Is Website Optimization Necessary?

Should you optimize your website?

Having a website is one thing, but getting people to come to your website is quite another. Many online business owners are under the false impression that all they needed was a website and manna will fall from heaven.

So, the question becomes, "What exactly do you need for a website to be a productive marketing tool for a business?"

Three Tools for Success

Basically for a website to be an effective marketing tool you need to have three components: a professional website design, well written website content that clearly communicates your marketing message, and a website that can be easily indexed by the search engines. All three components need to be part of a website marketing plan or the website will fall short of the company's expectations.

Professional Website Design

Nothing screams amateur more than a homemade website. If you are a small business owner and you want to compete with "the big guys," you've got to invest the money in a well designed website. Expect to pay at least $3000-$5000 for the design of your website. It will be the best marketing investment you can make in your business.

Your company will be judged by the way your website looks. If you try to cut corners and save money by a designing the website yourself or having your high school nephew do it for you, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You will end up losing more business simply because a poorly designed website makes your business look untrustworthy.

In choosing a website designer, look for someone who understands that a website is a marketing tool, not just an electronic brochure. A website designer needs to be more than a graphic designer. One of my clients learned this the hard way. A few years ago she paid thousands of dollars for a website that looked good, but because of the way it was constructed, it could not be indexed by the search engines. So her website doesn't exist according to Google. Now she needs to pay more money to have the website redesigned in a format that can be indexed by the search engines.

Website Content

A professionally designed website is a good start, but without effective communication of the marketing message, a website becomes a dismal failure. The website will not generate leads, build a relationship with the customer or make money for the company if the written content is unclear or poorly organized.

Again, in many instances, a small-business owner sees writing the website content himself as an opportunity to save money.
After all, who knows more about the company than the business owner?

It is true that the business owner knows the most about his or her company, but they may not know how to present that information clearly to a prospective customer.

Writing website content is different than writing off-line marketing materials like a brochure. Website visitors want instant gratification. They immediately want to know who you are, what you do, and why they should do business with you.

They will quickly scan the homepage to see if you have a solution to their problem. If they can't find an answer within five seconds they will click away.

Your marketing message needs to be clear, concise and easy to find. If your visitor has to read through bulky paragraphs of information or to navigate to different pages to find information, they will get discouraged and leave.

How and where your marketing message is presented on the website is key to capturing your visitor's interest in keeping them on the website. The goal should be to keep them long enough on the homepage that they want to navigate deeper into the website so that you can generate sales and leads.

Search Engine Optimization

What makes a website such an interesting marketing tool is that you have two audiences for a website: the search engines and the human beings. The website construction and the website content need to be designed for both audiences.

The website needs to be designed so it is easy for the search engines to index or "read" the coding of a website. This coding includes keywords that someone might use to find a specific website. Where these keywords are found on a website is just as important as the keywords themselves. In addition, the content needs to be written using these keywords in such a way that the marketing message is clear without being repetitious.

Another consideration in search engine optimization is the amount of linking you have on your website both internal and external. Google will rank a website based on the amount of links it has. An example of a link within your website would be a text link on the home page that takes the visitor deeper into the website. An example of a link outside the website would be a press release about your company that is posted on another website with a link back to your website.

Conclusion

Think of your website as a way of using the Internet to start building a relationship with your potential customers. Keep in mind that everything you do with a website will always have the two audiences of the search engines and the human beings. To have a successful website you need to always keep your two audiences in mind.

© 2008 Michelle Howe

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