UND-Pilsa Blog

Have you ever been wondering why it takes a webmaster so long to
make changes to your existing site? Do you want to have the
ability to make your own changes and be in control of your own
time? Well the answer to that question is be using a web
building program where you have no technical skills and do the
work yourself. What is more valuable having the knowledge or
paying someone who might not even be doing a good job for you?
The search engines are always changing so you want to be on top
of what sort of criteria they are looking for to give your site
value and traffic.

There are some very important things you want to consider when
putting up web pages. The number one thing is if they are
constructed user friendly. Does the end user appreciate how easy
it is to navigate your site. The purpose of any website is to
drive traffic and help you increase your bottom line. Without
traffic to your website or online business you are completing
wasting your time. You need to find the happy medium and use a
program or learn how to do that yourself. Many web designers
build beautiful web pages but have no clue on how to bring you
the traffic which produces the results that you want.

There are many opinions on software and web development. The
key is finding something that saves time and works very
effectively with proven results. If you seeking ways to do your
own changes, upload files, view your pages and be the actual
webmaster, then you have the ability to do this on your own
rather than rely on somebody else. It is wise to take matters
into your own hands and produce the results you require.

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Seeing websites online makes you wonder how these people,
company and business go about having their own websites. The
things that are put into these sites appear so complicated that
you may think it takes a lot of time and knowledge to be able to
go about having your own site. On the contrary, it is easier
than you think it is. You can even design and publish your own
website online. There are now many hosting companies that gives
automated design services for the subscribers to build their own
sites directly on the server. These customers can choose from
different varieties of templates, graphic designs and colors,
and then type in what the content should be. The disadvantage of
this though is that these sites have already been
“prefabricated” and may not pass up to your desired standards.
As you may know, there are things that a website must-have in
order for it to be a hit to the readers. What are the important
things to remember in making your own website?

One word: consistency. The elements of navigation should remain
consistent from page to page. The critical and important
information should not be buried somewhere where the readers
will find it hard to access. If you want readers to find
something, be able to provide it to them in the minimum of
clicks. Nothing like a long scrolling of texts to make the
reader lose patience fast enough for them to turn onto other
sites for the needed information. It is always useful to note
that not all people have the time to go though these stuff and
not all of them have patience for that matter.

Large graphics is known to slow loading time and will tend to
drive especially those who are using dial up. Imagine them
wasting time trying and trying again, not to mention the costs
that is incurred and all for just trying to get through. A
simple graphic element with the text should do the trick.
Buttons that are of importance, like page titles, links should
be consistent and easy to read. Writing in plain English is the
best. Keep in mind that readers would not be too happy reading
long and complicated paragraphs just to get to the simplest
information or search. Another thing that should be consistent
is the fonts to avoid too much confusion and irregularity.

Although color can definitely be eye-catching as well as
pleasing to those who will see them, over usage of them can
sometimes be irritating. Loud colors that tend to shallow your
entire concepts. These colors when employed right can make turn
sites to masterpieces. On the other hand, it can totally destroy
and will make your site look like an abstract, unreadable
painting.

It is always best to put in a little of yourself into your
websites. After all, this site is yours and on way or another,
it will reflect you.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit
http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com

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URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce a dynamic pages like PHP pages with redirection pages inside your index page.

What is APACHE URL Mod Rewrite ?

URL Mod Rewrite is a Apache web server module that can manipulate your URL on fly when a visitors join your URL pages.

A mod rewrite mode is usefull to changes your original URL to all types of the URL you dreamed about.

In this link below you will find some solutions guides to use the mod rewrite scripts :

A Users Guide to URL Rewriting with the Apache Webserver
http://www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/#ToC1

Why do you need URL mod_rewriting?

#1 URL manipulating

If you want to hide your original URL and what scripts that you used on it. You can use mod rewrite.

#2 Can be usefull for a Content Management System Based on Text.
Content Management System has been used by 80% webmasters in the World.
Ussualy they used mod rewrite to move the document root to the top level priority.

For an example :

if yout want to changes your URL from :
www.yourdomain.com/e/www

And then by using mod rewrite to change the URL to this :
www.yourdomain.com/

This module was usefull to make your web URLs look more profesional.

#3 Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine will crawl your site with their bot scripts. By the research shows that most Search Engines were prefer a HTML pages rather than a Dynamic pages.

