Why You Should Redesign Your Website

As we start a new year, now is a great time to re-evaluate your website's effectiveness and the image it presents of your company then incorporate new design features to promote improvement.

One factor that contributes to the overall success of your company is good website promotion. There are many different ways to increase website exposure that include search engine optimization, email campaigns, and directory inclusion. Before you can realize good website promotion, you need to make sure your website is as professional looking and appealing to your target market as it can be.

In order to increase search engine effectiveness, the best keywords need to be chosen to get your website recognized in more searches. Is the information on your website appealing enough or can it easily be understood? The way that your website is worded affects the way it impacts someone that is browsing through it. Making sure that it sounds as appealing as possible is very important to your success.

Another important consideration to site visitors is good graphics.

• They make your overall website look more appealing to anyone who visits it. Good graphic design also adds to the style of your website.


• If you have a company website, you may find that your overall success will be increased through high-quality graphic design.


• One thing that people hate most about poorly designed websites is when they are not easy to use.

When people use a website that has confusing navigation, chances are they will not revisit the website again because they will get frustrated using it.

The most important thing to know about website design is that a website conveys the image of your company. You want that image to be professional and with up-to date content.

Why Is Website Redesign So Beneficial?

• The appearance of your website will be improved through improved graphics.


• Your website promotion will be more successful and optimization will increase search results.


• The net result will be increased sales or use of your services.

Internet Marketing In The Age Of Google

Forget the Computer Age or the Internet Age, centuries from now our current time will probably be referred to as the Google Age. This assumption is not exactly a great leap of faith; Google has quickly permeated into mainstream culture to become an underlying factor of everyday life, a tightly woven backdrop to our lives.

But never make the mistake of trying to define Google as just a search engine or you will miss the true calling of this little "Backrub", which was the original name used by its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996.

Google as we now know it debuted in 1998. The name Google is a twist on the word Googol, a number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeros. After everything is said and done, it will more than likely refer to Google's net worth - monetary or otherwise.

But forget search engine, for regardless of the founders' intentions or company's objectives, Google is and has always been the ultimate marketing machine. A massive marketing machine that is just now gearing up and aiming for more and more lofty heights. These heights seem to increase each day as Google quietly rolls out program after program.

All noble ambitions aside, Google is the perfect marketing machine. Google has no equals, and it is very close to getting a stranglehold on the real power behind all marketing, which is information. Marketing is information. Information is marketing.

Great marketing is supplying the right information at the right time. Google more than any other entity on the web or in the world, for that matter, fulfills this criterion at its very core. Google is re-writing the book on how products are marketed.

Google now has over 60% of the search traffic in the U.S., with a staggering 7.3 billion monthly searches. In some countries Google's search share is 80% or more. (Source: comScore) Those webmasters who have number one keyword listings in all three of the major search engines will know Google is the only game worth playing because it delivers by far the most traffic.

While MSN and Yahoo! are still major players and are listed in the top 5 traffic sites on the web, what most people don't realize is that (unlike the other two) almost all of Google's traffic is search traffic. From a marketing perspective this is extremely important since search traffic can deliver the highest conversions (sales) mainly because it lets you capture the potential customer or client when they are in the right mindset to buy or to perform an action.

Obviously the key to successful marketing is finding the buyers and clients for your products and services. Google has forged itself as the ultimate "middleman" as more and more of the world's business is performed in cyberspace. And as everyone knows the "middleman" can reap huge profits and hold enormous power.

Google, within its Adsense program, now offers CPA or Cost Per Action where marketers can now receive larger returns for displaying Google's links on their webpages. As any professional marketer will tell you, you can get 10 times the revenue by promoting affiliate products rather than the Adsense code on your sites. But by adding CPA and other affiliate products within the Adsense program, Google has made it more attractive to serious online marketers.

Another step in that same direction is Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, which includes the massive online affiliate marketing network Performics. This means Google can now bring any customer full-circle from initial search to checkout. This may have dire consequences for large, lucrative third-party affiliate networks like Commission Junction and LinkShare. Online marketing and ecommerce is growing at a blistering rate, and the company that controls the majority of these transactions will wield enormous power. Will make the Medici look like paupers.

