Rich’s Web Design Blog

5 Characteristics of a Successful Web or Brick & Mortar Business

When one thinks about a successful business, whether it is a local restaurant, an insurance broker, an online music store or even Amazon.com, there are generally five items or characteristics that each of these possess. They are 1) Appearance, 2) Functionality, 3) Informational, 4) Price and 5) Location. If even one of the above is weak or non-existent, then the chances are good that the business will be suffering. Let’s look at each characteristic:

1. Appearance. Would you walk into a jewelry store, a hair salon or a department store that was messy or had an entrance that was not attractive? You might walk in, but you may be a lonely shopper. Would you continue past the main page of a web site if it were ugly and did not guide your eyes towards attractive merchandise? The same answer as above, probably not.

Just like your local jewelry store, the main entrance has to be clean, polished and everything in its proper place. Many people still judge a book by its cover. Even if you have a home based business, one should still consider your personal appearance. Do you show up to sales calls in appropriate clothes?

What about colors? Are your web colors complimentary? Do they reflect positively on your business? Many medical practice web sites have clean, white backgrounds with soft colors as accents. Have you ever seen a physician’s web site with black backgrounds and neon green colors? Probably not.

2. Functionality. Does your web site function properly? Do the cash registers ring up the same price as the price tags? Does your shopping cart guide your customer through the purchasing process without errors? Any calculations errors? What about shipping fees?

Business executives should constantly strive for perfection in the customer buying process. Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, EBay have all fined tuned their sales process so that it is smooth, simple and has as few steps / clicks as possible. If there is a glitch, that is a lost sale. Does your web site work EVERY time?

3. Informational. Everyone wants information and many expect this information for FREE. If you went to a successful insurance agent or financial planner, they would first determine your needs, educate you on the various types of insurance or investment tools and then make their sales pitch. How many people would walk off the street and make a financial investment purchase without educating themselves. Probably very few.

Your business web site should also educate your visitors. Teach them something, anything, just teach them something!

4. Price. One could have the most beautiful store with the best sales team and have all of their registers ring up the sales properly, but chances are good that if the prices are not competitive, those registers will NOT be ringing up many sales. For many people, PRICES ARE EVERYTHING!

Are Amazon, EBay, Wal-Mart and Progressive rates competitive? Is pricing important for your web site sales? It should be.

5. Location. In the real estate market, what is the most important selling point? Location, location, location. In the web world, many people believe it is ranking, ranking, ranking. If your site can not be found high in the 4 major search engines and people can not find you, how successful will your business be? Once again, probably not very.

Notice how the above items are labeled as “characteristics”, not “rules”? As with any number of rules, there are always exceptions and yes, there are many successful businesses that may not have these five characteristics.

When you are designing or redesigning your web business, consider the visual aspect, consider how it functions, consider how much information you can safely provide, consider the pricing and of course, consider how you rank in the search engines. You will be 5 steps ahead of the game.
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7 Characteristics of a Great Web Site

From http://www.sitepronews.com/

What makes for a great webpage? - Wouldn’t you like to know the main ingredients for creating a superior webpage? What basic elements you must have if you want a solidly designed webpage? A webpage that will stand out and be noticed by your visitors. One that will keep those visitors returning to your site, again and again. An effective webpage that is 95% better than most of the other pages on the Net. Follow these simple design features when creating your next webpage and you will have the answer:1. Good Keywords - The nucleus. The conception. Good keywords are the very first building blocks you must consider before your webpage even becomes a dim notion in your head. Picking the right keyword or keyword phrase is the ultimate factor that will determine the success or failure of your webpage. You must do major research on the keyword or keyword phrases that will be the focal point and drawing card for your webpage.

You must get this right. It is vital. It is the single most important element of a webpage. You can use keyword research software and sites such as GoodKeywords, Wordtracker.com, Nichebot.com, or superior keyword research software such as Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite.

Regardless of what process you favor, you must choose your keywords very carefully. You must check the competition for your chosen keywords or phrase. You must check the number of searches made each month for your keyword. You must also check the keyword density of your page to see if it will register in the search engines. You may have to adjust or fine-tune your keyword density at a later date.

Make sure you place your keyword in the title of your page. Place it in the first Headline on the page and many marketers also place their keyword or phrase in the url. For example: www.yourdomain.com/keyword.html This will help the search engines and surfers to find your page quicker.

