Designing
Web
Usability
Written
by
the best-known guru
of usability.
Secrets
of
Successful
Web Sites
Siegel
gives
a perfect blueprint of ways to
plan, develop and design websites
that work.
Creating
Killer
Web Sites
Another
enlightening book by
Siegel, which (in my opinion) counts as the "creme de la creme" of
website development books.
Don't
Make
Me Think
If
you read
this book
along with Nielsen's books, and follow their advice,
visitors will
love visiting your
websites.
101
Ways to Promote
Your Web Site
Once
you
have your website launched,
you want people to
visit. Author Sweeney
is
an expert on
a plethora of ways to accomplish it.
Volume
I, Issue 8
ISSN:
1547-7754
January 2004
printable version
Chris
King, Editor
By
subscription only, this monthly e-newsletter will be loaded with short, "down
and dirty" tips
to help you with solving the everchanging and growing puzzle of
the Internet. This e-zine will also serve as a place to ask your questions
and find the answers.
We think that once our well developed and designed website is launched, magically, a large number of people will visit immediately. With the millions (yes, millions) of websites launched weekly and monthly, we have to do some extra work to make sure that those people we want to visit our website can find us. In this issue, I am going to share tips about what you or your web designer/developer can do to help your target market find you - both through search engines and otherwise. Just remember, that nothing -especially great search engine placement - happens overnight.
TIP #1. Include the features and factors that help a site gain higher listings in the search engines.
-
Include a descriptive title in the title bar of every page. When you visit a website, look at the top blue bar, and you should see a title for the page. It is amazing to me how many websites have no title, or possibly just a company name. Besides letting visitors know where they are, this helps with search engines.
- Include keywords in your content, your titles and your metatags. There was a time, early on, when keywords in the metatags helped with search engine placement. Now, they very seldom do, but I still suggest adding them. They are, however, super important in your content. Figure out what words a visitor would use to find what you offer and make sure they are included througout your site.
- Include a short (about 25 word) description of the site and its purpose in the metatags. Search engines do check out the description and often use it when adding a description to the link that they list for your website. Make it short, punchy and to the point.
- Make sure that your content is excellent, ever-changing and includes links to other sites. Finally, the search engines are aware of the many tricks that were initially used to get good placement, so they no longer work. Excellent and updated content wins today - and also brings visitors back! Be useful and interesting.
TIP #2. Avoid the pitfalls that will guarantee poor and/or no search engine placement.
- Avoid using frames. Frames can make the navigation of a website easy and quick, but they almost guarantee that your website will never appear in a search engine. This is because, technically, search engines will only see the navigation frame and no content and none of the important keywords.
- Avoid the use of databases for information you want the search engine spiders to find. Databases are a great tool for organizing data that networks need to access - for example, employee lists or manufactured items - but are not searchable by the spiders. They cannot get into your database. So, if you want to include a directory, the names in the directory will not show up in search engine listings.
- Avoid the under-handed tricks like cloaking and overloading a page with hidden keywords. Yes, some search engines can still be fooled, but they are all getting smarter, and if you are caught, you will be black-listed and no-one wants to face that.
TIP #3. Besides designing and developing with search engine placement in mind, use every other possible opportunity to plug your website.
- Every piece of printed material that you give out or send should have your website listed. This should be obvious, but I still meet business people who fail to have the address of their website on their business card, their letterhead, their envelopes, their brochure and/or their printed newsletter.
- Include the address of your website in your e-mail signatures. Use it for all e-mail messages - new and replies - including those posted on forums, lists, newsgroups and other groups.
- Print your website address on T-shirts and your bumper stickers. That is, if you tend toward the fun and outrageous! You will get attention.
I have just scraped the surface of how to encourage traffic to your website, and plan to have more information in the future about search engine optimization. In the meantime, I strongly suggest you purchase the book listed in the column to your right. Author Sweeney is right on!
Remember, send your comments and questions to me at chris@creativekeys.biz. I love to receive feedback and will answer your questions in future e-zines.
If you would like to subscribe to this e-zine and receive five free Internet tips, send an e-mail to subscribe@creativekeys.biz with subscribe in the subject line. If you ever wish to be removed from the mailing list, just send an e-mail to unsubscribe@creativekeys.biz with unsubscribe in the subject line.
Chris King
P.O. Box 221255
Beachwood, Ohio 44122
(216) 991-8428
http://www.creativekeys.biz
