Building a Website..........continued from page 1

So, before you waste your money on “Google Ad Words” or any online marketing campaign, make sure you have a great website waiting for your potential customers when they get there. This brings us to the next point. What exactly makes a “good website?”

3. A good website and a good book have something in common; they hold the readers attention. You don’t put down a good book until it’s finished, by the same token, a good website will naturally have your visitors exploring the site to see what you’re offering and if there’s a reason to return.

Here are are a few guidelines to make your website more “sticky”:

Keep it simple. Websites that have a lot of flash can annoy rather than engage your customers. Unless you’re selling technology, use it sparingly. Don’t clutter up the home page with everything you do or sell. Instead, organize your information into different pages and direct your customers there.

Color. Depending on your business, the use of color should be used tastefully. Don’t make things hard to read i.e. blue text on an orange background.

Navigation. ALWAYS let your visitors know where they are. Don’t make them depend on the back arrow to get back to the home page. What are they suppose to do if Google or Yahoo sends them to one of your interior pages and there is no way theycan find your HOME PAGE?

Content. Have something beneficial to offer your customers. Give them tips or tell them about relevant information regarding your industry. Content should be short and sweet. Get to the point. No one likes to read long pages of text on a website.

Make it personal. Tell them who you are and what you do. Add a photo of yourself. Tell them why you’re doing the thing you do; it will make it easier for them to relate. (The Web can be so impersonal)

Contact Page. Make it easy for them to do business with you. Provide phone numbers, address, email information, hours of operation, etc. Visitors have come to expect a “Contact Us” page; don’t disappoint them.

4. Once your website is launched, plan on spending some time updating the site. If you don’t have time or the expertise to do the updates yourself, then pay someone to do it for you. It is important to keep updating your site to give your visitors a reason to return. Add articles, list special sales, add a coupon, have a newsletter sign up; anything that will give your customers a reason to come back. Updates also help your rankings; if the search engines never see any activity, they won’t come back as often and your rank will suffer.

A website does not help your business if no one can find it. Don’t think that just because you paid a lot of money and had a great website designed that visitors will immediately flock to it; it doesn’t work that way. The search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) will list your business, but in the beginning your site may show up on page 39 of whatever keyword phrase you decided your customers would search.

So how do you get your website noticed? Sorry, but you’ll have to wait for the next newsletter for more tips or you can contact me at (502) 207-6842 .

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