So that they can increase your link popularity and make they easy to crawl through your site content.

By using mod_rewrite URL manipulation , you can changes your dynamic pages to a html URL address.

For an example :
www.yourdomain.com/index.php?screen=home
You can changes it to this by mod_rewrite:
www.yourdomain.com/index.html

In other words: With mod_rewrite you either shoot yourself in the foot the first time and never use it again or love it for the rest of your life because of its power.

This paper tries to give you a few initial success events to avoid the first case by presenting already invented solutions to you.

About an Author

Handry Teguh is a web designer and articles publishers at http://www.buaya.com.
And now his job was an IT Solution Consultant and Implementator in
security and storages solutions of Multi Vendors Product like : CA, MICROSOFT, GFI, SYMANTEC, CCTV.

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Salehoo: Flower Wholesalers In Detroit Michigan
Salehoo is a wholesale drop shipping service that actually connects you to reputable suppliers to find products that you can list on auction sites such as Ebay or your own website and then will ship those products directly to your buyer once they have sold, leaving you with a nice profit. It is an absolutely wonderful service with one of the lowest sign-up fees in the industry. For a lifetime membership of $67, they are one of the most cost effective and consistently reliable e-commerce resources on the internet. They consistently update their supplier lists and makes sure that they stay consistent and competitive. The directories justify the cost of the list by saying that their list has the best suppliers and not only that they have been verified and they accept secure payment methods.

If you are searching for suppliers off your own bat (rather than using a wholesale directory like SaleHoo) it is CRITICAL to check authenticity before making a purchase While your catalog can be in print or online it is crucial that is clear and informative. Salehoo is a unified platform bringing together wholesalers drop shippers and liquidators from different continents

Salehoo Wholesale Cars Cover:
Additionally, look for the locked padlock in the toolbar and make sure the http changes to https in your browser. The “s” indicates that the web site is a secure site and adheres to the industry standard for security values Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Therefore, your personal information is encrypted and stays private during transmission over the Internet. If you use Internet Explorer as your browser you will generally see a lock in the bottom right of page which indicates that the site has at least 128 bit encryption (which is safer than shopping offline). Always delete sensitive information when exiting any website and do not give your credit card number to anyone requesting it in an email (phishing scams). Follow these simple steps a safe online shopping experience.

Actually 74% of Salehoo’s suppliers have a minimum order quantity of one! Salehoo’s wholesale directory also has a private members only forum. With SaleHoo you can rest assured that you have contacted the best genuine wholesalers and distributors. See Salehoo Review.

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Do your ads create buyers? You’re only as good as your campaign strategy. If you don’t have a strong online landing page for your print and online ads you are missing the essential ingredient that turns visitors into customers.

When you create a landing page campaign here are the seven things you should avoid:

1. Don’t Forget to Determine Your Customer Goal

Determine the most important action you want from your visitor. If you obtain this result, you can deem your landing page campaign a success. If your goal is to obtain their email address, make sure you provide an incentive for them to do so and have it be the centerpiece of your page. For example, you might offer a white paper or an online Flash tutorial that explains your service in an entertaining way.

2. Don’t Forget About “What Comes First”

In this case, “what comes first” is your originating ad. Whether it’s a Google text ad or a full color magazine page, make sure that they stand together as one cohesive message with matching graphics. To test this, simulate what the visitor will do read your ad and then click to your landing page. If your message is inconsistent, the path to your goal will be lost.

3. Don’t Present an Unprofessional Design

Your landing page must be up to the quality of your website. The fact that your landing page functions as a single ad doesn’t mean that visitors won’t expect a well designed-page with graphics.

4. Don’t Recreate Your Home Page

Your landing page should not look like your home page. It should carry your branding, but should be created for the specific goal you want to achieve. Think about making the ‘buy path’ clear and easy to follow. You want visitors to come to your website to learn more about you, not so with your landing page. Your landing page is there to provide visitors with all the information they need to take the next step to a purchase decision.

5. Don’t Include Extraneous Links

Carefully lay out the path you want your visitors to take. Think about it like a visit to a museum. In a museum, the direction and place the visitor should walk is carefully delineated so that they get the maximum viewing effect. (Yes, it does also keep the line moving.) Your landing page should do the same. Decide the path you want them to take and narrow your text and links to follow that path. Don’t throw everything on the page in the hope that you will hit on something that interests them.

