Anatomy of a Brilliant Website

www.MarkbeechMarketing.com1

ANATOMY OF A BRILLIANT WEBSITE

Presented by:Jeanne Willson

Markbeech Marketingwww.MarkbeechMarketing.com


“For a company not to market itself is like winking at a girl in the dark.

You know what you’ve done but no one else does.”


What we will cover

Your Brilliant Website

• Preparing• Content• Look and feel

(branding)• Setting it up• Promoting• Maintaining


How Did We Get Here?


Preparing for your site

• Your company mission/vision• Services / products you offer• Your Target Market

• Who are you trying to reach?• Who are you talking to?• What do you want them

to know about your?


Goals for your site

• What do you want to achieve?– More prospects– More converted sales– Subscribers to your email sign up– More fans to your facebook page– Sell your products

• How will you measure your success?


Content

• Pages to include• SEO

– Keywords– Links– Images


Content Considerations

• Don’t reinvent the wheel– Use your current brochure text,

text on other marketing materials– See what your competitors are doing– Ask your customers what they are interested

in or what their FAQ’s are– Get feedback from friends/family/business

associates– Don’t tell them what it is (features)

tell them why it is valuable (benefit)


Pages

• Home page• About us• Portfolio/Products & Services• FAQ• Contact Us


Pages

1. Home page– Speak directly to your target audience– How can you solve their biggest FAQ or problem?– Tell them why your product/service is valuable


Pages

2. About Us• How did the

company come about?

• Your compelling story

• About your team• About your

suppliers/vendors/partners


Pages

3. Portfolio/Products/Services– Samples of your work– Products you offer– Services you offer


Pages

4. FAQ

– Choose the top 5 problems your clients have that you can solve

– What do you want them to know about your company


Pages

4. Contact Us– Company name, – Address– Office phone number (cell phone number?)– fax number– email– Opening hours– Directions to your location

(Mapquest.com or GoogleMaps.com)– Link to your Facebook page (or other social media)


Pages

• Other pages to include might be:

– Blog: great for SEO – Testimonials– Links page– Media page – In the

Press– Sitemap– Terms and

Conditions/Privacy


Extra stuff– Testimonials– Newsletter or email sign-up

(www.MarkbeechMarketing.com/resources)

– Calendar of events– Social media links: Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn– Favicon– Ad space– Video


SEO

• What is it?• Why is it important?• Top ways to achieve good SEO• Track it


Keywords: Google Juice

https://adwords.google.com

• 256 characters maximum – put most important/relevant ones first

• Look them up.• Use adwords. Type in a term, it will show

you the other terms that people are using when they are also searching for your term

• See how specific you can get• Don’t overuse them

https://adwords.google.com/


Links are good.• Internal links: An internal link is a link from one web

page on your blog, to another web page ,also on your blog. These are very useful since they can help lead your visitors to other related relevant material on your site.

• An external link is a link from a web site other than your own, which points to a page on your site.

• Hypertext is the visible text which is linked to another post.

• The more links you have within your website and, more importantly pointing to your website, the more successful your website will be.


Images to include

• Your logo• Photo of you or your team • Photo of your building• Photos of your happy customers• Photos of you/your team working• Royalty Free Stock photography

can be purchased through:– iStockPhoto.com– Dreamstime.com – Shutterstock.com


Overall Look & Feel• Search for other websites you like

– pay attention to things like how it makes you feel, what colors/images are used, types and number of pages, layout

• Choose a style– Witty, lighthearted– Strictly business– Combination of both– Personal (you are the brand)


Overall Look & Feel

• Most important information should be ‘above the fold’• Colors should match your image and logo

green – environmentally friendlyred – excitingyellow/orange – happy, warm

• Imagery – how do you want people to feel? ie: happy customers outside your shop, beautiful photos of your products or people using your products

• Be sure you are keeping in line with your brand look and feel


fun


sweet


all business


What you need: nuts & bolts

• What you need– Domain name ($10-15/year)

• Important considerations

– Hosting ($50+/year)

– Email (should be included in hosting)

• Recommend: GoDaddy.com– 24/7 support

• Recommend a CMS: Wordpress


Setting it Up• Types of websites

– Custom built• Completely unique• Professionally designed• All changes made by designer

– Templates (hosting companies)• Free• Easy to use?• Not very customizable

– Themes (blogging platforms)• Easy to customize• Easy to change


Wordpress

• CMS – what?• Why Wordpress?• Wordpress themes


Wordpress – getting started

Option #1) Wordpress.com• Just register at Wordpress.com• Your domain name will be

www.username.wordpress.com• Theme

Option #2) Wordpress.org• Domain name• Hosting• Theme


Wordpress.com

#1) Wordpress.com• Just register at Wordpress.com• Your domain name will be www.username.wordpress.com• Choose a theme


Wordpress.org

#2) Wordpress.org• Domain name• Hosting• Choose a theme


Wordpress dashboard


Themes


Plug ins and Widgets• Small program• Samples

– Akismet– Link Within– Google sitemaps– Calendar– Social media ‘share’– Facebook ‘like’

• Easy to install

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/


For your website

• Add a share plug-in to your blog

• Add a Facebook ‘Like’ button to your blog

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like


Statisticshttp://google.com/analytics


Submit your site

http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl


Submit your site

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit


Test your site


Promote your site!

• On your business cards• On all your marketing materials:

brochure, postcards, etc.• On your email signature


Promote your site!

• Online promotion– Submit to Google.com– Submit to Yahoo.com– Google Places (was Google Local)

claim your listing– Link to/from your Facebook account – Link your email marketing– Get friends/clients to link to your site

(incoming links)


Social Media


Ongoing maintenance

• Once a month– Check your statistics

• Where is your traffic coming from– A link on someone else’s site?– organically through search engines?

• What keywords are your visitors using to find you?

– Check your site• Do you have new products/services• Review your text• Do you have new staff?• A new Facebook page


What we covered

Your Brilliant Website• Preparing• Content• Look and feel (branding)• Setting it up• Promoting• Maintaining


Questions?


Stay in touch• Thank you!

• Please fill out your evaluation– We will send you a link

to the presentation

• Sign up for our Social Media classes


Stay in Touch

• Connect with us– www.MarkbeechMarketing.com– Facebook.com/MarkbeechMarketing– Twitter.com/MarkbeechMktg– LinkedIn.com/in/MarkbeechMarketing

Documents

Anatomy of a Brilliant Website