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What is a Website ?
In simple terms a website is an electronic brochure. It can be as basic as a one page A4 flyer or as sophisticated as a 20,000 page " encyclopedia".
Unlike the printed brochure you can make the reader respond to your content. You can ask then to contact you ( smart email ) you can ask them to give you information ( submit questionnaire ) you can invite them to subscribe to your weekly / monthly newsletter ( auto mailing )
But like the simple paper brochure, there is no point printing it unless you can get it into the hands of your target client
How you market yourself on the web is very different to how you market yourself through traditional media. The internet is marketed as a fun place to visit. The big money promotes " surfing the web " as a leisure activity - play games , win holidays , download your favourite pop music - chat to friends - " It's fun to visit the world wide web ".
…………..and here lies the first of the many challenges facing you in web marketing - what should your domain name be ?
The answer we believe is to have two principal domain names - " YOUR COMPANY.COM " a serious name for your corporate clients and " YOUR FRIENDLY SUPPLIER.COM " a "leisure" name for private and " surfing" clients.
In reality you will only have one website. Any names that the surfer clicks on to will transfer to your main active site. However, getting people to click on to your name is the first step
How do people find your website?
Once we have built your web site, we will need to make sure that people know where to find it. There are a number of ways to promote your site here are some of the options.
Search
Engines and Web Guides
Once we have developed your website we will submit your website
to all the principal search engines each time the site is updated. Search
engines typically use software called 'robots', 'spiders' or 'crawlers' to
automatically visit web sites and generate or update indexes of them. We supply
your URL and they do the rest. ( NB. It can take many weeks for some of the
search engines to register your sites. Some search engines charge a small
fee to register )
Web guides usually organise web sites into categories and topics. When we submit your URL, we will usually be asked for additional information, such as a description and an appropriate category. Often real people - rather than automated software - will look at your site and decide whether to include it in the guide.
Web guides allow visitors to browse through their listings in order to find what they want. This is a good way to find general information. Search engines, on the other hand, require users to enter keywords or phrases to look for, returning a list of web pages that 'match' these criteria. This is good for locating highly specific information. Most web guides incorporate some search engine facilities allowing their directories to be searched as well as browsed.
When we are registering with web guides, we must think carefully about the category you think your site fits in. This will help your target audience to find it. Think also about the description you provide. This is what browsers will see and will help to determine whether or not they choose to follow the link to your site.
A variety
of factors determine whether your site appears near the top of a list of matches
returned by a search engine. To maximise your chances of being near the top,
it helps to know a little about how search engines index sites, and how they
handle search requests.
Being Indexed
Most search engines will automatically index all the pages in your site. They will typically look at a number of 'elements' within a web page. This usually includes the page title, body copy, hyperlinks and 'meta-tags'.
Meta-tags are a special way of having a web page contain information about itself without showing it to visitors. This information will normally consist of about twenty keywords and a brief description of around twenty-five words. We will handle the technical aspects of implementing meta-tags, but we will ask you to provide the keywords and descriptions.
Different search engines may assign different levels of importance to each element within a page. Hence, for example, a word that appears in the title might be considered more significant than the same word appearing in the body copy.
In addition, some engines will pay particular attention to unusual words while others will look for frequent occurrences of particular words or phrases.
All of this will affect how highly any given search engine rates your site against a particular search query and hence where it will appear in the list of matches. Therefore we must think carefully about your page titles, meta-tag information and even your page content. Bear in mind that some engines will refuse to index pages where too many keywords have been used in the meta-tags, or where they have been deliberately repeated.
The way in which a user constructs his or her search query makes a huge difference to whether or not they find your site. Typing several words, or a phrase, into a search engine will usually result in pages that contain any of the words entered. This is likely to be a very long list! As well as entering your words or phrase, it is necessary to specify what type of search you want to perform. Typical options include:
•
Any of the words - list pages that contain one
or more of the specified words.
• All of the words - only list pages that
contain all of the entered words, though not necessarily together or in the
specified
• The exact phrase - only list pages that
contain the words exactly as entered.
