Solutions for Design & Website Promotion

Solutions for Design & Website Promotion

In the land of seo design solutions, common problems are addressed, analyzed and resolved daily and top 10 organics search engine positioning is the result. Visit our new SEO Blog and read a segment of search engine solutions which features articles on search engine optimization, link building, deep linking, content creation tips and other distinctive methods of organic SEO technology.

If you are the DIY (do it yourself) type, then these search engine strategies, tactics and methods should be a part of your daily blog must read list for a glimpse of powerful behind the scenes on page insights on how a top 10 rankings are conceived, planned and executed off-page... [Read More]
Website Promotion and Placement Services

Website Promotion and Placement Services

Web Design and Internet Marketing go hand in hand. One without the other is a recipe for a neglected online presence. Design transcends function in many ways but making sure that you have an audience to showcase your beautiful website is equally as important. This is the new form of promotion that incorporates solid design fundamentals along with marketing savvy, a twist of internet marketing and curbside human appeal otherwise known as Seo Web Development or Seo Web Design.

Mix one part content, one part usability and one part promotion and this hybrid is now ready to look great, satisfy the user and leave them with a feeling of “what a great website”. This can encourage them to link to you and boost your website popularity or over time become familiar enough to become a loyal repeat customer for your product or service if the price is right. Seo Solutions such as these are are refreshing to note, since modern consumers are essentially... [Read More]
A Simple, Easy, Legitimate Way To Get FREE Traffic To Your Site!

A Simple, Easy, Legitimate Way To Get FREE Traffic To Your Site!

Websites Promotion: "A Simple, Easy, Legitimate Way To Get FREE Traffic To Your Site! In his ebook 'Turn Words Into Traffic', Jim Edwards teaches you step by step how to create articles right through to getting your article physically ready for distribution.

The author shows you how to take the hard work out of writing articles by drastically reducing the time it takes to write and produce them. Many ebooks fail to keep the reader interested simply because the contents are just a re-vamp of another ebook and then filled out with 'fluff'. This is not the case with 'Turn Words Into Traffic' and the author still manages to fill over 160 pages with critical 'How To' information.

I am impressed by the professional way that Jim has written and presented this ebook but it does not stop there. Jim follows up with a series of quality, unadvertised add-ons with even more tried and tested formulas for writing effective and interesting articles easily."
The basic terminology of SEO

The basic terminology of SEO

free website promotions: "Adwords: This is the Pay Per Click advertising program offered by Google.

Adsense: Contextual advertising by Google. Website publishers earn a portion of the advertising revenue for placing Google sponsored links on their site.

Algorithm: The search engine program that ranks sites based on certain criteria. Google has over 100 different ranking criteria that sites need to meet.

Automated Submissions: Services that use a web based tool or software to submit sites to search engines, free for all pages, and directories. CM SEO does not recommend using these services, these submissions can be viewed by the receiving party as spam."
Great AGLOCO Recruiting Advice...

Great AGLOCO Recruiting Advice...

Before I start, I want to explain a couple of things I

believe that help me organize my effort in recruiting

(some of which I have covered in previous blogs):

I believe that 80% of the people who join AGLOCO

will not recruit new members and the AGLOCO

program (and thus my recruiting) needs to address

why these people will be very happy they are

members of AGLOCO.

And of the 20% that do recruit, most will be casual

recruiters (send out some emails to friends and may

be mention it a couple of times to people they see.)

and a few will take the extra time to get really involved

in AGLOCO recruiting. Some of my advice is to both

of these groups and some just to the really dedicated.

Point #1 – Know why "Every Internet user should join

AGLOCO" - (here are the reasons I use)

All Internet users help create value on the Internet and

should get their fair share of it – and AGLOCO has a

great plan to get it for its members.


If Google can afford to pay AOL 10 cents a search
and if YouTube (with users doing 90% of the 'work') –

can be sold of $1.6 billion, then there is plenty of

'excess' value to share with the users.


What share will an AGLOCO member with no

referrals get?


They will get their share of AGLOCO's profits . In my

personal view this will eventually be $100 to $200 a

year – but at the beginning much less.


In addition to the cash payments members will get

their share of the ownership of the company – This

could be much more than the annual cash check due

to the multiplier effect of earnings.


All Members get security and utility – There is a short

list of items on the AGLOCO site, I think AGLOCO

members will drive the utility of the Viewbar to become

very useful for all members.


It is the right thing to do – AGLOCO is nothing short

of an Internet Economic Revolution – and YOU

should be supporting it. That is pretty much how I

say that.. (- like Wikipedia is Internet revolution in

freedom of Internet information)


Membership is always free and all data is totally

private (no spyware). AGLOCO never gives out any

member data to anyone at any time (Read Privacy

Policy) And they have one of the top anti-spam and

privacy people in the world as their Chief Privacy Officer,

Ray Everett-Church, (he wrote the "Internet Privacy for

Dummies" book and the "Anti-spam for Dummies" book.


Point #2 – Know why "All AGLOCO members should

recruit new members."

AGLOCO can better serve its individual members, the

bigger the total membership gets – This is because

AGLOCO can get:

Better deals with business partners, the larger the

network is (size matters when making marketing deals).
Better Viewbar software (the more users the more other

companies will want to connect their software with the

AGLOCO Viewbar).
Recruiting members can increase their 'share' of

AGLOCO by recruiting new members.


AGLOCO does reward network builders who recruit

new members (recruit five new members and 'double"

your share – recruit 25 and increase your share 5

times)


Point #3 – Know how to "Motivate new members to

recruit for AGLOCO."

Give them a plan


Most people use email – so 'ask them when they are

going to send them.'


Most potential builders are worth a personal call or

visit – ask your new recruits to list the people they

know who would be good AGLOCO builders


Give them the tools


Sample emails


Answers to questions they get asked (I told them to

email them with any questions they get.


Point #4 – Just keep at it.

Keep recruiting new members every chance we can.
Keep in touch with your recruits to help the keep

recruiting as well.


Good luck……….. "

If you found this information useful but still not a
user of Agloco's viewbar, get yourself registered.

Click here for details and signup

A Global Community that is owned by its Members

A Global Community that is owned by its Members

Do You Realize How Valuable You Are?
Advertisers, search providers, and online retailers

are paying billions to reach you while you surf.

How much of that money are you getting? NONE

You Deserve A Piece of the Action

AGLOCO gets paid by companies to reach our

Members through our Viewbar software. We give

that money back to you.

Build the Community, Make More Money
Through our Referral Program, we reward those

who are helping to build this Global Community.

The bigger the community, the more money

AGLOCO makes for its Members.

What's the Catch?

No catch. Sign up, refer your friends, download

the free Viewbar software and surf the Internet

as you normally would.

Privacy Counts.
Your information will never be sold, rented, or

shared with anyone else. Bulletproof privacy is

a core commitment of AGLOCO.

