There are many factors that affect a web site's chance of success most of which are related to a knowledge of business. Promotion Services: Site marketing Marketing Strategy Internet Training Visitor Statistics: Visitor Statistics Sample Page Free Resources: Free Factsheets Submit It Here Attract Visitors Contact
		For many businesses web site development has taken the form of throwing last years brochure on-line and then sitting back and waiting for new clients to come flooding in. The disappointment when this inevitably fails to occur leaves many businessmen dismissing the Internet as a waste of time and resources. Why then are some web sites so successful while others gather dust in a deserted corner of cyberspace?
		Designed to Attract There are many factors that affect a web site's chance of success most of which are related to a knowledge of business - both your own and the unique business environment provided by the Internet. No matter how large or small your web site is you must always: consider how to attract clients and keep them returning to your site design your web site with the functionality required to achieve this objective devise an appropriate web site marketing plan assess the effectiveness of your Internet marketing policy direct new investment according to this feedback Target Your Market The first stop on the marketing plan is to determine exactly which market you are trying to appeal to: Are you trying to reach local businessmen or International organisations? Does your practice work in a particular specialist field? Very small changes to the way that your site is designed and constructed can have a major impact on its overall success in attracting your intended audience. Consider registering your domain name. A web site looks far more serious as: www.yourname.co.uk than if you have domain space on someone's server and end up with the name: www.hostoutfit.co.uk/directory/clients/~yourname/homepage.htm It fits on your business card a little more easily too. Understand your market and design the site accordingly. Are your clients looking for a well-laid out business site or would they prefer to see the latest gizmos dancing around the screen? Although it is impossible to design for all platforms and all computers, try and make your site as accessible as possible by not restricting access to users who do not possess the latest high-tech equipment. Use content in context. Good quality content that is unique to your circumstances, up to date and well presented will go a long way to ensuring the success of your site. Reaching your market So you've done all the right things and you have the perfect web site. How are your new clients going to find you? Most obviously, and often overlooked is the need to publicise your web address on all your print literature. Giving a potential client a business card with your web address on it is like handing him a very large brochure. SEARCH ENGINES Submit your site to the major search engines. There are a number of submission services such as "Submit it" (www.submitit.com) which will submit your site on your behalf to about two hundred search engines and directories for around £25. This is fine for the minor engines and directories but do not rely on such a service for inclusion in the major ones - your site visibility is too important! Submitting a site takes only a few seconds, ensuring that your site ranks highly in any particular search is dependent upon the advice you receive when your site is designed. A web site with good content produced without considering search engines will be effectively invisible. The main points to bear in mind when considering search engine relevance are: Choosing relevant key phrases for each page Check that your designers use page titles correctly Content must be designed to be found by the search engines Meta tags in bedded in the content code must be specific to your practice Be wary of frames as search engines can choke on them Search engines will not find pages that are linked only through images DIRECTORIES Yahoo is now available in the UK and has become the most popular of the ways of searching the net. Submitting your site to Yahoo may take some time but due to it's importance it is time well worth investing. A comprehensive help section is available on the Yahoo site: www.yahoo.co.uk/docs/info/help.html HOT LINKING For practices with a particular specialist market and well considered content the best way of all to reach new clients is to hot link your site. Very specific relevant content will increase your chances of being hot linked, as will links pages and interactive features. How did you do? What really separates the Internet from other media is how quickly it can respond to changes in user's preferences. Unlike all other forms of advertising you can collect data in real time to gauge how well your site is performing. Instant changes can be made to improve it. So how do you measure how well you are doing? One of the most important aspects of Web Site management is the accurate measurement of visitors. Statistics available from your service provider can sometimes leave a little to be desired. They are often raw "log files" supplied automatically in one continuous, unintelligible list. The ideal solution is to install a real time "tracking" system. Tracker A tracker allows you to view detailed statistics on the visits to your website - who visits, how often, when, what they were looking for, how they found the site and how long they stayed. Additionally, if the user found you from a search engine, it records the key words that they entered. This information is invaluable in checking the performance of various search engines and directories. Once running, it requires zero maintenance. Reports are generated in real time, are easy to print and can be viewed from any browser. Conclusion There are advantages to be gained from a foray into the on-line world but investment should be directed wisely. Plan carefully and monitor your site continuously to ensue that your site becomes one of the net's success stories.
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