Those marketers who have managed to acquire number one listings for their targeted keywords in Google's organic search are smiling all the way to the bank. Mainly because Google commands enormous trust with the surfing/buying public and this is demonstrated through higher conversion rates. Likewise, those who have mastered the Adsense and Adwords programs will know Google is an excellent source of online income.

Most of the complaints against Google stems from its PageRank system, which is supposed to be Google's version of online democracy in action, a link is a vote for your page or content. The higher the number of links, the higher your page will be ranked in Google's index or SERPs - Search Engine Results Pages.

So far Google has played fair, giving even the smallest webmaster the opportunity to capture top Google listings if they produce superior or popular content to the surfer. Some would even argue Google's recent crackdown on sites offering paid-links can be seen as evening the playing field for the small webmaster or marketer who obviously doesn't have the economic clout or resources to buy their way to the top of Google's listings.

Keyword rankings may be the ultimate equalizer and determiner of online wealth. Those who can reach the top positions for their chosen profitable niche keywords will have companies and service providers lining up to do business with them. The fallout can prove extremely lucrative for both parties.

However, few marketers or webmasters forget who is really holding the cards; Google controls all steps along this marketing tunnel with its search listings, Adwords and Adsense programs. The only dark spot on the horizon could be monopoly issues, but Google probably has enough reservoirs of public goodwill and deep enough corporate pockets to squash any claims.

As Google's dominance in the search market becomes greater, Google will have control of all segments of the online marketplace. Why should Google stop there, why not go into Radio, TV... as the Internet gradually mutates into a billion+ interactive TV channel universe (as many believe it will) who do you think will be at control central offering you a nice free remote?

Then there is also Google's planned broadband 700 MHz bid; one can only speculate on Google's intentions. But Google must find a way to transmit its information at no cost to its users. Could it mean free wireless Internet for everyone on free Google boxes or gadgets of some form, usable and accessible anywhere in the world? Anything is possible because the stakes are so astronomical and the marketing revenue so vast, Google must get its information seamlessly and instantly to the end user at all costs.

One can only guess at the enormity of the marketing power Google will yield in coming years as the Internet slips out of its teen years. But it won't be just marketing, the influence of Google on all aspects of our lives will probably grow exponentially and that influence will be huge.
For the true power of Google is only just now beginning to be glimpsed; only as more and more of the Google pieces fall into place will we truly fathom what life will be like in the Google Age. Google's power, reverence and respect will no doubt be so enormous it may lead some to make comparisons to a higher power that has guided most of the life on this planet so far. Which could also lead one to muse, at least they got the first two letters correct. Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins

About this author: The author, a former artist and teacher, is now a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com/ or ttp://www.marketingtoolguide.com2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Website Design That Works

Introduction

Before you even think about opening Dreamweaver or your favourite html editor and start designing your site there are a few things I believe you need to do first. I am going to describe how to íncrease your work flow and give you some general tips and tricks that will speed up the design of your website project and help to get it showing up in search engines quicker. In future articles I will be going into greater detail of some of the topics I describe here. Now let's get started.

Purchasing and Optimizing Your Domain Name

The first thing you need to consider is your domain name. I suggest that you don't just use your company name, i.e. if your company makes tartan paint and your company name is "Hamish Paints" don't go for the obvious choice of hamishpaints.com. I would try and come up with a keyword rich domain name. Some search engine optimizers (SEO) would say that having keywords in your domain name doesn't make any difference to your listings but I disagree. Google will highlight your keywords in the search engine results page (SERPS), which leads me to believe that keywords do hold some weíght, and besides it will make it clearer to the searcher what your site is all about.

What are Keywords?

Keywords from a search engine optimization (SEO) stand point are the key -words that are used to optimize your website for better listings on search engines. These are the words or phrases people are typing into the search bar of Google etc. to find websites relating to what information or products they may be looking for. Go to http://www.bruceclay.com/ and http://www.highrankings.com/ - two great websites where you can learn more about keywords and SEO.

How Do I Find and Choose My Keywords?

