The Mind Map of a Successful Website

By Neil WalkerCTO

Just Search Ltd

104:06 PM

Synopsis

Question: How do you create a successful website, which not only sticks out from the rest, but is also a centre for users interested in your products and services?

204:06 PM

Introduction

Who am I? – Neil Walker Position: CTOCompany: Just Search Ltd (Part of Getupdated Internet marketing)Greatest Achievement: Taking Just search to No.1 in Google UK for the term SEO and

managing products and services.

304:06 PM

Factors to a Successful website - Past

One of the most important parts to a successful website is planning the strategy, for this you should keep in mind past, present and future factors.

4

Past:1. What’s your industry?2. Who’s been successful?3. How have they done it – Online,

Offline, Brand?4. Are you the same / different –

identify?

Some Industries are far more competitive than others.

Who are the big players, large turnovers?

Are they successful online and offline, what are they doing, SEO, PPC, Affiliate?

04:06 PM

Factors to a Successful website - Present

Look at what is happening in the market today

5

Present:1. What are you trying to achieve?2. Latest technologies3. Plan of action4. Online Business model

Are you following their footsteps or are you unique?

What’s your aim and goals, setting this out early can determine a linear path.

04:06 PM

Factors to a Successful website - Future

Planning for the future can save cost, time and effort.

604:06 PM

Future:1. Emerging technologies2. Long term goals

You should incorporate any new technologies, i.e. Widgets, iPhone / Facebook apps etc.

What are the short and long term goals, what evidence is it based on?

Example of a Successful website

If you’re in the loans industry www.moneysupermarket.com is one successful website which others aspire to be, it floated for £800 Million.

So if you want to break into the loans industry how can you follow their footsteps?

7

What did they do:1. Massive PPC Spend2. 6 figure SEO spend per year3. Conversion tracking and changes, such

as laser eye tracking, to gain maximum conversions

4. Radio Advertising5. TV advertising6. Affiliate Marketing7. Latest News8. 838,000 links9. 177,000 pages in Google10. Built Massive Brand11. RSS Feeds12. Community13. Newsletters

04:06 PM

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design• Content• Building Traffic• Analytics / Conversion / Usability• Brand / Reputation Management• Hard Work

804:06 PM

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture

904:06 PM

Architecture of a Successful website

StrategyHow you outline your strategy of where your products and services will be placed.

1. Think about the structure.

2. Minimise the number of levels to get to a “call to action”.

3. Plan your URL structure i.e. www.domain.com/category/product

4. Plan your pages:- What content engages the user?- Call to actions- Headings & strap lines- What will make them return to the site, (RSS)?- Ways to capture people’s details, newsletters, forums, blogs- Who will use the site? (Audience / Technical level).

5. How will the site inter-link and resell its own services?

1004:06 PM

Architecture of a Successful website

Examples:

E-commerce sites - www.asos.com is another example of a successful website, they have categorised their products in a directory system which means one of their pages is returned quite often on specific brands of clothing. i.e. “Men” >> “A-Z of brands” >> “Brand Name”

Serviced based site – again www.moneysupermarket.com is a great example of how they have categorised their services. i.e. “Money” >> “Loans”

Directory style sites - www.mwbex.com has categorised the various areas in which they have offices so you can look at i.e. “Serviced offices” >> “London” >> “Soho”.

1104:06 PM

Architecture of a Successful website

Hosting• Security – Avoid Problems from hackers etc.• Stability and Reliability – If your site goes down regularly it can affect when your

site is spidered and what sites will link to you.• Server location (Geographic targeting)

Domain Name• Standard .TLD• Brand• Keyword rich

Example: www.Cheapflights.co.uk is the brand and keyword rich domain with a standard .TLD

1204:06 PM

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design

1304:06 PM

Design of a Successful website

• Simple coding (Good SEO)• Loading speed• Low code to content ratio• Small file sizes• Scripting in external files• Avoid brochure designs• Avoid non friendly apps, flash.• Validate code

1404:06 PM

Usability of a Successful website

1504:06 PM

Hyperlinks that don’t look like hyperlinks or don’t indicate they’ve been clicked.

Don’t break the back button or open new windows, pop ups etc.

Use 99% rule – I.e. Usability is about consistency this time don’t be different.

Avoid dense content have Readable pages

Complicated search boxes (Is search data useful?)

Avoid splash pages and orphan pages

E-commerce look at the relationship between images, price and buy button.

Simple and Consistent Navigation with a clear hierarchy, (Bread crumb trail etc)

Avoid long forms and use easy to see call to actions.

