Greetings
This is the first in a series of emails we shall be sending you dealing with practicalities of setting up and running a website - subjects covered shall include good content, search engines, do's & don'ts, and uses for a website. We hope that this will in some way assist you in deriving further value from your website - on our side, we look forward to assisting you with any queries you may have in respect of these aspects.
We have recently launched our new website - please note that webmail logins have now also changed, and the system has been simplified. Please go to the client centre (www.inloco.co.za/client_centre.php) and click on the webmail link. Alternatively you can bookmark it directly - http://atmail.inloco.co.za/index.pl From the Client Centre you can also access your account log in ( please email me if you don't have a username and password), as well as your website visitor statistics. More exciting product and service news shall follow shortly as we work to increase the value we are able to provide you.
Top 10 Things Every Site Should Include
While almost anyone can have a web site these days it's much harder to have a good website. From design aspects to readable content many sites fall flat. Below we've arranged a Top 10 list, because everyone loves a Top 10!Include a Detailed About Us Page
The About Us page is a good place for new visitors and target traffic to find out who you are, why they should read your content or buy your products, how valuable your site can be, and also general information about your company, web site, or you.It's a good idea to include contact information or at least a clear link to your Contact Us page. Keep it concise and accurate. People want to read about you but they don't want a novel. Add important information on this page and point them to other pages for more in depth coverage. By including your keywords in the content on this page you can also give a leg up to your search engine marketing campaign.
Include Either a Contact Us Page or Quick Contact Details on Every Page
Visitors (shoppers, target traffic) need an easy way to get in touch. Have a clearly marked link for contact information and include every avenue you receive communication through. Telephone and fax numbers (local, shared call and toll free numbers), e-mail addresses, physical addresses, etc. all should appear on this page.To help navigate further, clearly indicate which contacts go where (i.e. Admin, Tech, Sales, etc.) This will decrease frustration at both ends and allow better communication to flow. You want to show your visitors that you are competent and friendly, so being easy to contact is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal.
Add a News, Press Release, Blog, and/or Articles Page
These pages inform customers of current events, products, endorsements, and other company happenings all in one place. Make sure to maintain these pages with fresh content that is reader friendly so your target traffic is more likely to come back, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising. Free advertising!As a bonus, search engines love these types of pages. New, fresh, relevant content is the stuff of search engines. Each time a search engine spider crawls your site and finds new content it increases your chances of ranking higher in the organic search listings. More free advertising!
Free offer to InLoco clients - we shall set up a new page for news, news articles and press releases which is easily updatable by you! Contact Andrew.
A Relevant Page Title
As uninteresting as this may sound your page title holds a lot of weight. If you're unfamiliar with a page title it is the name appearing in the blue bar across the top of the page. If yours says something like "Untitled Document" - thats exactly what we mean.Page titles should be different for every page in your site. They should clearly and accurately describe your page, and you should try to use keywords in the page title.
Search engines display the title of your page on Search Engine Result Pages. The catchier and more accurate your title the better the chance you'll hit target traffic.
InLoco will update the page titles for free where required, as part of the ongoing search engine optimisation work.
A Relevant Page Name
Again, not so interesting as flashy designs or up-to-the-minute content, but it's a necessity to get the target traffic to your page to see the goods or services.It's better to have straightforward page name showing in the URL than names with ? or other symbols and numbers. For example, a search engine will go to www.yourdomain.com/about us.htm it will only go to the ? in www.yourdomain.com/aboutus?094837 . You want search engines to find your pages. You also want humans to be able to read your names. Keep it simple and clean.
InLoco will update the page names for free where required, as part of the ongoing search engine optimisation work..
Correct, Easy To Read Content
Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence Structure. Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better - people should be able to read your content. Choppy or run-on sentences that seem to go nowhere cannot provide the type of readership concise, correct sentences can.Misspellings, wrong word usage, bad grammar are all distractions. You do not want to distract your readers, you want to captivate them. Slang and derogatory language also distracts. If your site is a business site avoid slang and offensive language all together - unless that's your selling point. Jargon is different, just don't confuse readers more than necessary. If you aren't in command of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc, or if you'd rather focus your efforts elsewhere, that's fine. It's a good idea to hire someone else to take care of this part then as ignoring the problem won't make it go away though it may have that effect on site traffic - we can assist with minor text work, but otherwise can source a copywriter for more involved work.
Professional Design, Colours, and Images
Design should be implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors will be as web savvy as you'd like, so create easy navigation and links to all your pages. A site map for your site is also a good idea. Colours should be inviting, not blinding. Use colours to emphasize your brand, product or content. Don't overpower the visitor with colours. Use colours to make text 'pop' without being distracting or hard to read. Images should be friendly and relevant to your site. Images of people work better than objects and clip art rarely has a positive effect. Make sure your images can load within a reasonable amount of time, as you don't want to lose visitors because a single image caused an incredible amount of load time, or worse, froze the visitors browser.Please remember high quality images may cost more, but can make a huge difference to the websites attractiveness.
Make Sure ALL Links Are Working Links
This should be a no-brainer, however it is always a good idea to check and double check your links. we will always fix any broken links A.S.A.P, so please don't hesitate to let us know if you come across any. Your reputation counts on it.Think of any site you've been to with a broken link. Disappointing isn't it? You probably left or at least had a negative image about the company. Avoid this mistake and check, recheck, and check your links again.
Use Your Statistics
Log files ( statistics) offer a plethora of information on your web site, your visitors, what works and what doesn't. You can't afford to miss out on this information - if you can afford it you shouldn't anyway. Our hosting packages include statistics and we will gladly assist you in making the fullest possible use of them.Think sales and marketing, NOT Technology!
Your site is a marketing and service tool - please don't think of it as a technical issue, rather look at the practical uses it can assist with - when you print business cards you don't care about the printer being used, you only want to see the right results...similarly, a website can enhance your marketing strategy, but it can also help with service delivery, as well as communication - talking to your clients reinforces the relationship, and lets them know you are there and you care.We hope this is of interest - some of the aspects we can be directly involved with, but others would really benefit from you taking an active interest - not just initially when the site is created, but on an ongoing basis as the site evolves and perhaps functionality increases. For more information on these and other areas, please don't hesitate to contact us - andrew@inloco.co.za, 011 465 7557, or www.inloco.co.za