Make big money with YourCashCow.biz!! Already making $60 monthly with it :)

Make big money with YourCashCow.biz!! Already making $60 monthly with it :)





Building a Large Income with Your Cash Cow. 6 Steps.


  1. Register as a member - you have already done this or you would not be reading this page.
  2. Become Active.
  3. Sponsor 5 New Active members
  4. Draw your commission
  5. Teach your 5 to do the same.
  6. Repeat the process

Register as a member - this is obvious - if you are not in you can't win!. Click here to register with YourCashCow.biz

Become Active. Do this immediately - it is only $10 and many of your downline will do as you do. If you wait, so will they. Who wants a team of procrastinators? Show that you are serious about this business and they will follow your lead! Also your upline is there to assist you, but why should they if they are not getting paid? Once you become active they start to earn from you and have a responsibility to help and guide you.

We only accept EGold but we have arranged for a third party to take credit cards and send us the EGold; so if you wish you can use this facility and make your monthly hosting payment using Visa, MC, Amex or Discover cards. You will still need to open an EGold account to receive your commissions.

Sponsor 5 New Active members - to get 5 active members you may need to sponsor 10 or 15 FREE members, but how hard can it be to give away $10? Do this as fast as possible because once again your downline will follow your lead. You want your business and income to grow fast so put in some time and effort at the start. Also don't be afraid to spend a little cash in promotions - it will repay you handsomely in the future.

First of all use the Invitation Page and add the names and addresses of anyone in your address book. It will automatically send them a short email inviting them to visit your website. Don't worry about whether or not they will join; you have no control over that, your job is simply to invite as many people as possible to your site. Some will join - some will not - some will become active -some will not.

You may have heard of Bill Britt, one of the most successful distributors in Amway. Some years ago, 20/20 did a feature story on Amway. They spent 19 minutes interviewing whiners and complainers -- several distributors who had failed and showed the garages full of products they couldn't sell. During the last minute of the show, Mr. Britt was interviewed in front of his palatial home. He was asked, "Mr. Britt, this business has obviously worked for you. What's your secret?"
He replied, "There is no secret. I simply showed the plan to 1200 people. 900 said, 'No.' and only 300 signed up. Out of those 300, only 85 did anything at all. Out of those 85 only 35 were serious, and out of those 35, 11 made me a millionaire." Like Mark Yarnell (who made millions with NuSkin), Bill worked through the numbers.
ANY business is a numbers game, plain and simple! Remember that & be persistent & you WILL succeed.

Your business is all about advertising and promotion ( same as any other business ) so think of all the ways you can advertise, try them all and keep using the ones that bring you success. Some ideas are online advertising through email, banners, ezine ads, safe lists etc. Offline using business cards, flyers, newspaper classifieds, notice boards etc.
Keep it short & simple - e.g. Make money fast - sign up FREE and get a $10 bonus.
Above all be creative and monitor your results.

Draw your commission - do this as soon as you have your minimum amount. It will prove to you and your downline that the system is working. Then spend it on something small to reward yourself for your success. There will soon be plenty more and you will be able to have bigger rewards and still put some cash into advertising.

Teach your 5 to do the same - this is where most people stop! How can you expect your business to grow and keep growing if you do not help your downline make money too? They joined you for the chance to make money help them and you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. Ignore them and you are likely to get into a downward spiral resulting in failure. Make the effort - become a friend and mentor - be the person you wish you had helping you - but do not work for them. Always help, show and do things with them but never for them. Teach them to be independant and taech them to teach their downline to be the same.

Repeat the process - Just keep doing what works and add new ides for testing all the time until your income has reached the level you desire.

"It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way." - Aristotle

If there was a $50,000 cash reward for sponsoring six people in one week, you could do it. You will find in the long run that six first-level distributors are far more valuable than $50,000 cash.

When you believe this, you will have no trouble sponsoring as many people as you wish!

Don't wait any more, Register here


JavaScript Programming Language

JavaScript Programming Language

JavaScript is a scripting language. The term scripting language refers to programming languages that are executed by an interpreter from within a Web browser. An interpreter translates programming code into an executable format each time the program is run, one line at a time.

Programs written in scripting languages, such as JavaScript, are interpreted when a scripting engine loads an HTML page. A scripting engine is a interpreter that is part of a Web browser. A Web browser that contains a scripting engine to translate script is called a scripting host. Firefox and Internet Explorer are both examples of scripting hosts for JavaScript programs.

JavaScript is available in two formats: client-side JavaScript and server-side JavaScript. The standardized client-side JavaScript is the format available to HTML pages displayed in Web browsers (the client). Servers-side JavaScript is used with Web servers to access file systems, communicate with other applications, access database, and perform other tasks. Client-side and Server-side Javascript share the same basic programming features.

Post by: Christophe Bundoo
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com

First Habitable Planet Found beyond Solar System

Today we are not going to talk about promotion or html but about a great discovery. The first known planet beyond the solar system that could harbor life as we currently know it has been recently discovered.

It orbits a red dwarf star and the astronomers who discovered it said it likely contains liquid water.
The planet is estimated to be about 50 percent larger than Earth and was named as Gliese 581 c because of the red dwarf star it orbits, Gliese 581. The new earth like planet is located in the constellation Libra, some 20.5 light-years away.

Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland said that water can exist in liquid form on the planet as its surface temperature is between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit. In degrees Celsius it is between 0 and 40.

For more information about it please go to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070424-new-planet.html

The image above is taken from nationalgeographic.com and is © ESO
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com
http://www.doono-surfpower.com
Learn HTML the easy way - font colors

Learn HTML the easy way - font colors

Today we are going to see how to use different color of fonts. Check this piece of code:

<html>
<head>
<title>Color Fonts</title>
</head>

<body>

<p><font color="red">This text is in Red</font></p>
<p><font color="blue">This text is in Blue</font></p>

</body>
</html>


You will notice this line <p><font color="red">This text is in Red</font></p>. color="red" will render the text in red. The are about 16 color names that can be use in html and css.

They are: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.

If you want to use other colors you must use there hexadecimal value(HEX value). for example:
<p><font color="#ff0000">This text is in Red</font></p> will render text in red.

Note: 0000 are zeros.

Hex value can be use in ant elements in html for example <body bgcolor=#000000> will give you a blank background color.

You can use software like photoshop to check HEX value of colors you want to use. To help you a bit more i had create this small table below:

Color NameColor HEXColor
AliceBlue#F0F8FF
AntiqueWhite#FAEBD7
Aqua#00FFFF
Aquamarine#7FFFD4
Azure#F0FFFF
Beige#F5F5DC
Bisque#FFE4C4
Black#000000
BlanchedAlmond #FFEBCD
Blue#0000FF
BlueViolet#8A2BE2
Brown#A52A2A
BurlyWood#DEB887
CadetBlue#5F9EA0
Chartreuse#7FFF00
Chocolate#D2691E
Coral#FF7F50
CornflowerBlue#6495ED
Cornsilk#FFF8DC
Crimson#DC143C
Cyan#00FFFF
DarkBlue#00008B
DarkCyan#008B8B
DarkGoldenRod#B8860B
DarkGray#A9A9A9
DarkGrey#A9A9A9
DarkGreen#006400
DarkKhaki#BDB76B
DarkMagenta#8B008B
DarkOliveGreen#556B2F
Darkorange#FF8C00
DarkOrchid#9932CC
DarkRed#8B0000
DarkSalmon#E9967A
DarkSeaGreen#8FBC8F
DarkSlateBlue#483D8B
DarkSlateGray#2F4F4F
DarkSlateGrey#2F4F4F
DarkTurquoise#00CED1
DarkViolet#9400D3
DeepPink#FF1493
DeepSkyBlue#00BFFF
DimGray#696969
DimGrey696969
DodgerBlue#1E90FF
FireBrick#B22222
FloralWhite#FFFAF0
ForestGreen#228B22
Fuchsia#FF00FF
Gainsboro#DCDCDC
GhostWhite#F8F8FF
Gold#FFD700
GoldenRod#DAA520
Gray#808080
Grey#808080
Green#008000
GreenYellow#ADFF2F
HoneyDew#F0FFF0
HotPink#FF69B4
IndianRed#CD5C5C
Indigo#4B0082
Ivory#FFFFF0
Khaki#F0E68C
Lavender#E6E6FA
LavenderBlush#FFF0F5
LawnGreen#7CFC00
LemonChiffon#FFFACD
LightBlue#ADD8E6
LightCoral#F08080
LightCyan#E0FFFF
LightGoldenRodYellow#FAFAD2
LightGray#D3D3D3
LightGrey#D3D3D3
LightGreen#90EE90
LightPink#FFB6C1
LightSalmon#FFA07A
LightSeaGreen#20B2AA
LightSkyBlue#87CEFA
LightSlateGray#778899
LightSlateGrey#778899
LightSteelBlue#B0C4DE
LightYellow#FFFFE0
Lime#00FF00
LimeGreen#32CD32
Linen#FAF0E6
Magenta#FF00FF
Maroon#800000
MediumAquaMarine #66CDAA
MediumBlue#0000CD
MediumOrchid#BA55D3
MediumPurple#9370D8
MediumSeaGreen#3CB371
MediumSlateBlue#7B68EE
MediumSpringGreen#00FA9A
MediumTurquoise#48D1CC
MediumVioletRed#C71585
MidnightBlue#191970
MintCream#F5FFFA
MistyRose#FFE4E1
Moccasin#FFE4B5
NavajoWhite#FFDEAD
Navy#000080
OldLace#FDF5E6
Olive#808000
OliveDrab#6B8E23
Orange#FFA500
OrangeRed#FF4500
Orchid#DA70D6
PaleGoldenRod#EEE8AA
PaleGreen#98FB98
PaleTurquoise#AFEEEE
PaleVioletRed#D87093
PapayaWhip#FFEFD5
PeachPuff#FFDAB9
Peru#CD853F
Pink#FFC0CB
Plum#DDA0DD
PowderBlue#B0E0E6
Purple#800080
Red#FF0000
RosyBrown#BC8F8F
RoyalBlue#4169E1
SaddleBrown#8B4513
Salmon#FA8072
SandyBrown#F4A460
SeaGreen#2E8B57
SeaShell#FFF5EE
Sienna#A0522D
Silver#C0C0C0
SkyBlue#87CEEB
SlateBlue#6A5ACD
SlateGray#708090
SlateGrey#708090
Snow#FFFAFA
SpringGreen#00FF7F
SteelBlue#4682B4
Tan#D2B48C
Teal#008080
Thistle#D8BFD8
Tomato#FF6347
Turquoise#40E0D0
Violet#EE82EE
Wheat#F5DEB3
White#FFFFFF
WhiteSmoke#F5F5F5
Yellow#FFFF00
YellowGreen#9ACD32



More easy tutorials to come....

Author: Christophe Bundoo
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com
Learn HTML the easy way 3 continued

Learn HTML the easy way 3 continued

Ok, let's continue with our tutorial. We are going to see how to use paragraph in an html document. Paragraph are define with the <p> tags. Here is an example:

<p> We are inside a paragraph </p>

You will also noticed that you are getting a blank link on top and bottom of the heading as the heading, this is because html automatically add a blank line before and after headings.

Comments in HTML

Comment tags are use in source code to create comments on your code and can use it later as hint to edit them. Furthermore, comments tags are ignore by browser and will not be display when browsing.

An example of a comment tag is <!-- This text is a comment -->

that's all for today, we'll talk about how to add colors to an HTML document in our coming tutorial.

Author: Christophe Bundoo
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com
Learn HTML the easy way 3

Learn HTML the easy way 3

Today we are going to see how heading are use in an html document. Headings are represented as <h1> to <h6> tags. <h1> is the biggest and <h6> the smallest. Here is an example:

<h1> This is heading 1 </h1>
<h2> This is heading 2 </h2>
<h3> This is heading 3 </h3>
<h4> This is heading 4 </h4>
<h5> This is heading 5 </h5>
<h6> This is heading 6 </h6>

Note: this must be place inside the body tags.

You will noticed that you are getting a blank link on top and bottom of the heading, this is normal as html automatically add a blank line before and after headings.


Author: Christophe Bundoo
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com
Learn HTML the easy way 2

Learn HTML the easy way 2

Let's continue with our HTML tutorial. Now we are going to see how to do simple text formatting. We will see how to change line, make text in bold and italics

For this tutorial we'll continue with firstpage.html. Just open firstpage.html in you text editor.

Now modify it and add those lines:

<html>

<head>

<title>My first HTML page</title>

</head>

<body>

This is my first page in HTML.

<br>

<b>This text is in bold. </b>

<br>

<i>This text is in italics </i>

<br>

<u>This text is in underline </u>

</body>

</html>

Now let's explain a bit. You remember i told you in the first tutorial that all html tags must have a opening and closing tag. so why i had only put <br>??

The <br> tag is an empty tag which means it has no closing tag. So if you type this it is not good: <br> </br>. This tag is use for line break or blank line. So if you are typing some text and want to switch to next line just type <br>.

Putting a text between <b> </b> tags will show text in bold. Putting a text between <i> </i> tags will render the text into italics and putting a text between <u> </u> tags will will underline it.

Hope you enjoy this little and simple tutorial, there's more to come.

Author: Christophe Bundoo
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com
Learn HTML the easy way

Learn HTML the easy way

Today we are going to show you how to create a simple web page. For this tutorial we are going to use simple html.

ok here we goes.. Firstly you must know how html works. You must always have a starting tag and a closing tag. for example . is the starting tag and is the closing tag.

Now lets display a simple text. Open notepad or any text editor and write:

<html>

<head>

<title>My first HTML page</title>

</head>

<body>

This is my first page in HTML.

