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 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 2001.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of several successful ebooks including Web Design Mastery - An in-depth guide to professional web design. Ebook Starter - A Complete Ebook Design Kit, and eZines: A Complete Guide to Publishing for Profit. Subscribe to Etips and receive a free copy of her highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.
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