Successful Web Sites have a Good Domain Name

A domain name is your home on the web. It is the part of your web address that comes after the www. Your domain name will also be used after the “@” symbol in your email addresses. Therefore it is important to register a name the closely reflects your business name and is easy for people to remember and type. Registering a domain name is the first step in any online enterprise. Your domain name should…

1. Reflect your actual business name. An ABN is required to register a .com.au domain name. You can register variations of your domain name providing they have close correlation to your business name.
2. Be short, so it can be remembered easily if seen on a TV ad, the side of a bus or a web site that wasn’t bookmarked. Also, the shorter your domain name, the less likely it is to be miss keyed in the browser address field.
3. Your domain name shouldn’t have any weird characters like the ~ (tilde) or / (forward slash) as newer Internet users cannot find these easily on their keyboard.

Some people believe that registering a domain name with their main keywords in it will shoot them to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). While having keywords in your domain name will advantage you, this advantage should not be overstated. It may give your site a little lift in the SERPs, but this will be just one lift out of many you could give your site in addition to thinking carefully about your content, your keywords and page/site structures (SEO stuff in other words).

Successful Web Sites have Compelling Content

If your web site has good information on it, and this information is revised, updated and added to regularly, your site will be rewarded by search engines. Think about it for a second… if you were a search engine company, who would you give prominence to; the site that has 12 pages that haven’t changed for 24 months or the site that has 20 pages that change from time to time and link to new pages that are continually being added. So, what do your customers really want or need to know? Write it down now, send it to your web developer or add it to your blog.

Successful Web Sites Choose their Products Wisely

Products that work well on the web…

• have a reasonable margin. Selling on the web requires a payment gateway (that will nibble at the margin). Also on the web, items are freighted one by one to the buyer. This is expensive compared to a shop where freight costs are amortised over all the goods.
• are hard to find. If you make or import or distribute a unique product, you can expect to do well.
• don’t have complicated sizing. Say you sell shoes, what sizing scale will you use? UK or US. Does this confuse your customer and create inertia at the moment of sale?
• are generic. If you are selling books or CDs the buyer knows what they are getting – exactly what they are getting. There is no variation in the product. A book may have a different cover if it is bought on Amazon, but generally, the rule holds.
• have excellent lines of supply. This is a biggy. If you set up a web site, can you always guarantee you will have supply? If you make the item then yes, if you import it then no. Solid lines of supply are difficult to find.
• are not too heavy or fragile. e.g. wine, impossible to freight overseas
• can be packaged quickly and easily.

Products that work poorly… Well, obviously the reverse of the above. Products with small margins, that can be bought anywhere, are heavy or bulky or that have uncertain lines of supply should probably be avoided.

Successful Web Sites have Quality Inbound Links

Links are critical. But have to be handled in a very specific way to benefit your site. Some general rules are listed below.

1. Try to get a minimum of 150 inbound links from sites with relevant content to your user group. Inbound links are often called “backlinks”.
2. Try to develop a theme with your inbound links so a search engine is in no doubt what industry group you belong to.
3. The more relevant inbound links the better. Try to get the search engines to see your site as a hub: a website at the centre of some important topic, what Google thinks of as “expert pages”.
4. Use your keywords in your inbound link labels i.e. the text that the link is under on the referring site.
5. Link out to important and busy resources, try to think of what outbound links will add value to your visitor’s experience of the web.
6. Avoid FFA (“free for all”) link directories as you may be penalised (i.e. sent backwards in the SERPs) for listing on some of them.
7. Don’t spam guestbooks or comments boxes on blogs (a technique that dynamically inserts links on web pages with a comments section or guestbook).
8. Use keywords in your link labels, not “click here”.
9. Only buy links if the selling web site can demonstrate traffic from their site to yours.

More detail here: Link Your Web Site

Successful Web Sites Exclude…

1. Frames: Avoid using frames on your website as they can cause issues with navigation and compatibility. If necessary, limit their usage to secondary levels within your site.
2. Adobe Flash: Flash-based websites, which rely on animations, are not suitable for search engines as the text within them is often inaccessible. Moreover, Flash has since been discontinued and will no longer work. It is recommended to transition to HTML5-based alternatives for animations and interactivity.
3. Deceptive Techniques: Stay away from tricks such as creating bogus link pages, using hidden text that matches the background color, or employing doorway pages. If search engines catch you engaging in these practices, your website may be penalized or even removed from their listings.
4. Cloaking: Cloaking involves serving different content to search engines and users, which is frowned upon by search engines. While not as prevalent today, it’s important to avoid cloaking as it can lead to penalties and damage your website’s reputation.
5. Java Navigation: Be cautious with Java-based navigation, particularly rollover buttons, as they can be difficult for search engines to index and follow the links properly. Consider alternative methods for interactive elements that are more search engine-friendly.
6. Text in Images: While it may be tempting to use images (such as JPEGs or GIFs) for text content due to their visual appeal, search engines rely on indexable text for ranking and relevance. Balancing design and accessibility, it’s crucial to prioritize searchable text content over design elements to ensure proper indexing and visibility.

Successful Web Sites are made by Web Developers

While friends, family members, or students might offer their services with good intentions and at a lower cost, it’s important to understand the potential drawbacks. Websites developed by non-professionals may have a visually appealing appearance in a browser, but they often lack the necessary optimization for search engines, hindering your online visibility. Additionally, relying on students or younger family members can pose challenges in the long run. They may move on to other endeavors, leaving you without a clear upgrade path, potential issues with domain name ownership, or even a backup of your website. To ensure a successful web presence, it’s advisable to seek professional assistance from experienced web designers.

Successful Web Sites are Marketed Offline

Successful web sites are marketed offline as well as online. In fact, from the time of writing a brief for your web site, provision should be made to integrate your web site with your other marketing activities. Here are some common mistakes web site owners make:

• The web site owner runs a costly TV advert and… excludes the web address
• The web site owner runs a costly radio advert… and excludes the web address
• The web site owner takes out a number of classified newspaper ads… and excludes the web address
• The web site owner has an office or main street location… and doesn’t sign write the front window.
• The web site owner has a huge 4wd …and neglects to put their URL on it somewhere.

What about caps, pens, business cards and letterhead. Do they carry your web address?

Success Web Sites have the Involvement of the Web Site Owner

Having a web site is a commitment. It is not like other forms of marketing where people pay their money, their material runs for a defined period of time and that is that – they either got customers from it or they didn’t. Web sites have to grow and evolve. If search engines can see someone is tending and watering the garden, they will reward that web site with greater prominence. In other words, if the web site content is current, expanding and changes frequently, it will perform better on search engines.

Successful Web Sites ask for What they Want

Too often web sites lack a call to action. The author of the web site knows all about the product and service, but how well is this communicated to the reader and what response is required? “Call this number“, “Complete this brief survey“, “Click here and we will call you back” are all calls to action. If there is no call to action or no means of response, what does this make the site? In the industry, we call this “brochureware”.

Successful Web Sites Have Quality Photography

It is a cliche, but it is true for the web… a picture tells a thousand words. Good photography will be essential in selling products and services on the web. Without photography, people will be unsure exactly what they are getting and this will create doubt and inertia at checkout. The web is a visual media, more akin to a magazine than a manual. People tend to read less on screens and respond more to images. Next time you are browsing a web site, think about what is attracting and keeping your attention, is it the text or the photography?

Summary: for website success

Successful web sites are rare. A number of technical, practical and design ingredients are drawn together to create a killer web site. However, web sites can start small and build the above success strategies as they go.

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