Redesigning your site to fit your viewer’s needs is perhaps the smartest thing any webmaster can do for their online presence. After all, isn’t interacting with a larger community the purpose of having a site in the first place?
Here are 6 priority design and feature areas that are worthy of a revisit to the drawing board. These may not apply to all types of sites, but there’s something for everyone.
1. Email Newsletters
People are connected to email more now than ever before. With Blackberrys and iPhones and Droids all handling rich text email well it only makes sense to tap into that resource. The newsletter is the perfect website sidekick because it satisfies a different user need: newsletters keep readers and customers informed and in touch. When you’re updating a site, even if it’s regularly done, you’re relying on their draw to the site to satisfy your numbers. Having an email newsletter is like sending the town car to go pick up a guest.
Newsletters are fairly cheap. They require little technology and mustn’t be published too frequently. If you don’t have a newsletter, then publishing one is probably the single-highest ROI action you can take to improve your Internet presence. If you do have a newsletter, then improving it according to research findings will likely make it several times more valuable.
Newsletters have one more benefit: they are the primary way to liberate your site from dependence on search engines. In the long run, achieving this liberation is one of the most important strategic challenges facing Internet managers.
Toddle is a great online newsletter design service:
2. Clearer but personable writing
One of the great advantages of writing a blog is that you can express what you want, when you want to. You want to show your personality and speak through your writing, as opposed to just fill up webspace with words that could have been pulled from anywhere in the blogosphere. Even if you’re writing about something someone has already written about, make it your own. Everyone has a new take on something. It’s also important to always be mindful of your audience. Through comments and social networking interaction, you should have a good idea of who you readers are.
It’s just as important to write clearly. One of the beauties of writing for the internet is a global readership. Your article and blog posts are just a Google away (more on that later) from anyone online anywhere in the world.
3. High-Quality multimedia
The internet we’re a part of now is more multimedia based than ever before. High quality and creative content has never been easier to access or even create. All it takes is a new camera, a YouTube account and a good movie editor. Chances are your computer came with a fairly decent one, however there are great options available. Once you want to really get your hands dirty with video editing check out Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 for Windows and Final Cut Studio for Mac.
If you’re embedding videos, play around with the default YouTube embed values. Customize them to go with your site, coordinate with your theme. Also, whenever possible, upload or link to HD content. Make it as visually appealing as possible. Include music and get creative with titles and captions.
For pictures use high quality, high resolution images as often as possible with a link from a smaller version to a large version if available. If your readers want to see a photo up close and personal there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to.
Here’s a basic lesson on iMovie:
4. Search
Thinking of how your readers reach your site is crucial in how you should design and format it. Considering most people get to their desired destination through search engines, knowing how to both answer and be an answer to a search query is very important.
Keywords play a big role in this. Everything you write should have keywords accompanying it. While you write these keywords, think like your reader. Remember that the reader hasn’t already read your article, so don’t draw too much from it. Think about how you want someone to get to your article, not what you want them to take away from it. Keep keywords simple and precise and always include your name.
While it’s expensive to rewrite your content for findability, doing so also improves your standing in external search engines, and SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the highest-ROI Internet marketing tactics. This is a much better investment than running ads that most users won’t see due to banner blindness or adblockers.
5. Think mobile
More and more people are accessing their favourite sites and blogs on the go. This means that not only are they visiting you from the comforts of home, but also while they’re on the train or subway or bus or at a Starbucks or one a park bench during their cigarette break. Think of how your content is viewed on smart phones and portable internet devices. Browsing the internet on an iPhone or Android phone is like holding it in your hands – it becomes tangible for the first time. Many hosts now offer mobile browser support and thinking of creating a mobile sister site is a good idea if you’re getting a large volume of mobile hits. One advantage of hosting with WordPress is the ease with which blogs are displayed on iPhones and other mobile internet browsers. And with the upcoming release of the iPad, expect the demand for on-the-go content to only go up.
WordPress for iPhone:
6. Integrate social networking
It’s shocking how much a share button or bar helps. The Web isn’t just about accessing information anymore, it’s also about passing that information on. Whether it’s through Facebook or Twitter or Digg or StumbleUpon, people are forwarding information to others more than ever before. Therefore it’s imperative that you make it easy for them, because after all, they’re doing you a huge favour.
Integrating Twitter is a great way of publicizing blog updates, as well as having another medium of communication with your readership. Often, Twitter allows you to update far more frequently and express thoughts that may not necessarily be appropriate for the blog itself.
Despite there being a myriad of tactics and tools to properly implement SEO and boost your business, there are three fundamentals:
Content and HTML that is effectively formatted
Content that is not static and always informative and educational
Links from reputable and recognized sites back to your original and invaluable content
The most challenging aspect of the SEO tactics described above is getting high quality links back to your site. Most major search engines place great weighting on these links because they demonstrate the reliability of your content.
An extremely powerful way of attracting attention to your site is by hosting content from respected guest writers and bloggers. People who have excelled in their fields and know what they’re talking about. These are entrepreneurs, experts, gurus, authors, speakers or professional writers whose words and opinions are valued by the community at large.
Also important is being invited to guest blog for a partner website. This validates the knowledge you are presenting on your own blog, as well as helps in creating powerful networks of entrepreneurs and bloggers, including yourself. After all, everything we are doing is relying on the ability to socialise with our peers.
Blogs come in very handy for this.
When you seek out blogs and publish high value content, with a link back to your site in the body of that content, you have likely produced one of the most valuable links you can acquire and the search engines will reward you for it.
Search engines value links that are embedded into a post’s body as opposed to links that appear in sidebars, blogrolls and comments.
In addition, having your content appear on other blogs should allow you to reap the benefit of additional traffic to your blog and a bump in readership from the exposure your host provides and also provides you with priceless feedback and comments.
It all starts with creating connections and relationships. By asking someone to guest blog on your site, or asking if you can blog on theirs, you are asking them to value your opinion. This doesn’t happen unless you are able to establish a trusting relationship with them. Firstly, look for blogs with quality content where you feel you can both contribute and learn. Start to learn about the writer and what it is they are trying to say with every post. Make comments and interact with the author through the site or through their Twitter account, if they have one. Invite them to view your site and give you feedback. Once you feel like a good bond has formed, invite them to write for you and ask if you could do the same.
Of course, like any other article on your blog, it all boils down to amplifying your words and reaching as many people as possible. Once the post is up, spread the word. Use tools like Twitter and Facebook and Digg to help attract attention to the post (and site). Always be mindful of linking everything back to your main portal.
And, apart from the extra readership, you’re also showing appreciation to your host or guest blogger, further cementing the relationship you’ve built.
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Here is a video of Skye’s meeting with Hiro Kaneko, an online business entrepreneur, at the M3 Wealth Conference in Dominican Republic. Skye contacted Hiro months ago through Facebook and was fortunate enough to create a connection with him through the power of social media.
Despite there being a myriad of tactics and tools to properly implement SEO and boost your business, there are three fundamentals:
