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Business Success on Today's Internet: How to prepare your website for success.
Author: Wesley Groves, BA, MHA
For many, the new has worn off the Internet and most companies have a web presence of some sort. However, few companies are utilizing the Internet to its full marketing potential. There are three key factors required to achieve business success on today's Internet: a professional design, powerful content and an effective search engine promotion strategy.
A professional design that is relevant to your industry is very important. When a visitor comes to your site, you have less than twenty seconds for the site to download completely and convince the user to stay. Comprehensive studies have shown that the single most important factor convincing a visitor to remain on your site is based soley on aesthetics.
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So, what determines if a website is professional or a good web design? This is a very subjective question. Some people like cool animation, video and music (http://www.mtv.com) and others like the big corporate look (http://www.bp.com). But the question is not really what you like in a website, but rather what is appropriate for your industry and audience. Imagine BP trying to convey information to investors in the MTV setting; that would be inappropriate.
When it comes to determining the approach to use in your web presence, I recommend listening to your web designer. An experienced designer should be able to assist with researching your industry and audience sufficiently to determine the most effective design approach to bring the professional appeal necessary for success.
Once you have convinced a user that your site is worth a look beyond the initial few seconds, you need to present them with information. This too must be done quickly or the visitor will leave your site and seek the information elsewhere. They do not call this the information superhighway for nothing.
The site visitor will quickly scan over your page and you need a catchy headline in bold print to capture their attention. In addition, use sub-headlines throughout your content to entice them to read further.
Here are a few pointers for writing powerful content:
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Fire your biggest gun first. Get to the point. Present your most compelling information. It is a common mistake to save your best information for last in an attempt to build up to a climax. |
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Content;Talk to your user in first person and avoid industry jargon. One of the worst things you can do is inundate your visitor with sentences like: “Anabasis Solutions, LLC. utilizes the latest techniques to secure network infrastructure from intrusion and compromise with the latest hardware-based firewall solutions complemented by a comprehensive software DMZ.” It is far more appropriate to say: “We protect your computer network from hackers.” |
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Emphasize your unique selling point; the benefit of working with you. |
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Pack your message with benefits, benefits and more benefits. |
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Make your content as long as it needs to be to get your whole message across. And since we are on the subject, I would like to dispel the myth in the web design industry that users will not read a lot of text and that a vertical scroll bar is a major design flaw. This is simply not true. If you present users with the information they are seeking in a compelling manner, they will read the content on your site. The user is seeking information about your product or service; or they wouldn’t have come to your site in the first place. |
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Emphasize your key points. |
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Make it easy to contact you on every page. |
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Tell your reader what to do, e.g., Order Now! |
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DO NOT USE ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS OR HEADLINES. IT SLOWS THE READER DOWN AND CAN BE VERY ANNOYING. |
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Do not use popup windows unless absolutely necessary. |
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Do not have banner advertisements on your site unless this is part of a primary revenue stream. |
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Be totally professional about absolutely everything. It is ok to make comparisons between products or services; but avoid openly criticizing your competitors or using phrases like “unlike some of our competitors, we do _______”. Your goal is to make yourself stand out and above your competition using positive words and phrases. Negative comments can leave your user with a bad feeling that is not conducive to a sale or contact. |
The same rules used to write an effective sales letter are an excellent starting point for writing web content. By keeping these basic principles in mind, you can transform your website into an effective marketing tool.
Assuming that your business is prepared for success on the Internet by having a professional design and powerful content; the next step is driving qualified traffic to your website with a comprehensive search engine marketing strategy. Since your goal is to drive sales, increase profitability and generate growth, you need to get your message out to the masses by being at the top of search engines. There are two primary ways to be found in search engines: Pay-Per-Click and Traditional Search Results (sometimes called organic or free listings).
Pay-Per-Click is exactly that. Using either Google Ad Words and/or Overture, you pick key words that are going to drive targeted visitors to your site and pay each time someone finds your web site through one of these links.
The big advantage of Pay-Per-Click advertising is that within 1 or 2 days, you can virtually guarantee top positioning in all the major search engines. The cost for Pay-Per-Click is contingent upon the key words you select and the level of competition from other bidders.
Organic search engine advertising takes a while to deliver results and is an on-going process. Through the life of your site, you should add content, modify copy and tweak key words to optimize your site’s positioning within search engines. Google is the single most important search engine relative to organic listing. Once you have Google in-line, the other search engines will follow suit.
The process by which you improve your organic search engine rankings is called search engine optimization. Search engine optimization does not have to be an ugly text only site. We have briefly discussed the necessity to convey a professional image through your web design and content. What benefit is a visitor to your site if you cannot inspire confidence sufficient to make that contact or sale?
Optimizing a website for search engines starts with the inclusion of descriptive meta-tags within the header of the HTML page. The use of appropriate key words, description and page titles help search engines index your page relative to the content actually contained in the visible pages. More advanced optimization techniques involve the use of key words within your text, dynamic content, creating heading tags and the use of questions or trigger words within the content to drive relevancy.
Achieving success on today’s Internet is possible by implementing a plan that includes the suggestions included in this article. Our experience can increase your chances of success.
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