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I've arranged the tips into three categories: Structure (S); Search Engine (SE); Content (C)
(SE) Dynamic Content
Many large database driven sites don't have actual webpages, but rather the page is created on demand from a database. While cost effective, this is dangerous in terms of search engines. The resulting ASP webpage normally has a lot of numbers and question marks in it - something that search engines steer clear of, as they're "afraid" of being caught in a loop. So be sure that your dynamic content can be created without the use of numbers, ? and similar.
(S) Contact details
Make it easy, very easy for your viewers. Why not build your contact details into your website template so it's always visible.
(S) Make it simple and uncluttered
People hate clutter and busy websites. Be sure yours has lots of open "white" space and is built along the "C. R. A. P." principle that I talk about in the book/workshops. Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity.
(C) Research
Check out your competition at home and abroad. See what they're doing on their websites. Check out their keywords, page titles and descriptions in their source code (while on the webpage right click the mouse and select view source. That's the html code behind the webpage). Type in some keywords you want to use in search engines and see what companies come up first and then look at their source code.
(C) Write Internationally
If you want to do business overseas, be sure your language fits their terminology. A perfect example: I was in a keyword brainstorming session with a client, vitamin manufacturers. I kept on saying drugstore and pharmacy in the conversation. They kept saying chemists. Being American, I'd key the word drugstore in search engines, not chemists. So it's essential to think and include international phrases and spellings in your text. Remember in NZ and Australia - a lot of "z's" are turned into "s" (organisation instead of organization).
(S) Use CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
Style sheets allow you to name and define whole sets of formatting so they can be applied easily and instantly to selections of text. They're advantageous because you can globally alter the style of an entire website by changing the style sheet. External ones are for sites and internal ones are for a single web page - such as an html email newsletter.
(SE) Use Title and Heading Tags
These tags have much heavier search engine "weights" than others so by putting keywords in them, you'll have a shot at better ranking.
(S) Use Tables
The secret of great web design. You can even slice and dice images and put them in the individual cells of tables.
(S) You must have a secure server for online payments
It's easy and people look for that little gold padlock on the bottom of their screen to indicate they're in a secure server.
(S) Do I have to say it - Grab their email addresses up front
Be sure that one of the very first things someone sees when they come to your site is (an offer for something) in tandem with a request for their email address. Do not let them go without giving you that golden asset.
That's it for part one. Here's part two. |
