Build a Better Website Blog

Show your visitors that you appreciate them and respect their valuable time. Provide beneficial information while making it easy to find what they need.

Provide beneficial information
Build trust by actually providing solid information.  Free information is good, but high quality free info can set you apart from the crowd.  Extensive FAQ or self-help sections of websites can start a priceless domino effect of word of mouth publicity.  Of course this works best for informational websites that draw revenue from advertisers, but it can improve the reputation and recognition of any organization and help you build a list of warm leads.

Make it easy to contact you
Place contact info, or a link to it, on the top and/or bottom of each page.  Make your first choice of contact most conspicuous, such as easy-to-read phone number, possibly with smaller cell, fax, physical mailing address if they are secondary avenues.   

Easy navigation keeps visitors happy

Explain what makes you special
Why should visitors stay at your site for more than 5 seconds?  What separates you from the competition? What is your niche?  What valuable items or information are you offering at no or low cost?  Answer all of these on your home page and other main pages. 
Use the magic words:  Best, Free, Leader, Lowest prices, Most experienced, etc., then back it up on secondary pages with lists of features, testimonials from happy customers, statistics, side by side comparisons, product reviews from respected sources and instructions for best results.

Say “Thank you”
Thank your visitors for purchasing, completing a questionnaire or just visiting!  Look for opportunities to show your appreciation and they will remember your friendliness.
Set this page up as confirmation of submitting a contact form.

Keep information current
Consider a “Last Modified” date on time-sensitive material, particularly if there is any question as to if this could be relevant only to a previous date or version of the topic being discussed.  Caution:  Only use this if your content is clearly valid.  If the only date on a page is “copyright 1998″, visitors may assume that this page (and possibly others) is old and untrustworthy.

Avoid distractions
Keep blinking text, scrolling text, animated GIF images, and sound files to a minimum.  Use these only if they highlight important sections of text and blend well with the look of the site.  Do not place too many of these moving features too close to each other, to avoid a nice page from seeming tacky.

Better code can speed up the website

Remind visitors where they stand
Don’t rely on the memory of users.  If an article extends to a second page, repeat its title, possibly with the word “continued.”  During each stage of an online purchase, display the key transaction details on each page.  Include a “Back” button if they don’t wish to continue moving deeper into a particular area.  Guide them throughout your website, prompting them to take action when appropriate.  Clean navigation keeps visitors happy.

Capturing the attenion of viewers is difficult enough, so when you keep them more than a few seconds, make sure that they see a reason for future visits as well.  Return traffic is like gold!

Out of date content is a turn-off
Periodic updating and addition of text helps rank by showing that there is “fresh” and current content on individual pages and the site as a whole. If visitors notice incorrect or out of date information, their impression is that your website is untrustworthy. When your “coming events” page lists items from the previous year, you may as well be asking people to leave your site. They might assume you are no longer in business!

A regular schedule of web updates could be monthly, quarterly or even annually, as long as information remains valid. If it costs you money each time a web designer or webmaster makes changes or uploads new material, you may want to set up a couple of pages to update yourself at no added cost. Have your designer create a database and code for you to easily log in with a simple username and password to add, edit or delete information. This works well for an “Announcements” section of your homepage or a “Company News” or “Coming Events” page.

A website built to display a schedule of events (meetings, softball games, concerts, etc,) can include a calendar that is easily maintained by an administrator without the need for technical know-how. When clicked on, any entry can display a page with full details – part of the same database of information.

Use original page text
Do not use similar text on several pages of your site, just to have more content. Do not copy text from another website just because it contains good keywords. Google levies a “duplicate content” penalty which will cause the duplicate pages to be filtered out, making them worthless in search engines. This is done to prevent “mirror sites” from both appearing high in results and usually means that whichever page was first indexed would be regarded as the “valid” source by Google.

Add pages for special occasions
Do you have a brand new idea or service or product line? Are you seeking a new target audience for existing products or services? Add a page to address their needs and concisely show how you can fill those needs. You may want an advertising campaign to lead directly to that page, instead of the home page. After a site is already built, additional pages can be added quickly and inexpensively, since the standard page template merely needs to be filled in with words and pictures.

Focus on your specific niche market
Especially if you’re in a large or very competitive industry, a smaller player needs to find and fine-tune factors can be used to your advantage. If you specialize in certain segments of the market or serve a group within the general population, your website must reflect that in text, images, headlines.

Emphasize your specialties and highlight aspects that make you unique. If you’re a travel company which specializes in adventure trips to Costa Rica, you may want to mention that on every page to show that you’re the best choice for that situation. It’s no secret that a company should play up it’s strong points. “Travel” is the mostsearched-for term on the internet. Chances of appearing high in organic search results is remote. Your odds are considerably better for “adventure trips” and greater still for “Costa Rica adventure trips”.

Enjoy your trip to the top of the search engines!