Internet Marketing - 101
Fourth – It is important to recognize that Internet marketing is at once a science and an art form. The science of web marketing involves some very technical aspects:
Website development – True website development is more than throwing together some pre-fabricated templates, setting some links and placing Meta tags. Your site needs to have a “look and feel” that invites your clients to stay and explore the riches within instead of landing on the home page and moving on to someone else’s business. The “look” of the site is the same as the face of your store front.
Your website should reflect the nature of your business without being too busy, involved or outlandish. A website only has about 3 seconds to capture the visitor. After that if they aren’t intrigued, they’re gone.
It is imperative that your website be easy to use. Functionality can make or break a site because if a visitor can’t get around your website they will become frustrated and again - leave.
Some technical aspects of website construction involve:
The Front End – This term refers to that “look” of your site and includes images and text. This part of the development is usually done by a graphic designer although many sites will use “stock” images. Although using stock photos means your site won’t be unique in its look, it can be a way to save money. When choosing a designer to do this work, keep in mind to find a person that has experience creating work specifically for the computer screen and understands the technical restrictions in designing for the web.
Along with creating the images and “space” for the web site, having the right kind of content is principal for engaging your customers into reading about your business, but the content of your site plays a vital role for search engines to locate your website as well. Many times the web content is overlooked as a tool for enticing customers as well as giving Google, Yahoo and other “engines” the where withal to rank your site higher than your competition. The web phrase –“Content is King” means just what it says because the more unique, original and expressive your web content is the better the search engines like it.
It is important to remember that this content needs to incorporate the chosen keywords for your site within its text. This is another facet in the coupling of art and science as the use of keywords within the content must be placed in a specific structural arrangement while still being lucid, informative and entertaining. By building these elements into your web text you will improve your “organic” search engine optimization as part of your overall web marketing strategies.
Back End – This phrase basically translates into all the behind the scenes of the site, the work that needs to be done in order to have a fully functional website. You may hear all kinds of terms thrown around when talking to a web developer but here are the basics:
The code (program language) that makes your site work involves HTML (hyper text mark up) which tells your computer how to display images and text, connects a product or customer to your database and the protocol for uploading files to a server. Although this is technically “programming”, some developer don’t consider this at a high enough level to be called as such.
Other elements of web design include – Javascripts, which is a computer language that creates simple functions like forms, pop up windows and limited animation.
ASP and PHP is used for customization and in-site activity like data collection and displaying your customer’s account information. CSS (cascading style sheets) is essentially a way to control how your web site will appear and allows you to choose font and formatting styles, all from a central location.
Flash is used for interactivity and animated presentations and tool. One pit fall for Flash is that it is unrecognizable to the search engines. Websites should never be constructed entirely of Flash templates even though the “look” may be appealing.
Remember – having something cool to look at means nothing if no one can find it. Use Flash where it is needed but don’t over do it. There are other ways to enliven your website and can still be found by the web crawlers.
There are several different platforms to construct your website. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages but understanding what will work the best with the person(s) that will be maintaining your site should be a major consideration. Beware of web developers that want to customize your site to the point where they will be the only ones that can make any changes, creating a scenario that virtually locks you down.
Design and function platforms like Joomla, Drupal, Modx and Wordpress are universally used and can be maintained by most competent web masters. Sites that involve a lot of data base management such as large catalog retail companies, businesses that require storage and extraction of expansive information (research sites, insurance, banking etc.), will usually need to have their websites built from the ground up because they are incorporating so many different programs.
Now that you have your website built you’re all set to go so just sit back and wait for all the business to come in, right? Hardly. This isn’t Field of Dreams because building it is just half the battle. Let’s look at some of the ways that a website is promoted.