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design• Content

1604:06 PM

The Content of a Successful website - 1

Why is content good? - Of course content is king!

17

Community & User Generated Content•Blogs•Forums•Comments•Reviews•Testimonials

Industry News•Become an Authority•Get placement in Google News•Daily updates on your site.

Sticky Features•E-mail a friend•Mailing list•Social Bookmarks•Tools•Audio / Video•Help & Tutorials

Controversial•Create debate•Link bait

04:06 PM

Why add content and expand your website?

What are the benefits of adding content to your website, whether it’s user generated content or news articles?

Long tail Search Traffic Faster indexing Generates discussion Solicits enquiries Promotes community Repeat visits Subscribers Internal link strength

1804:06 PM

The Content of a Successful website - 2What other content can be added to a website?

1904:06 PM

Free Software / Reports / White papers•Become an authority for your industry.•Gain Natural links

Tools•Improve time on site•Website stickiness•Link bait

Useful Resources•Linking out to websites of use gives praise, this can often gain praise back.

RSS feeds•Encourage Subscribers – Give updates.

Newsletters•Encourage people to revisit the site and you can gain a mailing list for future information.

You should be prepared!•Try and add product information months before a release.

Link Bait for a Successful website - 1

Link bait can come in a variety of forms, useful content tools or something controversial, funny etc. (Often link bait is carried out unintentionally)

Example of Successful link Bait:1. www.milliondollarhomepage.com – A Student set up a website selling pixels of advertising

space. An unusual concept which was captured by the off line press. This was then reinterpreted into the online world, at its height the site was a PageRank 7 and had tens of thousands of natural links.

2. www.howmanyfiveyearoldscanyoubeatup.com – An obscure concept (non malicious) whereby users would answer various questions to gain a rating for, in a controlled fight, how many 5 year old they could beat up. Again this was picked up by the UK national press, which gained the site thousands of natural links .

3. www.bunkbeds.net – Again another creative idea of How long could you survive chained to a bunk bed with a Velociraptor?

2004:06 PM

Link Bait for a Successful website - 2

Forms of link bait we have carried out on the Just Search site:

We wrote an article called “D’oh! The Biggest Internet Mistakes Ever” – We submitted this to a number of Social Bookmarking sites, it was picked up and our site had a surge in traffic. Although this traffic was low in conversion it did however create a “buzz” and generate a number of natural links.

21

Page External linkshttp://www.justsearching.co.uk/JustBlog/doh-the-biggest-internet-mistakes-ever.html 232

Page External linkshttp://www.justsearching.co.uk/seo_tools.html 162http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/keyword-competition/ 26http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/local-keyword-density/ 2http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/number-of-words/ 1http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/page-size/ 1http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/site-comparison/ 62http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/special-characters/ 1http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/spider-simulator/ 2http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/text-length/ 4http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/text-mixer/ 5

Total 266

04:06 PM

We also added a number of SEO tools on our website:

1) Creating stickiness to the website

2) Again building free links to the site

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design• Content• Building Traffic

2204:06 PM

Building Traffic for a Successful website - SEO

Think about your SEO!

23

Use a simple directory structure

Easily indexed

Internal contextual linking & navigation

SEO friendly URLs

General sitemap

XML sitemap

Plan your pages - Content - Keyword density - Position of text

04:06 PM

Building Traffic for a Successful website - Link Building

2404:06 PM

Google Recommends submitting your site to directories – Try Major directories like Yahoo! and Dmoz- look at related industry directories- Business directories

Create partnerships, sponsorships to gain links- Strategic- Industry support

Carry out both online and offline PR- It may cost but will generate some good links- New products- Preparation

Use your content to promote natural links- Tools- Controversy / interest- Unique- Latest news

Paid Links???- Avoid link brokers- Link farms- Site wide links

What makes a Good link?- PageRank- Relevance- Contextual link- Anchor text

Building Traffic for a Successful website – PPC

2504:06 PM

For an effective PPC Campaign

Things to think aboutPlanning & organisationUnderstand your audienceResearch keywordsLook at long tail keywordsUse ad groups effectivelyOptimise your ad copyNegative keywordsTEST TEST TEST

Optimise Landing PagesDisplay URLUsabilityCall to actionsContentTracking

RELEVANCE

Building Traffic for a Successful website – PPC & SEO

Combine both Organic and Paid search

Use of the Psychology of Search:- Search retail space- The subconscious mind

2604:06 PM

Building Traffic for a Successful website - Involvement

27

Social Media1.Build contacts up2.Contribute3.Look at what audio / video you can use4.Tools and applications are always useful traffic generators5.Network – Facebook / Linkedin etc6.Bookmark - Digg, StumbleUpon etc7.Micro / Macro Blogging - twitter8.Optimise and promote your profiles9.Bookmark your content

