7 steps to set your website on the fast track to success
To get on the fast track to success one needs to: * Create a
website that is dynamic and distinctive. The website name should
match the domain name. Bad or broken links must not exist.
JavaScript errors must be eliminated. The company's profile
should be clear, concise, and complete. Secure ordering must be
in place if required. And, visible links to the company's
business plan, privacy policy, return policy, and guarantee
should be present. * Employ a design with user in mind. Never
use heavy images, 10-12Kb per image will ensure that pages are
not slow. Use graphics that enhance content. Avoid images that
change color or blink. Use standard layouts that are reader
friendly, the page should breathe and font size must be
comfortable. Use a few fonts: serif for headlines and sans serif
for text. Limit the number of advertisements, banners, and links
on a page. Be sure to test your website using multiple browsers.
* Select a directory with vision. Read all the submission
requirements and guidelines more than once. Choose a category
with thought and planning (browse the directory, look for
listings of competitors, and related sites). Review your website
from an editor's point of view. Ensure that the title and
summary are appropriate and relevant to the content of the web
site. List the strengths of your site realistically; be sure to
add value to your site, *Increase traffic by submitting the site
to web directories. Choose to submit to major ones as well as
minor ones, even a few relevant niche sites will boost your
popularity and traffic. * Link your site to others. Search
engines give higher positions to sites linked from others. Link
the website to major sites as well as minor ones. Contact high
traffic sites and request a mention or link. This will boost
your engine placement and direct traffic from the pages that are
linked. * Optimize the PageRank of your website by choosing
inbound external links with care. Link up to relevant sites and
not at random, quality is the criteria to consider not PageRank.
List the website in an open directory and Yahoo as this will
provide an artificial enhancement of PageRank. Never place
external links on pages that are in turn linked to other sites.
External links should be offered on pages with low PageRank
containing many links to pages on your site. Construct your
navigational structure such that important pages are linked to
many other internal pages that do not require a high rank. These
extra links will add rank to the major pages. * Create a site
map and link every page to it. These invite spiders sent out by
search engines which then index every page on the site. Adopt an
easy-to-use navigational structure. Check for errors regularly.
Include a site search tool. Be search engine friendly and avoid
frames, flash, or code that will trip up a spider or engine. It
is not submitting to a directory that ensures success but taking
care of the nitty gritty.