A WORD ABOUT DOMAIN NAME REGISTRY
First of all, at the foundation of your website is your URL or domain name. If you're lucky you have a business name that is unique enough that you can actually register the domain name that you want as a .com. That's ideal, but today it's often impossible and I say, get as close as you can and don't drive yourself crazy with it. Go to www.whois.com to see if the name you've chosen is available. If your first choices aren't available get creative and find something else that will work. I always like to check to see what businesses are using the names I initial choose.
Once you've decided on the name, be sure to register it for several years, not just one. Search engines look at this and it will affect your ranking. There are many registry sites to choose from. I like bulkregister.com and godaddy.com. I've had a lot of trouble with networksolutions.
If you already have a URL registered for a year, you can extend your registration now. You don't have to wait.
LOOK AND FEEL
There are two sides to the strategy of a good website, the public side and the back end. Let's focus first on the public side and your visitors' experience. Look at your site. Look at your competitors' sites. How do you stand up to them? I'm not talking about bells and whistles, although they have their place. I'm talking about offering an environment and enough enticing information for your prospects to take action.
It's important to know that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a neat, easy to navigate website that is effective and attracts a lot of qualified traffic. Keep in mind that cluttered, flashy, and noisy will turn some people away before they even see what you have to offer.
CONTENT IS KING
Honestly, one of the most valuable and least costly assets you can offer is information. Give your visitors as much as you can in a succinct manner. Easy to navigate fits in right here. The best content in the world will turn around and bite you if it's overhelmming or impossible to find.
If you have a horse for sale or a stallion at stud, give details on lineage, showing, offspring and siblings. Think of what you'd like to know if you were in the buyer’s seat. Your experience and reputation are important too, so be sure to include a page that introduces you and gives reasons why prospects should do business with you. Testimonials always help.
THE OTHER SIDE OF YOUR SITE
I don't want to leave side two completely out of this post, although I'm going to address it in detail next time. For now let's just recognize the invisible side of your site, the back end. It's the side that the seach engines are most interested in. It's the side that allows you to keep your content up to date. It's the side that brings clients and customers to your web step.
If you have questions about a particular site, post a comment or send an email to me at lasalle @ savvyequestrian.com.
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