Questions & Answers
Questions: Why do I need a website?
What are the qualities of a good website?
How can I move my website to the top of a Google search?
Why do I need website?
Credibility A web presence can give even a small (or new) company credibility and exposure. In addition to telling what you do, a good website tells who you are. It reflects your company's philosophy, priorities, and uniqueness. It can help put you on a more even footing with larger and more established businesses.
Information Even if word-of-mouth is usually your best publicity, your customers can find immediate answers about your business on your website - like business hours, directions, prices. They can also see some of your previous work and read some references.
Interaction You can use your website to receive questions and feedback from clients or to acquire a mailing list. You can sell your products on your website as well as promote new merchandise and “specials”.
Education You can use your website as a tool to educate your customers and the public about your profession and your services. By keeping current on the latest news and insights about your profession and services, your website can become a trusted place for information.
More Resources
Why You Need A Website (from Inc .Technology) This article offers 5 compelling reasons why even the smallest business needs a website today.
Why You Need a Website (from Entrepreneur Magazine) This author speaks to the importance of a website that is professional looking and user-friendly. In addition, he explains why even businesses that are small or don't sell online will benefit from a website.
What are the qualities of good website?
Appearance
- Design is simple, clean, and attractive, without needless flashiness and animation.
- Colors are pleasing and the text is easy to read.
- The site is customized for the type and feel of the particular business and services.
- The basic look remains the same from page to page, giving continuity to the site and reinforcing the message.
- Small paragraphs, bullets and charts are used when possible, instead of long paragraphs of text.
- The most important information can be seen at first glance on the home page, while supporting information is easily available on additional pages.
Usability
- Navigating from one page to another is logical and intuitive.
- Navigation menu is identical on each page.
- Additional links should have wording that has obvious meaning and clear direction. Links should also be current.
- The desired information is only 1 or 2 clicks away.
- The pages and images load quickly.
- The site is equally reliable on various-sized monitors and in different browsers.
Content
- The information on the site anticipates the visitor's questions and needs.
- Something useful or interesting to site visitors is given on each page.
- A desired action is obvious and prominent on each page, e.g. "Contact Me".
- Website information remains up-to-date and relevant.
More Resources
Crafting Persuasive Web Content In this article, internet marketing analyst Jackie Baker advocates web content that is easy to read, answers visitors' questions, and backs up claims with facts. She discusses both strong and weak content by analyzing a website that has some of each.
Navigation Usability Can Make Or Break Your Website Here Jackie Baker shows how logical navigation can drive visitors to your goal of contacting you or buying your product.
Jackie Baker is an internet marketing analyst with concentrations in usability, information architecture, social media, online PR, and Search Engine Optimization.
How can I move my website to the top of a Google search?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the complicated technique of preparing (or "optimizing") your website in order to improve its ranking on search engines like Google. There are many steps in the SEO process; each one is important but it is really the cumulative effort of carrying out as many of the the procedures as possible that results in successful SEO. Here are some steps you or your webmaster can take in the SEO process:
- Develop effective keywords for each page of your website.
The keywords that you choose should represent the main focus of your webpages. A good keyword or phrase is also one that potential visitors to your website are likely to enter into a search engine.
One way to increase the SEO value of your keyword is to determine (1) how often the potential keyword or phrase is searched for on a search engine and (2) how many websites currently use that word or phrase as part of their own keywords. Your goal would be to have #1 high and #2 low. See More Resources (below) for some help in doing this.
- Use your keywords or phrases consistently throughout your website in places like headlines, content, meta tags, filenames. Keyword Density (KD) is the percentage of times you use a particular keyword compared to the number of total words used. You are striving for each component of your website (such as content or title) to have an optimal Keyword Density - not too low but also not too high, since some search engines interpret a high KD as "keyword overuse", a type of spamming aimed at tricking the search engines into giving a high search engine ranking. See More Resources (below) for details.
- Create good content in your website. When search engines are examining websites for top rankings, effective content has become a crucial component. Content is the information and expertise about the product or services that you are promoting or selling on your website. Content can be in the form of educational sections, how-to discussions, further resource offerings, FAQ, etc. Not only will enhanced content help your search engine ranking but it will keep your visitors on your website longer!
- Submit your optimized website to appropriate search engines, especially if it is a new or recently changed site. The major search engines will automatically find your site, but submitting it will hasten the time it will take the search engine to include your site or your changes in its search.
More Resources:
Search Engine Watch SEO is a constantly changing process and search engines revise their criteria for ranking websites frequently. This is a good website for keeping up with the latest.
Word Tracker This website allows you to find the best keywords and keyphrases for your websites. There is a monthly fee for this service, although there is a free 7-day trial period. When you type in potential keywords, it tells you how many searches use those words as well as how many current websites are optimized for these same keywords.
Keyword Density Here is a site that figures out Keyword Density for you - for free. You can point to one of your webpages, and it reports KD on the various components, such as its content, title, meta tags, etc.
SEO Chat This site gives you the latest news in the world of SEO, as well as instruction and forums to help with details.
