirects in any form, whether it be user agent/ip-based, or redirects through javascript, meta refreshes, 301/302's, or 100% frames." More details are available at: Guidelines and SEO Issues.5. you should also search for your domain name in the major search engines. While this is not imperative, it is very informative. Search in Google using the following search format: ".mywebsite.com -site:mywebsite.com" for Google and Yahoo. Replace mywebsite.com with your domain name.
6. the META tag "keywords" may work for some search engines (like Yahoo!) while others like Google and many others emphasize content and check the keywords META tag for spamming penalties.
7. Hint: each keyword in your META tags must also appear within your content to avoid spamming penalties.
8. Excessive use of META keywords is going to cause a search engine to ignore or decrease the weight for that keyword. And if you use a single word as a keyword, and later repeat it in your keyword string, then you may also be penalized. The string "Web, Web Design, Web" would be considered spamming. Also, keywords like 'word, words, wording, worded' may cause indexing to fail.
9. there is evidence that the major search engines look across pages within their index for long-string repeats, so mix up your keywords in the ALT tags to be sure they are not identical in sequence to words used elsewhere (text or META tags). Duplicate content is a very bad thing, and it can cause site-wide penalties.
10. Using exotic "hidden" text techniques will usually have you eliminated, so avoid them when possible.
11. most sites use images to relay their message to humans, forgetting that search engines are blind and do not see images. Minimize the use of flash, avoid pop-up windows, restrict the scope of forms except where really needed, make javascript and css files external to the source code, and by all means keep it simple.
[ When pictures "are worth a thousand words," use them and know that, while no one on your site may ever see it, hopefully, Google and all the search engines will and, in a phrase, in an "alt" tag, tell how the photo relates to your content, what it is, and that will help your site in both the web and images category. When someone goes looking for a picture on a topic, they will not only find your image but, also, your web site. -Greg ]12. Listings that include the dominant search terms in the META TITLE and META description tags have a higher ranking and a higher clickthrough rate (often more than double the traffic) than those that do not!
13. We recommend that you have at least 400 words of clean, grammatically correct sentence-structure content on every page. You must also have your keywords appear as the most common (without excess) phrases on your pages.
14. And you also need to link pages together using the keywords of the landing page in the anchor text of the sending page. This is a must... use text links within paragraphs when possible, especially when the pages are related.
15. And never, ever create doorway pages, or information pages, or hallway pages, or whatever they are called today. Spam by any other name is still spam.
next: Step 7
