Your New Website - the First Steps
Whether you decide to design your new
website yourself or hire a professional web designer,
a successful website must be developed with content,
design, and optimization in mind.
The Content
Only you - the small business owner
- can develop the content of your website. Because
only you know exactly what your business does, what
its goals are, and what you want to say about your
small business. A copywriter may be able to assist
you by putting this into words, but you are really
the person who needs writes the content.
Break your content into small pieces
that can be put into logical groupings (pages) within
your new website. A good average is 250 words/page.
Consider the keywords that visitors might use to search
for you, and incorporate them throughout your website,
with a density of approximately 3%.
The first page is your front door and
should contain a brief description of you and your
business: who you are, where you are located, and
what you have to offer. Too much information on the
homepage of your website can be cumbersome to visitors
and may cause them to click away. You have merely
seconds to grab your audience and entice them to stay.
For this reason, take time to develop the content
for this page. It will be well worth your time.
Develop the content for following pages
in much the same way, keeping the information concise
and on-topic. Incorporate references and ways to link
to other pages within your website. Potential topics
to consider are:
About Your Small Business, Industry
News & Tips, Your Services & Products,
Customer Testimonials, Contact Information, Employee
Biographies, etc.
The Web Design (Layout)
Even if you have fantastic content,
a poor web design that lacks originality won't keep
your visitors on your website. A key ingredient to
a successful presence on the World Wide Web is a well-designed
website. And for many small businesses, it is worth
paying a professional to web designer.
As a web designer, I recommend that
you take time to visit the website of your competition.
Does it work? Does it draw you in, so you want to
click deeper into their website for more? Or does
it drive you away, leaving you uninspired, uninterested,
and disappointed? You also should pay close attention
to how graphics, images, and photographs are used
throughout these website. Begin a list of images you'll
need to develop or gather to enhance your own website.
The most important aspect in your web
design is the navigation, or the way you move visitors
through your entire website. Make sure visitors can
find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
The obvious way this works is through the use of navigation
bars. You can also help visitors move through your
sites, and drive them to particular areas, by adding
links to keywords throughout your web pages.
Optimizing Your Website
Optimization is the process used to
bring your website to the attention of search engines.
There are many different opinions on how this can
and should be done. And strategies differ, depending
on the size of your business, your product or service,
and your budget. Yes, it's more than just submitting
your website to Google.
As a small business web designer, I
have many clients who are just starting their business
and are on a limited or non-profit budget. So I believe
it is always best to begin with the basics: a simple,
logical navigation system that carries through your
entire website; proper use of keywords and links within
the body of your website; submitting your new website
to free on-line industry directories where you may
link to your website; and of course, submission to
search engines. These are all things your web designer
should be able to help with. Keep in mind that these
are the basics. There are many search engine optimization
(SEO) strategies available, like article submissions,
back links, and pay per click campaigns. If you feel
you are in a market that may benefit from some of
these other strategies, you should seek further advice
from your web designer or a reputable SEO professional.
No matter what your SEO strategy is,
the hardest, but most important part is PATIENCE!
It takes time for even the smallest changes to be
picked up by the search engines. They crawl millions
of sites each day, indexing the information and ranking
them by relevance. The art of search engine optimization
is extremely time consuming, so keep this in mind
whether you do it yourself, or ask for the help of
a professional.
About the Author:
Visit Debbie Hastings at http://www.flyingchangewebs.com.
>> Return to Web
Design Article Knowledgebase Index
