Creating a Winning Web site

Whether you do it yourself or are working with a designer, these helpful tips should ensure that your Web site will work for you in several ways. First, it will be well organized and easy to navigate. Second, it will be properly indexed by the search engines and, finally, it will help bring in sales.

SETTING GOALS
Just like anything else in life, your Web site has to have a list of goals - things that you want to accomplish with this site. A Web site can have many goals, but they need to be prioritized. Prioritizing your goals will tell you how prominant various sections of your site should be. For example, if your top priority is to sell products, you will want to ensure that product purchasing is upfront in visibility.

RESEARCH KEYWORDS
Before you even start to build your site, you should research the keywords that are being used to find products and/or services like yours. You're going to want to keep these keywords in mind when writing your copy. Yahoo offers a free tool that can give you some indication of how people are searching for your products and/or services at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/ - select the "Keyword Selector Tool," enter a search phrase or word and you will see all the various ways Internet searchers look for those terms.

MAPPING OUT YOUR SITE
You must create an outline or flow chart of your proposed site. The outline is like a skeleton or blueprint for the designer. Without it, your site is just "jelly" and visitors can get easily confused. Start with a simple outline where each item is a page. For example:

• Home Page (level 1)
• Product Group 1(level 1
  • First Product (level 2)
  • Second Product (level 2)
    • Second Product Specifications (level 3)
  • Third Product (level 2)
• Product Group 2(level 1
  • First Product (level 2)
  • Second Product (level 2)
• Second Product Specifications (level 3)
• Third Product (level 2)
• Contact Page (level 1)

  I think you can see where I'm going with this. This is really all it has to say in your outline, except that you would use actual product names. From this you or your designer can setup a good navigation menu. If there are a lot of products at level one, you may need to run the menu down the left or right side of the page. If there are only a few level one items, you may be able to run them across the top. A large site may require a JavaScript menu with drop-down or pop-out submenus. This outline is the starting point on making that decision. Bear in mind that, if you use JavaScript or Java for a menu, you must create a Site Map page for the search engines to navigate your site.

HOME PAGE CONTENT
There's an old advertising adage that says, "If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing." Keep that in mind when deciding on content for your home page. Don't try to put everything on the home page. If you have a lot to say and it's all very important, consider using a "newsletter" style home page with a few columns and a "lead in" for each important section. Refer to your site goals and place the most important elements that will achieve your highest priority goal in prominent position. Everything else becomes subordinate. Think about a newspaper - not every article has a big headline. The headliner is top and with the biggest type, other articles have smaller headlines based on their importance and long articles almost always have "continued on page...."

Consider keeping your home page "fresh." Add new content, feature a new product, do something that lets the site visitor know that this is an active site and they should bookmark it to keep up with the changes.

LIMIT THE DYNAMICS
Some site designers get so enthralled with what can be done that they have everything blinking, swirling, etc. Keep your site design simple and tasteful - use multimedia techniques sparingly. Less is more. Site visitors, unless they are children whiling away some time playing games, are generally turned off by too many things swirling and blinking.

On the other hand, a Web site should be interactive. By that I mean if your site visitor would benefit by completing and online form that would calculate something (BTU's, model selection, temperature conversion, etc.), then by all means include it at your site. This is functional and interactive, it's not just things blinking and swirling. It may also be one more reason for a visitor to bookmark your site.

DON'T DUPLICATE CONTENT
I know this may sound strange - but you'd be surprised how often I have clients who duplicate content. Here's an example: Let's say you have a site with a page about XYZ Widget. Your XYZ Widget specifications change. Don't create a new page with new specifications (unless the old model is still available and the new model is renamed ABC Widget)- simply update the existing Widget page. All links to XYZ Widget throughout your site will be linking to the original XYZ Widget page. Once you update this page, you have updated all of the information about this product at your site without having to go in and change any of the links.

AVOID FRAME DESIGNS & SPLASH PAGES
Even today search engines struggle with sites designed using frames. The process to "work around" the frame issue is best left to a professional who knows how to do it properly. The safest way to create a site that can be properly indexed is without frames. The same is true for splash pages - they are usually just a graphic or flash object which is not properly indexed by search engines. The best solution is to bring your visitor directly to the rich content of your site.

Remember, good Web sites don't just happen - they are planned. Take the time to plan yours and you won't regret it.

 

In Previous Issues...

Understanding Internet Marketing Proposals
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Some of our Favorite Tools
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The Free Feast is Over
click here

Pay-To-Include Search and Directories. Are they worth the money?
click here

Number Crunching: Getting a handle on your Internet Marketing Program
click here

Conversion Tracking- Do those numbers give the whole picture?
click here

Content Managed Sites
The Pros & Cons of Doing it Yourself
click here

Getting Noticed - is your important criteria being seen?
click here

Power Of The Press
click here

Principled Profit
Marketing that puts people first
click here

Web Site Insurance
click here

Managing Internet Media
click here

The WWWWW & H of your Web Site
click here

Sponsored Placement or Pay-For-Inclusion which is right for you?
click here

The 8 Second Decision!
click here

Guerrilla Marketing vs Panther Marketing
click here

The Art & Science of Search Engine Optimization
click here

The Cost of Internet Marketing
click here

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