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Websites and the internet can seem extremely complex, and on certain levels they are, but the fundamentals are simple. Don't let 'experts' baffle you with science. Have faith in common-sense principles and your own experience when using websites. Here are some basic rules for good internet and website marketing, and particularly for creating effective business-to-business websites:

* KISS - "keep it simple, stupid."

* The internet and the website medium are ideally suited to specialised providers, suppliers, companies, etc., so try to specialise and be the best in what you offer within that specialisation on the web.

* Give as much as you can free online from your website - material that can be printed or downloaded, or information that can be read from the web page are all good worthy free things to offer.

* A website should be like a shop - think about it in the same way - ease of access to what you want - make browsing is easy - layout clear and clean - the experience should be warm and welcoming

* Remove obstacles like registrations and password requirements as far as possible - these are barriers to visitors - shops don't have barriers and registration requirements do they?...

* Fancy graphics visual effects please designers but not customers - fancy complicated design puts people off

* Lots of text is good - if it's relevant search engines like lots of text too, but it must be relevant

* Keep information up-to-date - many search engines take account of update frequency, so update your website frequently (ie, weekly at least) even if it's just small changes

* Offer what people are interested in - not what you want to push

* Good websites will be found by most search engines - don't pay for regular submissions services unless you have a very complicated and extensive internet and website strategy

* The big three search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google is by some considerable margin the most popular search engine, accounting for a sizeable majority of all searches. Google's listings are based on Google's very clever ranking algorithms, basic details of which freely available at Google's own website. Following four years of collaboration with Google, Yahoo - which is the next most popular search engine, accounting for around 15% of all searches - now use their own search engine system (as of February 2004). As Google no longer underpins the Yahoo search engine, getting a good listing with Google no longer guarantees automatic ranking on Yahoo too. MSN is the next most popular search engine, accounting for about 10% of all searches. These three search engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN - therefore account for virtually 95% of all search engine visitors to all websites, so if you concentrate on your listings with anyone, concentrate on these.

* Other sites linking to yours will certainly improve your search engine rankings, so reciprocal links are okay, but building a site that other sites will want to link to is far more beneficial than directing all that effort instead into a reciprocal ink campaign.

* Search engines downgrade or de-list sites that cheat, so don't cheat. If you want to know what constitutes cheating look on the web for the very many highly complicated website marketing and promotion websites. You are not allowed to view links.
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www.deadlock.com
is a good one, and they also have lots of really detailed advice far beyond these basic principles when and if you're ready for it.

* Measure your traffic - there are lots of trackers and systems to use - You are not allowed to view links.
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www.extreme-dm.com
is a good example of a system that is either free (their 'public' version) or paid-for (multiple pages 'private' version). Aside from these separate trackers most website hosting solutions and providers now include traffic statistics packages.

* If you engage a website designer or agency follow the principles for engaging with any creative agency - develop your specification first (ie., especially all text, spelling and grammar checked, structure and process implications) and then let them get on with it - don't waste a designer's time finalising and correcting these fundamental content and material issues once they've begun the design stage.



Alan Chapman 1995-2006

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looks interesting

wow nice article, thanks for this. I will put some of these things into practice.
-James-

http://www.asiatica.com.my/Website%20Design_tips.htm

is that were you got it from? it's always good to point to the source
thanks though, some of this stuff is interesting and I'll try it!

I'm going to apply this in the next site I'm about to build!
Thank you

Thanks for the tips, they will come in very handy as I'm in the process of updating my websites and of course want to generate much more traffic!

Thanks

What does it really mean? Could we have no right to say what we need?
I make my site to declare what I have. These may useful to others. I means content is essential one. Site will be attractive if contents are useful.

thank for sharing,

I think what he's trying to say here is that you shouldn't spend all your time pushing a product that nobody is interested in. Instead you should focus on the products that people want and (hopefully) that you already sell.