Search Engine Optimisation Articles
Adding Value to your site
Your site sucks, doesn't it?
It's OK. A lot of sites suck. We can help.
You've covered the basics when you designed your site, haven't you?
- Good original content
- Simple navigation
- Inbound links
- Search engine and directory listings
- User friendly
But, it still isn't the greatest site in the world. It's not bad. But it's not great.
People aren't buying your products or services and other sites aren't linking to you. So you need to add some value to your site!
This article will look at a few ways to add value to your site and look at some of the benefits of each.
User Interaction
Discussion forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms.
All of these are available free to integrate into your site in one form or another.
These can be the most valuable tool that you have at your disposal, if you use them properly.
If a user leaves a message on a discussion forum, he or she will return later on to check for replies. Instant repeat visits!
These techniques take a while to start off (people don't post messages on forums that don't already have messages on them), but can be worthwhile in the long run.
Also, they can be a valuable from of market research - you can read about your users concerns, brainstorm ideas for the site with them and use the forum to promote sections of your site.
The main value taken from this method is that when your users see you implementing the suggestions that they have suggested, then they feel like part of the community. This also increases repeat visits.
Good Content
By having good quality content on your site, you can raise it's perceived value to users.
If a user leaves your site satisfied (having found what they wanted, or learned something new, for example), then they are more likely to return.
Customer loyalty is difficult to achieve on the web - it is far too easy for users to leave, so by providing useful, up to date information you are maximising your chances of your visitors returning.
Branding
In the long term, good branding helps retain your existing customers and enables you to attract new customers, who will arrive already confident in your abilities to provide them with what they need.
Naturally a big benefit of branding is when users search for your site they will be able to find it easier because you have an unique brand name, not a generic name.
Ie, Sell Those Widgets vs. Web Marketing? Web marketing is a heavily competitive keyword, but Sell Those Widgets isn't.
Links Sections
There are different ways to manage your links section.
You could add links to every single site that deals with your subject area. This way you can be looked upon as being a comprehensive source for that subject area.
Then you could limit the sites you link to, and only have expert sites that are the top sources for information in your subject area. This way you can become an expert in your subject area and therefore add value to your site.
Or you could come up with a good mixture of both - a comprehensive listing of quality resources.
Having links to additional sites is useful for your user, because they really don't care who you are competing with. If they want to leave your site, they will.
The least you can do is offer some good options for them and hope they come back!
It should be noted though if people are leaving your site via your links section in large numbers that means that you either don't have what they were looking for or they can't find it.
These are two issues that you should look into and update your site accordingly in order to increase the value of your site to your users.
Main points to remember
You shouldn't fill your site up with cheap frills. Your content should form the basis for your site. Anything else you put in will add to the value and not form the basis for it (see the content feeds article for more on this).
Don't think in terms of competing with other sites. It will consume all of your time and will be largely fruitless. Think in terms of adding value for your visitors and developing more content. This is what the World Wide Web is for.
Keep your site fresh. This means regularly add content to it - it's the only way people will come back on a regular basis.
Have at least one method of visitors leaving suggestions, other than email contacts. Implement the suggestions if they are viable. Thank the people who suggested them.
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- Adding value to your website
- Inbound link strategies
- Finding good directories
- Keywords - What are they?
- Reciprocal links
- Spam - why to keep your site clean
- What is Google PageRank?
