If you are starting a business or buying one already established, you will surely want to put up an effective website that drives traffic to your firm. The most important aspect of having a website is ensuring it places on the first page of search results for your chosen keywords. Studies have shown that over 90 percent of searchers don’t look past Page One on Google. Therefore, you want to be on Page One, preferably close to the top. Here are some steps you can take to help get you there:
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Content: “Content is King” is the motto for well-written websites. You want to make sure all of your grammar and usages are correct and you have no spelling or punctuation errors. Short, snappy sentences are best. If you need assistance pulling your content together, you can hire a freelance writer to help with the writing and/or editing. The better ones charge around $20 for 400-500 words, and are well worth it – don’t waste time on cheaper writers, you will not be happy with the results.
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Design: Your website should have a professional, eye-catching design that allows easy navigation without a lot of clutter. We suggest a WordPress website since it is the most popular and versatile site development package. Your main menu should be functionally arranged so that related pages are linked vertically, silo-like. Use plenty of graphics, photos, videos, and other audio-visual elements to grab and hold a visitor’s attention.
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Search Engine Optimization: First, decide which keywords you want to use as search terms. Liberally pepper your content with these keywords so that search engines know how to index your site. Second, add links from other sites back to yours. These backlinks should originate with authoritative websites – sites with a high Page Rank. Only websites that have high Page Ranks can help boost the Page Rank of your own site. Also, and this is important, the linking website must feature content that is logically related to yours. If you sell honey, a link from a beekeeper’s website helps a lot more than a link from a bowling alley. You can check backlinks with an online tool that lists out the name and Page Rank of each backlink. This way, you have some idea of the quality of the links to your site – if low, take steps to improve link quality. An SEO expert can help you figure out how to do that.