It's a simple question, but a complicated answer. If you really want to know, take the time to read the whole page. Skimping through it will only give you a few pieces of the puzzle.
Understanding basics. Don't blame the designer. Content, quality & presentation Demand & the value of your product Basic solutions.... registration & meta data. The expensive solution............ special targeting. A moderate option... links & associations with other sites. An INEXPENSIVE option... an association with AntiguaToday! Understanding the basics. Over the course of 1998 I saw my first website CineSecrets.com grow from 15,000 hits a month to almost half a million (Thanksgiving weekend). As news of our success spread more and more people began asking me why it was that so few surfers visited their sites. Almost all said they didn't really know much about the web, but after paying US$ 700.00+ to build a site most were pretty disgruntled when almost nobody visited it.
Part of the problem is that once they were presented with a bill, and they paid it, they seemed to think that was the end of the story...... like all they needed to do was sit back and wait for the cash to roll in. Most of these kind folk are business people but failed to realize that normal business practices might apply to web sites too. Just because you build a shop and pay your rent doesn't mean that customers will come if you don't actively market your store. The money they paid to build that site was effectively the cost of building a store and stocking it. The monthly server charge is the equivalent of ground rent... the space needed to house their premises. But the real problem of owning a website is that there's 40 million more of them out there and at least another 50,000 are added every month. A website is like a tree in a forest. How does anyone pin point one amongst the rest? More to the point why? Sure they also paid to register the site with Yahoo! and Excite and the rest, but that's just the equivalent of putting your phone number in the phone book (Yahoo! is more like the yellow pages). Imagine having one phone book with the numbers of everyone in the world in it. If you knew exactly who you were looking for (and where they live) you could probably find them (as long as no-one else has the same name) but let's suppose you just know the person is a plumber. What do you think the chances are of picking him out from 20,000 other listed plumbers?
Don't blame the page designer. You probably don't want to hear this, but it's no good blaming the guy who constructed the site. You wouldn't blame an architect if nobody visited your new store would you? He did what he was asked to do. He built a site to the agreed specs and (if you asked him to), registered it with the major search engines. But only the most expensive page designers do what's necessary to separate one site from the rest in a search engine list (except perhaps for a little basic meta data). It's too complicated, and expensive, and besides, if they did take the time and energy to put their customers in the top 10.... what would happen when they get to the eleventh customer?
Before you ask, I don't design CUSTOM web pages. But I DO provide other options.
The secret of CineSecrets.com success was multi-faceted, but none of it happened by chance. Besides the question of content, appeal and demand, I built over 100 pages designed specifically to attract individual directory "searches" before I could even break the 20,000 hits a month mark. To make matters worse the Internet is more like an ocean filled with boats than a mall filled with shops. Just like a sea it is constantly changing and although you had the perfect location last week, it takes constant attention not to be carried off by cross currents or loose your place to other drifting entities. How could a web designer ever keep ALL his creations current? What would the budget be? Just one or two good sized sites make a full time job.
Basic solutions.... registration and meta data. OK, I hear you saying... that's enough about the problem. What's the solution? Obviously you want to register your site wherever you can. There are hundreds of sites promising you they can change everything by registering you with 400, 600, 1000 search engines! All for $40.00. If you study your site statistics you'll find that 95% of your hits come from less than 10 engines. Some of the more popular ones, like Excite and Lycos, produce some VERY peculiar results to the simplest searches. This part of the process is comparatively simple so most designers will do it for a nominal fee. THIS IS WHAT THEY MEAN WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT PROMOTING YOUR SITE but as I said before it's like putting your name in the phone book. Most people won't find you unless they know to look for you.
The creation of basic meta data for your home page will also increase your positioning but as more and more sites include meta data in their source code the effectiveness is becoming diluted. Just putting a list of keywords in the source code of your home page is no longer enough.
The expensive solution.... Special targeting? Home pages with hundreds of key words can dilute their overall effectiveness and produce a poor response to a simple two or three word search. Adding different meta data on every page will improve things (be sure the page content supports the keywords or the page maybe thrown out). The only really effective solution is to assess what your clients are most likely to be looking for and then create a new set of key words (a new page with new meta data) for each and every possible search relating to your site. Hence it is quite possible to create 50 "gateways" into a 3 page site. This is exactly what we did for CineSecrets.com and what we are now doing for AntiguaToday.com. We do our own programming, but who could afford that solution if they have to pay a programmer $125.00 an hour?
Some sites sell a service guaranteeing a top 10 place for about US$ 1000.00 per year but they fail to mention that this works for ONE targeted search... such as "Antigua villas" on one page. If you also want to show up for other searches such as "Caribbean holidays" you have to shell out another $ 1000.00 EACH!
A moderate option... links & associations with other sites. Linking to other sites with similar goals is clearly a good move. The effectiveness of such links is dependent on how visible they are and if they contain pages with real content. Lists of links are getting pretty passé but when combined with editorial content a link page can become very effective.
More involved associations with sites that have higher hit rates than you are even better. There are many sites claiming to increase your hits by including a doorway to YOUR site on THEIR server. Some of them are pretty expensive. Others are so general that it is questionable whether surfers looking for a site like yours will start at their site. However the principle is very sound if you can find a site that you are sure is attracting the right surfers and doesn't charge too much for the service.
An inexpensive option... links & association with AntiguaToday! You can gain the benefits of the special targeting techniques that we employ at AntiguaToday! without having to pay for cost prohibitive programming. By associating with us you can use AntiguaToday! as a hub to channel surfers to your site or even gain a web presence where you can give out contact information without going to the expense of building your own page. There are many advertising and promotion options available starting as low as US$ 20.00:
We are still developing this site (continually adding mechanisms to attract traffic) but want to encourage sponsors NOW, and so WE ARE OFFERING SPONSORS AND FEATURED BUSINESSES TWO YEARS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. The rest of 1999 AND all of 2000 for the rate of only one year.
Content, quality & presentation The old adage "content is king" was NEVER more true than on the net. Having a page and getting surfers to visit you counts for nothing if they are bored when they get there. Make sure your first page loads FAST and is punchy enough to grab their attention. Be concise about what they can expect to find and then present it in as entertaining a fashion as possible. BE HUMAN. The Internet is impersonal enough. Try to engage your audience and lead them logically through your site.
A poorly designed site maybe cheap but it's usually only worth what you paid for it. With so many other sites to choose from surfers will judge your product by the quality of your presentation. If it's scrappy or confusing they won't stop long enough to read the content.
DON'T fill up the site with meaningless animations that slow down the page and aggravate the reader. It's much better to be simple and stylish than flash and messy.
DON'T PUT A VISIBLE PAGE COUNT ON YOUR HOME PAGE. Nothing puts off purchasers more than learning that your site isn't attracting others. If "nothing succeeds like success", then equally nothing fails like failure.
Demand & the value of your product A final note: IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW GOOD THE SITE IS IF YOUR PRODUCT ISN'T COMPETITIVE. The site is just a tool to help you sell your services. It doesn't matter how good the site is if nobody wants the product. Once the site is built and you've attracted surfers, IF YOU'RE STILL NOT GETTING SALES DON'T BLAME THE SITE... CHECK THE VALUE OF YOUR PRODUCT and compare your prices and performance against your competitors.