If you have a business and have given it a website, it’s only going to help you if targeted website traffic visits your website, stays long enough to see what it is you have to offer, and then takes action based upon what you want visitors to do.
It’s a simple fact that the more time a prospective customer spends on your website, the more likely it is that he or she will take some sort of action specific to what you want to happen. A good way to ensure that this is going to happen is to encourage visitors to keep “clicking through” your website’s pages. Here are four simple ways to increase page views and thus, the success of your business.
1. Content is king. You may have also heard this saying elsewhere, but it’s doubly true on the Internet. Why? Because people are hungry for solid, real information that isn’t simply trying to “sell” them something. Provide this to them, and they’ll keep coming back for more. In addition, word-of-mouth can also bring others to your website simply because of the content you provide. And finally, search engines LOVE good, relevant content, which only increases your visibility. Provide good relevant content, and your site is sure to have solid, targeted traffic ” and high visibility, too.
2. Keep It Simple, Silly. Most of us have heard this phrase (KISS for short), but it especially applies to writing for the Web. If you have a difficult time writing short copy, take some time to train yourself to do just that.
It’s been proven time and again that basically, people who surf the Web have relatively short attention spans. Therefore, Internet writing has to be shorter than print writing because people tend to scan content instead of actually reading it as they might in a print article.
Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t present an excellent, several thousand words-long article, but it DOES mean you probably should break it up into smaller installments that people can read in short increments. This also helps you with “click through” rates (which also helps you with search engine ranking), because having people go to the “next section” at the bottom of each short section by strategically placing a link there is only going to encourage them to stay and keep reading — and keep clicking through, too.
3. Formatting and highlighting are key, too. Similar to sales copy, if you have headlines that pop and phrases that stand out, you’re going to make your copy more interesting to read. If you have long chunks of plain, boring black-and-white text with no breaks, no headlines, no colors to break things up, people will be very likely to get bored and stop reading.
You can increase the time they spend on your site by highlighting all the keywords and keyphrases. Dont be afraid of white space, either. Generally speaking, highlighted text that is laid out with plenty of white space around it is attractive to the eye and helps the visitor to scan the page, which will be appreciated. Break up longer articles into pages that deal with different sections of your theme and invite the visitor to go to next page by posting a link at the bottom of each section.
4. Put some article “teasers” and a site map on your first page. The site map, of course, makes it easier for people to get around your website (and makes the job easier for search engine spiders, too), which they’ll thank you for by coming back to visit often. And the article “teasers” on the first page encourages people to click through and read more — again, making you a darling of both your visitors and search engines, which will only increase your visibility and therefore your targeted traffic.
The above steps are very simple ways that will help people to find and visit you; if you use them, you’ll also keep visitors coming back for more. This will give you more page views, more targeted traffic and better business success.
Creating a professional website can be challenging. E-commerce web design is really a complex animal. To cut development time, many web hosting companies start offering web hosting templates or hosting with templates.
The hosting company you choose usually provides various types of templates from one-dimensional websites to more complicated functional websites. While professionally designed e-commerce websites can cost upwards of a few hundred and perhaps even thousands of dollars, simple templates can be much cheaper and may cost below $30.
Using a web template is much cheaper than paying a web designer $40 to $120 per hour to design a custom-made e-commerce website.
Other than the requirements of most web hosting programs, Web hosting templates that are designed for e-commerce have to have a shopping cart, and it most support an online catalog as well as payment processing. Web templates for e-commerce often include common pages and navigations for online shopping, searching or browsing products, adding items to shopping carts and making payment. The types of e-commerce templates you will find are stand-alone and don’t come with or use a particular shopping cart. It’s up to the webmasters to add shopping cart to the site.
An e-commerce turnkey operation is a different option to e-commerce web hosting templates. EBay Stores, Yahoo! and GoDaddy.com are the most popular turn-key e-commerce solutions for small businesses that want to setup online stores easily. Web hosting plans have varying fee structure. The price of the hosting plan is based on the number of transactions.
If you want to compare functionality, you need to ask a lot of different questions: 1) whether it automatically sends out an email notification once an order is placed at your web-site; 2) whether there’s a limit on the number of products and categories that you can setup; 3) whether a shopping cart accepts online check or debit card.
When looking at the cost of commerce operation, you’ll need to ask questions about: 1) how much it charges for each transaction; 2) is there’s a setup fee for a new online store; 3) how about handling taxes; 4) what’s the basic monthly fee for transactions.
It is important to speak with the hosting service that you use regarding e-commerce issues and the best options that are available to you.
For web site hosts the most important thing to know about is bandwidth. The quantity of data which can be sent at one time is called “bandwidth”.
When you have less bandwidth, your site takes longer to load regardless of what connection your visitors have. With more visitors, each visitor is going to have to wait his or her turn if you don’t have enough bandwidth to accommodate everyone. You have to know how much bandwidth you need while choosing hosting plans.
Be careful when someone claims they provide unlimited bandwidth or monthly transfer. Anyone claiming unlimited bandwidth is simply lying. There’s no such thing as Unlimited Bandwidth.
