As I have stated many times in the past: the days of the on-line brochure are long gone. In today's Web 2.0 environment, websites need to provide a lot of free information, be interactive with the user, and add value to the user. If you look at how Google ranks sites, the bottom line is the site must be relevant to what the user is looking for to be ranked well in Google. This means that today's website must provide up-to-date information, for free. This is sometimes a hard concept to grasp. Websites used to be structured for selling by providing sales information. Today websites need to educate the user on why they should buy from you. This is accomplished by showing them that you are an expert, that you know more than they do and that you can help them.

In the coming weeks I will be providing you the framework for how to build authoritative websites that will help you grow your business.

 

One of the most overlooked areas in this process is the page where your prospect lands when they arrive on your website. Many people make the mistake of sending traffic to the home page and expecting the user to find the information that they are looking for. This does not work. The user needs to immediately see the information that is relevant to their search. One of the keys to success in the on-line world is to be very focused. If your on-line store sells 30 products, you need to develop on-line advertising strategies for each product or group of products that are related. The time to up sell is not on your landing page, but rather once the user has developed a relationship with your company.

The landing page is part of the story that you are guiding your prospect through. The story starts with the keyword phrase that your prospect types into the search engine. It then continues with the advertisement that they see that causes them to click on the ad and arrive at your landing page. The landing page then needs to complete the story and get them to buy your product or service. This is not the place to outline your product features or tell them about your company. Landing pages need to be clear, concise, engaging, and easy to follow.

So what makes up an effective landing page? This depends on your audience. One of the best ways to get good ideas for landing pages, is to take yourself through the process, just as someone searching for your product would do. Start in Google and do a search for your product or service. Click on ad that appeals to you and study the landing page. If it is done properly the landing page will be consistent with the advertisement and it will finish the story.

My definition of a traditional website is a basic on-line brochure. The Internet is loaded with websites describing all sorts of companies and their products and services. They may do an effective job of educating prospects on the strengths of the company, the key players in the company, and the features and benefits of the company's products and services. But who really cares? The only time I look at the About Us section of a website is to see if I know any of the executives. Many people use the traditional website to learn about the company so they can try to sell to them or apply for job. Do these types of sites really help sell your products and services? Rarely.

Read more: The Death Of The Traditional Website

One of the keys to having a successful authoritative website is having the structure in place to manage the site on an on-going basis. This is why I use Joomla! as the basic management system for all the websites that I manage. Joomla is an award winning open source system that is supported by hundreds of programmers around the world. The base package of Joomla is designed to include all the basic functionality required to create and manage websites of all shapes and sizes. In addition there are hundreds of extensions available for Joomla. These extensions are all easily integrated into the base Joomla package to provide unlimited functionality and growth potential. Additional information about Joomla can be found at www.joomla.org.

 

There are thousands of extensions that are available for Joomla at www.joomla.org. Here are some of the ones that I use on almost every site that I build for clients.

Community Builder - This is must have if you are building a membership site. Community Builder manages your user community and contains all the things you need to interact with your community. Community Builder also integrates with many of the most popular Joomla extensions for a seamless system

Kunena - This is a forum extension that allows your user community to communicate with one another and with you. It is a great tool to create discussions between yourself and your members.

JCE - This replaces the standard web editor that comes with Joomla. It has all the features that you need to easily edit your web pages.

AllVideos Reloaded - This video streaming extension gives you the ability to embed video on any page on your site. It supports all the standard video formats and can even stream video on your site directly from YouTube.

Analytics - An easy to use plugin that installs Google Analytics on every page on your site.

ACE Subscriptions - If you have a paid membership on your site, this is a must. The extension manages the user payment for membership subscriptions. It also manages renewals and has the ability to set-up free trial periods. The extensions integrates with most of the popular payment gateways like PayPal and Authorize.net.

JCal Pro - If you have an event calendar on your site extension manages the calendar functions. There is also a plugin that give you the ability to insert a mini calendar on any page on your website.

The bottom line measurement is still revenue, but there are many pieces of the puzzle that effect your on-line success. Using an analytics program, like Google Analytics, to measure your website traffic will give you great insight into how your website is being used.

 

Click here to find out more about the benefits of Google Analytics

Click here to find out more about the features of Google Analytics