Wizard of Ads Clay Campbell

10 Steps to a Better Website # 4 Gather info and name the pages

This series of 10 Steps to a Better Website is for the small business owner with a small ad budget. My suggestions/steps are a process you must go through, to get a website that you are happy with, that does what you want it to do.

“I have a website site but I’m not happy with it” is a statement I hear a lot. When updating or building a new website you’ll need to be able to explain to the Webmaster what you want. Otherwise they will make for you something you may not like that does not function well.

Take a look at your competitors’ websites. Right click your mouse to view the source and see what keywords they are using. What information do you feel is most useful or compelling on their site? Start making a list. Look over other sites in your industry. What did you find that want or don’t want? Which design styles do you prefer? Which writing styles appeal to you? You must communicate this info to your Webmaster. The better understanding you have with her/him on what you want, the happier you will be when it’s done.

Your list of information should include a list of the pages you want, and a list of what to put on each page. Gather up all the pictures, graphics, logos, and text copy you think you may need. Put it all together in one place.

Make sure your site contains plenty of useful information for the visitor— not just advertising. Give them enough information they need to decide to visit your store, or purchase your products and services.
In order to give you a bid for a website, one of the first questions a Webmaster needs to know is: How many pages do you want?

Here are ideas for web pages that I have on my own sites and some I have recommended for clients. As with all my suggestions, take what you can use, and ignore the rest.

· Home
· About us
· Testimonials (written, audio and video-we live in a Youtube world, so video testimonials are great)
· Products or Services
· Location (and a map that gives directions)
· Contact us
· Frequently asked questions
· News & Events
· Sign up for our newsletter
· Our Staff
· Photo gallery
· What we do
· Store hours
· Our Guarantee
· Write a review
· Local Weather forecast
· Our Rates/Prices
· Things to do in our area
· Area Attractions, Restaurants & Motels
· Employment
· Site Map
· Our Mission
· My Blog
· Links
· Our History
· Catalog
· Calendar of Events
· Entertainment & Shopping
· Sign our Guestbook

Next you will need Meta tags. Those are keywords, titles and descriptions for each page. These must be thought out and well planned. One of the reasons a person can become unhappy with their website is because they begin to realize it wasn’t planned very well in the beginning. However all this website planning is time very well spent. A good website is well worth the investment of time energy and effort. If have a good designer, a good writer, and it’s easy to find your way around on the site, the website will bring you business. It will increase your credibility, enhance your reputation, increase the word of mouth advertising about you, and will be a resource and benefit and a great service to your customers.

10 Steps to a Better Website-# 3 Establish a budget

This series of 10 steps to a better website is intended for the novice. For people not very savvy to “Internet stuff”
It just gives a little help on things that I needed help on when I first decided we needed a website.

The cost of creating a website depends on a lot of things. Many I covered in earlier posts. Cost will be determined in large part on the purpose of the site and how many pages. (Decide up front how much you should spend.)

The other key factors are high quality and high performance. There is no point spending any amount of money on a website that presents an amateurish image and does not function properly. Although a general rule may be that the larger your investment, the better your result.

I had lady in my office and she was asking for help with her website. She said friend of hers did her a favor and built her a website for “just a few bucks.”
I told her it would take less time to build a new one than to fix all the problems with here current one. She complained about spending money on the old site and now spending more for a new site. Probably all small businesses have had this same thing happen in some fashion or another.

If you want a professional looking website be prepared for it to not be cheap.
I do advise people get the best bang for their buck, but I learned from bitter past experience that hiring the lowest bidder to build a website or anything else is also running the risk of maybe having to do it all over again and paying for it twice.

Creating a website can be less expensive if you do it yourself, but only if you have the time, inclination, and tools to do a good job. Otherwise, get several bids from highly recommended designers and developers.

Clearly define your goals, style, and expectations for these Webmasters. As I suggested in another post and it’s worth repeating here, “Look at several sites that your potential Webmaster has built. If you don’t like the others he/she built, you probably won’t like yours when it’s finished.”

After you have what you feel is an acceptable bid, add in promotion and advertising expenses. As your company grows, you can expand your site, spreading your investment over time.

Buying advertising on Yahoo and Google to get more visitors to your site can get very expensive quickly. Decide on a monthly budget. Money spent on good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a wise investment. Good SEO work can bring your website up in the search engines to the first page and many times in the top three.

It’s been my experience and that of my clients too, that if you’ve had good SEO work done on your site up front and your website is in the top three or four for your chosen key words, and then you also have an ad from Google or Yahoo right above it, or right beside it, you will get fewer clicks on your ad. Because people are becoming savvy to the fact that those sponsored results are ads.

Attracting customers for very specific ad words on search result pages where you are not in the top three is a good idea if the adwords are not too general.

For tips on getting the best use of your ad dollars in all your advertising, read 12 steps to More Bang for Your Marketing Buck.

My new book came out this week titled Get Big Results From Your Small Ad Budget it has some very good tips making your advertising dollars go farther. You can order it through Wizard Academy Press in Austin Texas.

Check out Vess Barnes seys Hello at:
http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=Vess_Barnes_Says_Hello

Contact me at Clay Campbell.biz

10 Steps to a Better Website -#2 Plan your content

This is number two in this series. These ten posts are for all the people that say to me, "I'm just not savvy to Internet stuff"
What is the purpose of your website? What do you want to achieve with your site? You need to establish your goals and priorities up front.

Do you want information about your company, products, and services? Or do you want to actually sell your products online? Or maybe influence and motivate potential customers to visit your store or do you want them to just call your phone number? Do you want to brand your company and refine its image? Provide great customer service? Or do you want some combination of all the above?

How you answer these questions will guide the design and development of your site.

You don’t need an elaborate plan. Just sit down with a pencil and a legal pad and answer some of the questions above plus these.

· How many pages do I need?
· Do I have the content already? (* Note-the best investment in your website is to hire a good writer)
· What would be the titles of those pages?
· Find three or four websites you like and tell the Webmaster designing your site that you want something like that. That will help with colors and layout
· Look at several sites that your potential Webmaster has built. If you don’t like the others he/she built, you won’t like yours when it’s finished
· The content will attract or turn away the visitor quickly, and will also play a large part where you rank in the search engines. (Yahoo Google etc)
· Make very sure your text content is not an exact duplicate of another site.