Implementing Keywords with Text and Home Page Layout
Hopefully by now you have begun to develop some good keywords to
enter into your metatags for the search engine robots to find
and log. Always bear in mind whenever you write any text,
whether naming a file, titling a page or writing a story or even
a biography, every word written is a keyword or at least could
be one.
Remember that each page that you create on your web site should
be named by a keyword. For example, if one of my pages were
going to be a display of my custom designed ball caps, I would
logically name that page “custom ball caps” or something
similar. Don’t name it “product 1”. Nobody in the world knows
what product 1 is and as your site grows, you won’t remember
either.
Take the time to carefully write a page description – also
keyword rich. I had mentioned before that many search engine
results pages would display the description of the page that you
write. I have named my new page “custom ball caps”. In my file
folder it would look something like this: custom_ball_caps.html.
My page description might read like this: “The best quality ball
caps custom designed by Tom Remington, world renowned designer
of ball caps.” This might be a good place to drop a name – if in
fact he is world famous.
So, in your “header” of each page that you construct will
include these three things: 1). Page names 2). Page description
3). Keywords. There are other things that can be added to your
header but these three things are all important. If you don’t
have a page description and keywords in your header, it is the
same as trying to drive a car with only two wheels. One more
thing I would like to mention. Each page that you create should
include these same basics tools and keywords for each page
should be written as they pertain to the contents of that page.
It will benefit you in the end to take the time to create page
specific keywords rather than come up with a generic list and
copy and paste them into every page.
Let’s move on and begin to discuss the layout of our website. If
you were familiar with flow charts, this would be a good chance
to put your talents to good use. Plan your web site before you
begin creating pages. To do this you should know the following
things:
1). What am I trying to achieve with my website? In this case, I
want to sell ball caps.
2). How many different products am I going to sell? I could
demonstrate every specific style of cap or color, etc. and
create one page for each.
3). What do I want to tell my customers? This is very important
and you need to tell them immediately. Remember you have about 8
seconds to impress a potential customer.
4). Do I have facts and information that I feel is vital in
educating my customers so they will become long lasting paying
customers of mine?
5). Is it important that my customers see a photo of my
product(s)?
This list could go on forever and many times does as good web
sites and designers never really stop growing and evolving their
sites. Create a flow chart beginning with the index or home
page. You need to know which pages that you create can easily be
accessed from the home page. Here is an example: From my home
page, I make a link (usually some kind of text telling customers
about another page) to my “custom ball caps” page. This is good
and necessary. Once they get to that page and begin to look
around, I might want to give my customers an option to go to
another page and read about the process we use to embroider
custom designed graphics on the front of our hats – this is good
also. But, it would probably be silly to give them that link on
the home page. If you can’t interest them to at least look at
your product, I don’t think they give a hoot about how you do
it.
Picture in your mind if you will what happens when a potential
customer does a search and they find your web site, click on the
link from the search results page and your home page opens. The
first question is, what do they see? The second question of
equal importance, how long does it take to open your home page?
You try it! As a matter of fact this would be a good opportunity
to try something that you should be doing on a regular basis
anyway. My number one keyword or phrase that interests me the
most is “custom ball caps”. I want to know who my competition
is. So, select your favorite search engine and type in “your
important keyword or phrase” and start visiting sites that are
similar to yours.
Each home page that you open, pay attention to how long it takes
to download and open. Then take a look at what you see. Take
notes. If you see something you like, make a note of it and
write down a reason you liked it. Do the same if you find
something you don’t like. I’ll say it again, what you see, which
is ultimately what your customers will see, is the most
important part of your web site. Make it good.
You don’t need to spend a lot of time at these different sites.
Spend enough time so that you know whether you liked it and why.
Determine how long it takes to load. Find out if what you saw
impressed you. Was it easy to navigate and this is my favorite
question; “Did you know what the web site was trying to
accomplish?” I visit many sites and leave soon after getting
there because I have no idea what it was they were doing.
So what should customers see when your home page opens?
Obviously I can’t give you specifics but I can give you some
tried and true successes. Two things to bear in mind when
designing your home page and ultimately all the pages within
your web site: keep it uniform and keep it simple to navigate.
Let’s talk about uniformity first. We don’t want to make our
pages within our site identical and boring but it is of utmost
importance that your potential customer can find important
information. Pictures aren’t information unless you are
operating a photography business. Don’t load your home page or
any other page for that matter, down with confusing and
distracting things – like flashing banners, moving objects,
rotating graphics, too many pictures, etc. IT HAS BEEN PROVEN
TIME AND AGAIN THAT THIS STUFF IMPRESSES THE DESIGNER BUT THE
PERSON BROWSING YOUR SITE DOES NOT CARE! They only want
information so they can find what they want.
Most designers choose or create a template for their page
designs. A template will allow you to design certain aspects of
your site so that it is visible and available on all the pages
within your site that you choose. This template becomes
important for a few reasons. As your customer travels from page
to page, they soon discover where the “menu” is to gain access
to other parts of your site. A “menu” will be a list of other
pages so those customers can click on it and navigate the rest
of your site. With the template, they don’t spend needless time
searching for the menu.
This same idea holds true for other important information you
may want to have on all or most of your web pages. With the same
basic layout you get from a template, the customer soon learns
where they are going to find web site content and where they
will find a menu.
This uniformity makes it that much easier for the customer to
navigate your site. Don’t throw surprises at them. Customers can
become suspicious in a short amount of time. If your pages
change drastically within your site, they may begin to feel that
they are being bounced around to different web sites. This is a
quick way to drive them away.
