Website Promotion
Website Promotion Tip #1. Content is King
I get asked day in and day out. What is the first thing I should do to get my website better ranking in Google? The answer is Great Content.
In this day and age of online marketing, content has been called the king, and for good reasons. People go to most sites not because of the flashy graphics (google can't see pictures yet) or the astounding features, but because the information contained is important to what they want to know.
Content is even more important in winning visitors than search engine placements. You may receive a tremendous amount of traffic from the search engines, but if your content is not king, your visitors will never come back, and you will never sell anything, and you will go out of business, blah, blah,blah. But with great content your site will be successful. And we all want to be successful.
Everybody wants to talk about traffic. How many hits do you get? Relying on unique visitors alone won't give you long-term traffic. You must find a way that would encourage previous visitors to return to your site as well. Good content does this with relative ease. It goes without saying then that your website should have rich, premium, informative content.
Here are some simple steps that would help you build a great site or improve on an existing site, and fast:
1. Develop a layout that is simple and easy on the eyes. By keeping away from flashy designs, you'll be able to show the content you want to share. Let your content speak for itself. Flash intros only impress the people who build them. Make sure you know your subject matter by heart before writing your content. Make your content is as comprehensive as possible. You don't want your visitors to find the answers they are seeking elsewhere. Repetition is not always a bad thing on a web page. Just be consistent.
2. Your content should be presented credibly. Use good writing skills whenever possible. Write well, but in a simple manner. Define industry terms for your visitors and keep your paragraphs short so that you could make good use of negative space, that blank area between clusters of words, which would allow your readers' eyes to rest. Use bullets and numberings as much as possible. Online users are not really known for their patience, and this is something you have to work on. Think how you are when you visit a web page.
3. When writing your content, make sure that the first part of your page is capable of grabbing your visitors' interest so that they will be motivated to read on. In these times of broadband surfing, bear in mind that your readers can quickly go to another site if they don't find your content engaging. The challenge lies in capturing their interest and giving them what they want. This would compel them to read on and stay. Keep an eye on your competitors, they have good ideas. Don't steal, but don't hesitate to stay informed.
4. Always update your website with new content. I recommend once a month minimum. Believe it or not, the search engines love this, which is a good thing for you. Your visitors will also be encouraged to return to your site come for the new information available. It is nice to be a bookmarked site.
5. Consider using blogs instead of traditional HTML designs.
Blogs are very easy to set up and update. Once you have typed your entries, all you have to do is to click on a button to publish them. And with the way blogs are favorably getting indexed at the forefront of every search engine result, their value has fantastically increased in recent months! Try www.blogger.com for a quick and easy way to set up a blog.
Content is king and it is a lot of work. A well-written, content filled site takes time and effort. I find myself constantly revamping sites, adding and updating content. It is an ongoing venture that is loads of fun. One last note, I recommend 500 words of text in the body of your site. That is usually enough words to make the content valuable.
Good luck in making your site full of great content.
See you at the top.