Website Advantages for Your Online Strategy
No one has to tell you that the internet is an overwhelming
source of information and is a major resource for individuals
and businesses to seek out products and services. If you have a
business of your own then you probably already have a website to
showcase your company's outstanding products and services. The
question that you should ask yourself is "am I taking advantage
of all the resources available to best market my business
online". If you haven't actively pondered this question and
aren't in pursuit of implementing your website's online strategy
action plan then you are at a disadvantage. The odds are that
your competition is already doing something about it. It takes
more than just having a nice website online. A successful online
business uses everything at its disposal. The tools available
today to heighten the aesthetics of your website, increase the
volume of your website, increase the search engine ranking of
your website, and increase the overall success of your website
include these components:
1. Graphic
Design
2. Flash
Animation
3. Integrated
Shopping Cart (if you sell products online)
4. Content
Management (CMS)
5. Rich
Media
6. Search
Engine Optimization (SEO)
Graphic Design is the process and art of combining text and
graphics and communicating an effective message in the design of
logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and any
other type of visual communication. It is important to portray a
professional look and feel on your website. A strong graphic
design element can significantly help the success of your
website.
Flash animation is a graphics animation element, written and
marketed by Macromedia,
that uses vector graphics. The resulting files, called SWF (said
like swiff) files, may appear in a web page to view in a web
browser, or standalone Flash players may "play" them. Flash
files occur most commonly in animated advertisements on web
pages and rich-media web sites. Many websites choose to have
only a Flash Header,
while some choose to build their site entirely within Flash.
An Integrated Shopping Cart is a piece of software that acts as
an online store's catalogue and ordering process. Typically, a
shopping cart is the interface between a company's website and
its deeper infrastructure, allowing consumers to select
merchandise review what they have selected make necessary
modifications or additions and purchase the merchandise.
Shopping carts can be bought as independent pieces of software
so companies can integrate them into their own unique online
solution, or they can be offered as a feature from a service
that will create and host a company's e-commerce site.
Content
Management is the processes and workflows involved in
organizing, categorizing, and structuring information resources
so that they can be stored, published, and reused in multiple
ways. A content management
system (CMS) is used to collect, manage, and publish
content, storing the content either as components or whole
documents, while maintaining the links between components. It
may also provide for content revision control.
Rich
Media refers to media on the web that offers an enhanced,
interactive experience. VRML for
3 D, Macromedia Flash
and Shockwave would be good examples of languages for rich
media. Rich media is often used for banner advertisements, for
homepage's and for e-mail communications. It is important,
however, for designers considering the use of rich media, to
understand the audience they are designing for, and make sure
the audience has access to the information being conveyed via
the rich media. Rich media is the delivery of video, voice,
data, and animation in a manner that can engage, entertain and
inform audiences faster and far more effectively than any
other type of communication. Rich Media is considered to be
the next generation of business communication.
Search
Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is the process of
increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high
in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site
ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that
that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for
Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search
results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for
directing more traffic toward the site.
Taking advantage of these online marketing and development
elements should not merely be an option for your website; they
should be a necessity. It is recommended that you learn more
about these methods and implement them into your business'
online strategy.