Many companies
start their web project with contacting a web or graphic
designer. This is far from the best way to go about
it!
You should start your project well before you go into
the phase of actually getting it developed. There are
THOUSANDS of websites out there in your field, if not
MILLIONS, an unplanned website is not going to be successful.
Ultimately a website is a sales tool
Your website on some level or another is trying to
convince people to do, buy, or think something.
- Convince them of an ideal, or thought
- Sell a service
- A product
- Convince them your site is worth visiting (Ads &
Links)
And with this strategy...
"If you fail to plan... you plan to fail"
So how do you do make sure your website is a successful
sales tool?
First and for-most you have to figure out what your
website is selling
After you figure out what your website is selling,
you can begin thinking of how to market it. As I mentioned
earlier, a web page that simply spews information about
your company is going to be ho-hum unless you are in
the most exciting of industries, in which case you probably
don't need a website.
Usually my first step is to decide if the site needs
to be found by people searching on search engines. This
seems odd, because almost all people want traffic from
search engines... However not all sites have content
people would search for. For example, the famous tuckermax.com,
very few people are going to stumble upon the site searching
for "Funny drunk stories" (or whatever would pull the
site up). It is more word of mouth. If you are going
to focus on search engine traffic, start planning the
following
- The #1 Key phrase that you want search engines to
refer to your site
- Secondary keywords that are also important
- Start to write and massage your copy
- Start including the key phrase and words into the
copy, with out it sounding wordy
After Search Engines... Decide what your webpage is
going to offer
Think about all the webpages YOU go to. What do they
offer? Again I doubt you would visit joesplumbing.com
on a regular biases if it just described his hours and
phone number.
How-ever, if joesplumbing.com offered weekly tips on
how to solve small plumbing problems... you might go
there quite often.
Some may think that this would actually hurt his business,
but I disagree greatly. Those who are actively searching
for free plumbing solutions will find it on someone's
website, if not Joe's. Through posting these tips, he
is already establishing himself as an expert. Further,
if the plumbing tips don't solve the users problem,
who will they most likely call? Who would they recommend
to others?
In most cases, that's right... Joe.
So use your knowledge and skills, the more you help
people and give them reason to visit your site, the
more customers and traffic you will get.
Ross Johnson is co-owner of Ann Arbor web design company
3.7 Designs. He has been working in web design and marketing
for seven years, and specializes in effective marketing
online. To aid companies further, he writes a Web Success
Strategies blog with weekly articles and tips.
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