6. Don’t Forget Your “Call to Action”

Make sure the visitor knows what he needs to do next. If he is interested, you want to make it clear that he should call, type in his email address, or take some action. This is the point at which he will be the most motivated. Don’t miss this opportunity.

7. Don’t Forget to Track Your Results

To determine if your campaign is cost-effective, you’ll want to take some measurements. There are many you can take but these two are the most important:

a. Conversion rate (%):

The easiest measurement to take is your conversion rate. It is the number of visitors who performed the desired outcome/number of visitors to your landing page.

b. Marketing Cost per Sale ($):

This is the cost of your landing page/number of sales you attribute to the landing page. This will let you determine if your landing page campaign is a good investment.

In terms of refining your campaign, you can try split A/B testing and other sophisticated tests, but the most important thing to remember is that if you start with a good solid campaign plan, you will have a much higher success rate.

About Digital Media Works

Digital Media Works, Inc. (http://www.DigMediaWorks.com ) is an Internet marketing and design firm that specializes in solutions for e-commerce companies. . A seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional, founder Stephanie Diamond is experienced in building profits in a broad range of product and services businesses. She created a highly successful line of multimedia software products that sold millions of copies for America Online.

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To be successful with your online business, whether you are
selling your own product, services or are selling for other
merchants as an affiliate, you need a Web site that focuses on
that subject alone. The site must be easy to build,
maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful
traffic-builder and customer-converter.

Having the right tools or product alone will not insure the
success of your website. There are many factors to be considered
when designing your site. And unfortunately, most of these are
usually ignored by Internet business owners. Here are eight
simple steps to enhance your site and make it profitable.

1. Build It for Speed There is no denying that in this day and
age that people are in a hurry. You have between 10 and 30
seconds to capture your potential customer’s attention. To
minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them
where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash,
Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is
imperative to your presentation.

2. Target your Market Know who your market is and make certain
that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your
site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your
market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be
clean and professional. Is your product aimed at teenagers and
young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed.
The key is to know your market and build the site to their
preferences.

3. Focus the Site Make certain your web site is focused on the
goal of selling your product or service. If your business offers
many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying
to sell them all from one page. This can easily be accomplished
through the utilization of subdomains.

4. Build Credibility The most professionally designed site won’t
sell if your customers don’t believe in you. Become an authority
in your chosen niche. The internet is all about information, not
just marketing. People go to the internet to find information on
a particular subject. Providing clear concise articles focused
on the subject of your site makes you an expert in your field.
Providing a clear privacy statement is also away to build your
credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement
from every page on the site as well as from any location that
you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide
legitimate contact information on line, including your mailing
address and phone number. Don’t hide behind a computer!

5. Keep navigation simple Make site navigation easy and
intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience
of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many
times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate
through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

6. Keep it consistent Make sure the site is consistent in look,
feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a
customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site.
Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

7. Make your site interactive and personalized Make your website
interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that
allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they
might have pertaining to a product. Personalization of your
website is another key element that can lead to customer delight
and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides
you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and
up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you
an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example,
when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be
offered.

8. Content is King Good content sells a product. Ask yourself
the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you
wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it
lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review,
critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the
intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward the
improvement of your website and most importantly, turn visitors
into customers.

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Designing a quality, unique website requires the right combination of art, technology, and communication skills. It is vitally important to the success of any professional website project for the client to be actively involved in helping the designer identify and understand their true wants and needs. Web designers act as both creative coach and translator of ideas. Turning ideas into concepts, incorporating customer feedback, and prototyping rapidly creates a hands-on, evolutionary workflow for the customer, producing maximum results and a pleasant customer experience.

Step 1: Learn a little (or a lot) about the client’s business

Once a client has committed to building a new website, it’s time to dig in and learn a little about the business and the specific requirements. This can be done through a simple questionnaire for smaller sites, or may require many hours of consultation for larger ones. Some of the questions asked include: website goals and objectives, target audience, color and style preferences, examples of preferred websites, etc. If a client already has specific text and images that they would like to have included (maybe from an existing brochure or catalog) it is time to share the files and information with the designer, and the designer will in turn review it and share an objective opinion on the usefulness and quality of the customer supplied materials. If a domain name does not already exist for the site, this would be a good time to decide on a name and have it registered. The designer can help as little or as much as necessary in this area. Once all information has been received, work will commence immediately on the custom website design. Idea sharing and customer involvement is always welcomed and encouraged.

