Invest your time, not necessarily your dollars, in your web presence...

...it is not just a pretty face.

Many sole propietors and small businesses (even some larger companies) still have websites that are built with a mindset of a paper brochure just sitting online to send people to. Saving money by writing the copy in house and cutting back on the "unecessary" cost of SEO, (search engine optimization) they are typically rarely updated and as a result given little or no attention by search engines, have low traffic levels, do not encourage return visits, & do not enable or track activity - particularly the critical activity of conversion.

Other than look good, what should a website do for you?

Generate leads
Persuade to conversion - track
Drive traffic to your store or service
Educate, build loyalty - encourage return visits
Relieve pre or post sales support
Reduce repetitive calls, emails,

Far short of a redesign there are several low or no cost things you can do to improve the usability and search value of your site.

If you (re)build it... (make sure it is ready before) ...they will come.
Keep in mind that increasing traffic to a site that repels users
is a waste of time and budget.

Here are a few tips and some no, or low cost considerations to whip your "brochure" into shape and get it truly working for you:

For them, not for you:
Think about your site - who is it for?
- Seems obvious - but too many seem to create from within without a realistic view of customer needs or experience.
- Help your prospects get what they need
- Understand their buying process - ask them!
- Make the right offer at the right time in their process - don't get in their way with sales to soon.
Keyword research:
With many solid free tools available, this elightening time investment pays off well beyond SEO value, to informing marketing position decisions.

Fresh, relevant, informative, readable copy gives users a reason to keep coming back and organically benefits your site's "findability". So, increase your site's relevant searchable content; case studies, articles, newsletter content, updated site content and genuinely relevant beneficial inbound links.

- "Tricks" will come and go but honesty truly is the best policy for the long term health and growth of your site. it pays off and you can sleep at night without investing many hours and many dollars keeping up with "what works" today - risking drop or complete loss of your ranking later.

Copywriting:
“We know our business best, so we’ll write it”
This usually yields disappointing results. It is one of the places not worth scrimping on budget. However, if budget dictates that you must write it in-house keep these content tips in mind:
- Be succinct, emphasize benefits, focus on what your customer needs and wants to know, with a reasonable volume of text for SEs
- Write first for the reader then tweak to include keywords but keep it sounging natural - don't overdo it.
- Optimizing copy for SEO is not something every writer can do.
The best scenario is an objective experienced web copy writer writing about your business.
- A good writer will convey the message better than you or your staff ever could.

Call to action:
Give your users a easy way to follow through to requesting your service or product as often as possible. Don't get in their way with sales initially, but through the site include a call to action at appropriate places. Make it easy and often. Call to discuss how simple tactics like this can which are commonly ignored may improve your site's success.

If it sounds too good to be true it quite likely is:
Be cautious of promises and suggestions such as:
- 100's of directory submissions
(stick to the fundamental directories).
- Link buying - run from any suggestion of paid links.
- "We will get you on the front page of digg and drive a bunch of traffic..." aka A team of people mis-using social media to vote for your article to the top.
- "This will trick Search Engines..." it is a safe bet that Google Engineers and evolved algorythms are smarter than the everyday SEO consultant trying to sell you on "tricks". It is very hard to claw your way back into Search engine ranking once out. Keeping up with what might work today demands a committment to continual vigilance - expensive and risky.

Adding a new feature:
A tool, blog, game, white paper, advertisement, paid search, online ordering, gallery, newsletter...? Don't just do it because everyone does, consider:
- How will it benefit visitors?
- How will it benefit your business?
- Who does it serve?
- Are you ready to support it properly?
i.e. a Blog, done well, is a significant, regular, time commitment
- How will you measure success?

Email Newsletter:

Why use an email marketing service?:
Continually working to create solutions to the proliferation of spam and the growing problem of deliverability. Email service providers create and continually refine effective solutions to spam and deliverability concerns through a combination of legislative advocacy, technological development, and industry standards.

TRIM THE FAT

Minimal or no Flash:
Flash adds overhead, distracts users, and it's text content is lost to Search engines - not to mention that statistics state saavy users see it as time-wasting.
if used incorrectly it can destroy your rankings. Flash has benefits for aesthetics used sparingly, where it is appropriate. The possibilities for design are great, but SEs don't like Flash.

Trash the Splash pages unless they are incredibly relevant to your business.They add an unecessary click and, like Flash comments above; add loading overhead, slow visitor experience and are considered "arrogant" by Web Saavy users. If Flash it is also wasted on Search Engines and can actually stymie them - reducing rank.

Boring, maybe, but usable:
Predicatble, perhaps even boring, usability most often reigns over slick and stylish (unless your business is about the ability to create slick & stylish). Give them what they expect and they will use it easier, more, better, faster, happier.

Clear, succinct, relevant, Home page:
This will not necessarily be the starting point for your users but treat it as most likely. Who are you? - What will you do for me? - Confirm I am in the right place - load in less than 5 sec.

Clear, consistent, navigation:
Use your users' words not organizational categories or industry jargon or brand names, horizontal navigatin is best, keep important information above the fold and accessible (visually, culturally, cognitive).

Optimize pages:
Focus on one keyword per page and use intuitive, relevant URLS - not complicated, or computer generated.

Test that your site views properly:
Consider your audience - test in the most popular browsers & operating systems at least. (at the end of 2008 - IE 70%, Firefox 20%, Safari 6.5%, Opera 0.75%, Chrome 0.75%).

Take control of your site:
If you do not have it already, ask your developer for domain registration and FTP access information. Also, consider a good, off- the-shelf Content Editor such as Adobe's Contribute - applicable to most websites - to allow you to edit and control regularly updating your page copy. It is easier and cheaper than you may think. We do a half day training and the software is less than $200. Call to ask about taking control of your site.

Eliminte any "Black Hat" practices:
Such as, purchasing unrelated reciprocal links, duplicate pages, stuffing keywords - Alt, background text in colour common, etc.

Test, test, test and then, test:
Without metrics what is the point? How do you know how well your site is doing? The tools are accessible and free so, why not?
If you put it up or mail it out and never know if it is read, or trashed, skipped through, misunderstood, or what is most popular, what is the point? Begin with a baseline - measure your site's current state before making improvements and watch what works.

"How can you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been." - Malcolm X ?

Social Media:
Twitter - a powerful free vehicle to rapidly distribute news?
the perfect example is the person who snapped an iphone picture of the USair river landing while on the Hudson river ferry.
and an hour later was live on CNN.
Also, an equally powerful free vehicle to rapidly distribute negative news - always keep in mind, particularly when you openly represent your company on Ywitter, that it is a public communication medium and everything you write is a permanent part of Twitter.

False economy:
Saving by finding a Web developer on lower per hour basis - (all sites are not created equal) Then having no, or compromised performance and more hours spent improving or salvaging the site.

Of course we take all of these things into consideration and do all of this for you when you bring your project to Boost. Please call to discuss making the most of your current site, easing into Social Media or starting a brand new project.