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With the New Year upon us yet
again, it's time to prepare for the successes of 2005. Did
you watch with envy last year as your competitors
dominated your industry? Do you think your site is doing
just fine because no one has ever called to complain? Well
here's some food for thought: 96% of all prospects will
click over to your competitor if they encounter a problem
on your website.
While you're resolving to
get fit, quit smoking and pay off some debts, we're
offering up some New Year's resolutions for your business.
Learn how to ethically kick your online competitors to the
curb!
Resolve to...
...Make Content &
Relevancy a Top Priority
It is, after all, the
information highway. People search the Web for
information-so give the people what they want. If you want
to generate qualified leads and produce more sales, then
continually updating your website with new and useful
content must be at the top of your priority list.
Search engines seek out
relevant, up-to-date information when they rank sites for
specific keywords and phrases. If you don't have timely
informative content, you won't get a good ranking; and
without a good ranking, prospects can't find you. But
that's just the beginning of your online demise. Even if
you manage to achieve a good ranking on the search engine
results pages (SERPs), your content must intrigue visitors
to return to your site regularly.
Studies reveal that online
consumers take several passes at a website before making a
purchase.
Website maintenance is
time-consuming and it's easy to put unpaid man-hours on
the back burner. But why would potential customers revisit
your site if the last archived newsletter were dated two
years ago? Or if your "Coming Events" page lists
tradeshows held six months ago? They won't-they'll likely
skip over to the competition in search of up-to-date
information.
... Increase Your Site's
Visibility & Improve its Performance
Once your website is
updated (for the time being) with informative content, the
next step is to implement some SEO solutions to gain
higher search rankings. The purpose of these SEO
techniques is twofold:
1. Create Awareness:
Carefully selected keywords and phrases, worked seamlessly
throughout your copy and in meta tags, will help your site
gain higher placements in SERPs.
2. Increase Sales: Once
prospects are on your site, savvy marketing writers will
have used the power of persuasion in the copy to turn
first-time visitors into loyal customers.
...Increase Your Return On
Investment (ROI)
We cannot stress this
enough ... in order for your website to be extremely
effective, achieving an astounding ROI, you must have a
detailed plan:
* Analyze your SWOT
Perform an in-depth
analysis to compare the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of your competitor's
online presence to your own. A qualified SEO firm can
enhance your site's usability and navigation, implement
ethical optimization techniques, and provide eye-catching
design.
* Evaluate your website
development goals
It's never too late to
write or re-evaluate your website's mission statement-not
necessarily for publication, but rather to create your own
benchmarks. This will help you set goals and concentrate
your efforts on critical issues to achieve and exceed
those goals.
* Know your audience
An old adage says:
"you can't be everything to everyone."
Fortunately, your website can be various things to various
audiences. Success comes from having a clear understanding
of your target market(s). By creating diverse navigation
paths and reader-specific content-for buyers, vendors, job
seekers or investors-your conversion rates will increase
dramatically.
* Enhance website usability
Effective website
navigation must flow effortlessly. If visitors cannot
quickly and easily pinpoint the information they seek,
they're very likely to leave your site and click to the
competition.
An IBM study reveals that
every dollar invested to increase usability earns $10-$100
in benefits, winning customer satisfaction and loyalty.
* Measure success and
failure
Read your log files and
tracking tools! Website traffic analysis is essential to
accurately measure your site's performance. In-depth
analysis will show you how to increase traffic, trace your
search engine referrals, monitor link campaigns, and make
necessary changes to achieve your desired results.
...Apply the Power of SEO
Your website has the power
to be a highly effective marketing tool-but just because
you built it doesn't mean they'll come. If you optimize
it, however, they're much more likely to come ... and stay
a while.
Anyone can learn search
engine optimization and website usability. But if lack of
time and interest is holding you back, enlist the help of
website optimizers and SEO copywriters to complement your
design team and ultimately increase revenue.
A word to the wise: ensure
that the SEO firm you choose works strictly within the
confines of best practices-safe and ethical search engine
optimization strategies. Unethical SEO tactics may
seriously harm your rankings, and even get your site
banned from search engines altogether.
On behalf of Word
Associates and U-C WEBS, we wish you a happy, healthy
& profitable 2005!
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About
The Author
Nardo
Kuitert is a Website Optimizer with U-C
WEBS (http://www.u-cwebs.com/).
A website is like a magnet; does your
website pull visitors in, or push them
away? A heuristic usability evaluation
will provide you with a first step towards
greater visitor conversions. |
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