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Your Website Goals
Whether you want to give your small business a larger feel or give your big business
a more personal tone, that can be achieved with the layout and design of your site.
Perhaps in this scenario, you fall right in the middle.
A website is a sales tool to serve your customers, or potential customers, twenty-four / seven.
If you have ever advertised your business using any another medium, you would be
serving your advertising budget well by investing in an effective website. You definitely get
more bang for you buck on the web.
If you have advertised in print, on radio or television, consider repurposing those traditional elements directly into your website. Imbed sound clips, videos, articles, reports, and more to give your site bigger impact.
Top 3 most important elements of a website:
- Valuable Content
- Search Engine Friendly
- Easy to Navigate
Your Website Content
If your website offers valuable information pertaining to a specific subject, that content will actually attract the people out there looking for it. It is up to you to provide the valuable information (content) for the pages of your site. If you imagine a website as simply graphics and words (information)…and we all know a website can be a lot more, the information is one of the most important parts of the equation. Search engines like Google send spiders-bots-crawlers to detect what content you have on your site. If your site is built properly, to include natural search engine optimization techniques, Google and other search engines will take your content into account when matching the person searching for it and the most relevant matches. There are many other elements that Google considers when providing your listing, but ‘content is king’ as the saying goes.
Website content also includes other files that reside on the pages, such as video, audio, pdf, etc. For best results, each type of file on the page should be relevant to the subject matter. These files can be coded so that search engines better recognize them as appropriate and related content. Videos are widely being used on the Web and have paved their way in to stay. The majority of internet users are connected via high speed service, which allows video to download quickly and continue to be more widely utilized.
Videos get enormous attention online. Recent traffic statistics (Feb '09), depending on which analytics firm you ask, YouTube has anywhere from 60-80
MILLION visitors a MONTH and Hulu is more like 3-6 million. Using the right combination of content, displayed and optimized properly, can yield better results.
Your Website Interface Design & Graphical Elements
One of the most important factors in a first-rate website is easy navigation. The navigation elements should remain in a consistent location on the website to assist visitors with getting around without confusion, keeping number of clicks to a minimum. This does not mean that all of your links need to be in one row or column, but the site should be organized and easy for a visitor to find the information that might be most useful to them, in a short amount of time.
Color scheme and graphical elements are essential to achieving the right overall look and feel of the website design; mood per se, projecting an ambiance, style or personality. Company logos are typically the starting point. If you do not have a logo, we can either design one for you, or use a font and color preference of your choice.
Many folks ask about using Flash rich media for websites. We recommend not using Flash for the entire site (unless special circumstances apply) because search engines are unable to parse a flash movie file. The search engine recognizes that the file is there, and what type it is, however, it cannot read the information contained within it. Flash can be extremely effective when used appropriately. For example, Flash makes great product demonstrations, especially when coupled with voice-over or narration. Or use a small Flash element to add a bit of life and movement, but don’t go overboard. If you are concerned about the search engines (and you should be), avoid using all Flash introductions also, as your website’s home page is extremely important to the search engines.
Getting Started
- Domain Name (aka URL or web address)
Domain Names are purchased for a minimum of one year.
- Website
- Website Hosting & E-mail accounts
- Promotion of your Domain Name (online & offline)
Choose an Effective Domain Name; Consider Multiple Domain Names; Eleven Guidelines to Choosing a Domain Name [PDF]
Re-Designing Your Website
Is your website getting the results your business needs? Are your goals for the site being realized or achieved? Or are you simply ready to take your website to the next level?
Most websites that are updated and maintained frequently get better results. Visitors will return if the site gives them a reason to. Spiders return and re-index if the content is changed periodically.
Clients who are actively interested in their website traffic typically have an advantage over those who are not. Another adage, ‘you have to work it for it to work for you’.
Search Engine Optimization Techniques
We integrate Google Analytics code for web traffic reporting. They offer free tools to show you how people are finding your website. This is useful when measuring effect of promotional efforts or other advertising mediums. You should promote your website as if it were your brick and mortar business…just do it virtually, here, on the web. Check out the features offered by Google Analytics traffic reporting.
* All content to be provided by Client. Award Web Services, LLC not liable for the accuracy of content, however will do our best to edit provided content for typos, puncuation, etc. Client represents that the content provided is either the property of the Client or Client has received permission form the copyright owner to use the content provided.
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7109 Staples Mill Road, #288