</body>

</html>



Now, save the file as firstpage.html and open it. You will see the text "This is my first page in HTML." being displayed.

Great job, you have just created your fist html page.

Author: Christophe Bundoo
http://www.promote-surf.com
http://free-websites-promotion.com
Do You Know the Fastest Way to Get a High Page Ranking?

Do You Know the Fastest Way to Get a High Page Ranking?

Do You Know the Fastest Way to Get a High Page Ranking article was written by Terry Morris to help webmasters to get better ranking in google.

There are millions upon millions of websites on the internet. The majority of these site's have poor page rankings. Is your site one of them? Would you like to increase your page ranking? Silly question right? Of course, you want a high page ranking.... we all do. Keep reading and I will let you know a little known secret as to how you can quickly improve your page ranking.

In the early days of the web, search engines would get information about a website from the keywords meta tag. This is no longer true. The reason is that several people began to keyword stuff their meta tags to achieve higher rankings with the search engines. The Search Engines got wise to this and changed the criteria they use when crawling websites. This does not mean you should forego keyword meta tags, it is still good optimization practice to include a keywords meta tag however, this tag alone will not get you a high page ranking.

Before I tell you how you can quickly improve your page rank, I want to touch on Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is very important to the success of your website and to getting good page rankings. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to learn good optimization practices and use them when creating and submitting your website(s). You can learn more about Search Engine Optimization at http://www.terrysinfosite.com

OK, so how do you get a high page ranking? Did you know that most search engines put a high level of importance on the links to your webpage? When a high ranking website links to your site it will make the search engine take notice. Does this mean that all you have to do is get a lot of incoming links to your website? NO, absolutely not! In fact if you simply go grabbing incoming links from wherever you can you could end up getting your site banned by search engines. The key is to get quality links from high ranking sites. All of your incoming links should be from site's that have something to offer your visitors. In other words there content should be relevant to yours. After all, if you are searching for information on 'computer hardware' you aren't going to be interested in a link related to 'dog grooming' now are you? Another very important point needs to be made before we continue; NEVER use link farms. This is important and bears repeating.. NEVER, EVER use link farms. The use of link farms could get you banned. You want to stay focused on your site's content... that includes your incoming links.

OK, here is what you have been waiting for, how to improve your page ranking quickly;

First: Go to Google.com and download the Google toolbar. Install the toolbar on your web browser.

Second: Do a search using one of your site's most important keywords or phrases.

Third: Visit one of the first few site's displayed in the search results.

Fourth: Note where it says "PageRank" on your toolbar. The green bar represents the page ranking for the site you are visiting and ranges from 0 to 10.

Fifth: By using this toolbar and searching with your important keyword or phrase you can find a site with a high ranking and relevant content.

Sixth: Look for the contact information for the site you are visiting and send a request for a link to your webpage in exchange for a link to theirs.

Every link you get from a high ranking site will improve your ranking with the search engines.

Be aware, since these are high ranked sites, some will refuse your request. Never fear, there is a solution. Go back to your search engine and this time enter "link:" (without the quotes) followed by the name of the site you just approached for a link. You should only need to enter the site name, not the complete url. The resulting display will show you all of the sites that link to the one you approached. You can now go visit one of those sites and ask for a reciprocal link. While this is a 'backdoor' approach to getting the link you were originally after...it has been known to work.

Here is a little side-note with regard to negotiating for reciprocal links. This was learned during my years as owner of two businesses. In any negotiation the other side has one thing on their mind at all times...."What is in this for me?" When negotiating for reciprocal links you should stress the benefits that the agreement will provide to them. Try to make your offer as attractive to the other side as you possibly can.

I admit this involves a little time and effort however, a wise man once said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with an empty tank and a flat tire." The time and effort you spend is well worth the rewards.

About The Author
Terry Morris is a freelance writer from the midwest. He is the retired owner of two successful businesses. He has worked in the computer and electronics industry for over thirty years. He is currently the author and webmaster at http://www.terrysinfosite.com which specializes in website creation with emphasis on search engine optimization.
How To Create And Promote A Web Site That Works

How To Create And Promote A Web Site That Works

How To Create And Promote A Web Site That Works article was written by Obono John Obono to help beginner webmaster to create and promote their new website.

A search is carried out on Google - the most used search engine currently on the internet - every 0.003 of a second, searching over 8 billion Web pages. If your Web site does not match the searchers' enquiries your chances of trading successfully and your business 'making it' on the internet are low. The World Wide Web is like one huge shopping mall, every Web site offering products and services; some 'shops' are well lit and easy to access, however, the majority have the lights turned off, their shutters down and the 'closed' sign on the door.

Making your company Web site attractive and popular is more than just putting a picture of the product or a description of the service onto a Web page and publishing it on the Web. There are a host of issues which need to be addressed to ensure success, but before a Web developer is even contracted, the bigger picture of strategic marketing needs to be addressed. It is important to understand that marketing is not sales, strategic marketing provides the structure to help us collate information and through it understand our customers. This is information that we need in order to sell successfully.

Applying this to a company Web site, before any development work is carried out on the Web site we have to be clear on who the customer is and why they are likely to buy. In describing the target customer, such factors as gender, age and socio-economic group are essentials while further information such as technical capability and language level can also be useful.

By carrying out primary market research - and this means not just reading reports or looking at statistics, actually get up from your desk and go and ask your customers - we will be able to find out most of this information offering a greater understanding of the customer profile. Including this information in your design brief puts the Web developer in a much better position to produce a site that the end user will feel affiliated to and comfortable with.

What is the objective of the site? Is it to provide information, to produce direct sales, or just a brochure-ware site showing the company and its capabilities? Is it intended to generate enquiries from new customers or to keep existing customers informed? Objectives will include the detailed information on any existing brand identity and the image the company wants to portray to the world at large. Remember your Web site is now the first port of call for a potential customer. Recent research has shown that viewers will make a decision on the suitability of a company in 20 milliseconds based purely on the image they are seeing on their computer screen. What is your Web site saying about your company? Make sure your Web developer is fully informed.

It is also important to identify the gender of your client base. This has been much ignored to date, possibly to the detriment of many businesses. A recent survey reported that women were 'Dunces of the dashboard': many of those surveyed did not understand the purpose of most of the switches or lights on their own car dashboard (BBC Breakfast 3/3/06); no comment was made in the report as to why this is, although it just might be because most cars are designed by men. Much research and writing exists on how communication differs between genders; since a Web site is by its nature a communication, it should make sense to have a Web site targeted at female buyers designed and developed by a female designer or team. The same obviously applies to a male audience, if this is your target then contract a male designer to build your site. Recent research at the University of Glamorgan supports this; it has shown that gender makes a big difference in the perceptions of the viewer. According to their research over 77% of Web sites showed a predominantly male design, reflecting the higher proportion of male designers in the marketplace. An interesting statistic when according to Judy Hoyt Pettigrew (author of Women Mean Business: The Secret to Selling to Women), as much has 80% of purchases are made by women.

