Web Site Marketing Strategy

Website Marketing Plan

 5 Golden Rules To Web Design

Golden Rule #1- Do not use splash pages

Your Goal here is to stand out from the norm.  A Web Site Marketing Strategy needs to be a statement about you and what you have to offer. Give yourself a unique position so that when people come to visit your site you do not look like the status Quo.

Usually, splash pages are the first pages you see when arriving at a website. They  have  beautiful graphics with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. How boring, come on really, do you want to look like everyone else. I’ts like going to the prom and “Becky” Ms. Popular cheerleader shows up wearing the same darn dress you spent 3 month’s trying to find.

Just a pretty dress  with no real pizazz. I can tell you right off the bat your visitors will take one look and turn around and exit as fast as they entered. Your website business strategy needs to include giving them the value of your site up front, without the splash page parade.

Golden Rule #2-Do not go banner ad Loony

Your web site marketing strategy needs to include not getting ignored. Having a bunch of useless banners flashing all over your site says only one thing, you must have been bored. I mean really, sorry to be so harsh but I want you to succeed. If you want to give a 4th grader a project to cut and paste then take them to Rite-aid and buy some construction paper and some scotch tape, don’t have them setting up bits of streamers all over your website. Tacky, Tacky, Tacky.

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. This is not a good use of web site marketing strategy, Instead, provide more valuable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being blind sighted by your Vegas lights flashing all over the pages.

Golden Rule #3-  An effective Web Site Marketing Strategy includes being sure that your navigation is clear, simple and easy to follow

You must create a simple and very precise navigation menu, so that even a child will be able to follow it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. You are not producing a Broadway show here. If your website visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will turn around and leave. End of story.

Golden Rule #4- Be sure that you have a clear indication of where your visitors are

It would be rather embarrassing if someone is visiting your site and a voice comes on through the loud speaker stating…”Hello”? “Are You O.k.”? “Where Are You”? When visitor is exploring your site and is deeply engrossed browsing , you really need to make sure that your web site marketing strategy plan includes a clear road map so they know what part of your website they are in at that moment in time. If guided properly,  they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “Let’s Get The Heck Outta Here”!

Golden Rule #5-Avoid using audio on your site, it is not the Coppa Cabana

If you want your visitors to stay at your website, reading your value packed content, you most definitely do not want them to be distracted because you have some creepy trans music looping it’s way to oblivion in the background. If you are a person that is audio compulsive, we won’t hold it against you, just be sure that your visitor has some sort of means to either mute it or turn the volume down. A web site marketing strategy plan should always have these 5 basic rules, in order for you to get the most effective outcome.

Improve Web Marketing With Sitemaps

 Improve Web Marketing with Sitemaps

Sitemaps 101 – Here are Some Tips and Strategies on Building Sitemaps

Have you ever wondered how a search engine works? It would be great to watch a spyder crawl your site and find its way around by a simple sitemap you left for it to have a successful visit.  You may have even experienced that a link you thought was relevant to your keyword came back completely different than you had anticipated, and you could not figure out why. I bet you were thinking that there must be something wrong with the search engine that it generated irrelevant results or your web marketing plan had failed.

How does a search engine work?

Two things are basically the factors that will result in making search engines work effectively and efficiently:  the first would be an electronic search spider and the second, the sitemap.

What is a sitemap?

When using a web marketing plan that includes sitemaps, the sitemap is a page or pages that serve/s as a directory by listing all the connections or links, to all documents and files found on the website. It is not just a random listing of links, but organized in a way that it gives the web user an idea of how all the information, that can be found in the site,  fits into an outline or framework. It is like viewing the table of contents of a book, or viewing the “concept map” of the site’s content.

A Spider? Will it bite?

In SEO language, a spider is not an insect found in your basement. This electronic search spider is actually a bot which collects data and copies content to be stored in the search engine’s database when keywords are fed into the search dialogue box. The spider reads the content of the site and sends another bot to follow the links and copy the content contained in them.

What is the purpose of a Sitemap?

A sitemap,  like any other map,  gives directions to a navigator. It primarily targets search engine spiders so that they are properly directed to your site and to the links where keywords entered in the search dialogue appears.  As such, it is actually a useful tool in search engine optimization. A well organized web marketing plan with a  site map will guide the spider to find the information it needs when keywords are entered during a search operation.

As an additional beneficial consequence, sitemaps have proven to be useful even to web users. Since a sitemap displays all the links to information found in a website, it helps the user to search for a particular topic in mind. Many users also use the sitemap to navigate between pages in a site.

How Do I benefit from a Sitemap?

1. No page would be left unturned

Going back to the purpose of sitemaps, having one would mean faster and easier tracking and crawling of spiders all over your site. As a result, search engines would surely get to the view all the pages of your site and not just the pages containing random keywords.

2. Easier navigation for site visitors

Once a web user has accessed your sitemap, they need not go back to the search engine page to look for what they need. If what they are looking for is in your site, then they would have an easier and faster way of locating it.

3. Potential advertising value

If it so happens that a relevant product or service company reaches your site, then it would be easier for them to see how best they can position themselves in the different pages of your site as a paid page advertisement.

4. Encourage greater traffic to your site

If your web marketing efforts inludes a sitemap, then potential buyers would have an easier time in accessing your latest products and services. Moreover, they would not miss out on any product that might be off future interest to them since the sitemap would display all information found the site.

How does one format the sitemap?

Currently there are about three major types of sitemaps: an indexed, a full categorical, and a restricted categorical. An indexed site map appears as an alphabetical listing or directory. A full categorical map displays all links classified into categories; while a restricted categorical sitemap displays all links listed in a chosen category at a time. Web marketing plans that include the full and restricted sitemaps, are very similar except that the former displays all links in all categories all at once in a page, while the latter focuses only the links under the selected category for easier and less eye-straining viewing.

The most widely used format is the full categorical. Based on most research, the full categorical format is most preferred by users since it is easier to search for topics within the site and it allows easier comparison between and among categories.

Some tips in setting up your sitemap

1. Link the sitemap only to your homepage.

This is to ensure that the spider starts searching from your homepage down to all the pages listed in your sitemap. In this way, no page would be left unvisited by the spider, although some factors may prevent that at times

2. Do not go beyond 30 pages for a sitemap.

Large websites having 50 or more pages should not go beyond 30 since this adds more pages to the site, and might make search engines think that the sitemap is a link farm.  Also, this prevents overcrowding of links which could be tiring to view. We do not want our little spider getting it’s legs all wound up now do we. This would doom all your web marketing plans for sure.

3. Be Sure You Have checked all the links listed in your sitemap.

It is frustrating to some when you click on a link only to find out that nothing is displayed. Test your sitemap; click all links in every page to make sure that all links are indeed linked to the right page.

4. Give keyword-rich titles to sitemap links.

Keyword-rich titles give your site more advantage in being searched properly under the right category. But be sure to have this sitemap link linked back to the sitemap (e.g. back to sitemap).

5. Provide a short description for the links in the sitemap.

Doing so would give readers a better idea of what to find in the link and save them time on surfing.

6. Be consistent in designing your sitemap with the other pages of the site.

Be sure your web marketing plans include Employing a recurring design and the same HTML template for all pages to establish identity and build character to your website.

O.k. Do you have the picture? They are really not that difficult to put together and in most cases there are programs that will build them for you. That being said get going and build yourself a great sitemap

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at support@webmarketingstrategysite.com

Cheers,

Manny F.

mannyf@webmarketingstrategysite.com