Internet Marketing Strategies Part Three:
Designing Your Product's Website
By Shelley Lowery
Designing a website specifically designed to sell your
product is an essential part of your success. Everything
within your website should have one specific purpose --
getting your visitor to take action.
Creating a professional website specifically designed to
sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there
is much more to take into consideration than just the
design. You must look at a much broader picture and plan
each step very carefully.
Every part of your website must be strategically designed,
from your overall design to your sales copy; each will
play a very important role. Your visitor's first
impression will almost instantly determine whether or not
you're going to make a sale.
Your website should be simple in design with the
navigational links placed at the top, left or right side
of the page. It should be designed in standard HTML with
no Flash or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. Unless
your graphics specifically pertain to your product or
enhance your site, you probably shouldn't include them.
Your site should load very quickly and each additional
graphic will add additional load time. In addition, there
should be no banners or outside links of any kind --
nothing that will distract your visitor's attention.
You must specifically design your website to rank high in
the Search Engines. This involves much more than just
including META tags. Your design, text, title and image
alt tags all play a very important role in determining how
your website will rank.
Title - Your "Title" should contain your most
important keyword or keyword phrase that you think
potential visitors will use when performing a search.
Instead of capitalizing the first letter, type it in
lowercase, as most people type in all lowercase letters
when searching.
Description - Your description should contain your
most important keywords and describe your product in
detail. You want your potential visitors to know exactly
what you're offering. Your description should be less than
200 characters.
Keywords - Select the most appropriate keyword and
keyword phrases, in different variations, that you feel
your potential visitors will use when performing a search.
The more targeted the better.
You can find a variety of tools to assist you in creating
an effective list of keywords here:
http://www.jimtools.com
You can also download a great little freeware program
called, GoodKeywords
http://www.goodkeywords.com. This program will assist
you in developing a list of targeted keywords for your
website. In addition, it also includes a site popularity
tool that enables you to check your site's popularity.
Heading tags - Search Engines pay close attention
to the text displayed within the "Heading" tags. Place
your most important keyword phrase within a "Heading" tag.
Graphic Alt tags - Place a readable sentence
containing your keyword phrases within your graphic "Alt"
tags.
Text - All of your keywords and keyword phrases
should appear throughout your text. If any of the keywords
you placed within your META tags do not appear within your
text, the Search Engines will ignore them. Your keyword
phrases should appear at least three times within your
text, but no more than seven.
Another consideration of great importance is the use of
"Tables." If you'd like to set up your website using
tables, try to place your "Heading" text above your
"Table" code. If this isn't possible, make sure you
include your keyword phrases within your top left "Table
cell" to assist you in ranking higher in the Search
Engines.
One final note, always place your most important
information above the fold of your web page. This is the
top portion of your web page that is visible when your
page is first loaded, without scrolling. This is the most
important part of your entire page -- use it wisely.
Your website is your product's storefront and will play a
very important roll in determining your success. Take your
time and do your homework before you begin. You may be
pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
Copyright © Shelley Lowery
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design
course, Web Design Mastery.
http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter -
Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book.
http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to
sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and
receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet
Marketing Strategies."
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