Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [181]
Review and Hands-On
View the source code on your site by selecting View (found in the toolbar of most browsers) and then Page Source. Identify as many elements as you can. Find out whether you are using a CSS layout, a table layout, or some combination of the two. A good comparison is the CSS example site www.csszengarden.com. At this site, you can load a different style sheet that completely changes the layout and design; however, the source code always remains the same. Only the style sheet is different. Finally, view your site in multiple mobile devices to see how different devices will render your website.
Perform searches on your website, and evaluate the results from the questions earlier in this section. Search for critical terms that are specific to your website and company, and evaluate the results for accuracy and usability. If the results are unclear, are unrelated, or provide too few or too many results, then this is an area for immediate improvement.
Evaluate your site search. A good site search can mean immediate improvement in sales and leads, all because you are dealing with visitors who are already on your site but are depending upon the site search to help them navigate your information. Giving them what they want will increase your conversion rates.
Verify that your site is being indexed by the search engines using the various webmaster tools provided by each search engine. If your site is being indexed regularly and frequently, then submitting a site map is probably not necessary. If you have recently undergone a redesign, then submitting a site map may help initiate a spidering session from the search engines, but they will find your new site, new pages, and new information very quickly, sometimes within hours of your launch.
If your site is not being spidered and is extremely large and contains complicated URLs, the diagnosis might be that the search engines are not able to spider all of the information on your website. Your webmaster tools may provide feedback as to why this is happening or show that large numbers of pages are not being included. In this case, submitting a site map to the search engines may help your case.
For a website site map, intended for visitors, best practices say that you name the site map page sitemap (sitemap.php, sitemap.html, and so on). This makes it clear both to visitors and to the search engines the purpose of the page. Make sure that this page is designed for humans and contains the important links necessary and ordered into a logical hierarchy.
Create a local business listing on the major search engines and local business sites (Yelp!, FourSquare, UrbanSpoon, and Local.com, to name a few). Ensure that you are using as many of the opportunities available to list your information, such as images, video, coupons, and map locations.
View your website on a smartphone, and look into some analytics integration to see how many mobile users may be accessing your content. You can find the type of device, operating system, and similar information as your other, traditional website visitors. Consider how a mobile site may benefit your users and the type of information they would need to access.
Part V: Month 4: Expand Your Reach and Measure Results
Now that you have developed skills in the programming, design, content, and persuasive areas of website development, it is time to develop the multitude of options in gaining visibility with your website and measuring each to find what works best for you. Linking, blogging, using social media, and exploring pay-per-click marketing will all help build your overall online presence and attract visitors to your website. Analytics will enable you to find what works and build on each opportunity.
Chapter 16: Week 13: Build Links
Chapter 17: Week 14: Add to Your Business with Blogs
Chapter 18: Week 15: Get Friendly with Social Media