What every business wants to know: Web site development and marketing.
© 2005 Wynn Solutions
Affiliate marketing — Revenue sharing between two Web sites. Affiliate site normally provides free advertising for an e-commerce site and compensation is based on performance (i.e., sales, clicks, registrations, or a combination of all)
DMOZ — The most important Web site directory. When you get your site listed in DMOZ, it is also listed in all other directories that use DMOZ's database.
ISP — Internet service provider, a company that provides an Internet connection.
Key phrase — A group or phrase of key words.
Key word — Words typically used to search for the goods and/or services you provide. They are used to present your pay-per-click ads and Web site content to potential customers.
Key word analysis — The process of analyzing a subject area or Web site with the goal of identifying key words that best describe the subject of the site. A factor in the analysis is discovering key words that match or resemble words people will use when performing searches on search engines. The ideal result of the analysis is a list of key words that, if incorporated correctly into a Web site, will increase probability of traffic to the site.
Key word optimization — The process of performing key word analysis and incorporating the discovered key words into the Web site.
Keyword spamming — The process of stuffing a Web page with keywords not related to the theme of the Web site as an attempt to influence/trick the search engines.
Link popularity — The popularity of your Web site in the eyes of the search engine, based on the quality and quantity of links to and from your site. For more information, read the article on link popularity .
Meta tags — Special tags placed in a Web page (but not intended for users to see) that provide extra information about the page to search engines. The meta tags are not visible on a Web page unless you view the HTML code.
Natural or organic search results — Organic here means natural, as in the natural results found by the search engine through its ranking algorithm, as opposed to the "artificial" results produced by paying for a position.
Page rank — To examine the entire link structure of the Web and determine which pages are most important.
Ranking — The position within search engine results that a Web site reaches for a particular search phrase.
Results page — After a user enters a search query, the page that is displayed is the results page. Sometimes it may be called a SERP, for "search engine results page."
Robot — Another name for spider .
ROI — Return on investment, which refers to the percentage of profit or revenue generated from a specific activity.
Search engine — A database of information retrieved from indexing Web pages from all over the Internet. A user can use a search engine's interface to search their database of information and find links to Web sites that provide information relevant to their search criteria. The majority of search engines have their own piece of software called a 'search engine spider' that visits Web pages and extracts the required information it needs to allow its search engine to function.
Search engine optimization — The process of modifying a Web site's content, structure and link popularity to maximize the chances of a higher ranking within search engine results; basically optimizing a Web site to make it more important in the eyes of a search engine.
SEO — Acronym for search engine optimization.
Site map — A special page on a Web site that contains a treelike representation of the link structure of the site. It allows a search engine spider to index all the most important pages of the site with ease because it can access them all from one page. A link to the site map should be clearly accessible from the home page.
Spiders/crawlers — Programs sent out by search engines that mechanically categorize your Web site based upon its text. Spiders work by extracting relevant information from a site and following any links on the page to continue the categorization. A common method used to ensure that a spider indexes all the most important Web pages on your site is to include a site map on the home page.
Subject directory — A subject directory organizes Internet sites by subject and is usually maintained by humans instead of software. The searcher looks at sites organized in a series of categories and menus.
TITLE tag — The TITLE tag is used to specify what text appears at the top of a browser window when visiting a Web page. It can influence rankings a great deal and should contain the page’s key phrase.
Unethical SEO — Involves employing underhanded or illegal activities to increase search engine ranking. Among the many unethical SEO practices are cloaking, gateway pages, and key word spamming.
Source: Webmaster World Forums
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What every business wants to know:
Web site design and optimization
Trends on the web change quickly. The key factors you heard last year for designing your company site and receiving many visitors are most likely not the key factors this year. Often, what was great advice not too long ago, could actually hurt your web site popularity this year.
Everyone wants to know what he or she can do or buy for next to nothing to have a competitive web site in his or her industry.
The answer is “not much”
Up to date web site design and marketing is an in-depth and quickly changing field. Professionals who devote most of their time and energy towards keeping up with trends and innovation, not to mention search engine strategies, are often struggling to keep their skills and information on top of what works best, most often and for what target market.
If you are serious about your business and the many advantages of a competitive web site, there are a few key issues to consider:
You’re going to need to hire a professional. Although it’s true that with minimal skill and experience almost anyone can create a web site, the result will look and feel amateurish and there will always be key factors to the site left undone or done incorrectly due to inexperience and lack of knowledge.
Successfully competing
on the internet usually means paying a competitive rate to have the site developed, optimized and marketed. Your target market and branding plays a crucial role in determining how much you need to spend. At the very minimum, you need to look as good and be as visible as your competition.
When receiving quotes to develop and marketing your web site, keep in mind that the more that needs to be done, the more it will cost you. Buying a web site is like buying a house. They are priced on features, upgrades, size, market, prestige of the builder and quality.
In the end, it will save you time and money to make sure the person developing your site communicates with the person who is going to market your site.
Make sure your designer has at least a basic working knowledge of the current trends in search engine optimization. If not, they could create a site that is difficult for the search engines to “see”. Web site marketing professionals are often forced to revise a site's design, at a substantial cost, to market it effectively.
The professional who markets your site should investigate trends in your industry, target market and your company's unique advantages and selling points. One size does not fit all in web site development and promotion.
Be prepared to pay from $3000.00 for a small site upwards to $20,000 + for a larger, more complex site. If the web is already inundated with sites in your industry, expect to pay more to compete.
Preparation: The key to saving money
- Create your own site plan.
Know what the sections of your site will be and how they will relate to each other. (A site plan can cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars) Spend time looking at your competitors' web sites to help you determine what sections you need to have and how the best ones are laid out. Think like a client or customer who would be using your service or buying your product. Ask a friend or relative who is not skilled at surfing the web if organization of your site makes sense to them.
- Have the copy for the site written, edited and in a plain text format before you hire a designer.
- Find several sites (in your industry if possible) that really appeal to you or a client and ask the designer to use those as a basis for your site design. Make notes about what you do and do not like about these sites. This will save the designer time and you money.
- Use minimal graphics, have photos of products prepared and optimized by another source.
- Save the bells, whistles and flashy graphics; They usually cost more than they are worth. Strive for an unique, clean, professional design that matches your brand and will appeal to your target market.
- Avoid surprise design fees
If you are starting from scratch, make sure you already have a logo, color scheme and brand before receiving a quote from a designer. Alternatively, get bids for complete packages.
The worst mistakes companies make:
- Trying to create or market a site themselves, in-house, with a relative who made lots of money on ebay last year, or using an inexpensive buddy of a peer who "does this on the side."
- Getting sold on a “cool cutting-edge idea” that is expensive and may not be ideal for your industry, target market or search engine marketing purposes.
- Believing that looks don’t matter since the information is good.
- Believing that good copy and aggressive marketing are not as important as a good-looking site.
- Selecting a web site developer because they can do it for such a low price.
- Selecting a purely technical developer who has little design experience or knowledge.
- Selecting a designer who knows very little about web site optimization and marketing.
© Wynn Solutions 2005. Author: Design and Marketing Department - Wynn Solutions (http://www.wynnsolutions.com), providing keynotes, training programs and business solutions for success. Verbatim copying of this article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
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