Ease of navigation is important as well. As I mentioned,
uniformity aids in ease of navigation. Taking the time to plan
and layout your web design is also important. As you design your
site and create pages, take the time to follow every link that
you create to make sure that you reach the page you thought you
were going and that you can get back once you get there.
Make your navigational links on each of your pages easy to find
and easy to see. Use larger font if you need to or make them
bold. A lot of content on a page is useless if customers can’t
find the good stuff. Keep it simple and easy to find.
Don’t force customers to go to the top of their browser and hit
the back button. Always provide them a way to return to where
they were or at the least to go back to the home page. DEAD END
LINKS STINK! I’ll guarantee you that the first time one of your
customers arrives at a dead end link anywhere on your site, they
are gone.
Choosing and designing your template should be fun. Some people
like some kind of a banner across the top of the screen. These
banners can be creative and professionally done with expensive
graphic software. Many opt for something simple, yet distinct
and maybe use a small to medium sized logo. Keep in mind one
thing when looking for a design. Slogans and logos are generally
good for you and not the customers so don’t spend a great deal
of money on one – unless your business is graphics and designs.
Here is the number one rule to remember when designing a home
page. DO NOT DETRACT FROM THE GOOD STUFF! Go browsing yourself
and keep asking yourself what it is you are looking for. What do
you really pay attention to? You are no different than the
average Internet surfer.
Within your template make your menu easy to find. Some choose to
display them across the top – many do it with tabs. Locating
them along the left-hand side of the page is commonplace as well
– some choose the right.
I am a firm believer in telling your customers immediately where
they are and what they will find. Near the top of the page where
it will appear when the home page is opened, you should develop
a brief, keywords rich, paragraph that tells the customer about
your site. Don’t tell them your life story. Save it for the
“about us” page. Keywords are important in this paragraph but
content of the text is most important.
My paragraph might read like this: “We design and sell custom
ball caps. Our experienced designers will work personally with
you to design the ball caps you’ve always dreamed of. Here we
will show you our ball cap designs, give you a price quote and
create your finished product.”
That should tell them what they would expect. Of course you need
to make sure they do find what you say they will.
Next time we are going to continue the creation of our home
page, work on linking to other pages within our site, creating
other pages, and writing text for our sites. But before I go, I
want to give you some tips about your home page.
In my travels across the Internet, I see virtually every
imaginable web site. I’ll be very honest with you and say that
the most of them are not very well done. By this I don’t
necessarily mean the quality of what I see there. What I mean is
they are not designed for the search engines and they are not
designed for the customer – not necessarily in that order.
I’m not sure why it is that when we design our own web sites and
professional web designers are guilty of this too, we have this
uncontrollable urge to create fancy pages with cute little do
dads and moving objects. That’s nice if that is your goal but if
you’re looking for business, that isn’t the way to approach it.
So with that said, I am going to tell you about a few of the
worse cases of bad web design. If I happen to tread on anyone’s
toes, I’m sorry. I don’t intend to ridicule or criticize, only
to educate and help to create a healthier Internet atmosphere
that can benefit us all.
In no particular order here is a list of bad things that you
don’t want to do with your home page:
1). Create an “Introduction” to your web site. Many times when I
click on someone’s URL, I get a page that is loading some video
or flashing pictures or something of the sort. Designers attempt
to ease the pain by providing a link that says, “skip intro”.
Bad, bad, bad! If what is contained in that intro is so darned
good, then give the customer an option to view it from within
your web site. At present I think 51% of Internet users are on
high speed connections while 49% are still on dial up.
2). Create an “Enter Here” page. Why? When you go to a store to
buy groceries, do you open the door only to find a door that
says, “Hi, come on in”? Is it that you don’t really want the
people to get to your site the fastest way possible?
3). Create a home page that loads and plays music. I would agree
that maybe this would be okay if you were selling music but
probably not. It is okay to give your customers the option to
click on a link and listen to a song, or watch a video or see
your photo album, but don’t make them do that. If you really
insist on playing background music, set the play to short. Don’t
let the music play continuously. Chances are that not everyone
likes your taste in music – even if it is “cute”.
4). Create a home page that has objects flying by the front of
the screen, flashing banners, rotating pictures and my all time
favorite is the ones that make sounds when I move my cursor
around on the page. Just the other day, I landed on someone’s
site that had a message that trailed on the end of my cursor
wherever it went. I threw up all over my screen because I got
dizzy.
5). Create a home page or any page with a black background and
bright blue text font. Holy, suck-out-my-eyeballs! Not to pick
on just black but we covered this before. Make text easy to see
and read. Most “wall papers” only make it harder to read. I’ll
say it again, “Make it easy for people – not harder!”
6). Create a home page with non-relevant content or how’s this –
no content at all. I am selling ball caps and on my home page I
post a picture of my dog Spot. He is so cute and cuddly but what
does he have to do with selling ball caps. If he is part of your
business, more so than your spouse, include a bio of your dog on
the “About Us” page of your site. And last but not least, no
content at all. That’s right. I have actually landed on
someone’s home page and got a title, a picture and maybe a
caption to go with the picture, with nothing else – no other
pages, no links, no contact information, nothing. Just so you
know, this was supposed to be a business.
I think you get my point. Use all those things if you want to
create a personal web page. Make it as quacky as you would like
and experiment with bizarre events but it has no place in your
business.
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