Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Search engines are a great ally to successful websites. A study conducted by Forrester Research in spring 2000 showed that 81% of users found new websites by using search engines. This number has risen from 67% just a year prior. (websearchworkshop.co.uk, The Importance of). It is easy to see that search engine optimization is important to any online marketing campaign, and that success in the search engines can make or break a website that hopes to attain success. It is necessary to note that a lot of strong optimization techniques may be built into a site during the development phase. Strong information architecture was the first step to success in the search engines, and was discussed in the planning phase. The use of CSS to separate style from semantics is a second element that lends to a search engine friendly website. The structure of each page will also have an impact on search engine rankings. Other elements of search engine optimization will be discussed in the promotion phase of this paper.

Each webpage in a site offers the unique opportunity to attract users from the search engines. Search engines are designed to return the most relevant information to user’s queries. To do well in the search engines there are many variables to consider. For the purpose of this section, it is assumed that the reader has some basic knowledge of HTML, for a quick introduction to HTML there are many good tutorials that can be found by doing a search on Google.com for “HTML tutorials”. Understanding the elements of HTML and using them appropriately can be very advantageous to a developer trying to attain high search engine rankings. WYSIWYG HTML can be very detrimental to search-engine ranking positions (SERPs) by adding unnecessary code, and not using the appropriate elements in the correct areas.

Three of the most important on-page variables to high SERPS are correctly using the <title> and <h#> tags, and having a high on page text to code ratio. (See Appendix 2-10) Several other factors that can contribute to high SERPS are code composition, file size, internal link text, “titling” elements such as <h1>’s and links, and using alt tags for images, and naming files using their primary keywords. Many of these factors are not only good for search engines, but improve user experience and improve usability for disabled visitors as well.

Appendices
(All in a single document) Appendix 1-1: Overture Search Term
Research Tool

Appendix 1-2: Wordtracker Search Query Research Tool

Appendix 1-3: Google Sets Website Theme Research Tool

Appendix 1-4: Reach/ Acquire/ Convert/ Retain

Chart Appendix 2-5: Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth Information Architecture Flowchart

Appendix 2-6: Search Engine Themes Pyramid Information Architecture Example

Appendix 2-7: Webpage Download Time by File Size Chart

Appendix 2-8: Expected Locations for Common E-commerce Elements

Appendix 2-9: Website Usability Checklist

Appendix 2-10: Text Vs.Code Ratio/ Content Near the Top of Souce Code Examples

Appendix 3-11: Overture Bid Price Tool

Appendix 3-12: Webalizer Website Visitor Tracking Tool

Appendix 3-13: AW STATS Website Visitor Tracking Tool Appendix

3-14: Clicktracks Website Statistics
Analysis Tool

References
Author Notes

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Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites Table of Contents

Planning, Developing, and Promoting a Successful Small Business Website

Search Engine Friendly Webpage Development for Small Business Page 31

Search Engine Friendly Webpage Development

Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Search Engine Friendly Webpage Development for Small Business
Page 31