| Having
a website that's aesthetic is great, having a website that combines
this with ease of functionality and high volume traffic is much
better. Add in that it sells loads
and you're laughing. You do need to learn how they work. Employing
a techie is handy, but read the books too, you need to know what
they are talking about so no one "pulls the wool", build
your knowledge, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Don't
be afraid to learn the jargon. A basic rule to websites that sell
lots of product is 3-clicks. That's the average
number a consumer is willing to make to get to what they want to
buy. If it doesn't, they don't buy. Does yours?
Most companies will achieve at least 40% of their
turnover through the internet, many a lot more. I was recently told
of a case where a client hadn't even developed a site at all because
he'd been told it wasn't certain he would get his "search-engine"
ranking high enough to be worthwhile!
How do search engines find you? Most websites have
things in them called "meta-tags", which are keywords
that search engines read or "spider" through to rank you.
To check your meta-tags:
i. Open your website
ii. Click on "view" at the top
iii. Click "source".
iv. Scroll to the very top of the page
vi. Look down the left hand edge coming down until you see
META "NAME", "DESCRIPTION" and "KEYWORDS".
(You can change them if you have Dreamweaver MX and ftp access).
If they're not there its highly likely you will never come up on
the ranking system. Get a copy of your website in-house if you haven't
already, and get these changed so they work! Test your site's submission
friendly status by visiting Meta-tags.
This is free and is ammunition to bash your techie with if yours
is wrong.
What does "Meta Tags" do?
These are the words used to sort you by the search engines. While
an established website often also includes the content too, these
are the primary movers and shakers. If you use the most commonly
used words you can increase your response level even higher. Check
out what would be best for you here Wordtracker.
You should consider using the acclaimed software http://www.webposition.com/
which offers free trial software for you to use.
Regularly submit to improve search engine ranking! You then need
to submit your website regularly to each search engine (Google,
MSN, Yahoo etc) to keep it fresh and on top. A free multiple submission
engine can be found at Add
me or Submit
Express or Whatuseek.
Alternatively below are the direct links to the submission pages
of the top sites. NB "All the Web" requires a subscription.
Only through regular (once a month) submissions to the search engines
will you achieve successful hits from them.
Google
uses http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Yahoo
uses http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request
AlltheWeb,
uses https://sitematch.overture.com/Overture/SiteMatch?realm=enrollRealm&event=enrollEnterUrls.jsp&o=
MSN
uses http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
Altavista
uses http://addurl.altavista.com/
Supercrawler
uses http://www.supercrawler.com/submit.html
Please let me know if you think
anyone is missing. EMail Me!
Beware there are people out there who charge for submissions, whose
efforts range from over zealous and the consequent banning of your
site from that engine, to no action whatsoever except spending your
money. So choose a reputable firm or better still one recommended
to you.
HOT NEWS: Google now offer a means
to assist your web ranking called Google sitemaps (Beta) here
your need to add one to your site,
and a good generator is available here
this will ensure your site gets spidered regularly
and helps explain all the detail to improve your lot.
How do I get more traffic
to my site?
To see how many hits your site is getting I recommend you install
the Alexa toolbar. This can be downloaded at Alexa
Whoever is your ISP (Website host) usually has a control panel with
all the hits you are receiving captured, commonly in raw data. Simply
navigate to their site enter your Username and Password, which will
have been provided to you, and you can print them off. Or you can
buy a variety of analysing tools should you wish. Try here.
People don't just use the search engines, they often try entering
the URL's of what they are looking for directly into the address
bar at the top of the page. It is also useful therefore to buy generic
names for your industry, and even some of your suppliers brand titles
etc. Being careful not to fall foul of cyber-squatting or indeed
your suppliers! However if you sell prestigeous cars and happen
to have "www.astonmartin.co.uk" you're likely to get tremendously
more hits. To research what's available go to www,register.com
or www.domainbuster.com
A little wrinkle of advice; no one
said you can't use a little subterfuge with your web-promotion too.
Enter it for as many awards as you can, as it'll be sure to then
appear on other sites databases. I suggest sites like http://www.favouritewebsiteawards.com
And what's to stop you saving a database of people who think your
site is good enough to enter for an award too? there's a definite
buying signal if I ever saw one. Finally what's to stop you giving
awards out yourself, a great way of developing customer loyalty
and reason for coming back to the site, nes pas?
A few words of Caution!
Many people like to use programs such as Flash or put music and
other similar pretties on their site. While they look and sound
good they take ages to download (few people have ADSL Broadband
or even ISDN yet), so long downloads puts people off. You also can't
put meta names, keywords and descriptions to search engines on those
pages, so bang goes your ranking. Far better to concentrate on selling
more product than worry about aesthetics.
Where you host you site can cause
problems too. Quality of service, and friendly efficient response
to problems and queries can vary enormously between hosts. I am
happy to recommend www.hostinguk.net
who are a pleasure to do business with.
It is widely accepted that by far the majority of internet users
in the UK use IE (Windows Internet Explorer), although the range
from IE3.1 through to IE7 still amazes and frustrates web-designers.
Netscape is however also used by a fair percentage of the world,
and what sites appear like on both should be checked before you
let your site go live, remember there is a cost implication for
developing a site to be able to service both.
Danger Warning! Get rid of proprietorial web-surf ware
including AOL, Tiscali, Wannadoo etc from
your computer! These deliver intrusive, prohibitive and parochial
controls over your use of the internet. To earn their "pound
of flesh" they prevent you from installing / downloading certain
functions and controls, and always want to dictate control of what
you see and what gets sent to you. They sell advertising space -
that's how they earn their money!
The first thing to do is use someone else, BT
or search on Google, cancel
your subscription and send them a recorded letter confirming your
cancellation date as they usually require 1 months notice. They
will continue helping themselves to your money by direct debit if
you don't! Then delete absolutely anything with any of them from
your computer and block it with your firewall. It is that bad!
Finally, there are many pieces of software out which you can use
on your site which are available either free or relatively cheaply,
such items as shopping baskets, and payment gateways. I can also
help choose the right merchant account for you. For the more technically
informed. I am proficient in HTML, Javascript, Coldfusion, SQL and
ASP. Here are a few sample sites to look at which I have helped
recently.
I hope this information has helped or at least reassured you that
what you are doing is right.
< Back
to Portfolio
|