Another consideration is geography and culture. Is the Web site going to be used to target a particular community or sector? Make sure that this is your focus and provide information that is of value to your viewers. Data that helps the decision making process can be the difference between a sale and no sale. In a recent survey from AOP over 80% of business decision makers use the internet and the content of Web sites to help make a decision on a purchase. Over half of the respondents also cited their trust in information supplied on Web sites.

Once we have a Web site that represents the business effectively in terms of image, content and functionality, what else needs to be addressed? Major considerations in the promotion of the site through search engine listings (not paid or sponsored) are the keywords and key-phrases. Over the past eight years it has baffled me that so many sites are missing this meta-data and have no appropriate page titles. These are essential if potential customers are to find your Web site and offerings. Although it is not obvious to the viewer, the purpose of this information is to provide the search engine with the data they need to place the site in the correct category in the database, which in turn helps the search engine respond to search terms entered by users.

To achieve successful ranking in search engines the title and meta-data must reflect the content of the page it belongs to. Keywords and phrases need to be researched thoroughly, what exactly are your customers likely to enter as search terms into search engines. When writing the content of the page remember that whilst conveying information about the products and services you should include your keywords and phrases - those terms which you have identified are used by your potential customer. It is possible to repeat the keywords and phrases a few times but not too often as the search engines treat this as spam!

Use useful and appropriate page titles - the common use of generic page titles such as "home page" and "contact us" is a waste of keyword opportunity. No-one types "contact us" into a search engine, why would they? Carry out a Web search on these two phrases and see how many there are out there (at the time of writing this was 3.1 billion & 6.2 billion respectively).

Once completed the search engine submission process can start. Whilst time consuming review the search engine you have selected and ask if it is relevant to your industry or whether it is likely to be relevant to your target market. Start with your own country search engines and submit to them - ensuring you are following their terms and conditions. Use of free submission services online is not recommended, consider how they make their money! Local regional and national directories should also be used. Many are free for basic listings but there is often a charge for enhanced listing.

In summary the biggest part of the Web site is in the preparation. If you carry out your research into your customers and understand them then you can build a Web site which they will find useful and will purchase from. Remember who the Web site is for - your customers!

About The Author
Obono John Obono Is a Six Figure Income earner online
http://www.butterflymarketzone.blogspot.com , The Biggest No Brainer
Keys to Increasing Website Traffic

Keys to Increasing Website Traffic

There is an article on how to increase your website traffic by Mark Taylor

The life and blood of any online business is one simple word “traffic”. It’s your life and blood. Let’s face it, it’s quite simple these days to build a website, even without any HTML knowledge. It’s easy to purchase a domain. It’s easy to set up a website. It’s even easy to build an online store. It’s easy to place content on a website. However, all this can be absolutely useless if you don’t have any traffic and qualified traffic. Whether you are a website selling products, services, or acting as an affiliate for a program, you will need traffic.

Your form of business may be selling products. Or it may be promoting products. Or even giving away free content and selling advertising space on your website. Either way, in order to cash in, you need traffic.

I have been doing extensive research over the years to find out what is it that brings in traffic. For starters, you have to realize it requires hard work and dedication. It’s not an easy fix. You will have to be dedicated. With that mind-set you are bound to succeed, as long as you do your research correctly.

The first question you need to ask yourself is what are you looking to achieve? If you are looking to sell products, such as digital products (Ebooks, Software) or actual physical products, such as consumer electronics or clothes, then PPC (Pay Per Click) traffic may be a good and easy option. You will have to set a budget and make sure you know what your ROI (Return on Investment) is. I highly recommend using Google Adword. This is the king of PPC engines. You will get the most qualified visitors. My second option would be to use Yahoo’s Overture as well. However, Google is the quickest. You can start receiving traffic within 15 minutes. Yahoo takes more time and is more difficult to get your ads approved. I would spend my time browsing the internet and searching forums on Google Adwords. There are quite a few with very good tips. Also a few free ebooks you can get on the subject. Get yourself familiar.

If you are not actually selling something, but are looking to get traffic because you are giving away free content and are selling advertising space, then perhaps PPC advertising is not going to be your best option. It may not be profitable for you. You will then want to get a high ranking in the Search Engines. The best way to achieve that is to submit to all the search engines, the top 40. You can easily do a search online. Obviously the top ones are your priority (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.). However, bear in mind it may take several months to be listed on these search engines. You will have to be a bit patient.

Also you will want to have as many links to your website as possible. The best way to achieve this, is to contribute to forum discussions, you can place your link to the website on the signature section. However, make sure you don’t spam. Make a meaningful post that contributes to the discussion, otherwise don’t make a post.

You can also post free classified ads. This could be helpful. Also you can create blogs for your website. In fact, create a couple. Make sure you fill them with relevant content and link them to your website.

The key here is consistency. You have to be dedicated and be prepared to put in the work. Once you put in the work, you will be posed to succeed.

About The Author
Mark Taylor offers expert advice on debt management and financial advice. He is also a market researcher. You can visit his webiste at http://www.mydebt-management.com where you will find a great deal of free information on debt management and financial advice.
Process on Optimizing your Site through Keywords

Process on Optimizing your Site through Keywords

This article is written by Kristine Joy Francisco to show the process on how to optimize you website through keywords

There are a lot of things to analyze on your site before you start optimizing your site. Such things are your site overview, nature of business, home page, site dimension and number of pages, product/services categories, page rank and indexed pages for major search engines, link popularity, and a lot more. After that you will go to your onpage and offpage optimization.

Analyze your site and think of a generic word that best fits for your web site. Choosing the right keywords is a strategy for better search engine positioning http://www.searchengines.com/placement.html. Analyze your business carefully and think of all the words that relate to your company or product. Most techniques to improve your search engine rankings have one thing in common -- Keywords. Choosing appropriate keywords is very important. Keywords are what lead search engine users to your site.

That word will act as your major keyword for your site. Then find a keyword tool that will help you generate keywords for your site. There are lots of keyword tools like http://inventory.overture.com. Type in the major keyword that you had thought of and it’ll list all related keywords that you can use. On the tool you’ll see the number of counts your keyword has been searched. Person new on search engine optimization might use the keyword with a lot of counts (I, sure did that before) immediately but SEO experts says that Do NOT use it for a start as keyword searched as many times will just give you a lot of competition and give your site less probability in regards to your visitors. So it is best to start with keywords with a little rivalry. Get some traffic with those keywords and eventually focus on the major keywords.

