Strategies For An Optimized, Interactive Website

You probably already know that today's Internet market is very competitive. Everyone and their uncle (and aunt) seems to have a website online. You wonder to yourself, "How in the world can I possibly compete?" So, what does it take to make it to the top of the Internet success ladder? Maybe not quite what you think; read on to find out more.

Over the years I've learned the hard way that design is not the most important effort in developing a good website. Today's competitive market requires a business strategy much like the type of strategy one might create for a brick-and-mortar business. The following five strategies, however, should get you going on the right path. You don't need to focus on all of them at once; you could just pick one, two, or more of them, whatever works best for your web site. Any of these efforts will help improve the success of your website, you just need to get started!

The combination of these five efforts will help lead you toward increasing your site's potential as a lead generator, as a way of increasing traffic to your site, to help keep visitors interested in your products and services, and creating a higher conversion rate (visitors to successful sales).

1) Copywriting efforts. Copy is likely the most important element of a successful website. Have you ever visited a site where you had no idea what the site was about? What did you do? If you're like me, you hit the "Back" button and tried to find a site that provided the information you wanted.

It is possible the site did have what you were looking for, but if the copy on the page is dull, dry, outdated, or otherwise unappealing, how can you blame visitors who decide to go elsewhere?

Additionally, though many web developers overlook this important concept, each page should be optimized for word content that matches, and compliments the key words you provide to search engines (#2 below). The first one or two paragraphs should very clearly and concisely indicate what your site is about, but should also have important key words and phrases peppered throughout.

This will help your search engine rankings and provide more meaningful information to the visitor.Also keep in mind that just as with newspapers, a visitor will often read only the first few paragraphs of a web page, afterward possibly scanning any "eye catching" content that follows. Using bold on the first paragraph of content further down on your page is also a good practice to follow.

2) Search Engine Optimization. You've probably gotten sick of hearing about the importance of SEO in web development, but the significance of optimizing your site for search engines is as important today as ever, if not more important. This effort also requires a bit of time and creative brainstorming.

Instead of just choosing the obvious, and overly used "generic" key words for your site, choose instead site-specific concepts and key phrases unique to your pages.For example: If you sell Women's shoes, instead of using "Women's shoes" as a key phrases (can you imagine how many zillion sites use that phrases?) use something that's less competitive, like "Romus shoes", or even "Romus sandles".

On the individual product pages, be certain to indicate a specific name, such as "Romus 14030 Black Caicos", for instance.Using more specific key words and phrases will generate results that are more likely to land on the first page or two of search engine results. Being buried on page 100 of a search engine result does no good; how many consecutive pages do you search through after a search engine effort? Most likely no more than 10 pages, at most, depending on what you are looking for.

3) Internet marketing efforts. Another very widely overlooked effort, internet marketing is even more important for an Internet business than it is for a "real world" business. Have you ever heard the old adage "If you build it, they will come". Well, that is not true of websites.The Internet has hundreds of billions of pages, spread over several hundred countries.

The idea that, simply building your three pages of "must have" products and services will result in immediate sales is a notion that today's version of "snake oil salesmen" have tried to convince you of. Building an online business takes time, effort, hard work, and perseverance. Without all of these, your website will just end up in the dead zone of the internet.

4) Add interactive and/or dynamic content to your website. This is the most recent and significant change in the Internet commerce industry in recent years. When the Internet was relatively new, just the idea of using it to shop, find informational resources, and get more information about companies and individuals was enough to keep people searching and reading on the Internet. Today, however, fickle visitors expect more - much more!

You need to be able to engage your visitor, convincing them that 1) your site is reputable, 2) that you have the information they want and need, and 3) that you can provide some value to their world in some way. Either you sell a product they "must have", or you offer a service that they don't want to live without. Doing this requires that you include them in the process.An interactive site involves providing a way they can interact with you either personally, or with a forum (previously known as bulletin boards), a contact form, using video to engage them visually, or musical options that interest them (though music should be used sparingly, depending upon the site).

You can also offer a "DVD" introduction to you, your products or services, or your site through video. The options, of course, are endless, and every new way to engage the consumer is another step in the direction of converting them as a customer and keeping their interest for the long term.

5) Optimizing your marketing and mailing lists. Part of #4 above includes newsletters and other marketing efforts that continue to update and inform your visitors. This effort is as necessary as Wal-mart providing sales fliers in the Sunday newspaper. Visitors need to be reminded of your products and services so that when they are ready, they know they can purchase from you.

Starting up a newsletter list can be quite painful; with a little perseverance, however, you can begin to build a list that continually generates new leads and brings previous customers back for more. First, make your newsletter personal. Be sure to utilize personalization options that allow you to plug in a person's first name at the beginning of the letter. Just like hard-copy marketing, personalized mail goes further than generic in creating interest (people respond to seeing their own name). Then, make sure that you provide information that is on-target and relevant.

Also remember, it doesn't all have to be serious. Add some humor and lightness to your newsletters and make them fun!Although there are still those who are unable to view HTML-formated email, for most this is the preferred viewing alternative. After all, would you choose to view text-only over a highly colorized, graphic-enhanced letter with the same information? Just don't overdo it; a letter that is too busy is distracting and will bury your message in a sea of unnecessary graphics. There are many third party marketing and mailing options out there today; find one that works for you and make sure it has all the features you desire, then use it to its fullest!

Provided you've covered elements of each of the strategies above, you should be well on your way toward a successful web site! Even still, don't expect miracles overnight. Sites that are successful today didn't start yesterday, guaranteed! And the days of the "dot com" boom, where millionaires were made overnight, are fairly well over, although there are some exceptions (uTube is a good one, as an example).

Ultimately though, building a successful web site is much like losing weight. Although there are companies out there who would like you to believe that you can become a millionaire overnight (or lose 100 pounds in a few months without diet or exercise), the pure fact of the matter is it takes time and effort to build something that will earn you money and be productive in the long-term.