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What is a website 2010?
- 1. What is a Website? A buyer’s guide to spending the budget where it counts
- 3. CODE (What you cannot see) “ PAINTWORK” & LAYOUT (What you see) CONTENT People generally buys this as it is the only thing they can see. Web designers tend to come from either a graphic design or technical background. People “get what they are given” but the wrong choice could mean having to do it all again in 2-3 years time. This is the only thing Google can see; it is the main factor in attracting traffic to your website and it is what the Website Designer expects you to give him. Below this line all is invisible to human beings Everything this side is delivered by the website designer
- 4. CODE (What you cannot see) “ PAINTWORK” & LAYOUT (What you see) CONTENT Decision #1: What traffic do I want to attract to my website form the search engines? Get a content plan for the first 12 months. Additionally, you will need to know the other SEO and SMO activity required to compete for a page 1 of Google slot; or know if that is not achievable at your planned budget. Decision #2: What choices does the technology selected for me provide in terms of extending functionality and changing the graphics without rebuilding the website? Decision #3: Who shall I select to do the paint job?
- 5. Content CONTENT Text Pictures Graphic Images Flash animation Video Audio Invisible content: Page headings Alt-tags on pictures Visual “ pixels x pixels ” Picture & Graphic sizes Descriptions for Search Engines Content optimisation File sizes - kilobytes Accessibility laws Number 1 !! is King! If you must! Not too much mind.
- 7. Simon Thompson Internet Business Consultant 0845 331 2728 www.InternetMarketingWorcester.co.uk
Editor's Notes
- Over the years that I have been supplying websites to small and medium sized companies I have developed a belief that for a section of that community they are flying blind when it comes to buying a website. This short presentation is intended to provide some help to these people when they are next faced with making am investment in Internet technology
- There will be many amongst you that have bought a car. Car buying is bred into us by our fathers and a lifetime of experience. We totally understand why it makes sense to spend £50,000 on a BMW rather than £5,000 on a Kia Picanta, even though the latter will do just a good a job of getting us from A to B (well over short distances anyway!). However when it comes to making that decision to invest in a new website then usually this sort of previous experience is not there to support a similar decision to spend £50,000 rather than £5,000. Not knowing the value of what is being proposed means that most business people screw down the budget on the website. Now, this might actually be the right decision but it may have been made without actually understanding the real reasons why. That is the subject of another presentation. So, I will start at the beginning – what is it that you get when you invest in a website – what are you buying? Just before we go on, may I just say that this presentation has particular relevance to investing in a website that you wish to bring you new customers.
- So here we have a functional view of the 3 main elements of a website. The first thing to do is identify what you as a website viewer can see and what you cannot see [click, click] – and what you cannot see is the underlying code of the website. So if you cannot see it and did not know it was there in the first place perhaps, how can you make a buying decision on that? Let’s introduce another line [click] – everything to the left of this line is delivered by the website designer.[click] So, the only bit you can see is the graphics. [click] SO therefore, naturally you buy the skill of the graphic designer and the pretty pictures he can draw for you. Given the knowledge you have – it is the only logical thing to do and you are in the majority – don’t feel alone. Because you did not know about the code, this gets picked for you by the website programmer (sitting by the Graphic Designer). If he gets this decision wrong for you then say in a couple of years when you rebrand for instance you will be told that the whole site needs to be rebuilt. If you have some great ideas about how additional functionality on the website would save your company money the wrong technology choice could result in a perhaps10-fold difference in the cost of adding new functionality. Perhaps you might care to consult on this? So, we are now left with the bit that you have to provide – The Content. Now nothing you have bought up until now has actually the capability to attract traffic to your website. You have to provide that – will all those years of skill and experience developed over the last 3 websites you have had. [click] Anyway, its not so difficult is it? You have just produced a new brochure and you can reuse the words from that – job done! Well – not exactly [next slide]
- Let’s go back to the initial diagram; and remember that we are working to produce a website that is going to be your lead generation machine. So what should you do first? [click] Whatever your line of business wouldn’t it be good to know if people were searching for your goods or services on the internet and in what volumes? If you knew this then it could help you decide on an appropriate budget for the site and drive the development of a plan for the content you need to have on your website so that Google associates it with the things people are searching for that identifies then as potential customers of your. This is a typical Internet Marketing approach. Of course there are many other factors involved in ensuring that your website appears high in the search engine results pages but that is covered elsewhere. Next [click] think about what you might wish to do with your website both now and in the future – have a look at competitor’s websites (find them by searching for your own goods or services) and see what features they offer on their sites. Do some searching about trends in your industry and ask questions of the web designers such as. Can I edit my own content (you should always get the answer yes these days) If the answer is not then your budget is really low or the technology offered is not up to the job. Can I edit the Title and Content tags of every page on the site and put different information on each page? (Do not panic about not understanding this – you just want the answer yes) Can I have password controlled access to a selection of pages so that people need to register with the site (and provide an email address to you for your marketing) to get “free information” you may care to offer. These questions could go on forever. But you just have to be aware that website designers have access to free code that contains all of these features and many more. You should not have to get the answer no to anything. There may be a cost but it should be within reason. Finally, [click] you can decide on who you will get to paint your site. Although for many smaller websites it us usual that the technology and artwork are supplied as a package it is not a hard and fast rule. You should have the choice of having both artwork and technology from different suppliers. So having sorted that out let’s go back to the #1 thing you should be thinking about. [click]
- And that is Content. So, what is that? Well the most obvious things are there – text, pictures (make sure you have the rights to use them all), special graphics (these can be supplied by the graphics designer or can be bought externally) and even some moving graphics which are usually what we call Flash files. They add movement and interest to a page but [click] don’t over do it!. We can also have [click] video and audio content. It is good manners to ensure that these only play on request and not when the page loads. You do not know where and under what circumstances the viewer is looking at your site (no speakers, slow connection, quiet office). Then there is content that you would not normally think of and you may not actually deliver your self – but someone will have to provide it – usually a search engine optimisation specialist. And finally the content that is put on the page needs to be marked up in such a way that it conforms to Accessibility Discrimination laws, and is quick to load up on the viewers screen. The website designer should do this for you when you give him the content. Of all of these types of content TEXT [click] is the most important – its the only bit the Search Engines can really see to get an understanding of who they should send to your website. If you have a problem writing DO NOT PANIC – there are people who will do this for you. [click]
- However, even before hiring a copywriter, it is important to understand who you want to attract to the site – what they will expect to see when they get there and how you are going to get them to undertake the point of the whole investment and Pick up an phone, email an enquiry download a coupon or whitepaper or even buy something. Without any of these actions was your investment really necessary? You could have had the digital radio option on your BMW instead! What you also need to know is how many searches are there for your product or service each month. How many new customers do you need to get to make the investment pay back. How much is a customer worth to you over time in terms of repeat business, referrals and spreading the message as to how good you really are. [click]
- So, there we are – I hope that has helped to inform your next investment decision and ask the right questions of the suppliers you choose to help build your next Lead Generation machine.