To find keywords that people may be using in search terms the first port of call should be the overture keyword selector tool and you can access this tool at http://inventory.overture.com/ or http://inventory.uk.overture.com/. If you want the UK results, here you will find an excellent tool for discovering keywords. All you need to do is type in words or phrases that are going to be related to your website and Overture will show you related searches that include your term and how many times that term was searched in the last month. Now you can get an idea of what keywords you should be including in your domain name.

Please note that search engines don't like long domain names so try to keep it as short as possible. Other great resources for keywords are:

http://www.wordtracker.com/
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/

As we all know, all the good domain names have been taken and it's almost impossible to get one-word domain names these days, so be inventive if you get stuck. I always find it helpful to visit http://www.dictionary.com/ and use the thesaurus to come up with names maybe I hadn't thought of. Now that you are armed with a killer domain name you can go to http://www.umbrellawebsitedesign.co.uk/order/whois/ and chëck its availability.

Try and get the domain name extension of the country your company resides in as it makes it clear where you're from. I know most people want to get a .com but, if you are in the UK, I believe a better extension would be .co.uk as it shows where you're from. This will also help in the SERPS. When people are searching for websites in the UK you don't want to be competing with websites outside of your country if you can help it.

Building a Holding Page and Creating a Site Map

Now that we are sorted with our domain name and hostíng the next step involves creating a holding page and submitting a sitemap to Google. First of all you need to create your holding page. It's a good idea to create a holding page so your domain can build up some respect with search engines. You don't want to wait until your website goes live before submitting it to search engines.

Designing a Holding Page

Keep it simple and describe all the services and products you may be offering in your site. Don't forget to use keyword rich text in your title tag, description tags, and body text. Use the keywords you discovered in the "how to find and choose keywords" section. This is good practice for when you design your website proper, but you have to remember it's unlikely this page will be viewed by many people. However, this isn't the purpose of your holding page.

A good idea here would be, if any visitors did visit your site, perhaps they would like to know when your website goes live or maybe they will have questíons. I would therefore suggest you add a simple contact förm asking for their name and email address to notify them when the site will be live or to answer any questíons they may have. You could even use them to do some usability testing and describe in more detail the coming sections. Name it index.html or index.htm and put it in the root folder of your site and upload it to the server.

Creating a Sitemap for Google

A Google sitemap is a XML document that contains information of every page on your website (not to be confused with a sitemap html page on your website). You need to upload this to the root folder of your server so that Google can access it and index your website more quickly and easily. You can create a Google sitemap with very little effort online by going to http://www.sitemapspal.com/ and following the online instructions. Once you have created your site map you can go to www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ and follow Google's instructions for adding a site map. You will find this service very easy to use and invaluable in getting your website listed properly on Google. Remember to update your sitemap XML document when your website is finished and every time you make changes so that Google can index your new pages. Doing this now will save you time and effort later.

Now Submit Your Website to the Major Search Engines - Right?

Wrong! It's a misconception that you need to submit your website to search engines. Please, please don't pay anyone to do this, as it's not necessary. (Are you listening all you black hat SEO companies, shame on you). Once you have created a sitemap in Google this is more than enough to get yourself listed in the search engines. The search engines will actually come looking for your website in due course. Engines like Google and Yahoo serve listings to lots of other sites. For more information on this visit http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm. The one place you must submit your website is the Open Directory or DMOZ for short as this is where all the major search engines get their directory listings from. For more information on submitting your website to DMOZ visit http://www.dmoz.com/add.html .

Creating a Rough Draft of Your Site

Now its time to start designing your site. Before you go ahead and start creating a website in Dreamweaver you will need to get the layout and design in place first. If you want an easier way to design your site and you are not familiar with Dreamweaver or technically minded, you can always use website builder software to create your website. I would recommend this, if you are just starting out, as this is a quick and simple way to get your website up and running. For information on using website building software visit http://www.umbrellawebsitedesign.co.uk/web_b.html. However, if you want to get your hands dirty, read on.

The Pen is Mightier Than The Mouse

The first draft of your website should be on paper. Illustrate where your are going to put everything on your final page, including images, text and links, and name them for quick reference. This will save you lots of time later on in Dreamweaver. You can even sketch out a sitemap of all the pages in your website showing what page links to what.