Step 2: Review design concepts and pick a direction

Normally, a customer will have initial design concepts to review within a few days. Some projects can take substantially longer to reach this initial stage, depending on the level of research and discovery being done for the customer in other related and possibly interdependent areas, such as designing a new corporate identity (logo and entire brand) or building an information systems solution into the website. The design and layout of the home page and first-level inner pages come first. This offers the customer a view of the possibilities and how different ideas work together at different levels. Then, one will be selected for further refinement. Existing works by the designer can often be used as a starting ground and modified to create a unique, yet familiar, look and feel. In the case that the customer is indecisive or doesn’t fall in love with one of the initial concepts, additional designs will be presented. After a design and layout concept has been chosen, revisions to that design and layout concept will be made until the customer is completely satisfied.

Step 3: Review revisions and ask for feedback

Once the design and layout has been approved and finalized, detailed content will be entered utilizing the selected design guidelines for consistency and beauty. Content can be supplied in almost any electronic format such as email, Word or even scanned text. In the case of larger consultative web projects, content can be created for the customer as part of an overall marketing and branding campaign. For images, content can be shot by the design team, supplied by the client, or in some cases purchased or custom created by the designer. There is also the option of choosing imagery from a gallery of quality royalty-free work at no additional cost. Just describe what is wanted, and the designer will pick the perfect images for the job. Or, if preferred, the client may choose the images themselves and the designer will certainly assist in the process a level with which the customer is comfortable. Customer supplied content can be supplied as soon as it is acquired - there’s no reason to wait until the web pages have been designed. In fact, often times the best design concepts are born of the content.

Step 4: Finalize your website.

All concepts and revisions can be viewed online and there is always an open channel of communication to the designer. Once the customer is completely satisfied with the finished website, high-quality website hosting is offered, or the website can be implemented at a third party host of the client’s choosing, as long as appropriate security access and necessary software tools are available.

Bernard Peh is a great passioner of web technologies and one of the co-founders of Sitecritic.net Website Reviews. He works with experienced web designers and developers for more than 5 years, developing and designing commercial and non-commercial websites. During his free time, he does website reviews, freelance SEO and PHP work.

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I’ve focused in the past on some individual sections of your website that you should consider implementing. What I’m going to do now is give a brief overview of a number of pages and sections that are common in websites.

• Home Page
  This page should have a short descriptive paragraph or two, along with some sort of bulleted list that a website visitor can look at and very quickly get an idea of what the site is about. This could also be called Main or Welcome, among other things.
• About Us
  This page gives an overview about the company. If the staff is fairly small, staff information can be included on this page as well. In the case of one staff member, this page may be called About Me. It may also be known as About the Company, Company History or simply History.
• Projects
  This is a page to list past work you and your company has done. It can be anything from a simple list to detailed descriptions of each project. This can also be called Portfolio.
• Staff
  If you have a decent sized staff, you can split off the information on them from the About Us page and give them their own section. This can be anything from a simple list to a separate page on each staff member. This is also often used if an organization has a Board of Directors.
• Links
  A links page is pretty common. However, you should be careful about this page. In most cases, it should be very different from a personal links page. This may also be a called Partners.
• Contact
  This is where your email (or a form) will be, along with your phone numbers, mailing address, etc.
• Location
  If you want a separate place to give actual directions, along with a map, this is a great place to put it. You can also put links to online map websites, often directly to directions to your location. This can also simply be called Map or Directions.
• News
  This is just a page for the latest info on either your business, your website, or possibly both. This can also be archived copies of a newsletter that you mail out. More and more often, blogs are taking the place of a more formal news section.
• FAQ
  Just like it says, this is Frequently Asked Questions about your business and website. At the beginning, this should be populated with what you think the most frequently asked questions are. But as time goes on, you can update it with questions you really do get often.
• Gallery
  This can be anything from images of your physical location to pictures of your product. Also commonly known as Photos or Pictures.
• Virtual Tour
  If a simple gallery isn’t enough, a virtual tour can give your website visitors the feeling of actually walking around in your physical location. This can be as simple as pictures, or make use of more complicated Virtual Tour technology, where you can actually stand in one location and look around.
• Calendar
  Although not all businesses warrant a calendar, many do. This can be anything from an actual grid-like calendar to a simple listing of events. It’s also called Upcoming Events.
• Press
  If you or your business have been featured in any publications or on other websites, your own website is a good place to show that off. Have clippings of articles and links to online articles here. This section can also be known as Media.

