Getting Off To A Good Start
Producing and managing a website that performs well in search engines and converts visitors into paying customers, with ease, is a complicated task. Unless control is maintained from the outset multiple elements will work in a disjointed manner. This naturally leads to problems down the road. Common problems are
• The owner(s) are generally unsure what they actually want
• The designer is only interested in pleasing the owner(s)
• The optimisation provider is only interested in search engine positioning.
It’s a fact that online ventures that perform well are those that are tightly managed. A project manager will fully understand the most important aspect for any online venture, how will the site be perceived by its visitors. The manager’s own performance should be measured by the sites conversion ratio. The early stages of a new venture.
1. A domain name is selected, preferably select a keyword rich domain (keywords are the words we type into search engines)
2. A hosting company is sourced, they need to provide
• Full technical support
• Email support
• Have servers located in the same country as the target audience
• Have a sound back-up system
• Provide ample bandwidth so pages load instantly
3. A landing page is produced after this is uploaded the process of link building can start. This will get the new website off to a strong start when the full site is released..
4. The SEO provider needs to produce a document for the designers to work around, this will incorporate.
• Keyword research
• Sub page URL structure (tree)
• Sub page headers
• Sitemap information
• Meta tag information
• Site navigation structure
• Technical source code details
5. The SEO provider then works with the site owner(s) in the production of top quality keyword rich page content. When this is signed off it is sent to the design team.
6. The owner and project manager work with the designers to make sure they produce a website that
• Displays the right corporate image
• Is logical and easy for visitors to use
• Contains useful information that visitors will find interesting
• Openly displays contact details
• Has key information displayed above the fold, this is important for mobile device viewing.
• Validates, this could be by listing affiliations to professional organisations or displaying logos of corporate clients
• Contains a system for uploading content (news, articles etc)
7. Generally speaking a top quality low cost SEO provider is keen for a site to be set up correctly from the outset as their services are often employed over the long term, to that end it is a good idea to keep them in the loop as much as possible. Their technical expertise is valuable.
8. For websites to generate traffic in a natural manner, it is important they have a healthy search engine position for multiple keywords. To make sure this happens 2 factors are key a. Link building is carried out daily b. Unique content is added on a regular basis
9. Once a website is up and running it is advisable to combine link building with brand awareness strategies
• Posting helpful information on related forums
• Being active in the social media sphere.
10. Reviewing a sites performance is key to building up a solid business, areas to consider are
a. Reviewing site visitor statistics
b. Monitoring conversion ratios, how many people visit the site measured against the level of enquires
c. Search engine positioning
d. The amount of backlinks generated As you can see there are many factors to be considered when starting up an online business.
There is no blueprint for success; however people that set up their ventures in a structured well organised manner outperform those that work in an hoc manner. Online business should be viewed as a process of continual improvement, therefore it is natural to tweak and try new innovative ideas down the road, remember search is very competitive, to be a leading supplier means we need to outperform our peers, we can only do this by implementing and working to a sound logical system.
Pete Arkwright
This article is sponsored by Single Society London's premium dating website
Date Written: Tue, Mar 15th 2011
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