TEN Ways to Freshen Up Your Website

1. Your website is not attractive.

While everyone has their own opinions and views of what factors determine an attractive website, there are some basics:

• Make sure your text is easy to read. Is the text too small? Is your text in yellow font color? Are you using too many different fonts?
• Use clean and attractive graphics. No spinning tops or arrows pointing to “click here”. No grainy scanned graphics or logos.
• Websites should contain photographs of people. People like to see pictures of other people using your products.
• One page equals one topic. It doesn’t cost you anything to create another page on your site. Break topics up. Visitors to your site will read articles and information about your products and services, but don’t feel like you need to cram the entire history of your business on one page.

2. Your content is weak.

• Tell your users about your products and services and why they should buy. Offer something more than “we’re the best.”
• Content should inform and persuade. Give me good information and then follow with a call to action. So many websites tell how great they are, but they don’t tell how to get more information. Do you want prospects to call ? E-mail? Fill out a form?
• Your website is exactly like your brochure. That’s boring, especially if your brochure is boring. It’s a lot easier to freshen up and update your website than it is to re-write and print a brochure every time you have news to share.
• Update your site. When is the last time you updated information, news, press releases, etc. on your website? One website I recently visited had a “Recent News” page. The most “recent” press release was posted in June of 2004.
• Write articles about your company, your services and your products. Give helpful information. A health club can write an article about “10 ways to lose weight” or “Questions to ask your trainer.” What articles can you offer?
• Write a Blog. If you don’t have a blog, start one. Today. A blog engages you, your staff, your customers and your potential customers in conversations about your business, your products and services, etc.

3. It’s called “Spell Checker”…use it.

• There is NO excuse for misspelled words on your website.

4. Broken Links, Pages Not Found and Pages Under Construction.

• How many times have you visited a website, clicked a link to go to another page for more information and received the “Page Not Found” error? This is a lack of attention to detail. ALL pages in a website should be in good working order. Check all of the links to other pages in your website.
• Check all links to external sites as well. Don’t you love the “Link Partners” page that has links to “site not found” pages?
• Never ever post a “page under construction” web page. Either the page is up and ready to view or it’s not. If the page isn’t ready, then don’t tease readers with a link about your new product and then surprise them with a “page under construction” road cone.

5. Check your website in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

• Different browsers for different users. Your website should be working and visually attractive in both browsers. You can download Firefox at www.firefox.com.
• From a search engine optimization standpoint, if your website is not ranked in the Top 30, no one is finding your website.
• After all, 90 percent of all search engine users – you know, the ones actually going to Google and searching for your products and services – never go past the third page of search results. Do you?
• That means if your website is ranked No. 31 (or worse), then 9 of 10 potential customers searching for you will never find you.

6. You’re not using the proper keywords to attract more traffic to your website.

• If you website is just a brochure, then chances are good you might be using the flowing, perfume-smelling text in order to describe your products and services without the right words.
• It’s time to quit thinking about “words” and start thinking about “keywords”. What words and phrases best describe your company, your products and/or your services? In other words, what are your prospects looking for when they look for your services.
• Let’s say you own a manufacturing company which produces and sells widgets. Do your potential customers go to Google and search for “widgets” or do they search for specific types of “widgets” such as “copper widgets”, “gold widgets”, or “lead widgets”? Do they search for specific sizes of “widgets” such as “two-inch widgets” or “four-ounce widgets”? Do they search for “widgets” in a specific region such as “Ohio widgets” and “widgets Cincinnati”?
• You should search and research for the best keywords for your website. Subscribe to keyword researching tools such as Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker.

7. Your content can’t impress Google.

• Search engines love content.
• That doesn’t mean you have to write an encyclopedia of text on each page of your website. Instead, write keyword-rich content to describe your products and services. Are you getting the picture about keywords yet?

8. Your website’s page titles are poorly written.

• A page title is line of code within your website’s HTML code (or other website creation code). It is one type of “meta tag” code used to describe your website, pages, etc. to search engines.
• The page title is the most important meta tag code, followed by page descriptions, keywords and alt tags. Remember, it is only one of over 100 factors Google considers when ranking your website.
• Which page title works?

Home
www.widgets.com
Welcome to ABC Widgets!
Lead Widgets, Gold Widgets, Copper Widgets

• Which one did you pick? The first three are weak. Very weak. The last one best describes the page’s content (provided the website owner mentioned those three keywords in his page.).

9. You do not have a link building program designed to earn quality links pointing to your website.

• A backlink is a link published on another site pointing to your website. The link can be either the URL, like this: www.purpletrout.com Or anchor text, like this: Purple Trout, LLC specializes in search engine optimization and consulting.
• If a website, directory, blog, bulletin board publishes a link pointing to your site, then it’s considered a one-way link. If a site publishes a link to your site and you return the favor and publish a link back, then it’s a reciprocal link.
• No one, with the exception of search engines, knows that value of a link. However, a link on a website with a solid Google Page Rank and high ranking is more valuable than a new website. Quality is far more important than quantity.
• Paid links have less value than reciprocal links. Recently, Google has been taking a close look at the paid link industry. Search engines would rather you earn the link “naturally” rather than pay for the link.
• How do you gain more links to your site?

Ask for them.
Send an e-mail to businesses owners you know and ask for a link.
Don’t send SPAM. Write a personal e-mail.
Make sure your link is included in organizational directories and chamber rosters in which your business is a member.
Submit your website to directories, especially industry-specific directories.
Participate in industry-specific blogs, discussions and bulletin boards. Most will allow you to use a signature block with a link pointing back to your website.
Write and submit articles to article directories and include your name and website link.

10. Other SEO factors you haven’t considered:

Create an XML sitemap for search engines.
Submit your site to search engines.
What keywords is your competition using?
Where are you ranked? Do you even know?
Test. Change. Wait. Test. Change. Wait.

Always look to improve content.
Keep your website fresh. People like it. Search engines love it.
Never stop link building.
Search engine optimization never ends.