2. Simple Design - Keep it simple. You must keep your webpage simple and direct. Keep it professional. Make sure it is readable and clear to all your visitors. Do a spell check. Do a grammar check. You may also want to check how your webpage looks in all types of browsers (www.anybrowser.com). Better safe than sorry.

Keep your visitors in mind at all times when designing your webpage. Keep it on topic, keep it related to your keywords. Most marketing studies show that’s it’s best not to confuse your visitors with too many options. If you’re selling a product or products, limit the number on each page to one product if you can.

If you have a comparison page, limit the number to three or four. Studies also show that if you present too many options or products, the conversion rate goes down, not up. Keep all your products related. If you have a page on laptops, don’t start discussing the benefits of owning a SUV.

Keep your sentences short and the number of words on a page down to 200 to 300. Many sites break up longer articles into multi-pages, this will be of some inconvenience for your visitors but you will have more room for advertising - your call.

3. Optimized - Let’s face it, the average webpage will get most of its traffíc from the search engines, mainly Google, although MSN and Yahoo are also worth considering. Optimize your page for Google. Use a simple hierarchy, keep your pages no more than three clicks away from the main page. Linking all your pages to your index page is a good practice, always do this. The search engines will find your page faster if it is linked directly from the main index page of your site.

Using blogging software/structure that comes with such free blogging software as Wordpress will optimize your pages for you. Blogging systems have a linking hierarchy (categories, archives, etc.) that are very search engine friendly. It’s almost impossible not to optimize your pages if you’re using a blogging system. Plus, you have an RSS feed that will syndicate your content and place it into the search engines very quickly.

Check factors such as Mega Tags, title description and content. Use a robots text file for the search engine robots. If you’re new to building webpages, you may want to check out Google’s Webpage Creator, you can create your pages and have it hosted free by Google and they will be indexed immediately in Google. Big Plus!

4. Easy Navigation - A great webpage will have easy and simple navigation. Link your page to and from your main index page if you can. Make sure you link to it from your sitemap page. Many webmasters put all the main links on their site at the top or the bottom of all their webpages, so that a visitor can freely move around and find what they’re looking for. Keep your visitors’ comfort level in mind at all times.

Double check to see all links on your webpage work! You may be surprised how many don’t work, especially if you link out to other sites. The search engines don’t like broken links, neither will your visitors.

Also double check to see if all images on your page display properly. Nothing will bring down the quality of your page faster than images that don’t load.

5. Fresh Content - A great webpage will always have fresh content. Make sure you update your webpage often. Our world’s technology changes rapidly, make sure your material is current and still revelant.

Remember, 9 times out of 10, the only reason a visitor is on your page is for information. Make sure you deliver. Make sure that information is recent and accurate. Besides, there is nothing like fresh content to keep your visitors interested and coming back for more.

6. Bookmarkable - A great webpage will always be bookmarkable. Your visitor will want to bookmark your page and return to it for more information. Make sure you make it easy for your visitor to bookmark your page. Use a bookmark scrípt. Make sure you have a favicon, this is a small logo you place on your site and it will be automatically picked up and displayed in your visitor’s bookmarks, drawing attention to your page. Consider a bookmark and favicon like bread crumbs, all leading the visitor back to your page.

7. Cool - Every great webpage should have a WOW factor! Try to make your page stand out from the crowd. Try to make it unique, try to make it cool. Just remember, a simple professional webpage with valuable information is always cool. And remember there is nothing like a little good ‘word of mouth’ to get some traffíc drawing PR for your page. Great buzz about your webpage is worth its worth in gold.

So the next time you’re designing a webpage, go all out and try to create your webpage with all of the characteristics listed above. Start with your keywords, keep it simple, proof-read and test for coding errors, create good navigation and optimize for the search engines, make sure you provide valuable fresh content and information. Last but not least, try your hardest to make your webpage memorable and bookmarkable. Make it a professional webpage that will be superior to the majority of other pages on the web. Aim high and you will reap the rewards.

Top 10 SEO Factors

From www.seo-news.com/archives/2006/nov/9.html

These are what I believe to be the top 10 most important things (not necessarily in order) that you need, in order to get your website found in the search engines. There are many other factors as well, but if you follow these guidelines, you’ll stand a much better chance, and you’ll be off to a good start.

1. Title Meta Tag - The title tag is what displays as the headline in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). It’s also what displays in the top blue band of Internet Explorer when your site is displayed.

Your title tag of your website should be easy to read and designed to bring in traffic. By that, I mean that your main keyword phrase should be used toward the beginning of the tag. True, there are websites being found now that do not use the phrase in the title, but the vast majority still do as of this writing.