Creating a PNG File

Now that you have a rough copy of your layout go ahead and open fireworks or image ready and start creating your site as a png file. Here you can start creating your logo and the graphical elements you plan to use. You can create your navigation and add your menus and text so that you can easily refer back to them once in Dreamweaver. Layout everything as it would look like in a browser. This is a good idea as it's easy to make changes unlike in Dreamweaver where changes can be time consuming. Go ahead and save your page as a png file
.
Well that's it folks for part one. In part two, I will be creating a site in Dreamweaver, discussing cascading style sheets, usability, accessibility and validating your work to comply with W3G standards.

About The Author: Website design specialist Kevin J. Gallagher works with Umbrella Website Design in the UK.

6 Steps To Improve Customer Loyalty From Site Visitors

Online shopping has quickly outstretched high street shopping for popularity and overall spend. One of the big advantages that consumers gain is the ability to comparison shop for a better deal. However, for the e-store owner or service provider, this can make it difficult to survive without offering the lowest prices and the greatest deals. Decreasing prices has an obvious effect on your revenue and profit so it is vital that you aim for the right target market and attempt to build customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty means repeat business and repeat customers offer the lowest marketing spend requirements. As such, improving customer loyalty can vastly reduce your spend and increase your ROI. Many of the methods of retaining customers for your website are developed from tried and trusted methods used by large organizations and businesses offline.

Know Your Target Markets

By really getting to know and understand your target markets you will have a much greater understanding what it is that they're after. By learning this kind of information you will be better placed to send out relevant after-sales communication and entice your buyers to buy more.

Know Your Competitors

Knowing what your competitors are selling and for how much will help you determine the best prices for your own products. If you have a good customer retention rate it is often possible to increase the amount you pay for a new customer or reduce your prices without affecting your overall profit too much.

Customer Service

Perhaps the first aspect that many of us consider when looking at customer retention rates is customer service. You must supply a high level of customer service. If you go the extra mile for your customer, they will go the extra mile to come back to your site. Being polite in all communications is only a very small part of good customer service. Everything from your website content to complaint responses need to be well thought out and geared towards retaining customers.

Branding

The more synonymous your website becomes with the products or services you sell, the more likely that people will return to your site. Make sure that all of your web pages, emails, newsletters, invoices, and other forms of communication include your web address at the very least. Make it memorable and don't chop and change designs and logos unless a re-branding is deemed absolutely necessary.

After-Sales Communication

There is an art to after sales communication, and it is an art that you need to learn to master. So, your website operates online, but that doesn't mean that the whole of your business has to. If you sell digital products that are downloaded then ensure that emails and all online communication includes your branding. If you sell physical products, then your paper invoices, and everything down to your packing labels should also be branded.

Get Your Visitors Involved

Involving your site visitors will help to bring them back to your site time and time again. Web 2.0 applications provide a plethora of ways to involve site visitors. Blogs, forums, and any interactive tool will help to make your site bookmarkable. Even for visitors that don't take action while on your site, you will attract them back more frequently, and the more exposure a visitor has to your website, the more likely they become to make a purchase.

Why Customer Loyalty Is Important To Your Business Website

Return visitors or return customers are one of your greatest assets. You've already done a lot of the hard work with your preliminary marketing campaigns. Ensure that everything from your website to your email newsletter to your packing slips are effectively branded with your website details and always uphold the highest level of customer service and communication. If you can get your site visitors more involved in your site then you stand to profit even more from customer loyalty.
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About the Author: Omaro Ailoch is a senior software engineer, an entrepreneur and the founder of OC IT Services a highly skilled California based web development, design, and search engine optimization firm.

Effective Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

Many business owners would give their left arm to have the same brand recognition as Oprah, Microsoft, McDonald's, Starbucks or Amazon.com. But you don't need the marketing budgets of these behemoths to promote your company and get your piece of the pie. A creative approach to self-promotion will put you face to face with your prospects and, properly executed, can help you become a well-known name.

