Presented by Karen Porter UM School of Business Administration & ImpactOnlineMarketing.com Outsourcing Website Development ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Welcome to This Course About the course About your instructor Course resources ImpactOnlineMarketing/sell-outsource-site Karen’s contact: (406) About you! ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

3 Vital Parts of Site Development Technical – making the site function as it should Design – making the site look the way you desire Marketing – getting the site found online Less than 10% of developers are proficient in marketing. Due to this, marketing is overlooked as a vital component in most websites. ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Why Most Sites Don’t Succeed No marketing incorporated into the site Conflicting expectations Developer depends on the client for content Client depends on developer to provide guidance SEO is not incorporated at all –or– it is simply addressed by throwing junk into SEO “fields” Website is not found in search engines so it gets very little traffic ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Different Types of Websites Information site (brochure site) Info site w/ add-ons (lead generation, building lists, etc.) Simple shopping cart site – few products, PayPal check- out, simple shipping, etc. Complex shopping cart – multitude of products, multiple payment options, etc. Money making site (entrepreneurial endeavor) Other sites based on specific needs (membership site, single sales page sites, etc.) Developer should be experienced in type of site you need ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Technical Considerations Site building platform (HTML, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.) Content management systems (CMS) Keeps you from being dependent upon developer for small changes “Hit by a Bus” back-up developer potential Don’t be held hostage by your web developer Developer should be experienced in the type of site that you need ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

YOUR Development Responsibilities Being clear about your guidance Use of logos, certain colors, certain look/feel, etc. Providing your developer with content for your site Verbiage for your pages Photos, graphics, etc. Logo art Information for contact forms, lead forms, etc. Sticking to timelines outlined by your developer Securing domain and hosting Hiring the right developer ; ) ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Domain & Hosting – How They Relate ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Domain Name Chaos – What Choice? ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Domain Name – Only 3 Real Choices.com – preferred almost always.net – another option.org – a third options (does NOT have to be tied to a nonprofit website) Avoid other options like.biz,.us,.tv. etc. – these options do not carry credibility with search engines or with consumers ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

What Makes a Good Domain Name Shorter is better Easy to remember No funky spellings that people won’t get right No words that will be confusing to people typing in domain (to, too, two and 2; etc.) No hard to remember aspects (dashes, etc.) Keyword can be helpful (although not mandatory) Explore options and see what is available Register.com for exploration / GoDaddy for purchase ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Domain & Hosting Best Practices Do not secure domain name and hosting from same company Secure hosting for more than one year to gain more respect from search engines Keep login information for domain management and hosting safe, secure and accessible – these are business assets (same with website login, etc) ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

12 Steps in Website Development Sequential to a point Steps 1 – 6 Planning (MOST important phase!) Steps 7 – 9 Site Development Steps 10 – 12 Marketing AFTER Development (a critical step that can make/break a site) ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 1: Site Objectives Know where you are headed and why? Making sales of products Developing leads Capturing addresses for a mailing list Earnings from Adsense / affiliate programs Etc… Develop your goals ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 2: Determine Demand Important if you are building a revenue site Is there sufficient interest in your topic? Is there potential for enough traffic to return a positive ROI on your time and monetary investment? Likely won’t apply to most of you ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 3: Keyword Research What is a keyword? Identifying best keyword vital to getting found “Best” keywords: Sufficient search volume to bring site traffic Not too much competition (need to find words that have a good chance of ranking well) Words YOU use may not be the words your potential customers use ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 4: Competitive Review What are your main competitive sites? Which keywords are they trying to optimize? What are they not doing well? You can capitalize on things they are missing After doing keyword research: Visit sites that are ranking well for your best keywords Visit those sites’ ‘source code’ to “sleuth” ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 5: Build a Site Map Identify number of pages your site needs To cover content you need To leverage “hot” keywords Select primary navigation tabs What visitors are most likely to want to find Align your best keywords to main nav pages Organize secondary pages under primary tabs ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 6: Develop Page Blueprints This is your outline for each website page Goals Primary keyword Proposed URL extension Proposed page title Proposed page description Proposed content (bullet points / outline only) Proposed photos, graphics, other “additions” ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 7: Copywriting Use page blueprints as guide to develop copy Ideally 250+ words per page Keyword used 1-2% density (1 - 2 times per 100 words) Use keywords in subtitles Use keywords in photo titles and alt tags One anchor text keyword is ideal ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 8: Graphic Design NOW we’re ready to make the site “pretty” Select a theme that works well with your website goals Use colors and style consistent with your overall branding Do not use excessive flash Make sure site is consistent with offline look/feel The “F Factor” – where visitor eyes go ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 9: Build Out the Site Develop the site by incorporating all the above Set up all pages and organize Add necessary and desired optional plugins Install desired theme Add in copy, graphic elements, etc. Develop parallel mobile site (22% access via mobile) Ideal option is to use a “responsive” theme that automatically resizes theme to fit mobile devices ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 9: Build Out the Site Develop the site by incorporating all the above Set up all pages and organize Add necessary and desired optional plugins Install desired theme Add in copy, graphic elements, etc. Develop parallel mobile site (22% access) Ideal option is to use a “responsive” theme that automatically resizes theme to fit mobile devices ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 10: Off-site SEO Inbound linking Focus on links from “important” sites (PR 2+) Page rank of sites is like a Richter scale Link “exchanges” are worthless Takes time and patience Hiring “SEO” professionals can be dicey – many use tactics to rank you that can get your site in trouble with Google Social validation ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 11: Site Promotion Site promotion goes beyond SEO Pay-per-click advertising (Google Adwords or Facebook) Online press releases Social media marketing Promote your online presence everywhere offline Other promotional tactics as applicable for your business and its unique goals ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Step 12: Website Analysis Set up and use Google Analytics Monthly monitoring at a minimum Identify most visited pages Identify pages NOT being visited Know how long visitors are staying on your site Know what your ‘bounce rate’ is Know where you are getting your site visitors (organically, from PPC, referrals from other sites, etc) Explore other metrics that are important to your site ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Keyword Research is VITAL Ideal keywords Sufficient volume Not too much competition Identify volume Google Keyword Planning Tool Identify pages NOT being visited Identify competition Install and use MozBar Covering keyword research in detail next week ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Quick Lesson in SEO 40% -- On-site SEO 40% -- Links into Your Site (Backlinking) 20% -- Social Validation ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Hiring a Web Developer Get recommendations / insights from others who are satisfied / dissatisfied View their work – are they versatile or does every site look the same? Interview them and ask detailed questions ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Interviewing Web Developers Time to build out a site Experience with website MARKETING Do they have expertise with keywords? If not, do they work with someone who does? Do they truly understand SEO? (vs. not just stuff “junk” into fields) If not, do they work with someone who does? Do they understand use of opt-in forms, lead pages, etc. (if needed) ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Make or Break Decision Will they give you complete and total access to your own site: Domain name (YOU should own) Hosting account (YOU should have access) Site content (YOU should own copyright and all site content) ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Obtain Bids from Selected Developers Do not rely ONLY on bids Often are not “apples to apples” Need to understand what bids actually involves in order to fairly compare & contrast Cost is important, but cheapest is not always best Expensive does not always mean highest quality or best developer for you The right developer is the one who meets your needs at a fair price and is easy to deal with ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

More to Come Next Week! ImpactOnlineMarketing.com

Thank You for Attending! Best of luck to you in your website development journey! ImpactOnlineMarketing.com