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This is an old saying but still a true statement. When considering where to go with your website development plan it’s a critical consideration. It’s easy to get sucked into the “glamour” of a beautiful website – but will it keep your potential customer’s interest? One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is to spend money “foolishly” on their first website. I’ve been in this business for more than 10 years now – I’ve seen a lot of really ugly websites – but in all honesty some of the ugliest websites are getting the BEST results! Why? because they carry the CONTENT that the site visitor is seeking and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Content aside though, you want your first time visitors to feel good about taking time to look around. I encourage my clients to consider these 3 points:
1. Content will bring them in.
2. Design will get them to stop for a minute
3. Usability will encourage them to hang around and learn why they should choose YOUR company to meet their needs.
Even I forget the importance of easy navigation some times. If, like me, a person spends much time browsing the web getting around websites becomes second nature but if your target market might (and most do) include people that view the web as a tool and not a passtime, beware – if you make it hard to get around the most beautiful graphics in the world will not keep them there.
To make a good first impression – combine the best of the best:
Make sure your site provides enough information to make them glad they clicked the link to get there.
Make sure your design – color and graphics theme – is appealing to your target market – if you have a broad range of demographics it’s always better to go for “understated elegance” than totally now graphics – it’s just like a job interview – better to have your outfit unnoticed than noticed for all the wrong reasons!
Make it easy to do more than walk in the front door. Don’t try to break out of the box – people are used to some basic navigation tools – if you don’t provide them they might find someone that will. Think about it – no matter how GREAT a restaurant might be – if it’s hard to get there you won’t go nearly as often as you would if it were just around the corner and had plenty of free parking.
You get emails about it, you read about it on chat boards and forums, you know it’s what makes your site “successful” but what does it really mean?
Search Engine Optimization is the art of taking your site’s content and making sure it mathematically reflects the value it offers to your target market.
You have a website, you want your website to be seen by as many people as possible. In order for your site to be found when someone searches for what you are promoting on your website the search engines (computers) have to believe that your site has the best answers to their request. Search engines are run by computers, therefore, they make determinations on black and white statistics. They don’t care how pretty your site is, they don’t even like “high tech”. What they care about is the math – what percentage of your site matches the search criteria and how many honestly related sites link back to you? This is often referred to as “keyword relevance”.
In summary, when writing content for your website think about your potential customers and how they might search for you if they didn’t know you existed. What problems do you solve and how would someone with those problems try to find you? Once you know this, you are ready to optimize your site. Remember, it’s not about keyword spamming – it’s about honestly providing the information that people that come to your site are hoping to find.
You can view this entire article on our website.
SEM is yet another acronym being tossed around the Internet by companies like Coburn Enterprises. What it stands for is Search Engine Marketing. So… what is Search Engine Marketing?
Our definition of SEM is the planned and effective use of all of the tools this incredible marketing machine we call “the web” to help your potential customers, clients, fans and followers find you among billions of websites, blogs, ads and articles they have to choose from.
By implementing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), appropriate link building, rich content and coordinating PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns (when it’s wise to do so) you can increase your exposure and therefore your results from your web presence.
Search Engine Marketing professionals spend their time keeping up with the latest trends in how search engines rank, rate and list websites and help you make the most effective use of the vast sea of potential choices out there based on your particular market and how they shop or search for the information or products you have to offer.
Learn about our SEM Services here: SiteBuilderNow SEO Dominance Packages
You may also want to see how others define Search Engine Marketing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing
In our ongoing efforts to effectively communicate with our clients and help them make the best of their web marketing and search engine optimization efforts we have established our new blog.