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Addme.com,
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specialized in website submission and promotion in the search engines,
since 1996.

Keyword
Research Tool research keywords and phrases to help optimize
your webpages. Simply enter keyphrases and search among top search
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It's happened to you. You've searched
for something on Google and several promising results appear. You
click on a link, but when you get to the site all you see are a
few ads and nothing even remotely close to what you searched for.
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more
Getting
to the top of the search engines, and staying there, is an
ongoing process. This does not mean it is expensive to stay at the
top. In fact, in most cases, it's rather affordable. But beware,
there are pitfalls along the way to search engine Zen.
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Top 10 Things Every Site Should Include
The Author Background: Kristen Owen, CEO
of ContentWorth has written quality, unique articles for years.
For information on articles and other services please email Kristen.
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Top
10 Things Every Site Should Include By Kristen Owen
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Webmaster Tips, Hints and Resource Articles
Archive - Click
Here
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 I'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 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.
Include a Contact Us 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
(both local and 800), 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 on
both ends and allow better communication to flow. You want to show
your visitors that you are competent and friendly, 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 (well, there's obviously
more to it than just content). Each time a search engine spider
crawls your site and find new content it ups your chances of ranking
higher in the organic search listings. More free advertising!
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 your says something
like "Untitled Document" I'm talking to you.
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 SERPs. The catchier
and more accurate your title the better the chance you'll hit target
traffic.
A Relevant Page Name
Again, not so interesting as flashy designs or up-to-the-minute
content, but it's a necessity to get your target traffic to your
page to see or read the goods.
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.
Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence
Structure
Everything you were supposed to learn in grade school, use it now.
Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better
- people should be able to read your content. Choppy or runon 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 beg, plead, hire, or force 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.
Professional Design, Colors, and Images
Design should be implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors
will be as web savvy as you'd like, create easy navigation and links
to all your pages. A search bar for your site is also a good idea.
Colors should be inviting, not blinding. Use colors to emphasize
your brand, product or content. Don't overpower the visitor with
colors. Use colors 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, you don't want to lose visitors because a single image
caused an incredible amount of load time, or worse froze the visitors
browser.
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. Fix any broken links A.S.A.P.
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 Log Files
Log files 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.
Best idea: Get a program that converts the lengthy text into readable
documentation. It'll save you time and energy while getting you
the information you desire. Log files will describe customer behavior,
they will show you broken links, and you'll see where customers
flow freely and where they abandon the site. The invaluable information
is at your finger tips. Use it!
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates
These can be used on any site asking for sensitive information.
Not every web site needs this, however if you plan to collect any
visitor information it is a good idea to have some SSL pages. Though
not every page need be SSL.
Pages requiring e-mail, names, telephone numbers, addresses, credit
card information, social security information or any other information
visitors may not readily be giving up online should be securely
collected via SSL.
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