The first step is to focus your marketing efforts - otherwise known as target marketing. A topic that has nearly been discussed to death, target marketing is essential for just about every company, no matter how large or small. You don't see advertisements for Oprah's show on ESPN because that's not her target market. And while a household name like McDonald's appeals to almost everyone, their advertising efforts tend to be targeted toward specific marketing trends. Their latest marketing campaign is focused on the youth market that, these days, have much more of their own money to spend than the youth market of yesteryear.

If you are faced with a limited marketing budget, you must be creative and persistent in your efforts. Here are a few ideas that are alternatives to the more traditional, higher-priced marketing approaches that will get your company some exposure and won't break your budget.

Networking:

We're all familiar with print, radio and television advertising. And as the innovations of cable and the Internet have become more prominent in our lives, infomercials, banner ads and other Internet advertising avenues have been added to the mix. However, if you really want to connect with your target market, getting out and meeting them through networking is probably the best way to do it.

Joining professional organizations such as your local chamber of commerce or civic organizations such as your area Rotary club will put you in touch with the movers and shakers of your community. These people are likely to become colleagues that you can learn from as you watch them grow professionally and you watch your company grow as well. And while they may be able to connect you with potential clients and opportunities, you should approach these relationships prepared to give without motive. If you join these organizations with a "what's in it for me?" attitude, you will likely be spotted as such and left out in the cold.

Partnerships and Sponsorships:

Another great way to not only get your name in front of your prospects, but also learn more about them, is through partnerships and sponsorships.

When a community is unfamiliar with your company or organization, one of the easiest ways to build trust is through a partnership with a more established and successful company. But keep in mind you're going to need to be offering a product or service that is so useful to their customer base that your partner is willing to risk their reputation by endorsing you. If you don't partner with a well-established firm, at least partner with a non-competitor that offers services similar to yours. If you sell shoes, and your partner company sells mortgages, that won't make sense to the customer and will raise their suspicion of you.

Supporting community and civic organizations through sponsorship is another way to reach your audience. Your efforts can range from the local little league baseball team to a fundraiser for any sort of worthy cause. From the local chapter of the American Heart Association to an organization that raises money for any needy population in the area - abused women and children, the homeless, the mentally ill, disaster victims, etc. - this is a two-for-one opportunity for your company. A chance for you to satisfy your civic conscience by getting involved with that organization that you've always wanted to volunteer with, and you get exposure for your company at the same time.

A Trade Show on the Cheap:

Trade shows are the ultimate in target and network marketing. But when you begin to calculate the cost of you trade show display, the fees for attending the show, the cost of travel to the show, hotel accommodations and the cost of someone to run the booth, you may be ready to scratch this marketing tool off of your list.

But trade show attendance is crucial to building brand recognition and getting ideas from colleagues and competitors. One area where you can curb your trade show attendance is in the price of the trade show display. But be careful - your exhibit will say a lot about you and your company; you want to save money, but not at the expense of quality. Most companies offer low-cost trade show display options, such as table top displays. They are easily transported and assembled, and typically range between four and eight feet in size. While the more elaborate custom trade show displays can cost several thousands of dollars, you can purchase the table top versions for only a few hundred dollars.

Above and Beyond Customer Service:

Before you roll your eyes, because we've all heard the speech about providing outstanding customer service, keep in mind that these days excellent customer service is an experience that is few and far between. Everyone talks about it, but nobody's doing it. So, why don't you be one of the few who actually walk the talk? Ask for customer feedback - and actually act on the feedback you're given. Do something extra for the customers who do a lot of business with you. Recognize and thank your customers during the holiday season. Look for other opportunities to extend beyond the customer's expectations, because going the extra mile is an investment in your company's future success.

Economical marketing can be easily achieved - it just requires some innovation and concentrated effort. Start with these ideas and others are sure to come forth - and then you can expand your budget to include more traditional marketing if you want.
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About the Author: Mat Kelly is the president of ExhibitDEAL, the Original Exhibit Wholesaler specializing in trade show displays and accessories. The company has options to fit every budget, and accessories to enhance your trade show exhibit space. For info, visit: http://www.exhibitdeal.com/.



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Blog Launch

Network Marketing Group is pleased to announce the launch of our new blog. Here you will find information, tips and news about effective website design and website hosting services provided by leading website designers and industry experts. Stop back frequently to see our latest posts.