Be sure that you have the basics covered prior to launching a new web site or implementing new features to your website. Below are 10 basic components that every business website should have. This will ensure that your website has a solid foundation to build upon.
1. PAGE TITLES
Every page on your website should include a title that describes the content on that page. This is important for search engine optimization, as one of the items that search engines considers when ranking your page is the page title. Also, having descriptive page titles will increase usability. Your visitors may have more than one web page open or decide to bookmark your page, therefore you want to ensure that your page title accurately reflects the content of the page.
2. META KEYWORDS
Your web pages should include a "meta keyword" area that provides a listing of keywords that accurately describe of the content on the page. TIP: Select the keywords that you want the web page to rank for in search engine results. Although several of the top search engines are increasingly placing less importance on this area, there are still some secondary search engines that will consider your keyword listing when determining your search engine placement. The meta keywords statement is placed in the header area of your website. If you are working with a designer or webmaster, speak with them about updating this area.
3. META DESCRIPTION
Your web pages should include a "meta description" area that provides search engines with an accurate description of the content on the page. Ensure that the meta description tags are descriptive, brief and contain your relative keywords. Some search engines will use the meta description tag to describe your site when it appears in search engine results.
4. PROFESSIONALLY DESIGNED WEB PAGES
Reputable small business websites have attractive, well designed and well functioning user interfaces. Compare your website to the top websites of competing companies in your industry. If you do not feel that your website is professional or portrays an accurate representation of your brand, you should consider a redesign. Businesses with poorly designed or ineffective websites are often judged as unprofessional or untrustworthy. A small business website does not need to be overly designed or display all of the latest, hot new technologies, but you should ensure that your website does not convey an unprofessional image. Also, remember that professional designed pages should be properly coded (validated) and not include errors or other issues that will prevent the page from displaying properly and functioning as intended.
5. CONTACT FORM
A contact link should be on every page of your website. You want to ensure that your visitors can contact you easily with their questions or comments. Keep the form simple. You will want to allow space for the visitor to input their feedback or question and you will also need a method for responding to them (their email address). If you include too many fields on the contact form, you may discourage the visitor from connecting with you. Only gather the information that you need to effectively answer their question or respond to their feedback.
6. EFFECTIVE NAVIGATION
Is your website navigation effective? Your visitors should be able to quickly find the information they need without effort. When reviewing your navigation, ensure that the link titles are obvious. Try not to be too creative with the website navigation. The link titles used should reflect the terms that your customers use when describing your product or service.
7. WEBSITE ANALYTICS
You should have access to your website statistics. I recommend that every small business website owner install Google Analytics on their website pages. The Google Analytics application provides detailed statistics on your website traffic. You will need this information as you monitor your website marketing efforts. Also, website analytics can reveal very helpful information about what's working and (most importantly) what's not working for people that visit your site.
8. CALL TO ACTION
The average new website visitor remains on a site for less than 10 seconds. If you main objective is to gain new subscribers, sell more widgets or register more event attendees, allocate a prominent area on your website to display your "call to action". This is the area where you are asking your visitors to "do something". Be sure to indicate the benefit of taking this action; don't simply demand that they "buy now", "subscribe now" or "attend this event". Indicate a few brief benefits to taking the action and also provide a link to provide more detail about the product, service or event.
9. CUSTOMER FOCUSED CONTENT
Ensure that you are providing the information that your customers want and need in a clear and concise manner. The average new website visitor remains on a site for less than 10 seconds. You don't have much time to convince visitors to buy a product or service, subscribe to a newsletter or attend an event. Visitors that are new to your site should be able to determine who you are and what's service/product or information you're providing in less than 10 seconds. If the navigation area is effective, they should be able to access all of the supporting information that they will need to make a decision on whether to continue a business relationship with you and your company.
10. A METHOD FOR STAYING CONNECTED
If you have a business website, you will need a method for staying connected to people that want to be notified of product/service specials, new company news, upcoming events and other changes relevant to your business. There are many methods for building a listing of people that want to stay informed about your business. Two popular options are RSS feeds and email newsletters. You can use either tool to build a listing of customers and potential customers that want to learn more about your service. This strategy also increases your repeat visitor rate, as you will have an opportunity to call previous visitors back to your website. Be sure to inform your visitors regarding how often they can expect to hear from you (ex: monthly, daily, weekly, or as new information comes in). Also be sure to explicitly indicate if you have any plans to redistribute their email addresses for other purposes or to other companies (NOT recommended).