There are different ways to specify the type of search depending
on which engine you use. Some will offer a menu from which the type can be
selected. Others require you to enter your keywords in a specific way.
For
example, to search for pages containing any of the words 'internet', 'service'
and 'provider' you might need to enter:
internet AND service AND provider
or
+internet +service +provider
To search for the phrase 'internet service provider' you might use quotes
around the phrase:
"internet service provider"
Important note :- just because we have registered with a number of search engines and web guide sites, this doesn't mean that people will find you. Even if they do, there are no guarantees they will visit.
A second, common, approach to site promotion is banner advertising. This is where a graphic - often animated - is placed on other web sites and can be clicked to reach yours. We will handle your banner advertising requirements. However, there are broadly two approaches to banner placement.
One option is to identify other sites whose visitors are likely to include your target audience. Another is to 'buy keywords' on search engines or portal sites. This means that people entering search terms that include your keyword(s) will see your banner advert on the page of results.
Fees for placing banner adverts are usually based on 'impressions' - that is, the number of people actually seeing your banner. Typical costs range from £10 to £50 per thousand impressions. The exact price depends on the quality of the referrals you can expect to get from a particular banner placement. Targeting a highly specific, precisely defined audience will cost more than advertising to a broader, more general audience.
However, a few sites will charge nothing for impressions but will levy a higher fee for 'click-throughs'. In other words, what you pay depends on how many people actually click on your banner to reach your site. This may prove to be good value because only a small percentage of impressions typically lead to a clickthrough.
However,
we may have trouble finding sites that use this approach and are also appropriate
for your advertising.
Search engine or web guide registration and banner advertising are important, but we mustn't forget the real world.
Your business cards, stationery and product packaging should all feature your web site address. Also you must include it also in any newspaper, magazine or poster advertising you do. You may even want to consider specifically advertising your web site in appropriate print publications including yellow pages and Thomson local directories.
In
the real world your domain name becomes even more important. It should be
short, easy to remember and easy to spell. It's worth thinking about registering
common misspellings of your domain. Also consider hyphenated and non-hyphenated
versions if it comprises more than one word. Having several different top-level
domains (such as .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, .org.uk) is also a good way to
increase your 'findability'.
Remember that on the web users can simply click on a link to go to your site.
But someone who has seen your web site address on a card, letterhead or advertisement
will have to type it in, often from memory. If they get it wrong, not only
will they not find you - they will probably find someone else instead.
How do I make my site different to my compeditors sites ?
Consider the example of a firm of solicitors
There are 923 solicitors in the UK with websites. . A random look at some of the sites reveals that they all offer similar services . They all offer a "personal service " Many show a friendly smiling partner picture to re - assure that they can be trusted.
There are 88 solicitors who have registered their domain names as work related names
There are 84 solicitors who promote the giving of free initial advice
Are
there sites exciting - no
Are the sites fun - no
Are the sites informative - some are
Would you return to them - unlikely
……….so
what's the secret ?
……….content
First impressions are always important. The first page ( index.htm ) determines whether the user continues browsing the site or clicks the return to last page button.
Things which make people leave your site :
•
Pages take too long to load
•Colour and font style make it too difficult to read
•Content badly written and un- interesting
•Little or no information other than hard selling
•Information static
Things which make people return to your site :
•
Pages load quickly
•Minimise the use of complex technology and animation
•Colours and font styles easy to read
•Interesting content - additional information regarding all aspects of
living and working in London and Kenton
•Useful links page to other service providers and local businesses
•Humorous content - Jokes and anecdotes
•Interactivity - Competitions, Polls on local issues, Encourage the asking
of questions where the answers appear on a forum page
•Make it easy for users to return - Save on favourites page
•Change the content regularly
Once you have got the person to visit your site ( it is no
different to them walking off the street into your office in Kenton) you want
to keep them there and convert their interest into business.
This can only be done by showing that you are different and fun to be with.
Our
strategy is to get you on the web quickly, develop the site in an organised
and logical manner and then develop the content to attract new clients and
then encourage them to return on a regular basis
