Tips For Bringing People To Your Web Site

There is a great mystery out there in the world known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is the Holy Grail for web site owners. It is the phantom that they try to capture in their attempt to bring more people to their web sites.

SEO isn’t hard. It is time consuming and, if you don’t know what your are doing, can be a real headache without a lot of return on your investment. No one ever built a successful web site and did nothing with it. The good news is there are ways that you can help your web site yourself! Below, you will find some very good answers to having people find you online:

Building Your Web Site. When you begin to design your web site, the first thing you should consider is how SEO will factor into your marketing plan. What keywords and phrases will you use? How will content urge people to come to your web site and link to you?

Content. This is the single most important factor to any self-serving web site. Your content must have good keywords and phrases – the same ones you want people to find you on when searching the internet. Search engine spiders love that text!

Renew Your Content – and often! The search engines love it when you start making changes to your pages. If you cannot do this, then you can always blog. Blogging creates an RSS feed that allows spiders to find your web site. Make sure you follow proper anchor text linking in your blogs and tag keywords to help find your web site.

Longtail Keywords. Short, common keywords won’t get you anywhere. There are other web sites out there using the same keywords for a lot longer than you. If you have a web site that does video production, you might find it hard to get onto the first few pages of Google with words like “video”. Instead try Cincinnati Video Production. This will help you get your business found more easily. Remember: Be precise in what you want your keywords to be. They will help bring people to your web site.

Links. Right behind content, you have to build up a group of links back to your web site – using those keywords and phrases that you are using in your text. Another important thing about links: If it is on a page that has nothing to do with your web site – it won’t really work that well for you. Make your links relevant! For example: If I wanted a link to my web site from this article, I’d put it as Web Site Design and Marketing.

Anchor Text. When you create links within your web site between pages, make sure the links are using specific keywords in which you want to be found. For example: I might put the following as a link - Web Site Hosting.

Title Tags. First, make sure you have a title tag on each page. Then, make sure it doesn’t say HOME PAGE. Your title tags should contain relevant keywords that will bring people to your pages.

Avoid Flash. I know. It looks nice. It is cool. Search engine spiders find this inedible. They hate it! Why? Because Flash is pictures and they like text. If you must use Flash, use it sparingly. Also note, not everyone has the latest update of Flash, so all that fancy design work may look like nothing on some people’s browsers. If you just have to have Flash, make sure you add some text below the movie frame. This is known as “below the fold.”

Javascript. OK, while you’re avoiding Flash, avoid drop down menus, too. The search engine spiders just don’t see it. Use it at your own peril.

Alt Tags. Every picture you use should have text associated with it to let the search engines know what it is about. These should be keyword rich words, as well. The text is referred to as an Alt Tag.

Social Networking. Use it. What is it? It is mySpace, Facebook, sta.rtup.biz, Linked In, and many others. Make sure you put your link back to your web site and make sure you comment on as many other member’s pages as possible. Social Networking will help your web site tremendously.

So, is that all there is to it? Nope. This will give you an excellent starting place, though. In addition to these things, look into a strong Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign. Some people will tell you that Organic Search Engine Marketing is the only way to go, but a homogenous blend of SEO (what we’ve been talking about) and PPC (pay-per-click) will give you the most bang for your buck. Additionally, PPC offers the most obvious way of tracking where your money is going, so your accountant will love it too!

Good luck on this endeavor. It takes time, but it will definitely help you build your web site’s success.

Planning Your Web Site

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Proper planning is the key to success for your web site. It may be difficult to overcome the first impression of disorganized information, a terrible user experience, or the drivel of poor content. Will your web site visitors return to you? By planning your web site out, you will have the right elements to keep people coming back to your web site again and again.

There are several things you must prepare if you want to have a successful and timely web site. The following can be used as a check list to help you be on your way.

DOMAIN NAME
This is the first thing you need to start your web site. A domain name is a unique name that identifies your site on the internet. For example, www.mywebsource1.com is a domain name. You typically buy a domain name for one year or more. It is suggested that you buy the domain for a minimum of 3 years, however, because search engine spiders look favorably on web sites that plan to be around longer than a couple of months. By buying ahead, you help yourself with the search engines.

HOSTING
Hosting is the next thing you will need. You have your web site name, now you need a place to “host” the web site. Hosting is basically keeping your web site on an external server that connects itself to the internet. Good hosting companies offer special services like a free blog, an email with your web site name, and enough space to hold all of your information.

THE WEB SITE
Finally! What you have been waiting for! Gathering everything you need to build your web site. It is time to come up with a web site strategy and some objectives. What is your web site going to accomplish? What will bring people to your web site? What will you gain from your web site?

Styles of Web Sites: What is your web site going to do? Is it an informational piece that is just an extension of your business card and literature? Do you want to sell something by using eCommerce? Maybe you want to interact with your customers and collect data so you can better assist them?

All of these are viable web sites. What is most important is to stay focused on what you are trying to do. People do not want to be confused. If you confuse them, they won’t come back to your web site. One thought. One page.

Think about the colors that you want to use on your web site. Does it look good with your logo? Do you have a logo? If not, you should really get one and use it on all of your marketing materials.

Information to Customers: This could be your contact information and store hours. It can be interactive in the way of a form. This way, you can collect information through a database so that you can market information to your customers. Keeping a close contact with your list is essential to ecommerce success.

Pictures and illustrations: A picture says a thousand words, right? This holds true on the internet, as well. People are visual beings and good, eye-pleasing graphics will attract people’s attention. You can take the pictures with a digital camera and upload them to your web designer. Pictures can also be found on the internet, need to be purchased. Just because they are out there, doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to use them. You can obtain them through a variety of web sites that sell images or if you see a picture you like, contact the web site owner and ask them to use the picture. This works particularly well if you are adding product to your web site to sell. Manufacturers want you to use their pictures to sell more product.

Web Site content: What are you going to say? The truth of the matter is that how you say your words are more important than anything else. Search engine spiders (those little programs that find your web site on the internet) love text. They’d love if you wrote a book on the page topic. However, most people don’t want to read volumes of text. Make sure you are concise about what you say and use plenty of keywords so that someone will read it.

Products to sell: Decide what you to sell and how you want to present the items. Typically, you will need a name, a picture, a price, and a unique ID number for the product. Think of things like shipping and handling costs. Know the policy you will follow for international orders (if you plan on shipping out of the country) and the costs associated with this. Think about what you want to use as a merchant account or do you want an online merchant account, such as Paypal?

Marketing your web site: This is the hardest part for most people, but the most vital aspect of your web site. A web site has to be kept up to date and the information has to get out to your potential and current customers. How do you do this? There are plenty of ways including writing a blog, trading links with other businesses, and writing articles. If writing isn’t your thing, try going onto bulletin boards or other places where you can comment something and make sure you add your web site address to your signature.

Another way to market is sending out an email to people who visited your web site. You can find out these names by requesting this information on your web site.

If you want to have a successful web site, you should follow these steps. They are a good basic starting point to complete your goal of a web site and it is something that you should have in place when you meet with your designer. It will make the entire project move along smoothly and you will be happier that you have more control over your web site.