In the middle of the dot.com boom, it seemed that anyone could put up a website and it would make money. It was seen as the modern gold rush, but it evaporated almost as soon as it had appeared. The lessons many businesses learned from those trying times have stayed with us, and should be used when you are thinking about creating a new website or blog, and if you wish to improve an existing site in order to get more traffic, sales and profits.
*Use WordPress
WordPress is a free content management system commonly used for blogging, but it can allow you to create and maintain a robust website with many professional features in a matter of hours. You can edit your site from any computer in the world by logging into your own Control Panel, the dashboard for your site.
You can create an attractive website using themes and add functionality using plugins. You can also change your site at any time through your choice of themes. The site will grow and expand easily and you can always change your mind and redesign the main elements quickly and easily without breaking any existing links. This is would be very difficult to do with a static HTML-based website.
You can also use it to add a blog to your existing website. Upload the free software, and start blogging. Blogs are hot because they deliver fresh, interesting new content. And best of all, you can copy and paste your articles and other important information into WordPress, set a future date, and it will publish automatically. You or an outsourced worker can add the content and then just set, and forget.
*Transform your static HTML site into a dynamic WordPress blog
Search engines reward recent content these days, so chances are the older pages at your site might once have been at the top, but are now dropping out of the search engine results pages, and perhaps even vanishing completely. Refresh your site by migrating the most important pages to WordPress and editing them lightly to make sure they are up to date (check links and so on) Webpages are in HTML and blog pages are in PHP, so there is no danger of over-writing your work. You can work behind the scenes too. When you’re ready, simply delete your index.html page and your index.php page will show and be the gateway to your awesome new site.
*Plan out your navigation
Many blogs put their navigation on the right. Many sites also have main pages for their navigation, and key categories within their topic. Plan these out in advance and start creating content for them. The search engines will then see your well-organized, dynamic site with great content and be eager to spider it. As you expand your WordPress site, your navigation will expand as well, so grow in the direction you wish to grow, starting with the most popular keywords for your niche.
* Give site visitors a reason to keep coming back for more
Keep your site fresh and up to date with fresh new content on a regular basis. You can also add interesting features and functionality to a WordPress site in just a few clicks, such as an auction feature, discussion board, and more.
* Turn visitors into subscribers
Sign up with an email marketing service, put a sign up coupon on your site, and encourage your visitors to register for your free newsletter. Sweeten the deal with a handy free special report, and see how many sign ups you get.
*Track everything
Put Google Analytics code in the footer of your site by going to Appearance, Editor, in your dashboard and then clicking on Footer on the right-hand side. Paste in the code according to Google’s instructions. Then start looking at how each page on your site performs and try to improve upon it.
*Test your sales landing pages
There are a lot of elements that go into creating a successful sales letter, including a headline, sub head, introductory paragraph, images and more.
Don’t just make your placements based on aesthetics, but actually try different variations and see how they affect sales. You can do this using any metrics tool, but Google Analytics can help and it is free. Also try Google Website Optimizer to help you arrive at a winning online page.
FURTHER READING
35 Top Traffic Tips for Your Site or Blog
Visit the Blogging Spotlight page to learn more.
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