Is this a bit counter productive considering we sell these services? A little bit, but we would rather have the user more knowledgeable in SEO and Internet Marketing, and get content that is correct, and call us if they need us. Yup, we know, we rock. So look around, use this information to get yourselves ranked higher on Search Engines, and contact us if you need any help along the way.

Let’s say someone is not saying nice things to you in a public forum, a blog post, or their own website. It would be a great public relations move for you to respond to the negativity and turn it into more business opportunities. Sign up for that blog post so you can comment. Sign up for the forums where you see your good name tarnished. Very politely and with respect ask more details about the problem. Show true concern for that individual and let them know you value their opinion. Tell them you want any type of feedback good or bad to thrive as a company. Tell the person you would like to help them.

Then, email or call them if available and do whatever you can to fix the issue. Make sure afterwards you can get them to respond with an update to their situation. Have them place it exactly where the original rant piece was. Do not have them take he negative comments off, so you have the transparency of helping everyone you can. Your customer service is impeccable and it will speak volumes for you.

Now, I am not saying to be a kiss up. Most people will read right into it and make the situation worse. Also understand no matter what you do, you may not be able to please that person no matter what. Do not give everything away. Use this time to plead your case and let everyone know how good your customer service really is.

Top Notch Quality Content

This is probably the most important part of any website. You need to make sure the content on your site is original, is of superior quality, and is correct. There is nothing worse than seeing a jumbled mess on a website when you are looking for the right information.

Example, a bike shop website has information about a hybrid bicycle I was looking at. The wheel dimensions were wrong after researching on a few other sites. How likely am I to buy at that bike shop when their product information is incorrect.

Always make sure the spelling and grammar is correct, and the information provided with your products and services is spot on.

Full Description of the Products of Services You Offer

Make sure that all the products and services you have are accurate, full detailed. Give your readers every opportunity to make educated decisions based on what your site is offering. The more information you give, the more likely you are to be perceived as an authority. Be descriptive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Make your own frequently Asked Questions section. This will help eliminate the amount of simple one line emails from individual asking the mundane questions and also give your site more content. If you get a question more than once, or one that should be answered in your FAQ, add it on.

Specific Images Related To The Content

Make sure your images that you add to your website are relevant to the content, are accurate, and are web ready. Do not place a 300dpi image into your server then reduce the size in the html. Make sure you save the images in the perfect size you want, in the perfect web resolution of 72dpi, and place that on the site. If you want to create larger images to view, and you offer products, consider making a downloadable sell sheet with the large images and product specs that the user can print out. Make sure to include your contact information including your website URL on the sell sheets.

Testimonials

Testimonials will go a long way in creating a sense of reliability and comfort with your users. You ultimately wan the individuals visiting your website to become customers. A buyer looking for information on your products or services, and seeing actual testimonials of people who have purchased from you in the past will go a long way in making them comfortable enough to buy from you.

Search Function

Especially if your website has a wealth of content, it is a great idea to have a search function. Regardless if your website has a great navigation and really sets itself apart in terms on usability, a search function will speak volumes. If your website is run off of blog software, this is an easy task to accomplish. If you are running a straight html site, this can be a challenge. There are free and low cost options, but each has its own caveats. Research the right ones for you, and pick one that will help your users and you in the long term.

This is by no means a complete list. Other people may have their own opinions for MUST HAVES on websites. Each item may not be necessary for you depending on what you do or what you sell. The main point to remember is, you want the visitors of your website to have zero problems interacting with it. You want them to make their buying decisions the first time visiting your site, and the tips above will greatly improve those chances.

Choosing a Domain Name for SEO

Choosing the domain name is quite a tricky affair. It represents your business and unless you are as successful as Amazon.com where the title has nothing to do with e-commerce; you could be stuck with a loser. The people may not even visit your site if the domain name is complicated. The golden rule is keep it short, so that it is easy to remember.

What’s in a Name?

Often catchy domain names stick out in the users memory and seem to be preferred with the users. But two very useful tips are

• Try to keep the suffix as .com as it is widely accepted. Google has at times removed all .info domains from their results, but then brought them back. Using anything other than a .com or .net could give you these headaches in the future. Though depending upon the target country, you can have .uk or .in
• The domain name should attract people when you broadcast it on offline marketing channels and when you are placing the domain links in certain items. Catchy, easy to read, and easy to remember.

Shorter is Better

The shorter names stick out and they are easy to write down on the address bar.Keep it simple and short. No one wants to visit www.thelongestdomainnameintheworld.com to see your site.  Though you have to be careful, the site name should not be too small, things like “My1.com” does not really measure up to anything.

At the same time, you might have domain names which are already taken. An Indian airline company could not use its name as it was already taken by an unrelated business; but the addition of the word fly in flykingfisher.com made the domain name perfect for an Airline. So a creative touch should never be ruled out.

Keyword Rich is Best

I do not believe that you should have your company name as the URL. Most websites do this, but there is no real need for it. A search engine will use the domain name as one of many calculations for ranking websites. Having a keyword rich url is much better than your company name.

If two websites have the exact same content, the exact same products, the exact amount of links, and the only differentiation between the two sites is the domain name, the site with the keyword rich url will rank higher.

The only major caveat to this is that a lot of the good domain names are taken. Use hyphens if you can, or other keywords you wish to rank, but make sure the url is relevant to your business as a whole. If you want, buy both a keyword rich url as well as your company name url, and redirect the company url to the website. The main url should be that keyword rich name.

Five Characteristics of a Strong Domain Name

• Unique
• Easy To Spell
• Easy To Remember
• Pronounceable
• Short

If the name of your company is keyword rich, you are good to use a mixture of the keywords you are targeting and your company name, such as RichardsBlueBicycles.com. Using just the name of the business that doesn’t really explain or describe the business is not beneficial for you. Keywords in the domain name are just one small piece of the ranking puzzle, but every little bit counts, right?