This document discusses how to plan an effective website for a small business. It recommends that a website be used to tell a business's story, sell products, serve customers, and communicate values. The document outlines different types of websites and lists 10 essential elements every small business website needs, including a clear description, easy contact info, customer testimonials, and quality content. It also provides tips for search engine optimization, such as using keywords, headings, images, and fresh unique content to improve a site's search ranking and usefulness.

1. Planning Your Website
Jay Jenkins
UNL Extension Educator, Cherry County

2. Why go online?

3. You go online to tell your story
• to better serve your customer
• sell more product

4. To show…
–who you are
–where you are located
–what you make
–how you make it
–why someone should buy it

5. You need a
presence online

7. A website is your place on the web
where you can:
• Tell your story
• Sell your products
• Serve your customers
• Communicate your values

8. Your website supplements
• your labels
• your advertisements
• your social media interactions
• every other aspect of your
business

9. Do it RIGHT!

12. What makes a great website?
• great content
• great organization
• great design

13. What type of website is right for your
business?
• Business card site
• Informational/brochure
• Transactional/eCommerce
• Mobile ready

14. 10 Things Every Small-Business
Website Needs
1. A clear description of who you are
2. A simple, sensible Web address
3. An easily-navigated site map
4. Easy-to-find contact information
5. Customer testimonials
6. An obvious call to action
7. Know the basics of SEO
8. Fresh, quality content
9. A secure hosting platform
10.A design and style that's friendly to online
readers Source: Entrepreneur 11/8/2010
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217499

15. It’s not a game of hide and seek

17. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• The term used for preparing your website
to rank high in searches.
• Simple steps that work together to
improve your search rank and usefulness.

18. Keywords
• Words / phrases people use to search
• Base for getting found
• Relevant to website content

19. What keywords are searchers using?
• Entrepreneur Magazine Keyword Research
Tool
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
• Wordtracker
• AdGooroo

20. Steps to improving your website
• Unique, accurate page titles
• Use the "description" meta tag
• Use heading tags appropriately
• Use alt tags on images
• Offer quality content and services

21. Unique, accurate page titles

22. Use the "description" meta tag

23. Use the "keywords" meta tag?

24. Use heading tags appropriately
• Give structure to the page content
• Six sizes of heading tags
– <H1> most important
– <H6> least important
• Use similar to an outline
• Use only where it makes sense.

25. Use alt tags on images
Area Attractions Maps

26. Offer quality content and services
• People go to the web for it
• Search engines are designed to find it
– Fresh
– Unique
– Quality
• Write for people

27. Steps to improving your website
• Unique, accurate page titles
• Use the "description" meta tag
• Use the "keywords" meta tag?
• Use heading tags appropriately
• Use alt tags on images
• Offer quality content and services

28. Writing for the Web
• Be succinct
• Write for scanability
• Use keywords in your content

29. Authority
• Websites with high quality content and a good
reputation are said to have “authority.”
• Links are the main way search engines
determine quality
– Who you link to
– who links to you
• Authoritative sites linking to you boosts your authority
• Links to and from low quality sites lowers your
authority

30. How to boost your authority
– Create great content
– Share your information with people who will find
it genuinely useful
– Find and share good information from other
people
– Identify businesses where reciprocal links would
be appropriate