Web Wise: Search Engine-friendly or Search-friendly--Which Web site should you have?
If you had a retail store, you'd make sure your store was sparkling clean; your products were stocked and easy-to-reach; all the aisles were easy to walk through-you'd do all this preparation before you advertised your grand opening, right? You'd take care of the details that would make your customers happy, like having plenty of properly trained/friendly staff; an easy check-out process and you'd also heavily promote the thing you wanted people to buy the most of, right?
Are you providing the same outstanding service on your Web site?
If you owned a bricks-and-mortar store, before you advertised and brought an influx of traffic into your store, you would make sure your store and staff were ready to deal with these customers, right? Otherwise, no matter how many people you bring in, if they don't get great customer service and can't find what they need, they probably won't be back. Not to mention that they'll tell 10 other people how poorly run your store was.
The same concept applies to your Web site: before you make it Search Engine-friendly to bring in targeted traffic, be sure your Web site is Search-friendly. Unfortunately, many Web site owners, from the entrepreneur to the huge corporation, fail to grasp this concept and end up wasting thousands of dollars on a pretty Web site that doesn't work.
Your Web site should be your digital salesperson, greeting, informing and directing visitors to the point of purchase. By the way, the point of "purchase" can be for something other than a product or service; it could be to contact you; make a donation; to subscribe to your newsletter; to fill out your survey; to download your E-book or some other "buy-in"). Your Web site can work for you like a whole team of properly trained people, only instead of an 8 hour shift, your site can work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and doesn't need a lunch break.
How can your Web site work for you and convert visitors into customers just like a real live team of well-trained employees would do? It's all in the planning. The pretty stuff comes later. If you want your Web site to work for you, you need to cook the ingredients in a certain order: prioritize the information architecture and copy writing over the design of the look-and-feel. The design is important but all too often Web site owners want to begin with the way it will look rather than the way it will sell.
The first two steps to take toward building a Web site that works are:
Step One - A Search-friendly Site: The first step in creating a strategic, results-oriented Web site, even before bringing targeted traffic in, must be to properly plan and execute how to deal with those potential customers coming into your Web site. Decide on your strategy so you can get good results.
Step Two - Wireframes: Just like a sculptor would create the wireframe before adding the clay, you should create the wireframe of your Web site before adding words, color and detail, which will be shaped (written, designed and programmed) into a final form. You can do this yourself on paper: map out the goal of every page before you get your copy professionally written by a Web-experienced writer. Decide who you're talking to (who are your markets?) and organize your information accordingly. Be sure to include a call-to-action on every page and an easy purchase process or easy way to contact you. Sounds like we're talking about marketing instead of "just a Web site", doesn't it? Knowing how to create a Web site that is a marketing tool and not just a pretty thing to look at is crucial if you want your business or organization to succeed online.
Just as the retail store owner stocks her shelves and trains her staff before the grand opening of her store, you need to anticipate what your Web site visitors will need before they arrive at your site. Provide the information they need right away. Don't rely on your navigation menu to guide them around your site-be sure to put text links in your copy to lead them, like taking them by the hand, up and down your "aisles" or in this case, your Web site pages. The thing you want them to buy or do or take action on should be featured so they can't overlook it.
More and more Web site owners and managers are realizing how important it is to bring targeted traffic into their Web sites as they build them. But before your site is made Search Engine-friendly be sure your Web site is ready to properly deal with that targeted traffic by making it a Search-friendly site.
Lori Gama-White owns DaGama Web Studio in Greeley, Colorado. Developing strategic, results-oriented Web sites since 1997, Lori Gama-White and her team of Web professionals are passionate about helping people get their businesses on to the Internet. For more information, questions or comments, call 970-378-7822 or e-mail .
© 2005 Lori Gama-White - All Rights Reserved -
http://www.dagamawebstudio.com
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