..there’s a lot to learn about Internet Marketing and creating successful websites (I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface)…but what I can offer is this advice.
A website will ‘work’ if five very important things occur -
- You use appropriate keywords and phrases (the most likely ones people would search for to find you).
- You get as many appropriate websites (related to your industry or location) to link to yours as possible.
- You make sure that Google can index your website properly (don’t use flash based sites, iframes or excessive images, because search engines can’t read them).
- The website is updated with fresh quality content and technological advances.
- You promote your website and ‘drive traffic’ towards it.
Functionality, quick loading, ease of navigation, relevant and useful content and testimonials also add to the appeal of each site.
A website is almost useless and a waste of money if these things are not present.
If you already have a business, a product a service or just some good quality information to share with the world, the Internet could well be the place to expand your horizons.
Start with a well-structured website and quality content…if you can’t write your own marketing script, get a professional to do it for you…make it compelling and your site visitors will be keen to come back for more!
MOST IMPORTANT, make sure it contains the words that potential customers searching for what you have to offer, would type in a search box.
I wish you all the very best with your Internet Adventure,
How to Create a Website – Simple Steps to get your Online Business Running
by Noah Ulrich
Creating a website can and should be a fun and profitable endeavour. If done correctly, the entire process of establishing your web presence can be done in as little as 48 hours. In this article, I will establish some basic guidelines any newbie webmaster will want to know in order to make this process as smooth as possible.
The first and most important step is the Planning Stage. This stage is so critical; I could easily devote an entire separate article on this step alone. For this however, I will summarize the important steps and try not to go into too much detail. You will need to decide what you intend to sell or promote. Once this done, you will need to determine your target market. Then you will want to decide on your domain name and targeting keywords. Be sure your domain name is as relevant to what you are selling as possible and try to make it contain that keyword. Now you want to determine the overall layout of your site. Be sure to choose your words and graphics carefully, and try to optimize your site as best you can.
This brings us to our next step, properly designing your website. It is always a good idea to design with both search engines and customers in mind. Proper search engine optimization can provide your site with many free visitors and potential profits. For those looking to do it themselves, proper education should be their number one priority. The best part about this education is most of it can be received free of charge. You have hundreds of resources in article websites such as Goarticles.com and Ezinearticles.com. Plus with hundreds of good webmaster forums also available, the extent of your education is only limited by the amount of time and effort you are willing to commit.
With this knowledge of how to design a site, you will now want to create it. Using HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia’s Dreamweaver, you will find that the actual task of creating your site is quite easy. You can also find other free HTML Editors online by doing a search at www.download.com. Other ways of creating your website can be done using templates, or pre-built sites where all you change is the payment link, or web site generators, where you would enter some basic criteria of what you are looking for in your site, and it will create the code for you. You would then use this code for your site.
Of course, you could always hire a programmer. I do not really recommend this because it is good to know how to do things yourself. Plus, programmers can get quite expensive. In the end, the money used to hire a programmer is usually better spent adding to your own product line, or advertising your site.
Now that we have our website design complete, we need to put it on the web to reach our target audience. You will now need to purchase your domain name. Your domain name needs to be planned out in advance and should contain a keyword you are targeting. It is also a good idea to purchase your domain name from a well known and reputable company. Sites such as Yahoo!, GoDaddy, and Network Solutions offer domain names and the support and reliability you are looking for in your web business. Once you have your domain name set up, you will need to set your Name Servers that you will receive from your hosting company.
