The Internet or World Wide Web (interconnected information stored on computers worldwide) is a common tool that everyone uses for one reason or another. The web has become a convenient and indispensable tool for businesses and professionals to promote their wares and services.
If you are a business owner or a professional, do you have a website? What purpose does it serve for you? How many visitors does your website attract? What's its impact on your business growth? If you don't have a web presence, how do your potential customers and clients find you?
There are websites galore. They range from being plain looking to glitzy, simple to complex, informative to misleading, merely promotional to attracting online business...
What is your website like? Does it adequately describe your business or specialty? Does it promote your value proposition effectively? How do people find your website? What keywords and phrases would they use? Does your website appear on the first page of search engines?
The Internet has hundreds of millions of websites. Do a search on Google; it will list millions of websites. Does your website appear among the top 10, 20 or 30 search results for your product/services on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc? What is your return on investment in your website?
Stand above the crowd
Today a decade after dotcom bubble burst, many small businesses and professionals do have a Web presence. But the majority barely know how to harness their website, or what is really required to make their it stand above the crowd among search results.
Here are some suggestions:
* Website content: Search engines really like simple text content that describes your products and services in an easy-to-understand manner. The web crawlers index the web content by text words and phrases appearing in web pages. The graphics sound and animations are ignored as black holes.
* Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engines list and rank the web pages by keywords and phrases that people often search the web content by. Getting your web pages to high rank among search engine results depends on how well the keywords relating to your products and services appear in your website content. SEO is part of any good website design strategy.
* Keywords analysis: Keywords are words or phrases that your prospective clients might type in the search field of a search engine. Analysis of keywords has two aspects: One, to examine statistics of keyword searches and to find popular keywords that match your website theme or subject; secondly, to rework your website content to incorporate those keywords in your web pages. The purpose is to raise the ranking of your website when people using keywords. For example, I optimized one of my criminal lawyer client's website with the keywords "Criminal Lawyers Mississauga" and did some additional tweaking to achieve a Top 10 ranking on Google.
* Promote your site: Your website address is really your business address on the Internet that's open 24x7. Promote your website address everywhere-- on your business card, in your emails, on the office stationary and business documents, and in all your advertisements.
* Monitor your site: Know your Hits (how many people visited your site, and which pages) by region, area, or profession. Your web master must regularly monitor your site statistics, and tweak your website to improve the business results.
* Keep updating your website: As your business or profession grows, changes, diversifies and progresses, your website should reflect the changes. This tells your clients and the marketplace at large that your business is alive and well.
If you have a website, do not just sit back and wonder why it is not performing to your expectations. If you do not have a website, remember: In this day and age, there are two kinds of businesses: Those who have a website, and those that won't exist.
Just as you engage a good lawyer, chartered accountant and doctor, do hire a good web master for your website. Your website is the cheapest marketing and advertising tool for you, open to your clients and to prospects 24 hours, 365 days a year.
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