I have never come across a broadband service provider claiming to offer an Internet connection with unlimited bandwidth. How can a web hosting company provide unlimited bandwidth to customers if it doesn’t own its own access lines?
With high bandwidth site that have unlimited plans, most of the time they will be disconnected. When they are disconnected, no refunds are given. Typically, the web hosting company states that the website has violated the acceptable use policy or else their terms of service.
When visiting sites that promote unlimited bandwidth as an incentive to create an account, carefully read the Acceptable Use Policy and the Terms of Service. There will be fine text to read about the unlimited disclaimer.
When you first look for web hosting services (those who state clearly bandwidth offered), you have to make your best estimation and watch your usage carefully in the first few months. Take these factors into consideration while estimating. How many users will access your web site? How many pages to be access? How big are the graphic and HTML files?
More bandwidth is necessary when viewing multimedia files, running computer programs, and downloading files. There is a lot of bandwith required for flash web sites. THe most bandwidth is used when running virtual reality programs and full-length 3-D presentations.
Though it is not accurate, but still gives you something to work with until your site has been online for a while and actual traffic statistics have been generated. Don’t fall for the unlimited bandwidth trap that some companies throw at you.
There are a number of kinds of web-hosting services available, and what matters is what you are trying to achieve in creating your company’s website. The options that you have depend on several unique factors.
Is the web site you run multifaceted? How complex your website will be is something to discuss with a developer, especially with regard to issues like graphics use and database administration. You may need to ask an internet specialist about the type of hosting that you require.
Some web hosting services are provided for free but you have to put up with ads that are on the top or bottom of your web site and those ads might not be conducive to the web site that you have developed. If you are going to get a site with ads, then get a free web hosting package that matches with the online ad that’s already there.
Because the majority of people don’t choose to pay for their web-hosting, then they make due with a lower bandwidth than you would get with paid service. Simply put, in addition you receive a web email service at no cost along with hosting services that are free.
In addition, there is hosting that you pay for taht you have more control over when you load and host your web site. Depending on the variety of account you choose to invest in, you will have the ability to create as many e-mails as you need with a POP mail address.
Individualized packages that meet all needs are available from all companies. Whether the server you need is for personal or business use, or even meant to be used with a specialized operating system (UNIX, Windows, Linux and Apple), the options available will vary widely based on your plans for the system.
The prices depend on how much space you need on the server to load your applications so you have to take into consideration what you want to put on the server through your web site.
It is not a matter of flipping a coin when deciding whether to buy or rent a home. There are a lot of things to think about. Make sure you compare your income against the local market when you make your housing decision.
No matter what you conisider your dream home, you still ahve the option to rent until the time is right. The choice you make will come down to financiang. This is what you can count on paying when renting, rather that purchasing a home. In a nutshell, this always will be the main determining factor between the two.
When considering buying a house, there are several optional points. You will feel more a part of the community if you buy a house rather than rent. Now you’ve become a part of the big picture. Communities are collectives.
It isn’t easy living up to such a high standard of owning a home, especially in a neighborhood full of other people who own homes as well. It is assumed that you will maintain your yard according to neighborhood standards by keeping the lawn mowed and the landscaping freshly cut and sculpted. In your new house, you won’t have to abide by anyone else’s rules. Your neighbors will expect you to follow the community rules. In other words, you will either have to maintain things on your own, or have to pay someone to contract it for you.
You do have the freedom to garden the way you like and choose the landscaping and plants that you desire. Your own personal tastes should be expressed. The neighborhood gallery will allow you to be the artist you are. As long as you are not an abstract artist that loves to copy Jackson Pollack’s masterpieces, you are safe. A rented community does not take precedence over traditional measures.
With a rental, you do not have to be concerned about outside appearances of your abode. This is all taken care of for you. In fact, you probably do not have a choice in this matter. Often times, you do not have a choice of the inside colors of your rooms either. These decisions are not in your hands. You are renting. The management company, or owner has made these decisions for you.
When you pay rent, you need to come up with the first and last month’s rent as part of a deposit agreement. In most cases, you sign a lease to stay for a determined amount of time, move in and leave the rest to the owners. They provide the maintenance for you as part of the leasing agreement. When you rent a home or apartment and your garbage disposal, or toilet breaks down, the management company, or landlord ensures it’s repaired.
When you own a home and something breaks down, it is up to you to get it fixed and pay for the parts and service. Renting a home will take a lot of responsibility for the upkeep out of your hands. Owning a home places these responsibilities directly on the homeowner.
However, home owners do feel more stable. The home is yours. You invest the effort and you get the return for your investment. If you are lucky enough to own a home then you should have a good feeling of having something that belongs to you. Your domain is truly your own. With renting, this feeling and security is at best a temporary fix, a band-aid on a temporary situation that, ultimately, you have no real control over. The rent can go up, then you have to pay it, or move out. You can also become evicted. When you are renting, you don’t have a say in these decisions.