Planning Your Website

Jay JenkinsUNL Extension Educator, Cherry County

Why go online?

You go online to tell your story

• to better serve your customer• sell more product

To show…

–who you are –where you are located –what you make –how you make it–why someone should buy it

You need a presence online

A website is your place on the web where you can:

• Tell your story• Sell your products• Serve your customers• Communicate your values

Your website supplements

• your labels• your advertisements• your social media interactions• every other aspect of your

business

Do it RIGHT!

What makes a great website?

• great content• great organization• great design

What type of website is right for your business?

• Business card site• Informational/brochure• Transactional/eCommerce• Mobile ready

10 Things Every Small-Business Website Needs

1. A clear description of who you are2. A simple, sensible Web address3. An easily-navigated site map4. Easy-to-find contact information5. Customer testimonials6. An obvious call to action7. Know the basics of SEO8. Fresh, quality content9. A secure hosting platform10.A design and style that's friendly to online readersSource: Entrepreneur 11/8/2010

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217499

It’s not a game of hide and seek

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• The term used for preparing your website to rank high in searches.

• Simple steps that work together to improve your search rank and usefulness.

Keywords

• Words / phrases people use to search• Base for getting found• Relevant to website content

What keywords are searchers using?

• Entrepreneur Magazine Keyword Research Tool

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool• Wordtracker• AdGooroo

Steps to improving your website

• Unique, accurate page titles• Use the "description" meta tag• Use heading tags appropriately• Use alt tags on images• Offer quality content and services

Unique, accurate page titles

Use the "description" meta tag

Use the "keywords" meta tag?

Use heading tags appropriately

• Give structure to the page content• Six sizes of heading tags – <H1> most important – <H6> least important

• Use similar to an outline • Use only where it makes sense.

Use alt tags on images

Area Attractions Maps

Offer quality content and services

• People go to the web for it• Search engines are designed to find it– Fresh– Unique– Quality

• Write for people

Steps to improving your website

• Unique, accurate page titles• Use the "description" meta tag• Use the "keywords" meta tag?• Use heading tags appropriately• Use alt tags on images• Offer quality content and services

Keyword Rich

Writing for the Web

• Be succinct• Write for scanability• Use keywords in your content

Authority

• Websites with high quality content and a good reputation are said to have “authority.”

• Links are the main way search engines determine quality– Who you link to– who links to you• Authoritative sites linking to you boosts your authority• Links to and from low quality sites lowers your

authority

How to boost your authority

– Create great content– Share your information with people who will find

it genuinely useful– Find and share good information from other

people– Identify businesses where reciprocal links would

be appropriate