29-Jul-10 8:00 PM CST
Creating best-in-class Web sites
A company Web site is as integral to the firm’s overall marketing
plan as its logo, trucks, uniforms, branding, advertising,
and so on.
By now, Web sites are pretty standard across the landscape
industry. However, many Web sites remain static once they’re
established. Creating a Web site is not enough. In fact, building
a Web site is just a start. Keeping your company’s Web site
fresh and relevant is the key to success in the online world.
Online Bonanza
Online revenues have reached into the billions of dollars.
Millions of shoppers are now online, purchasing everything
from books and computers to medicine and airline tickets. Top
business reasons for a comprehensive Web site include:
1. To establish your Internet presence
2. To advertise your business
3. To save on advertising costs
4. To save the environment
5. To make business changes quickly
6. To enhance your customer service
7. To protect your local market
8. To reach a specialized market
9. To stay competitive
10. To sell online
Web Sites That Work
What makes a good Web site? A good Web site includes
great content, great design, and great organization. How do
you create good content? This comes by focusing on your audience’s
needs, not on what you’re selling.
It’s always important to examine and re-examine your goals
for your Web site. Your goals will determine what kinds of
things you need to include on your Web site to take it from
being mediocre to being great.
Creating best-in-class Web sites
Keep your site simple. Forget the flashy graphics and focus
on the content. Your home page should clearly state these
things:
· What’s on your site.
· Where to find it.
· How to contact you.
· Why they should explore further.
Everything else is subordinate to these tasks. Remember,
the landscape business is competitive and online readers move
quickly through Web content, unless there’s something that
catches their attention and keeps them there.
The importance of including contact information cannot
be emphasized enough. Be sure and include your business’
phone number on the home page and on every page of your
site. Some companies fall into the trap that an e-mail address
will suffice when a person is searching for their company on the
Web. Don’t fall into this trap! Do include your phone number
where it can be found.
In addition, good Web sites offer the reader:
· Clean design
· Quick loading images
· Ease of use; easy navigation
· Easy to find contact information and a phone number
· Photos, descriptions
· A site map
· Online ordering — if you’re set up to manage this
Search Engine Optimization
As you’re managing your Web site and trying to make it
attractive to your customers and prospects, you also have to
cater to the search engines. Your Web designer and site host
should be able to point you in the right direction, but you
should know that there is no silver bullet that will land you at
the top of search rankings.
Some tips that will help make your Web site be more search
engine friendly:
· Make sure your URL takes the reader directly to your
home page. It should not re-direct the user anywhere
else.
· Keep your URL structure clean and tidy. Doing so not
only helps with search engine rankings, but it also will
give a good visual impression to the site visitor. (It helps
if users can speak your URL or repeat it fairly easily.
· Be sure to keep your site relatively flat, with as few layers
as possible. Don’t make the search engines follow a dozen
links to get to the deepest levels of your site.
· Before your site goes live, you must have some form of
accurate analytics in place so you can measure your site’s
traffic and progress. It’s never too early to start thinking
about your stats.
· There is an endless supply of analytics options to choose
from out there. Google Analytics is a free option that can
give you most, if not all, of the data you will need.
· Ensure that ALL pages of your site include unique Title
tags (the information that appears in the browser title bar
at the top of the window) and Meta Description tags (a
short description of the document, usually consisting of
20 to 25 words or less – try to make it as compelling as
possible).
· Work on getting as many links from relevant industry
Web sites as possible. The more links you can get from
reputable sources, the better the overall performance of
your site.
· Most people don’t read Web sites; they scan them.
· Split your home page into chunks so visitors can quickly
assess whether or not there’s anything there for them.
· Use key words throughout the content on your site.
These words should be based on how your customers
search for you on the Web or the types of questions they
ask when they call your office.
· Without going overboard, be sure and include hyperlinks
and bolding of key words.
A site that is always growing, and always getting new links,
has the best chance of getting a stable top 10 listing on Google.
The Harvest Group is a landscape industry organization that
coaches owners and managers on becoming “best-in-class” landscape
companies, enabling them to reach their ultimate business
potential. You can reach them at harvestlandscapeconsulting.
com.
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