These are just some of the more common website sections for you to consider. Each website will likely have other sections that are specific to that company, or at least to that industry. Remember, the sky’s the limit.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com

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For many business areas, the Internet has set a new standard and changed the playing field. To take advantage, you need a site. But where do you start?

Web Sites…In The Beginning

Your first thoughts regarding a web site are guaranteed to be misplaced. If you have a current business you want to create a site for, you are viewing it using techniques you have developed in the brick and mortar world. If you have decided to start an entirely new business on the web, you are probably brainstorming about potential ideas. If you want to avoid wasting time and money as well as major frustration, you need to understand that both approaches are simply, utterly, truly wrong! Well, most of the time.

If you can accept that statement, you will avoid the mistakes millions of small and huge businesses have made. You don’t want to be like that frustrated person you met at some party who got killed on the web. As difficult as it will be, you must accept the fact you understand nothing about e-commerce. If you can check your ego and opinion at the door, you are half way to making profits. Assuming you haven’t hit the back button, let’s talk about the key issue.

There is one word to memorize if you want to have a successful site - Research. Don’t worry, it isn’t difficult to do. Imagine if you could find out what all the people in your city think of when they have a problem your business can solve? Imagine you new the exact phrases they thought of most often. The information would be worth more than its weight in gold. Far more. On the web, you can get this information.

The most important step you, I or any other person will take in starting a site is first determining if we should! To let the cat out of the bag, there are more than a few industries that don’t do well on the web. The business just doesn’t translate well or people prefer to touch the product or talk to the person. Wouldn’t you hate to spend thousands of dollars or a couple hundred hours working on a site only to find out there is no interest on the web? It would be maddening, not to mention putting macaroni and cheese front and center in your diet.

The best way to deal with this issue is to use a site called Wordtracker. Wordtracker is a brilliant, cheap program. You enter a keyword, click and it tells you all the phrases being used in searches that include that keyword. It also tells you how many searches occur for each keyword phrase in a 24 hour period. Do you realize the value of that?

Assume you have an existing business that sells purple balloons for weddings. You are budgeting a bunch of time or money to have a site built. Having read this article, you go to Wordtracker and do a test for “purple balloons.” You find out there are only 50 total searches a day for all possible keyword phrases. You now know the site isn’t worth pursuing. Unlike most businesses, you’ve saved a lot of money and a lot of time.

Large and small businesses have crashed and burned on the Internet because they never took the time to figure out if there was a market for their product or service. Now we know you aren’t going to make the same mistake.

Halstatt Pires is an internet marketing consultant with MarketingTitan.com. Visit us to read more Internet marketing articles.

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Marketing and communications professionals are constantly looking for creative ways to promote their businesses and organizations. It’s a way of life. Where a normal person sees a refrigerator magnet, a marketing specialist sees a chance at continuous visibility. Where a normal person sees a free postcard, a marketing specialist sees potential publicity for his company’s new service. Where a normal person sees a collection of pictures and words online and calls it a website, a marketing specialist often does the same thing, and that’s a problem.

The web is our most powerful, yet most neglected tool in marketing. Very few organizations truly take advantage of its power. Many of my clients become my clients because they need to update their branding. They need a new logo, office materials and marketing materials. They most often have a website, but it typically isn’t what they want to update first. When I ask employees what they want to get out of new branding, the answer is either “nicer business cards and things to send/give out” or “don’t bother me.” This is a tremendous insight into that fact that selfishness is a huge motivator. Employees rarely visit their company website unless it’s their job to do so.

They personally give out their business cards and other collateral and they want those materials to reflect well on them. Or, in the “don’t bother me” group, they just want to do their jobs and don’t want to be hassled by some annoying designer. At any rate, the website becomes secondary and employee’s needs are first.

