Its 2AM, do you know where your website is?Written by Cindy Kelly
You've selected perfect website template. You’re finally ready to show world your professional website...but will anyone be able to find it? When I began my career as a webmaster 5 years ago, I assumed that if I had a great looking website it would naturally bring visitors. I found a great looking professional website template for small business I worked for, customized it...and waited. To my surprise, no visitors appeared. I kept wondering what I had done wrong? I used PPC ads and trusted feeds to bring traffic to my website but it seemed very expensive and didn’t yield results I expected. I didn't quite understand why how those other non-paid listings (for same products I sold) were listed ahead of me. My desire for an improved search engine ranking(or any search engine ranking) drove me to find a solution. I visited webmaster forums, read many newsletters and websites and discovered a great little tool called Wordtracker. I learned that if I had only used keywords that people "really" searched for, I could build my whole website around them and visitors would come! I used Wordtracker, Overture, and Alta Vista to come up with some suggestions. To my surprise some of words I thought people were searching for, they weren't searching for at all. I quickly learned that it wasn't realistic to target one word phrases like "baby" or "toys" because they were way too broad and competitive. I also found that people were searching for specific products I sold. I quickly realized that more words I used that were specific to my business, better chance I had of conversions (sales).
| | Keep It Clean. Keep it SimpleWritten by Stephen Brennan
With availability of more elaborate programs and features for website building, it seems that many webmasters, particularly those who are relatively new to Online Home Business and Marketing, have decided to concentrate more on how fancy their website looks like rather than what really matters. There seems to be some sort of contest to see how many ‘bells and whistles’ they can fit into limited space afforded a Home Page, while forgetting that primary reason for website’s existence is to earn them income.Of course, appearance is important. A professionally constructed website with an attractive look, combined with right level of functionality, will always be an asset to any Online Business but you can go too far in ‘fancy dress’ department and it would seem that many do. Occasionally, I visit a couple of Forums, which among other things, also have an area where ‘learner webmasters’ can request a review of their website from more experienced in forum membership. I am by no means an expert on website building and I certainly don’t see myself as an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) guru either. These are two main areas of expertise that one would imagine are required for a qualified review and subsequent suggestions on many aspects that make a professional and successful website. Regardless, I do have a couple of years of building my own websites, during which I have learnt enough to modestly call myself semi-qualified. So, in that capacity, if I had one piece of advice to give anyone who was building or about to build a website for an Online Business, it would have to be to keep it clean and simple. There is nothing worse than a cluttered looking website and there is nothing that will repel visitors more quickly than a slow loading website. The more ‘fancy gadgets’ and premium images you try to jam on your pages, more cluttered they will look and more slowly they will load.
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