BASIC STRATEGIES TO INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC
One theme that is common to all business owners who have an online presence is the quest to have their website ranked in the first few pages of their favourite search engine.
Considering the billions of webpages on the internet today, this is not an easy task. I have put together some strategies to implement in order to rank higher on search engines:
- Offer original & quality information on your website: Interesting, well presented content will make your website a winner and make any SEO (Search Engine Optimization) much easier to accomplish. Easy to navigate, easy-to-read content is key when developing your site.
- Submit your site/URL to the main search engines:
Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Yahoo https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit and
Bing http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx
- Links: Get your site listed on as many websites or online directories as you can. This will drive traffic to your site and also help get your site ranked higher. Email all your friends and business associates and have them bookmark your site or make it their default page. This will increase your hits, thus improving your site ranking.
- Keywords: Search engines use keywords to index your site, and customers use them in searches to find your site. Keywords are embedded into the code of the website. Search engines crawl your site to pick up words the embedded keywords as well as words within the content of your site.
- Develop keyword phrases. It’s very difficult to place high on a single-word search. Matching the phrases customers use in searches increases both placement and the reliability ratings many search engines use.
- Ask potential customers what keyphrases they might use if they were searching for a site like yours.
- Consider different aspects—items for sale, information you offer, tone of the site, customer benefits, secure online transactions.
- If you have only a few keyphrases, include plural versions, variant capitalization, and common misspellings. Some search engines are not plural- or case-sensitive, and visitors often misspell search terms.
- Give Freebies: Who doesn’t like freebies? Offer your visitors free advice, free consultation, or perhaps a “downloadable coupon” option that would have customers visit your store to redeem an online coupon. People love these and will keep coming back for more. This will not only increase new and repeat traffic but also help in link building.
- Social Media: Use Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to share information with your targeted audience. This will propel people to visit your website more often and look for desired information.
- Advertisements: There are many free/ paid ways to advertise your business online. Paid methods like Google Adwords programs which are more targeted and help in bringing visitors based on demographics, location and preferences. However you need to decide on a budget for these and then plan accordingly.
- Keep it Fresh! Update the website regularly. Keep updating your site by adding new, relevant and helpful content to your site. Search engines also give preference to sites with new and relevant content.
What Do .com, .ca .net, and .org Mean?
These phrases are commonly called suffixes and are one part of a domain name. A domain name is your Web address, or Internet identity.
Suffixes are categories of Internet domain names, which categories serve to describe the type of company, organization, or other category that is represented. There are many categories from which to choose, and some suffixes (also called extensions) are more popular than others. These particular suffixes are considered top-level-domains (TLDs). These suffixes and others are defined here as follows:
.com stands for "commercial," and is the most widely used extension in the world. Most businesses prefer a .com domain name because it is a highly recognized symbol for having a business presence on the Internet.
.net stands for "network," and is most commonly used by Internet service providers, Web-hosting companies or other businesses that are directly involved in the infrastructure of the Internet. Additionally, some businesses choose domain names with a .net extension for their intranet Websites.
.ca is for Canadian Web sites. Ca - Canada's Internet Address
New rules mean anyone living or doing business in Canada can register an unlimited number of .ca domain names.
How You Can Benefit From a .CA Domain Name:
With most of the .coms gone, the .ca pool is wide open. Registering a .ca is a perfect way to get the domain name you want.
A .ca domain name tells other Canadians that you are part of the Canadian market.
If you already have a .com, register a .ca and attract Canadian consumers.
.org stands for "organization," and is primarily used by non-profits groups or trade associations.
.biz is used for small business Web sites.
.info is for credible resource Web sites and signifies a "resource" web site. It's the most popular extension beyond .com, .net and .org.
.bz was originally designated as the country code for Belize, but is now commonly used by small business who can't get the name they want using the .biz extension. It is unrestricted and may be registered by anyone, from any country.
.tv is for rich content/multi-media Web sites, commonly used within the entertainment or media industry.
.name is the only domain extension specifically designed for personal use. It is commonly used for easy to remember e-mail addresses and personal web sites that display photos or personal information about an individual.
The cost of registering a domain name is as little as $2.90/month if the name is available. There are
To date, and according to Guinness World Records and MSNBC, the most expensive domain name sales on record as of 2004 were:
Business.com for $7.5 million in December 1999
AsSeenOnTv.com for $5.1 million in January 2000
Altavista.com for $3.3 million in August 1998
Wine.com for $2.9 million in September 1999
CreditCards.com for $2.75 million in July 2004
Autos.com for $2.2 million in December 1999
Five Things to Consider When Developing a Website
By Marilyn Smith, Accent Web Design
An Internet website is an important tool for a business. It gives the casual shopper a chance to see and understand the services you provide even before they contact you. The website should be considered as part of an advertising budget. That’s what it does, helps advertise your business. It doesn’t have to cost a lot.
Even if you think it’s not needed, you may be surprised. There are many customers who may consider the other guy since they have a website and you don’t.
Here are 5 things to consider when planning your website.
1) Take a trip on the Information Highway. Look at what others are doing to get an idea for your site. Determine the amount of pages that you may want. Remember that users generally do not click through more than 2 pages to find the information for which they are searching.
2) Determine the price you want to pay. The cost for development will depend on the complexity of the website as well as experience of the designer. How often will your site need updating? You want your users to come back so you don’t want a static site. The cost of updates needs to be factored into the total cost.
3) When hiring a web designer, check their references. These references should include client satisfaction and site url’s. Look at the sites they’ve worked on. Do they suit your needs? If they aren't pleasing to you, you probably don’t want them to develop yours. Also get a detail written estimate.
4) In the agreement determine who shall hold the copyright for the site. While all developers will agree that the text on your site is yours, the template they may want to keep as their own. All copyrights should be yours. Make sure you receive from them a disk with the source code for your site and an agreement that after their contract expires you can go to another developer and be able to use the same template. To protect yourself, you will want to ensure that all rights (graphics, picture, sounds etc.) are granted for your use.
5) Determine where the web site is to be hosted. Some developers also offer web hosting. You may also want to consider a hosting service or having your own web server. If you don’t own your domain name and the developer is registering for you, make sure it’s registered in your name and that you have the information (username and password) required to access the registration site to make changes as needed. When registering domain name consider registering .net and .org as well as .com. and .ca