Choosing the right search engine optimisation (SEO) firm and online marketing company is the most important phase in your business website's existence. It is important to align yourself with a company that are good at selling products and services online in order to ensure you reap the benefits that SEO can truly deliver. Using in house SEO staff is often flawed so when a business makes the decision to choose an external source for their online marketing solution then I always encourage the company to do a lot of research on the potential firms.
As search engine optimisation (SEO) requires expertise the first thing I suggest is searching on Google for "SEO" and "Online Marketing" in your regional index and taking note of the top 5 companies for each search result set. Compare them. Then make a list of the companies that are repeated. The reason I suggest searching on Google is that
- Google holds over 85% of the search market in Australia. I am not sure on other regional areas in the World but as far as I am concerned Google dominate and they have the most advanced search algorithm.
- Any company that can successfully market its own products - SEO and Online Marketing, and be placed in the top 5 results are very good at online marketing and as these terms are very competitive it is the cream of the crop being listed.
So, now you should contact each of the firms that are repeated in the list and ask to make an appointment with them to discuss how SEO can best benefit your business website.
As long as you have done the searches above then there are several questions I like to ask at this point. 1. Where do they place in the search engine results pages for their own products? - SEO and Online/Internet Marketing? 2. Do they have at least 10 examples of SEO clients in comparable industries (B2B/B2C) that they can show online marketing success with? - look for traffic graphs and keywords being searched on to get to the website. 3. How many staff do the SEO firm have? 4. Does the SEO company have 24/7 support and phone contact? 5. Are they professional and expert in their handling of your questions and delivering clear honest answers? 6. Read some of the SEO firm's testimonials.
After these questions have been answered then you will generally have a very good idea of how good the company actually is. What their philosophies are and whether they are a good fit for your business website objectives.
There are several things I would also consider very strongly. - Never trust a company that is willing to make any kind of guarantees on results. There is no way that an SEO company can know for sure that your website is going to be listed in the top 10 in the search results. If they do make promises then it is likely they will be optimising your website for less than optimal keywords that are uncompetitive. For example you sell "Blue widgets" and you would like to be listed in the top ten for blue widgets but it is very competitive. This dodgy company says they can get you in the top ten, but they don't say for what keywords and they do deliver but it's for a keyword phrase like "blue widget with flowers in Melbourne Australia" - this is completely useless and will not sell any more of your products!! - Never choose an SEO firm on price. Trust me when I say this - You get what you pay for! Aligning your business website with the best SEO firm, which may be more expensive, is going to get you a lot more traffic than a lower ranked SEO company. A more experienced SEO firm is likely to have many, many testimonials and graphs of clients to show you. Align with the best SEO Company and you get the best results it's as simple as that - there is no doubt in my mind on this.
Now that you have narrowed down the list, take a day to go through all of the information gathered. Assess everything on its merits and choose wisely. As I said above, never choose based on price, you pay peanuts and you will get monkeys. Graphic design and coding the building of a website make up about 20% of the success of the website, the other 80% is getting people to come to your website and buy your product or service. A similar comparison is opening a shop. You can make it as plush and nice as you want inside but if no one is coming through the door then it really doesn't matter how nice it is does it? You could well have a warehouse and market more and you would likely be far more successful. In summary, align your business website with the best SEO firm that you can find.
Both Kishau Rogers & Chris Diprose are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kishau Rogers has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, Tubal Reversal and Online Business. NEXT:There will be a follow-up resource(s) provided to assist you in evaluating your website for each of the 10 basic components. Please subscribe if you wish to receive an automated notification when new resources are posted (See below for subscription o. Kishau Rogers's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.
Chris Diprose has sinced written about articles on various topics from The Internet, Web Development and The Internet. The Kanga Internet are based in Melbourne, Australia and provide SEO services,. Chris Diprose's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.