Don’t make the mistake of putting your company name first, unless you are already a household name, like Nascar or HBO. People are likely searching for what you have to offer, not your name. Your title tag should be written with a capital letter starting the tag, and followed by all lowercase letters, unless you’re using proper nouns. Some people prefer to capitalize every word, too.

2. Description Meta Tag - The description tag is the paragraph that people will see when your page comes up in the search results. Your description tag should be captivating and designed to attract business. It should be easy to read, and compel the reader to act right now and follow your link. Without a description tag, search engines will frequently display thefirst text on your page. Is yours appropriate as a description of the page?

A proper description tag is what people will see below your title. You should make proper use of punctuation, and with readability, use your subject and geographical references.

3. Keywords Meta Tag - The importance of Meta keyword tags fluctuates from month to month among different search engines. There is a debate in the SEO community as to whether or not they help at all on certain search engines. In fact, in the summer of 2004 it appeared as if they were losing importance altogether.

However, you’ll NEVER be penalized on any search engines for using relevant targeted keywords in moderation, and they can only help you with most, especially Yahoo. Avoid stuffing your keyword metatags with too many keywords. Just use relevant tags that apply directly to the content of that particular page, and don’t overdo it.

4. ALT Tags - The small yellow box that comes up when your mouse cursor is placed over an image is called the ALT tag. Every relevant image should have an alt tag with your keywords or phrases mentioned in the tag.

A proper ALT tag goes after the file name, and before the Align indicator. * - The ALT tag is no longer being considered for ranking purposes by some search engines. That said, it still cannot HURT you, and will still help you with some engines. My recommendation is to continue to use them, but be sure to avoid keyword stuffing. Besides, who knows when the pendulum will swing back the other way?

5. Header Tags - The text of each page is given more weight by the search engines if you make use of header tags and then use descriptive body text below those headers. Bullet points work well too. It is not enough to merely BOLD or enlarge your text headlines.

6. Link Text - Search engine spiders cannot follow image links. In addition to having image links or buttons on your web pages, you should have text links at the bottom or elsewhere. The text that the user sees when looking at the link is called the link text. A link that displays products does not carry as much weight to the search engines as a link called oregon widgets. Link text is very important and is actually one of the most frequently overlooked aspects of web design that I’ve seen.

7. Site Map - Using a site map not only makes it easy for your users to see the entire structure of your website, but it also makes it easier for the search engines to spider your site. When the search engine spiders come to visit, they will follow all of the text links from your main index page. If one of those links is to a site map, then the spiders will go right to the sitemap, and consequently visit every page you have text linked to from that site map. On the site map page, try to have a sentence or two describing each page, and not just a page of links.

8. Relevant Inbound Links - By relevant, I mean similar industry or subject related sites. Right now, no single strategy can get your site ranked higher faster than being linked to by dozens of other relevant websites. It used to be that the quantity of incoming links mattered most, but today, it’s much better to have three highly relevant links to you from other popular related websites than 30 links from unrelated low ranked sites. If there are other businesses in your industry that you can trade links with, it will help your site enormously. Link to others, and have them link to you. It’s proven, and it works. To see who’s linking to you, in Google type the following…links: yourdomain.com

9. Your Content - Not to be forgotten of course, is the actual content of your webpage. It must be relevant helpful information that people want to read. These days, each webpage should be laser focused on one specific product or subject in order to rank highly for that search phrase. The days of writing one webpage to appeal to dozens of search terms are long gone. Ideally, each page should have between 400 to 650 words on it. Too few, and the search engines won’t consider it to be relevant enough. Too many words and the search engine spiders may have a hard time determining the actual subject or focus of the page.

Use your keywords or phrases often, and use them at the beginning of your paragraphs wherever possible. Don’t overuse them and make the page sound phony, but don’t write a page about a certain subject, and not mention that subject repeatedly either. Reading it out loud to yourself is a great way to judge how natural your text sounds.

Concentrate on writing quality pages that actually appeal to the human reader. Write pages that provide the reader with exactly what they are looking for; that is, information about the exact search phrase they’ve entered.

10. Avoid Cheating - With all of these tidbits of information, it’s tempting to think that you can stuff 100 keywords into your title, or create a page with the phrase oregon widget company being used 100 times in headers, text links, ALT tags, bullet points etc. but that cannot help you. In fact, it can penalize you, and get your website banned from certain search engines.

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