Internet Marketing Articles

So you’ve created an incredible looking website, and you’re ready to launch it on the Internet and start making money. Audit your site first. There are nine essential elements that every website should include if you want to ensure success.

1. Privacy Policy/Disclaimer:

Note, Im not an attorney and I dont pretend to be one, but these two documents that should be part of every website you develop. People want to know, and are entitled to know, just how youre going to use their personal information. That’s what a privacy policy does.

Also include a disclaimer/terms of use page on your site. This document protects you and tells visitors what theyre agreeing to by using your website. You can find several sites on the Internet to help you draft these documents, such as:

* DMA Privacy Policy Generator http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/PPG/ * OECD Privacy Statement Generator http://tinyurl.com/5plgpc * Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator http://www.serprank.com/privacy-policy-generator/index.php * Privacy Policy Generator http://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/ * Free Site Disclaimer http://www.easyriver.com/free_disclaimer.htm

This is not legal advice, so if you need help or feel your website has special legal needs, consult with an attorney familiar with Internet law.

2. Contact Us Information:

Would you want to do business with a website that does not include a way to contact the owner? While you may not be able to include a phone number, you should at least have an email address or a contact us form. Your visitors will feel much more comfortable when you provide this information, knowing theres a way to contact if they need to do so.

Need a form and dont know how to create your own? Try one of these free online services.

* Bravenet: http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/emailfwd/ * Freedback: http://freedback.com/ * Email Me: http://www.emailmeform.com/

3. Search Box/Site Map:

If your site includes many pages, you should also include a way to search the site, or at minimum have a site map. There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest method is to use Googles free service at- http://www.google.com/sitesearch/

or try PicoSearch: http://www.picosearch.com/

A site map is one web page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by category. Another resource - FreeFind: http://www.freefind.com/

4. Google Analytics/Statistical System:

Once you have launched your site, start watching your traffic. Whos visiting your website, what pages are the most popular, from where is the traffic coming? All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good analytics program.

Many popular hosting companies provide free statistical packages such as Webalizer or AWSTATS. If yours does not, the easiest way to track your visitors (and it is free) is Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ Just register there, and you may track as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. Youll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and youre done.

5. Newsletter Sign Up:

Generally people don’t buy from you the very first time they come to your website, so you need to find a way to stay in touch with them to bring them back frequently. One good method of staying in touch with prospective customers is by offering a newsletter, or ezine. As each person signs up for the ezine, youll be building a list of the email addresses of possible customers.

Youll find many free and low cost newsletter services online. Its your choice, depending on your needs and what you can afford. If you dont want to pay anything, some great free services are:

FreeAutoBot: http://www.FreeAutoBot.com Yahoo Groups: http://www.yahoo.com/groups

You may offer an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. RSS feeds make it easy for users to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is FeedBurner: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

6. Site Navigation:

Although it sounds like a simple thing, making the menus consistent iis important to any site. No matter what style of menus you select, just make sure it is the same on all the pages of your site.

Menus guide your users through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they want to go.

For more go to:

* Eye on Web: http://tinyurl.com/dyh9fm * Web Page Mistakes: http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/website-navigation/

7. Search Engine Optimized Pages:

Although many web developers do not think SEO is important, believe me it is. If you take the time to develop a website you want your pages to rank well in Google and the other search engines There are a few things you can do to improve your rankings.

Optimize each page of your website for 2, or at the most 3 keywords/phrases. Blend those keywords into your titles and into the body of each individual page. You may also include them in your image titles, and alt tags. Analyze each page and determine its main theme, then optimize accordingly.

For more information:

* MarketLeap: http://tinyurl.com/ce8ffd * CopyBlogger: http://www.copyblogger.com/seo-copywriting/

8. Social Media Share Button:

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, are becoming more important everyday in marketing websites. Be sure to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.

Most of the social media sites offer a way to add a share button to your site. In addition, youll find several free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a share button to your web pages so that users can instantly share them with their friends.

To generate social media buttons go to:

* AddThis: http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php * TwitThis: http://www.TwitThis.com

9. Meta Tags:

Don’t listen to website developers who tell you that meta tags are no longer useful. Unique meta tags should be included in your HTML code at the top of every page of your website. That means unique meta tags for each and every page of your website. Many of the top search engines read those tags to pull a title and description to include in their search results. (This includes Google)

Let me say it again, each and every web page should be optimized separately and have a unique title, keywords, and description meta tags.

For more see:

* Submit Express: http://www.submitexpress.com/metatag.html * Submit Corner: http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Meta/

Subscribe No Scam, No-Hype Internet Marketing Newsletter to Boost Your Online Profits for Free! First Name: Email: Please ensure you provide a valid email address, other than Yahoo, Hotmail or MSN because we're currently having problems sending emails to them. Thank you. Your information will never be sold our shared with anyone ... NEVER! I respect your privacy and hate SPAM too!

As soon as you sign up you'll also get 5 *HOT* online marketing reports/software as my welcome bonus IMMEDIATELY.

Tags: elements of websites, how to make a website, search engine optimization, SEO, web design, Website Development

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 6:52 am and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.