Examine those sites ranked from 1-10 on the keywords you chose to use in optimizing your site. Check everything about the site that is ranked highly on the search engine. Its URL, see if it is the top level webpage or it is the index page of the site as if it is not you can have a great chance to improve your index page for the target keyword and have a better placement in the SERP’s. Sites page rank. Page rank is Google’s way of giving specific value to how popular your website is. It is based on the number of links you have pointing to your website. Then check their page source, see if their actually optimizing their site for some onpage optimization factors. Factors such as title tag, check if they use the keyword on their title tag which is one of the main reasons why a site is rank well on search engine. Header tags are used to separate topics and range from h1 being very large and bold and h6 which is very small and bold, it should contain your most important keyword or keyword phrases to assist you in ranking higher on Search Engines. Image alt tags are words that will be displayed in place of your image through an older browser or when your visitors have their image turned off, insert a readable keyword phrase within the alt tags of your image and it’ll help you on your rankings. And on the main content if they use the keyword on the beginning and at the end of the page, also whether or not they’ve bolded, underlined, or italicized the keywords on that page. By continuing this process on other keywords that you’ve chose you will have an improved ranking on SERPs.

About The Author
Kristine Joy Francisco, SEO for ProAdultOutsourcing, the best choice for your professional web design and other web development needs, for more information visit http://www.proadultoutsourcing.com/.

Blog: http://www.offshore-web-design.blogspot.com/

http://www.webdesignandseo.wordpress.com/
How to Acquire Free Web Site Promotion

How to Acquire Free Web Site Promotion

This article was written by TR Brown with subject on how to acquire free web site promotion.

You have finished making your own website. You have introduced your company and presented your products and services. You have added propositions and promos to catch your target audience's attention. You have achieved the dos and don'ts of building a company web site. But why isn't your website a major success?

Maybe you're not planning the key to the best promotion of your web site. Here are some guidelines on how to acquire free web site promotions for your company's success.

If you have started to promote your web site, keep it constant. If you promote your site with persistence, it will catch your audience's attention.

Be patient. Try each method in promotion until you acquire the best, free promotion there is. You have to accept trial and error for your web site to reach the top.

There are many ways for your web site to be seen. Here are some free web site promotions you could try until you find the most effective.

*Free promotions such as search engines and directories would give your web site the deserved traffic you always wanted. Make sure to check your web site's ranking to know whether or not this type of free promotion is right for you.

*Make a deal with other web sites on trading links which could help both web sites. Make sure to use words that could easily interest the audience.

*Find free classified ads that could boost the promotion of your web site. These ads could be seen by other people who you are not targeting for, but may as well be interested in your services.

*Free and low-cost internet banners are spread all through out the World Wide Web. Banners that pop-up at the top of a page or in a separate window would automatically catch your target audience's attention.

If your web site and its free promotion did not work even after accomplishing these methods, analyze your web site. Track down all visitors, advertisements, and transactions. Then locate errors in your web site. Upload new files to your web site continuously for audience to return for new products and services. Monitor your own web site if it's up in the market or down.

Then be ready to try the methods again and surely it will work.

It has always been said that the best things in life are free. Yes they are. And as soon as your free web site promotion proves to the audience its worth, then you'll believe it's true.

Bonus Article:

Three Traffic Tactics that won't Cost You a Cent

Are you constantly banging your head in frustration on not receiving all the internet traffic you would like to get to your web site? Are you tormented from information overload listening to all the latest free website traffic tactics and not being able to understand any of it? Are you dejected of people trying day and night to harassing you to max out your credit card and get loans for Google clicks, and in the process loose your credit score? Are you stupefied by the way your website just dropped out of the Google search results? Or are you just too broke and all you have to rely on is getting some free website traffic tactics? You can employ website traffic tactics without spending dime. However, knowing how is the real deal.

Here's the score:

1. Link it

Of all the effective website traffic tactics that can get you best results, linking to and from other websites is the one of the most widely-used method. Just make sure that the

Internet business you are exchanging links with is relatively if not utterly related to your own business. And of course, don't overkill as this might ban you from search engines.

2. Meet Meta Tags

Another way of to acquire your desired traffic for your website is through having your Meta tags contain usually used keywords that target your business. Meta tags help search engines

in describing your web page. If you're quite adept with the HTML aspect of your web pages, manipulating your meta tags would be a breeze.

3. Keyword-rich AND sensible content

Writing or acquiring articles that provide solid information regarding your business is one of the best ways. Making use of free keyword suggestion tools such as Overture will help you on which keyword or phrases to work on to better lead more traffic to your website. Making these write-ups very readable and genuinely informative will make you many repeat visitors to subsequently become repeat clients.

Submitting these articles to various article directory listings will provide more visibility for your business as long as you keep your resource box in tact to create for yourself numerous back links.

These methods, if employed properly, will not only make your web site popular but will make you achieve your most desirable result - higher conversion rate.
This article may be used any way you wish as long as you keep this lower section in tact.

Author TR Brown
Logo Registration Directory http://logoreg.com Copyright 2006 3rdgen Marketing. All Rights Reserved.
How To Generate Free Traffic

How To Generate Free Traffic

Can you ever get a free website promotion? Is that even feasible?

Of course yes! Nowadays, your baby website can amass huge traffic in no time thanks to free website promotion.

How does this free website promotion go anyway? What are things to be done?

1. Enlist your website.

Look for the hottest Internet directories and enlist your site there. This is the easiest and most effective free website promotion tactic. Start with this step and the rest of the good things will follow.

Just don't forget to prep your website and make it all spruced up for a higher chance to get accepted in your directory of choice.

2. Know your forums.

One reason why forums are created is for free website promotion for everyone. Log in, post actively, let them know about your site in every post and you attract instant visitors right there.

3. Write a press release.

Release your writing prowess and start up a press release that advertises your site! This is a free website promotion tactic that you can do anytime. Type a brief paragraph or two and email it to your friends, colleagues, internet e-zines, newspapers and other media and massive traffic will come to you pronto!

4. Be friendly online.

Those of you not familiar with the latest on traffic,marketing,website,promotion now have at least a basic understanding. But there's more to come.

Free website promotion means you need to be friendly to other webmasters. Why, you ask? So they can link you immediately! Establish contacts and never tire of link requests and exchanges.

5. Write an article.

Say, your website is about your travel agency. Write an article about the perks of traveling or the hottest travel spots in the world. On the concluding paragraph, mention your website in passing. This article works as an advertorial and doubles as a free website promotion approach.

6. Just let the whole world know about your site.

What is free website promotion without the word of mouth? Insert your website, its URL and features in daily conversations and let the good news spread from one mouth to another!

7. Make a banner ad.

Make a banner ad for your site and ask another webmaster to do the same for his site. Then swap!

8. Take up a free website promotion course online.

Yes, there are free website promotion tutorials. But don't you know that you can actually take a free website promotion course that can help you out further? Part of the free website promotion program is signing up for newsletters.

When you make a website, you need not pay anything to promote it. You just read it -- there is such a thing as free website promotion!

That's the latest from the traffic,marketing,website,promotion authorities. Once you're familiar with these ideas, you'll be ready to move to the next level.