The lesson here is this: if you want to get into the mind of your market, you have to discover what selfish need they have that will get them to visit your website and give you business. The web is powerful because it provides instant answers for people actively searching for information. The web is not just about pajama-clad 20-somethings looking to buy CDs before bedtime. Every demographic imaginable has representatives online actively seeking you out. For example, a company employs a PR specialist to help build business. That PR specialist knows that she needs to align the company with a charity to offset some of the company’s prior bad behavior and create a story for a press release.

If she stumbles on your organization’s website and reads about your history, annual events and contact information, she may move on. But if your website discusses how your services dramatically helped specific people, how you are growing each year, how if she gives over $5,000 her company will be listed in every publication you produce, and how your corporate donor program has positively affected another company like hers, she may pick up the phone to talk to you. Throw in a choice of a free Spa package at the local trs-chic spa or 10 free movie passes with her $5,000 donation and she may just send a check.

Here’s another example: I am redesigning the website of a geography-themed game company based in Redmond, Washington. Their site currently provides detailed information about their games and lists where the games are available for purchase. The images are large-easy to see but tough to load. All of the information about each game is provided at once. In addition to implementing a way for people to buy the games directly online, the main purpose of the redesign is to give visitors some choices. They are able to decide how much information they need by reading a few sentences about each game and then clicking if they want to read more. Or, they can opt just to go buy the game and read nothing.

Or, they can take the geography quiz on the home page and see if they are smarter than most of the population. It’s always nice to get an answer correct and read “Good for you-you did better than 92% of the people who took this quiz.” (People like to be told that they’re smart, but they love to be told that idiots populate the world and they’re not one of them). The 92% who get it wrong just have another incentive to buy one of the educational games. The point is to make the site about the visitors, not the company.

No one visits your website for you. They visit your website for themselves. The things that you think are important about your company or organization really don’t matter unless they drive visitors to your site. For example, most websites outline a company philosophy, culture or mission.

Go check out your web stats and see how many people return to that page. That information can certainly be on your site, but for your own professional health, take it off the home page. Put it somewhere that people only have to see if they really want to. Besides, a visitor will interpret your culture and philosophy by the design quality of your site before they ever read a word.

A powerful website allows your company or organization more options and exposure than any other medium. You can experiment. You can change and update information freely. You can tell your public about special events, new products, case studies, or research that you are doing at virtually no cost. You can connect your customers to other useful companies. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you or your employer has a website. Answer these ten questions about your website and see if there is room for improvement.

1. Who visits your site and why?
2. Are visitors getting what they need when they visit? Are they getting it fast?
3. Are visitors giving you what you need when they visit?
4. What are you giving visitors that they can’t get at other sites similar to yours?
5. Does your site look clean, professional and trustworthy?
6. Is the design intuitive? Is it easy to navigate?
7. Can your site be found on most major search engines?
8. Do you have a way to track the number of visitors to your site and what pages get the most hits?
9. Is there an incentive on your site to get visitors to return on a regular basis?
10. If you picture the people, philosophy and culture at your company and then visit your site, do you feel like they’re the same?

One common roadblock to having a truly effective website is a lack of personnel to actually keep it up. If your company has someone who updates your site regularly, you’re in great shape. Do an audit; see if you’re appealing to the selfish drive of the people who visit your site and if you’re providing them with what they need when they visit. Discuss the pitfalls in your website with coworkers and figure out a remedy. Be creative about what you offer your public to get them to your site and keep them coming back. Prize incentives are effective but can be expensive. Links to relevant articles, a monthly e-newsletter, or weekly trivia games also work well.

If you don’t have a person who regularly updates your site, find one. Either a regular employee or a contract employee willing to give you a certain number of hours per month will work. When you come up with an obscenely effective way to increase your business, you want someone there to update your website immediately.

Ultimately, if you think about your website with a sense of relief that it pulls its weight by increasing your bottom line, you’re in the right place. If not, take yourself to a spa or a movie, and get ready to embark on your most important marketing project ever.

Audrey Nezer is an award-winning graphic designer in Seattle, Washington. Her company, Artifex Design, creates playful, edgy and effective marketing and communication materials for companies and organizations throughout the United States. Visit http://www.artifex.net to learn more (and win a prize!)

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