8 Important Elements for Small Business Web Sites

8 Important Elements for Small Business Web Sites

Key visitors to your commercial pages include web robots that crawl the internet and catalog your content. Having proper HTML source code, plus the right combination of text and graphic presentation, is just one secret to success. Proper code may mean higher robot ratings, and the look is equally important. Once a new prospect finds your web site, you have 5 seconds to get them to stay.

As a small business web site owner, you may have asked Why do not we get any hits?. Did you know web pages can load and appear correct with improper or deprecated HTML code? A browser may ignore your mistakes, and display what it thinks you meant, and it may look great. Web robots may not be as forgiving.

Following is a list of 8 basic elements for good search engine placement that need to be considered in your design and web site promotion. For details on code issues from the worldwide authority, visit the World Wide Web Consortium to view DOCTYPE and other quality standards.

1. DOCTYPE Statement

2. Page Title

3. Proper HTML Code

4. META Description

5. META Key Words

6. First Paragraph of the Home Page

7. An Extra Page of Just LINKS

8. Backlinks Links to your pages

These 8 key items are either missing or poorly designed in 85 percent of all web sites. Some search engines may only list the other 15 percent in their directories. In other words, as few as 15 percent of the 6 billion web pages online ever make it into some search engines. Even worse, there are mistakes that may result in your page being blacklisted, and the search engine web crawlers may never come back to see if it is corrected. This could explain why you never get any hits.

Web sites can be simple and professional without using fancy software to create your pages. Veteran programmers hand code and many create the HTML in NotePad. Web authors who choose to use flash, frames, or the latest software may be losing a significant portion of new visitors customers because the visitor may lack the technology or newest version of browsers. If they are turned off and leave without giving your site a fair viewing, it could mean lost profits.

Most designers use prepackaged software to create web pages. If the software leaves out any of the key elements, the code is hidden, and you will never know your site was not optimized for search engines. The designer may not know, or care, about these items as long as the page looks attractive. Note: Search engine algorithms vary by company, so some elements such as an extra page of links may not be as important today with some search robots. Backlinks refer to marketing your site and getting other web sites to link to yours.

Finally, business visitors want information. They do not visit your home page to be entertained. Most have a need (problem) and want a fast answer solution, so designs should be created to minimize the use of music or video unless that is your core business. Anything that distracts from a positive first impression may violate my 5 Second Rule.

With proper design more traffic

Chauncey Penfold

337-856-9461

3 Women Starting A Small Business

Starting a small business ranks close to having a child in the “major life event” category. This can be one of the most stressful times, but if done right, it can also be one of the most rewarding things in your life. Some might think that to start your own business, you have to know everything. One thing that you can have something help you with is marketing and advertising.

This is a very complicated part of any business and if the average business owner thinks they know everything they need to know about this, they are kidding themselves. When someone has a heart problem, they go to a specialist. This is how you should treat your small business marketing. Using an Ad Agency could be one of the smartest things you could do to help ensure your business does not fail.

It is well known that 80% of all businesses fail within the first 5 years. How many of those millions of heartbroken owners could have been part of the 20% only if they would have not been a “know it all” and asked the experts for help in areas they didn’t have an idea in. Throughout the years of running an Ad Agency, we have never had a client spend more money with us than if they would have done it alone. In a majority of cases, they actually have saved thousands of dollars with us. This is for a few reasons. One is the enormous buying power good Ad Agencies have.

We can buy in bulk and pass the savings to all of our clients. Ad Agencies also have more negotiating power. Going into a buying process with 5-10 clients at one time can give us a huge advantage in negotiating power. One thing that new and existing business owners fail to do is create an actual advertising marketing plan for the year. This can be done at any time during the year and not just January first.

Create a plan for the next 12 months based on your target audience and your budget. We never come to a client and tell them how much they should spend for the year. We take your budget and create a plan for you, at a price you can afford. We handle over $38 million in advertising dollars every year, but we service the $5000 startup or the $100k budgets. Any and all are welcome to participate in our programs.

To your Success

Chauncey Penfold

337-856-9461

skype chauncey.penfold