WEB Site Design
=======================
The Internet has opened a whole New World of opportunity for all
of us. With the extensive amount of information available, it has
never been easier to communicate your message to the world.
A web site will enable you to create your own home on the World Wide
Web. Your home may be as simple or dynamic as you'd like and is only
limited by your imagination.
Although designing a great home page is an important part of
developing a successful online business, it is only one small part
of an overall plan.
Although many new Internet entrepreneurs believe that all they need
to do to make money online is to put up a web site, that couldn't be
further from the truth.
The truth is developing a successful Internet business takes a great
deal of time, thought and effort. It takes a sincere commitment, a
lot of patience, and a lot of personal drive.
There are a lot of lessons that must be learned, and a lot of
failures that must be endured. However, if you're truly passionate
about your business and success, it will happen -- you will succeed.
A major factor in determining your success is the amount of time you
take to educate yourself. Please don't take this point lightly, as
it can literally mean the difference between your success and
failure.
Sure, learning HTML is an important part of designing a successful
web site; however, it is only one small part. You must first develop
a strategic plan and design your web site accordingly.
Prior to designing your web site, here are some questions to assist
you in developing your strategy:
- What products and/or services will you offer?
- Who is your target audience?
- What is your most wanted response?
- What type of design will you use?
- Will you design your site or hire a professional?
- How will your site be navigated?
- How will your site be optimized?
- What type of graphics will your site use?
- Where will you obtain your graphics?
- What graphic formats will you use?
- What fonts will you use?
- How will you design your site for different screen sizes?
- How will you design your site for different web browsers?
- How will you optimize your pages for the Search Engines?
- How will you make your web pages load quickly?
- What type of content will your site offer?
- Where will the content come from?
- How will you accept payment through your site?
- How will you process your orders?
- How will you deliver your products or services?
- How will you collect your customers' information and store
it within a database?
- What kind of computer software will you need?
- How will you decide on a domain name?
- How will you register a domain name?
- How will you host your web site?
- How will you upload your files to your server?
- Should your files be uploaded in binary or ASCII mode?
- What should you look for in a quality web host?
- How will you send out mailings?
- How will you drive traffic to your web site?
- How will you advertise your products and services?
- How will you test your advertising?
- How will you market and promote your web site, products
and/or services?
Other important components on your WEB site to consider are:
- professional Logo
- Contact Information
- Company History
- terms & Conditions, Disclaimer
- Copyright Info
Although this list of questions is far from complete, it will
give you a basic idea of exactly what is involved in developing a
successful web site. You must consider the entire picture and design
your web site accordingly.
Above all else, you must be willing to invest in your business --
not only with money, but also with your time. Although there is a
lot of free information available online to assist you, keep in
mind: you get what you pay for.
The great thing is you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are
many successful professionals that have been where you are right
now.
Selecting the right keyword phrases for each page of your web site
is the first step towards ranking high in the Search Engines.
However, it is only the first step.
In addition to selecting targeted keyword phrases, you must also
strategically optimize your page including:
- META description tag
- META keyword tag
- META keyword tag
- Title
- Image ALT tags
- Heading tags
- Image names
- Hyperlinks
- Body text
This has to be planned as part of an overall online marketing
strategy
The most popular search engine is still Google. But Yahoo! has
also a reasonable market share. Nevertheless, the small search
engines should not be underestimated when planning a successful WEB
representation. Maybe your potential clients are using mainly one of
these exotic engines.
After your WEB site is implemented and downloaded to your WEB
server you want to make sure that people know about it. Therefore,
it is important to tell the search engines about your site. There
are a few important things to consider:
- Google prefers to get a Site-Map submitted instead of a
simple WEB site
- It is important that all tags are filled out (see above)
before submitting to search engines
- Some search engines require submission of a separate
description - make sure the description is full of your
keywords.
- create as many links to your WEB site as possible to
increase the Google Ranking
Landing pages are WEB sites created for a single goal and a very
specific clientele. The page is laden with keywords specific to the
narrow target.
|
