Nine Elements of Successful Websites
So you’ve created an incredible looking website, and you’re ready to launch it on the Internet and start making money. Audit your site first. There are nine essential elements that every website should include if you want to ensure success.
1. Privacy Policy/Disclaimer:
Be advised, I’m not a Lawyer and I don’t profess to be one, but the “Privacy Policy” and “Disclaimer/Terms of Use” are two documents that are essential for every website you develop. People are entitled to know just how you’re going to use their personal information. That’s what a privacy policy tells them.
You need to include a disclaimer, or terms of use page. In today’s litigious society this document protects you and indicates to your visitors what they’re agreeing to by using your website. You can find several sites on the Internet to help you draft these documents such as:
- DMA Privacy Policy Generator
- OECD Privacy Statement Generator
- Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator
- Privacy Policy Generator
- Free Site Disclaimer
This is not legal advice, so if you need help or feel your website has special legal needs, consult with an attorney familiar with Internet law.
2. Contact Us:
Would you want to do business with a website that does not include a way to contact the owner? While you may not be able to include a phone number, you should at least have an email address or a contact us form. Your visitors will feel much more comfortable when you provide this information, knowing there’s a way to contact if they need to do so.
Need a form but you don’t know how to create your own? Once again there is lots of help on the Internet. Try one of these free online services.
3. Search Box/Site Map:
If your site includes many pages, you should also include a way to search the site, or at minimum have a site map. There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest method is to use Google’s free service or try PicoSearch.
A site map sounds technically daunting, however, its just one page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by sections or categories. Another resource for site maps- FreeFind.
4. Google Analytics/Statistical System:
After you launch your site, you will want to start watching your traffic. Who are your visitors and how many hit your site each day, what pages are the most popular, from where is the traffic coming? All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good statistical program.
Some hosting servers provide free statistical packages such as Webalizer or AWSTATS. If not, the easiest way to track your traffic (and it is free) is Google Analytics Just register there, and you may add as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. You’ll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and youre done.
5. Newsletter Sign Up:
Typically, people don’t buy from you the very first time they come to your website. One good way to stay in touch with possible customers is to offer a newsletter, or ezine. As each person signs up for the ezine, you’ll be building a list of the email addresses of possible customers.
You can find many free and low cost newsletter building services online, depending on your particular needs and what you can afford. If you don’t want to pay anything for a newsletter, some great free services are:
You may offer an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. RSS feeds make it easy for users to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is FeedBurner.
6. Site Navigation:
While it sounds like a simple thing, getting the menus right is important to any site. No matter what type of menus you select, just make sure it is consistent on all the pages of your site.
The menus guide your visitors through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they need to go.
For more take a look at:
7. Search Engine Optimized Copy:
While many web developers do not think SEO is important, believe me it is. If you build a website you want your pages to rank well in Google and the other search engines There are a few things you can do to improve your rankings.
Optimize each page of your website for 2, or at the most 3 keywords/phrases. Blend those keywords into your titles and into the body of each individual page. You may also include them in your image titles, and alt tags. Analyze each page and determine its main theme, then optimize accordingly.
For additional guidance:
8. Social Media Share Button:
Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, are becoming more important everyday in marketing your website. Be sure to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.
Many of the social media sites offer code to add a share button to your site. Additionally, youll find several free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a share button to your web pages so that users can instantly share them with their friends.
To generate social media buttons go to:
9. Meta Tags:
Don’t listen to website developers who tell you that meta tags are no longer useful. Unique meta tags should be included in your HTML code at the top of every page of your website. That means unique meta tags for each and every page of your website. Many of the top search engines read those tags to pull a title and description to include in their search results. (This includes Google)
Let me say it again, each and every web page should be optimized separately and have a unique title, keywords, and description meta tags.
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