By Dechen Lau
The Basics of Websites Promotion

The Basics of Websites Promotion

Website promotion is, quite simply, the process of getting the word out about your site. Like any kind of marketing or promotional effort, website promotion requires planning and strategy.

Where to Start

Before jumping headfirst into site promotion (and, perhaps, even before building your site), you'll want to think carefully about your target market and your site's purpose. Who do you want to visit your site? What do you want those visitors to do when they get there? With so much information out there, and so many means available for website promotion, it's tempting to dive in without testing the waters. Just as with more traditional forms of spreading the word, though, you want to figure out what you have to offer, and who will be most interested. Promotion should focus on bringing those visitors to your site who want or need whatever it is you have to offer.

The Tried and True

Once you have determined your target market and the how your site will serve that market, you'll want to start looking into various methods of website promotion. Given that you're working with an internet-based medium, you'll likely think first of internet-based forms of promotion. Don't overlook more traditional methods of announcing your site, though. Do you have a business card? Have your site's URL printed on it. Do the same with other paper promotional items you produce routinely. Do you send press releases to the media with news about your business? Certainly include the URL in these. Do you advertise in the newspaper, or on the radio or TV? Your URL should now be a part of the contact information included in those ads.

The "New Media"

Of course, the Web opens up new possibilities for promoting your site, and you certainly want to take advantage of them. Here are seven possible ways to promote your site through the Internet:

1. Get listed Where do you go on the Net when you want to find information? Probably Yahoo!, Google, AltaVista, or one of the many other search engines, directories or portals available on the Web. So it's likely that your target market does the same. Check into the processes for submitting your site's URL to search engines and directories - many of these services will list your site for free. The grand-daddy of directories, Yahoo!, does charge just to look at a business site (currently for $299, with no guarantee of a listing), but keep in mind that about half of all web traffic comes from Yahoo! -- you may decide that it's a smart investment in your website promotion efforts. Also keep in mind that there are smaller engines and directories tailored to specific topics and interests, and you may find that getting listed with one of these will give you a more prominent position in the engine/directory, and provide you with more targeted traffic. Also, don't overlook local and regional engines/directories. For more information, see my article on Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.).

2. Get Linked While most webmasters will first think of search engines and directories for their website promotion, more traffic (six to seven times as much) comes from links on other pages than from search engines. How do you get these links? Generally, you need to propose a link swap with another site. That is, you contact the webmaster of another site to which you'd like to be linked, and offer to link to his/her site if s/he will do the same. Short-cuts, such as FFA pages, are generally not the most effective kinds of links - because so many people submit to these sites, individual links may appear for only minutes or even seconds. Also keep in mind that people visit these sites to submit their own links, not to find information.

3. Create an email signature file Most email programs allow you to create a "signature file," or text that is automatically attached to each email you send. Including a signature file with your site's URL makes each email you send a promotional tool.

4. Participate in forums and listservs There are literally thousands of web-based forums and email listservs out there that allow people with similar interests to communicate. Think of these as electronic mixers where you can network with others in your line of business or your target market. Keep in mind, though, that participants are expected to keep their discussion to the topic of the forum/listserv, and that naked promotion and advertising may be grounds for your expulsion from the group. Most, however, do allow signature files, so use these to promote while you enjoy the conversation and debate with others.

5. Start an ezine An ezine is simply a web or email-based magazine or newsletter. Ezines can help you stay in touch with existing customers and attract new ones. Many ezines are nothing more than promotional tools, though, so make sure yours actually provides information that your customers want and need. If you don't have the time or skills to create and manage your own ezine, hire someone to do it for you.

6. Write for other ezines Even if you don't want to tackle the challenge of producing your own ezine, many other web and email-based publications accept article submissions. An article in a well-regarded ezine can quickly position you as a name in your field or business. Keep in mind that most ezines don't pay - rather, they publish a signature file with your article. Of course, your signature file in a widely-circulated 'zine can do wonders for your website promotion. If you don't think you have the necessary writing skills, hire a writer who will ghostwrite an article for you.

7. Send press releases to news sites Just as with more traditional forms of media, web-based news sites rely on press releases for much of their content. A well-written press release can bring you tons of free promotion. If you chose this tactic, make sure that you create a newsworthy release, as thinly-disguised advertising is likely to end up in the recipient's recycle bin. Also make sure you use standard format and writing style, and send your release only to sites that would be interested in the kind of news you're submitting.

These tactics are only the tip of the iceberg, of course. With a little creativity, and a knowledge of web etiquette, website promotion can become a challenge rather than a chore.

By Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
How To Use Images, Graphics And Thumbnails To Promote Your Site

How To Use Images, Graphics And Thumbnails To Promote Your Site

Images, graphics and thumbnails play an important role in the overall look and feel of your website. They can greatly improve the usefulness of your site; making it more user-friendly and easier to navigate. More importantly, the visual images on your site can be optimized to improve your search engine rankings.

Despite their importance, many webmasters ignore images or graphics when it comes to optimizing their web pages. Don't make the same mistake.

There are some simple rules to follow when using SEO with your onsite graphics. Here are a few tips:

First, you must know exactly what an 'Alt Image Tag' is in order to optimize for the search engines. You must also realize search engine robots can't see your images, they can only read text - the text in your Alt Image Tags. So you have to construct your Alt Image Tags with this factor in mind and feed these robots with your popular keywords. Search engine robots usually spider popular sites every day or so.

What is an Alt Image Tag?

Every image, graphic or thumbnail on your site will have html code similar to this:

Your Alt Image Tag will be:

alt="Your Keyword Image"

Always include an Alt Image Tag description for all your images, graphics and thumbnails. This includes all headers, background images and even thumbnails of other sites, if you use them. Keep your descriptions of the images short and related to the image itself. It would be a good idea to end each description with the word photo, image or graphic.

Many marketers like to include their main keyword or keyword phrase they are targeting in the Alt Image Tag. They also place this keyword phrase in the text on their page, in the title tag, meta description and many alert marketers also place their keyword phrase in the URL of that page. You should also include your keyword phrase in the last 25 words on the same page.

Feed the spiders but be careful!

DON'T repeat the same keyword or keyword phrase numerous time on your page in the image tags - this may be seen as keyword spamming by the robots.

Using plurals and variations of your keyword is fine, such as: faxing service, fax services, efax services.

Many marketers also use misspelled keywords in the Alt Image Tag as it can only be seen when the image is scrolled over. Spiders can't spell but they will index these misspelled keywords and bring in extra traffic!

Graphics

The ordinary website will have more than just photos or images on a webpage. You will have headers, backgrounds, liners, etc. all of these should also have Alt Image Tags. Although in this age of the broadband Internet, your page loading time is not a major factor as it once was, but you should still reduce all your images so that they will download quickly.

Many professional web designers place unneeded or useless keywords (ones that get no searches) in the graphics on their site. For example, instead of placing 'Welcome to our site' in a headline - place it in a graphic at the top of your page. This will free up your headline for your main keywords.

