Creating a successful website is essential to get ahead online. Here are my views on what makes up a successful website

1. Connecting your business objectives to your website to create a strong sales driver By Neil Walker CTO Just Search Ltd 1 10:10 AM

2. Synopsis Question: How do you create a successful website, which not only sticks out from the rest, but is also a centre for other businesses interested in your services? 2 10:10 AM

3. Introduction Who am I? – Neil Walker Position: CTO Company: Just Search Ltd (Part of Getupdated Internet marketing) Greatest Achievement: Taking Just Search Ltd to No.1 in Google UK for the term SEO and managing our B2B products and services giving Just search a profit margin of: 41.5 million Swedish kronor for 2007. 3 10:10 AM

4. Factors to a Successful website - Past One of the most important parts to a successful website is planning the strategy, for this you should keep in mind past, present and future factors and look at your business objectives and how you plan to market them to other businesses. 4 10:10 AM

9. Design

10. Content

11. Building Traffic

12. Analytics / Conversion / Usability

13. Brand / Reputation Management

14. Hard Work8 10:10 AM

15. The Difference between online marketingB2B and B2C 9 10:10 AM

16. Architecture 10 10:10 AM

17. Architecture of a Successful website Strategy How you outline your strategy of where your products and services will be placed. Think about the structure. Minimise the number of levels to get to a “call to action”. Plan your URL structure i.e. www.domain.com/category/product Plan your pages:- What content engages the user?- Call to actions- Headings & strap lines- What will make them return to the site, (RSS)?- Ways to capture people’s details, newsletters, forums, blogs- Who will use the site? (Audience / Technical level). How will the site inter-link and resell its own services? 11 10:10 AM

19. Stability and Reliability – If your site goes down regularly it can affect when your site is spidered and what sites will link to you.

21. Brand

22. Keyword rich12 10:10 AM

23. Design 13 10:10 AM

25. Low code to content ratio

26. Small file sizes

27. Scripting in external files

28. Avoid brochure designs

29. Avoid non friendly apps, flash.

30. Validate code14 10:10 AM

31. Usability of a Successful B2B website 15 10:10 AM Hyperlinks that don’t look like hyperlinks or don’t indicate they’ve been clicked. Use 99% rule – I.e. Usability is about consistency this time don’t be different. Don’t break the back button or open new windows, pop ups etc. Avoid dense content have Readable pages Complicated search boxes (Is search data useful?) Avoid splash pages and orphan pages Simple and Consistent Navigation with a clear hierarchy, (Bread crumb trail etc) Avoid long forms and use easy to see call to actions.

32. Content 16 10:10 AM

33. The Content of a Successful website - 1 Why is content good? - Of course, content is king! – It also plays a large part on how your business is perceived from other businesses. 17 10:10 AM

35. Faster indexing

36. Generates discussion

37. Solicits enquiries

38. Promotes community

39. Repeat visits

40. Subscribers

41. Internal link strength

42. Makes your business look more valuable and an Authority to other businesses.18 10:10 AM

43. The Content of a Successful website - 2 What other content can be added to a website? 19 10:10 AM

44. Link Bait for a Successful website - 1 Link bait can come in a variety of forms, useful content tools or something controversial, funny etc. (Often link bait is carried out unintentionally) Example of Successful link Bait: www.milliondollarhomepage.com – A student set up a website selling pixels of advertising space. An unusual concept which was captured by the offline press. This was then reinterpreted into the online world, at its height the site was a PageRank 7 and had tens of thousands of natural links. www.howmanyfiveyearoldscanyoubeatup.com– An obscure concept (non malicious) whereby users would answer various questions to gain a rating for, in a controlled fight, how many 5 year old they could beat up. Again, this was picked up by the UK national press, which gained the site thousands of natural links . www.bunkbeds.net– Again another creative idea of How long could you survive chained to a bunk bed with a Velociraptor? 20 10:10 AM

45. Link Bait for a Successful website - 2 Forms of link bait we have carried out on the Just Search site: We wrote an article called “D’oh! The Biggest Internet Mistakes Ever” – We submitted this to a number of Social Bookmarking sites, it was picked up and our site had a surge in traffic. Although this traffic was low in conversion it did however create a “buzz” and generate a number of natural links. 21 10:10 AM We also added a number of SEO tools on our website: 1) Creating stickiness to the website 2) Again building free links to the site

46. Building Traffic 22 10:10 AM

47. Building Traffic for a Successful website - SEO Think about your SEO! 23 10:10 AM

48. Building Traffic for a Successful website - Link Building 24 10:10 AM

49. Building Traffic for a Successful website – PPC 25 10:10 AM RELEVANCE

50. Building Traffic for a Successful website – PPC & SEO Combine both Organic and Paid search Use of the Psychology of Search:- Search retail space- The subconscious mind 26 10:10 AM

51. Building Traffic for a Successful website - Involvement 27 10:10 AM

52. Building Traffic for a Successful website – Other Marketing Other Marketing 28 10:10 AM

53. Building Traffic for a Successful website – Other Marketing Video Marketing 29 www.youtube.com – and other video sites have enabled ways to send out a viral message. Tutorials are popular and can gain links and build up a brand profile - How to write a post in Wordpress etc.- Photoshop tutorial 10:10 AM 3. Again it can work as link bait or to just drive traffic 4. SEO Rapper- Unique- Attracts visitors.

54. Analytics / Conversion / Usability 30 10:10 AM

58. Conversions for a Successful website Predictive Profiling 33 10:10 AM Information: Google Search made User lands on website X% of users went to page “A” then made a call to action Result: Place links or snippets of that page’s information dynamically based on referral.

59. Brand / Reputation Management 34 10:10 AM

63. Add positive reviews

64. Sponsorships35 10:10 AM

65. Example of Reputation Managementfor a Successful website -1 36 10:10 AM

66. Example of Reputation Managementfor a Successful website -2 37 10:10 AM

67. Example of Reputation Managementfor a Successful website -3 38 10:10 AM

68. Hard Work 39 10:10 AM

69. Hard work and Budgetfor a Successful website 40 10:10 AM

70. Conclusion 41 10:10 AM

71. Conclusions to ensure your websiteis a strong sales driver In brief, the action points for any company to survive online are through: Correct planning and preparation, sourcing the market User friendly website Search engine friendly website High converting website Build traffic from various sources, organic, paid and affiliated sources Constantly monitor on how improvements can be made Keep up to date with modern technologies Hard work, Hard work, Hard work! These should be match in part your business objectives. 42 10:10 AM

72. Brain Storm of a Successful website 43 10:10 AM