Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Vol. 13 / How to Develop a Customer Base with a Website

With so many writers and new authors in need of a personal Website to promote their book, I thought it a good idea to post these valuable tips on Website development.

If you haven’t yet built a Website, there are several easy-to-use and FREE site builders available. Check out my favorites at http://www.FreeWebs.com and http://www.Weebly.com

I have just started a new Website through FreeWebs and it's really easy! See my new site at http://www.freewebs.com/authorsbox and let me know what you think of it. It only took me 1 hour to build!

* Create a site with valuable content, products or services. I
know this seems obvious but I can't stress the importance of good
content. If you don't have good content now then keep adding to
your site.

* Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words
in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
Try and have it read like it would if you were talking with a friend.

* Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target
customers. If you know what's important to your customers then you
would focus on those keywords.

* Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your Web
Page, like Title, META tags, Headers, etc. You can read more about
META data on my site (www.eSiteSecrets.com )

* Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate
easily between Web pages, find what they want, and buy products and
services. My point is that your pages should not lead to a dead-end.
Pages should have links to other pages.

* Submit your Web pages, i.e. every Web page and not just the home
page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire
someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do
not engage an automated submission service.

* Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and
accordingly modify your Web pages so your search engine ranking
remains high. See the tools page for tools to automate this process.

* Monitor your competitors and the top ranked Websites to see what
they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content,
keywords, etc. It is easier to copy then to try and figure it out on
your own.

* Use reports and logs from your Web hosting company to see where your
traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their
incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and
the keywords they used to find you.

* Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by
writing and submitting articles for your Website or for article banks
so you are perceived as an expert in your field. Plus, these will
lead to back links to your site!

* When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it
is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a Website which no
one visits. I could tell you story after story about how the right
person cost me a little but made me a lot.

* Don't look at your Website as a static brochure. Treat it as a
dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real
store to which your customers with the same seriousness.


~ Wesley
www.eSiteSecrets.com

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