Optimise for the wrong keywords and you may NEVER see any results!
The first thing you should do when optimising your website for search engines is keyword research. This enables you to identify the best keywords to optimise your website for. This is a VERY important step and should not be skipped as there is no point spending the time and effort to optimise your website if you are optimising for the wrong keywords.
This free tool allows you to enter in the most generic keywords for your website and receive a list of related terms and important data on them. One of the great things about this tool is it is directly linked into statistical data from real Google searching so the results you get are 100% accurate for Google (which attracts over 80% of all searches worldwide).
Please note : This tool is a great tool but is focussed on Google Adwords competitors. Although this is close to what is happening for competition of search keywords, there is also a difference between keywords for Adwords and keywords for ‘natural’ search rankings.
It is important to take the time to plan what you want in your website before you start approaching firms for quotes. The more information you have on what you want your website to achieve then the easier it will be to get accurate quotes and ensure you get what you want.
Content Management Systems
In today’s day and age, it is absolutely essential that businesses and organisations have the ability to update their own website by adding, editing and removing sections and having full control over the content of their website.
You should ensure that your website has a content management system so you do not need to rely on your website designer to make changes to your website on your behalf (which costs money and takes time). A good content management system will allow you to easily make updates to your website and add new information by using a special ‘administration area’ of your site.
Ecommerce Websites
If you are planning on selling products online then you will need an ecommerce website. Ecommerce simply means ‘electronic commerce’ and gives your website the ability to sell and take payments automatically.
When planning an ecommerce website, you should ensure you prepare the following:
Ensure you get good product shots for your website. The photos used on your website will be selling your products so it is important to use professional photography to ensure you have the best possible photos. Many suppliers will be able to supply you with photography for your website but please be aware that content on other websites may be copyright and you should therefore get permission before copying content or photos off other websites.
Ensure that your website will be able to handle credit card payments, direct deposit and cheque payments. If you only accept credit card you will lose out on a percentage of your potential market who may not have credit cards or not trust the internet for credit card transactions.
Custom Built Websites
If you are looking for a custom built website, you need to ensure you have put down on paper exactly what you want the site to feature. The best way to do this is by creating a ’site map’. This can as simple as a list of pages you want your website to have (such as a home page, about us page, contact form, etc.) or as complex as a flowchart showing all the pages, sub-pages and how each page should link to each other.
Another important aspect is deciding on what you want the site to look like. The best thing to do here is to have a look around the Internet and write down a list of sites you like and what you like about them (eg. you may like how a certain site does its menus and how another site has an animated introduction). You should also do the same for sites you don’t like so your designer knows what things to avoid.
If you take the time to do this, you can save a lot of time, money and frustration when getting your website designed.
Domain names and hosting
In order to have your website running on the internet, you need two things.. a domain name and a hosting package.
A domain name is the actual ‘address’ of your website (eg. www.mantistech.com.au). A domain name is necessary for a website and you can register one at http://domains.mantishosting.com.au.
When you have your website up and running you also require ‘hosting’. This is where your website and domain name is placed on a server so that it can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are quite a few options when it comes to hosting and prices can vary but you should also look for hosting providers that supply daily backups, website statistics and good backup service. We can provide top level hosting at competitive pricing at www.mantishosting.com.au .
CNet’s News Blog reports that Google will soon be able to read underscores that separate keywords in a URL. Thus in a URL like somesite.com/sonoma_wine_country.asp, Google will now see these three keywords sonoma, wine, and country as three distinct words rather than one long run on word with underscores in it. This great news for many blog users and further assists web masters when planning to add new content to their sites and deciding on what page names to create.