Placing these useless words in a graphic where the robots can't read them - frees up your Alt Tags for keywords that you're promoting. Place your main keywords in the headline for better SEO. Keep feeding those spiders!

But always keep in mind, you are creating your content or web pages for real live human beings so you should check to see what your site's graphics look like in the different browsers. Try here: www.anybrowser.com

Since we have an ever increasing numbers of different screen or display sizes, always check to see how your graphics look on a different size display. You might be horrified to find your perfectly designed page on a 15" PC is totally distorted on a 17" widescreen laptop.

Needless to say, for site consistency, keep all your background images and logos the same throughout your site. Same goes for your fonts and text size, it will keep your site's visitors more focused and on track.

Thumbnails

Many online sites use thumbnails to raise the professional quality of their sites. It makes for a higher standard of design, not to mention, it will increase the usability of your site. It will also increase your click thru rates.

Thumbnails are screen capture shots of a website. They give the surfer some idea of what a site looks like before they visit that site. In a billion site Internet, this can be very important for the promotion of your site.

Using thumbnails will increase the visibility of your site and make it stand out from the crowd. Many professional sites like AOL, Network Solutions, and ALexa use thumbnails. Any site can use thumbnails, check the resource box at the end of this article for further directions on how to place thumbnails on your own site or sites.

Conclusion

Using images, graphics and thumbnails to promote your site can be easily done if you use the advice given above. Always remember to use Alt Image Tags to position your selected keywords or keywords in the search engines. Consistently do this over a long period of time and you will see your site rise in the rankings. Keep those spiders well fed and happy!

More importantly, using these visual aids will also improve the friendliness and usability of your site. It will help raise the professional look and feel of your site so that other webmasters and sites will want to link to your site; further increasing your rankings and the popularity of your site.

Don't underestimate the power of a simple image - it can do wonders for your site.

by: Titus Hoskins
Copyright (c) 2006 Titus Hoskins
How To Create And Promote A Web Site That Works

How To Create And Promote A Web Site That Works

A search is carried out on Google - the most used search engine currently on the internet - every 0.003 of a second, searching over 8 billion Web pages. If your Web site does not match the searchers' enquiries your chances of trading successfully and your business 'making it' on the internet are low. The World Wide Web is like one huge shopping mall, every Web site offering products and services; some 'shops' are well lit and easy to access, however, the majority have the lights turned off, their shutters down and the 'closed' sign on the door.

Making your company Web site attractive and popular is more than just putting a picture of the product or a description of the service onto a Web page and publishing it on the Web. There are a host of issues which need to be addressed to ensure success, but before a Web developer is even contracted, the bigger picture of strategic marketing needs to be addressed. It is important to understand that marketing is not sales, strategic marketing provides the structure to help us collate information and through it understand our customers. This is information that we need in order to sell successfully.

Applying this to a company Web site, before any development work is carried out on the Web site we have to be clear on who the customer is and why they are likely to buy. In describing the target customer, such factors as gender, age and socio-economic group are essentials while further information such as technical capability and language level can also be useful.

By carrying out primary market research - and this means not just reading reports or looking at statistics, actually get up from your desk and go and ask your customers - we will be able to find out most of this information offering a greater understanding of the customer profile. Including this information in your design brief puts the Web developer in a much better position to produce a site that the end user will feel affiliated to and comfortable with.

What is the objective of the site? Is it to provide information, to produce direct sales, or just a brochure-ware site showing the company and its capabilities? Is it intended to generate enquiries from new customers or to keep existing customers informed? Objectives will include the detailed information on any existing brand identity and the image the company wants to portray to the world at large. Remember your Web site is now the first port of call for a potential customer. Recent research has shown that viewers will make a decision on the suitability of a company in 20 milliseconds based purely on the image they are seeing on their computer screen. What is your Web site saying about your company? Make sure your Web developer is fully informed.

It is also important to identify the gender of your client base. This has been much ignored to date, possibly to the detriment of many businesses. A recent survey reported that women were 'Dunces of the dashboard': many of those surveyed did not understand the purpose of most of the switches or lights on their own car dashboard (BBC Breakfast 3/3/06); no comment was made in the report as to why this is, although it just might be because most cars are designed by men. Much research and writing exists on how communication differs between genders; since a Web site is by its nature a communication, it should make sense to have a Web site targeted at female buyers designed and developed by a female designer or team. The same obviously applies to a male audience, if this is your target then contract a male designer to build your site. Recent research at the University of Glamorgan supports this; it has shown that gender makes a big difference in the perceptions of the viewer. According to their research over 77% of Web sites showed a predominantly male design, reflecting the higher proportion of male designers in the marketplace. An interesting statistic when according to Judy Hoyt Pettigrew (author of Women Mean Business: The Secret to Selling to Women), as much has 80% of purchases are made by women.

Another consideration is geography and culture. Is the Web site going to be used to target a particular community or sector? Make sure that this is your focus and provide information that is of value to your viewers. Data that helps the decision making process can be the difference between a sale and no sale. In a recent survey from AOP over 80% of business decision makers use the internet and the content of Web sites to help make a decision on a purchase. Over half of the respondents also cited their trust in information supplied on Web sites.

Once we have a Web site that represents the business effectively in terms of image, content and functionality, what else needs to be addressed? Major considerations in the promotion of the site through search engine listings (not paid or sponsored) are the keywords and key-phrases. Over the past eight years it has baffled me that so many sites are missing this meta-data and have no appropriate page titles. These are essential if potential customers are to find your Web site and offerings. Although it is not obvious to the viewer, the purpose of this information is to provide the search engine with the data they need to place the site in the correct category in the database, which in turn helps the search engine respond to search terms entered by users.

To achieve successful ranking in search engines the title and meta-data must reflect the content of the page it belongs to. Keywords and phrases need to be researched thoroughly, what exactly are your customers likely to enter as search terms into search engines. When writing the content of the page remember that whilst conveying information about the products and services you should include your keywords and phrases - those terms which you have identified are used by your potential customer. It is possible to repeat the keywords and phrases a few times but not too often as the search engines treat this as spam!

Use useful and appropriate page titles - the common use of generic page titles such as "home page" and "contact us" is a waste of keyword opportunity. No-one types "contact us" into a search engine, why would they? Carry out a Web search on these two phrases and see how many there are out there (at the time of writing this was 3.1 billion & 6.2 billion respectively).

Once completed the search engine submission process can start. Whilst time consuming review the search engine you have selected and ask if it is relevant to your industry or whether it is likely to be relevant to your target market. Start with your own country search engines and submit to them - ensuring you are following their terms and conditions. Use of free submission services online is not recommended, consider how they make their money! Local regional and national directories should also be used. Many are free for basic listings but there is often a charge for enhanced listing.

In summary the biggest part of the Web site is in the preparation. If you carry out your research into your customers and understand them then you can build a Web site which they will find useful and will purchase from. Remember who the Web site is for - your customers!
by: Obono John Obono
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