Website Strategy #1
This is the first installment of Website Strategies that Really Work! In preparing to write this series I gave a great deal of thought of the things I have done in this crazy business over the last 17 years. I have seen things come and go. I’ve seen things really change dramatically. The thing is with all this web design and search optimization stuff is that there is so much to know! My biggest challenge to try to help people is to try and focus on the meat and potatoes without getting sidetracked too much.
So the thing is, if you are just starting a website, or even if you are trying to make the best out of your old website, the very first thing you have to try and do is to forget about what you have heard, what worked in your past and even what you think you know. The first thing I was able to do when I started to be successful at this was to make myself ALWAYS look forward. So the first tip I have is to train yourself to look forward.
You see, the internet is like a moving target. If you take aim and pull your trigger based on where the target is today, you will miss it everytime because by tomorrow it will have moved. Any good hunter knows you have to “lead” your target. So now the question is how can I explain how to do that. Hmmm.
Okay, well here is how I did it. I don’t know if this will work for you, but I’m going to give it a shot. I found certain documents that gave me insight to what the internet will become. The first document was the Communications Act.
Actually, these are really a set of documents that lay out the communications laws that have been passed including those that have enactment dates into the future. The end result is that I have a pretty decent picture of what technology is coming and about when. This is really very important because what good would it do me to make a website with no video when the entire industry is heading toward HDV? Not very much.
Next, I firgured out how these changes would come about. I identified orginizations I call “Agents of Change”. These include but are not limited to Google, Yahoo, MSN and my clients. Outfits like Google actually drive the change by making search results happen better if you link, or blog, or have video (VLOG). This in turn forces webmasters, marketers and consultants to drive their clients to the new technologies, and the cycle nerver ends.
Then I subscribed to industry groups and spent literally thousands of hours to learn what I needed to know. Then I just spend hundreds of hours annually to keep pace with changes as they come around. For example, websites with video content are now getting better rankings in Google than those without video content. Why is that you might ask? Glad you did! Because Google is an agent of change and THEY want all the websites out there to have video. So, eventually, if you do not have any video on your site, your site won’t get any good rankings AND IF you expect the internet to be the place that makes your business do good, you will be very disappointed.
So having said all that, after this crash course on looking ahead, what kind of site do you need? You need a site that combines a blog, ecommerce if applicable AND video. This way you will have an edge on your competition and develop a site that will be compelling as well as get really great search rankings for some time to come. I hope this 1st installment has given you something you didn’t know that will help you.
Please comment below if you have any questions or suggestions! Thanks for reading this and I promise the next installment will be a must need to read too!
Best Regards,
Douglas Hauptman
770.597.0271