1. Construction Signs

Construction signs are a dead giveaway of a beginner in online marketing and web design. Only those who are inexperienced will use the man shoveling dirt icon to signify that a page is currently under work. Instead, design like a professional by not adding content until it is finished. That way, a professional image can be portrayed at all times.

2. Useless Wizbang Gadgets

Sure, I think the cool rotating clock of characters is a cool idea. But it doesn’t add any value to a website other than entertainment. Instead of adding useless features, focus on adding features that drive value.

Website No-No’s

1. Macromedia Flash Landing Pages (These do nothing to help other than wow a customer.)
2. Music on a webpage. (Especially if you can’t turn it off!!)
3. Cute little animated characters.
4. Overuse of color.
5. Visitor Counters (That’s why we have statistics packages)
6. Guest Books (Replace with a email form)

3. No Navigational Organization

Website with little or no organization can be very difficult to navigate. If a visitor cannot find what they are looking for, having a website losses its value. Having a defined structure and navigation will not only help visitors find content, but also increase the chances of having a positive impression.

An important design tip to keep in mind when creating a navigation plan is to organize information around how customers think about a product. Many times companies organize information about how they categorize products (Cisco is a major example of this) instead of how customers think about products.

4. Over-Use of Macromedia Flash

Many clients ask for a Flash landing page. It’s use is primarily intended to create a sense of awe before entering the rest of the website. However this can be deceiving in many ways.

Bandwidth Intensive

Flash introductions are very bandwidth intensive and users with dial-up access will probably have a hard time loading the website and probably move on.

Search Engines Can’t “Read” Flash

Search engines at this time cannot effectively read content embedded within flash. What that means for a site that makes extensive use of Flash is that they will fail to have good rankings for search on Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Proper Use of Flash

Flash is an extremely powerful technology for quickly conveying information to customers about complex products, services and technologies. A properly placed Flash demonstration can create a professional image and explain a product or service in a clear and concise manner.

5. Spelling & Grammar

Spelling and grammar are seemingly harmless mistakes that can really poke its ugly head at the worst possible time, when customers are getting their first impression. Not only will they see that the website doesn’t seem professional but that it lacks the polish that is expected from a professional company.

Professional Services

Make sure that your website doesn’t suffer from the same design flaw too. Contact Onepax today for a free consultation.

Before search engine optimization became a booming business, PageRank was the preferred method of determining how important a specific link was. You may recognize this as the little green status bar you see in your web browser when you download the Google Toolbar.

Now that Google has become such a target for online marketers, Google’s coveted PageRank has now starting to lose it’s value. Google’s entire search foundation still operates on the principles of links and continues to have a heavy influence in search engine rankings. Website that have more links are therefore more popular. Since amassing a large amount of links is very difficult to do, website that have many of them are often favored by Google simply because the founders of the site would have to make a major investment in ensuring their content is up to par.

Top Tips for Linking Strategies

Links that are relevant

Links to your site should be related to your product or service. You certainly wouldn’t advertise baby shampoo at a tattoo parlor, so why would you do the same thing online? Directories such as Yahoo! and DMOZ are a great place to find relevant links. In addition, try looking for links on industry related websites.

Attract links from websites that can drive traffic

Getting links to your website also includes generating traffic. A real world example of a bad link would be like putting a billboard in a remote location. No one will ever see the billboard. Consider the link the same as that billboard, you want it to be placed where people will see it. A great place to find sites that drive traffic is to search on Google for your specific industry and try and find websites that appear in the top ten results.

Attract the traffic you want

Attracting traffic is easy, however attracting the right traffic is very difficult. If you sell a product, chances are you want to attract only customers who are possible candidates for using your product. However if your links are too broad, you may not be able to selectively pick out your customer from the rest of visitors. Make sure that your links are targeted and well placed on websites that your target customer is likely to visit.

Professional Link Building

Onepax has the experience necessary to ensure that your website can grow year after year. Contact Onepax today for a free link building assessment.

When trying to find information on the internet, over 56% percent of users reported that they use search engines on a daily basis. (SearchEngineWatch.com) However, if your website appears after the first page of search results, you chances of being found are reduced. By regularly monitoring your search engine placement, you can keep track of your placement and help keep your team proactively making changes.

Creating a Strategy

Before you can begin effectively monitoring your placement in search engines, you must have a strategy in place to monitor and continuously improve your listings.

Onepax Monitoring Method

1. Examine current keyword placement.
2. Optimize keywords within your website.
3. Repeat from step 1.

The entire process is that easy! However it is long and tedious work. No one likes to manually monitor their search engine rankings or make painstaking changes to their website. However this is the only way to truly make effective changes in online marketing. Ensuring that you continue the cycle of making changes ensures that your ranking will last for years to come. This process is especially effective because it helps you monitor your site so you can proactively make changes before the website begins to slip due to negligence.

Sample Report

The following is an example report of what our monthly marketing report looks like for keyword rankings. It provides an excellent way to log and report on search engine positions.

Professional Monitoring

Don’t’ have the time or experience to monitor your website every month? Let Onepax search engine professionals monitor your website for you and generate consistent and professional advice. Contact Onepax today for a free consultation.