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Ten Basic Steps For Building A Web Site That Works
. Assemble a web site (this is an industry average), if
development plan that is its more than 12-18 seconds you
integrated with your may experience the ""click of
overall marketing processes; the death"" - the site doesn't load
content should be consistent with quickly and the surfer is gone.
offline materials, the Of course, if your targeting
graphics/images don't have to be broadband customers who are
identical with traditional media, reaching your site via ISDN or
but should be consistent with DSL then you can build a site
your overall branding, style that incorporates
guide, usage of colors etc. multimedia-ready content that may
include streaming audio or video,
2. Hire a web site design firm or Shockwave or Flash
that understands your market capabilities - go ahead and let
position and one that won't get those digital geeks get carried
""geek crazy"" - meaning they are away with cutting edge content!
so in love with their own design
capabilities, your site gets 4. Dare I say it, ""keep it
bogged down with graphics, plug simple"" - make your site easy to
ins, GIF garbage, etc. But, move around in, build a menu
conversely, check your ego at the structure that is consistent with
door when you work with your industry standards, local menus
design firm - I've see so many (for a page or section) on the
good web site designs get ruined left and global menus (overall
by clients who can't or won't site navigation) at the top
listen to what we tell them! and/or bottom of each page, keep
as much information ""above the
3. Pay attention to ""load fold"" (above the cutoff point at
times,"" how long it takes a web the bottom of a monitor), don't
site to load on a 56 KBPS modem make people use horizontal scroll
bars unless absolutely necessary. - I love Seth Godin's
""Permission Marketing"" book,
5. Inculcate ""digital speed"" http://www.permission.com, and we
into your overall site design, recommend it to all of our
your client/customers should be clients - he champions building a
able to get to their desired area long term relationship with a
of your site within one or two customer by asking their
mouse clicks; they will quickly permission to continue to market
get frustrated if they have to to them and incorporating
click-through multiple menus to value/information in all marcom
find information they are processes.
seeking.
8. Ensure your site is optimized
6. Develop content that is for Search Engines by identifying
web-enabled, people don't read 8-12 keywords that people will
web site content like they do use to find your site, then
offline media, keep your incorporate these keywords in
paragraphs short no more than two your site content (to drive
to three sentences, build in relevancy with s/engine
white space with your content, spiders/bots) and then manually
include links in your pages - submit your site to the top ten
don't try to tell your whole search engines. We don't'
marketing story on your site - recommend most of the free or
get people to call you (hello the $19.99 specials available; yes,
telephone still works!), e-mail all will get your registered with
or fill out a profile form (see the s/engines, but getting listed
below). on page 75 of 350 pages (for
example) won't really drive
7. Make your site qualified traffic to your site,
permission-based marketing ready you need page 1-3 listings on the
top ten engines to really drive
qualified traffic. 10. Think global in your overall
site design - the greatest
9. Delve into your log server Internet growth is occurring
files to uncover ""digital outside North America, so it is
tracks"" made through your web essential to build a site that
site - your log files are raw can be accessed easily by people
files that show how and from around the world. What issues do
where (in most cases) people you need to look at? Load times
accessed your web site, where are very important (again),
they went on your web site, how develop content that avoids
long they stayed, etc. Web Trends colloquialisms that may not be
is the defacto industry standard, understood by others who may not
http://www.webtrends.com/default. speak the same language, you may
htm, but we use and recommend a want to make your site content
market-experienced firm in available in diverse languages,
Europe, Fantomaster, Ltd. to our there are a number of emerging
clients applications that will facilitate
http://www.fantomaster.com - they this process, ensure your
have a suite of Search Engine e-commerce capabilities can be
products that can be downloaded utilized by all.
for free or purchased.
About the Author:
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a Northern California based, privately held, profitable Interactive Marketing Agency and Software Company, Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, and can be reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com.
Read more articles by: Lee Traupel
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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