Industry Forums & Blogs1.Read2.Contribute3.Comment4.Guest posting (2-way)

Industry Figures1.Speak with leading members2.Co-produce - Articles- Tools3.Comment on their sites

04:06 PM

Building Traffic for a Successful website – Other MarketingOther Marketing

28

Affiliate Marketing (CPA Model)•Dependant on the product you can establish an affiliate campaign for your website, where other people will SEO and PPC their own sites based on your products.

E-mail Marketing• Can be very successful for some sites, especially if they’ve already used your site and you have their data from your own sources.

Online Press Releases•Use PR online•Convergence with offline press

Create Partnerships•Sponsorships•Online Display Advertising.

Offline Advertising•Print•TV/Radio•Press Releases.

Brand Exposure•Covering a number of the above methods gets exposure to your brand.

04:06 PM

Building Traffic for a Successful website – Other MarketingVideo Marketing

29

1. www.youtube.com – and other video sites have enabled ways to send out a viral message.

2. Tutorials are popular and can gain links and build up a brand profile

- How to write a post in Wordpress etc.- Photoshop tutorial

04:06 PM

3. Again it can work as link bait or to just drive traffic

4. SEO Rapper- Unique- Attracts visitors.

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design• Content• Building Traffic• Analytics / Conversion / Usability

3004:06 PM

Analytics / Conversion for a Successful website

Analyse Incoming Search data• Build New content using the search data• Carryout further keyword research

- Use Google keyword tool / PPC data (If applicable)

Revisit your Usability• Just planning the usability of a site at the start is NOT good enough• Monitor key pages, how people navigate• Change site according to this

Predictive Profiling• Present the most relevant content to the user

User Feedback• Independent user reviews

3104:06 PM

Usability of a Successful website

Carryout Usability Studies• Set questions based on Goals and get people to comment on using your site

Content Analysis • Look at A/B and Multi Variant testing not only for your PPC pages but also the

organic pages

Laser eye tracking• The less distance the eye has to travel, the better i.e. Images, Price, Buy button

Try different things• Many aspects of usability are simple in essence, but it doesn't mean that it will

work the same for every website

3204:06 PM

Conversions for a Successful website

Predictive Profiling

3304:06 PM

Information:1) Google Search made2) User lands on website3) X% of users went to page “A”

then made a call to action

Result:Place links or snippets of that page’sinformation dynamically based onreferral.

Independent User Reviews

3404:06 PM

Web users now rely on EBay style feedback why?

• No one really trusts Testimonials or Reviews which have the ability to be manipulated.

• Gaining independent reviews can help increase product conversion.

• If a feedback system is implemented correctly this can also generate fresh unique content to specific pages within your website also helping with your SEO.

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design• Content• Building Traffic• Analytics / Conversion / Usability• Brand / Reputation Management

3504:06 PM

Brand / Reputation Managementfor a Successful websiteThis means controlling the first few pages of Google which discuss your brand.

Social Media Representation• Create profiles on various networks• Interlink company site with profiles

Creation of other sites• Build other sites and subsidiaries with unique content to promote brand• Link with resellers, other companies etc

Management of Review sites and blogs• Create positive comments • Add positive reviews• Sponsorships

3604:06 PM

Example of Reputation Managementfor a Successful website -1

3704:06 PM

Example of Reputation Managementfor a Successful website -2

3804:06 PM

Example of Reputation Managementfor a Successful website -3

3904:06 PM

Online Strategy of a Successful website

• Architecture• Design• Content• Building Traffic• Analytics / Conversion / Usability• Brand / Reputation Management• Hard Work

4004:06 PM

Hard work and Budgetfor a Successful website

41

Tell Everyone•Industry•Friends•Family•Social Networks

Brainstorm daily / weekly•What are your competitors doing?•How can you improve?•What’s new?

Management•Successfully manage, changes, notes etc.•People Management•Outsource Management

Budget•Use money wisely•Sometimes you have to Gamble to get to the next stage

Just because you cannot track the R.O.I on one form of marketing, doesn’t mean it’s not helping towards the greater good!

04:06 PM

Conclusion

4204:06 PM

Conclusions for a Successful website

In brief, the action points for any company to survive online are through:

1. Correct planning and preparation, sourcing the market2. User friendly website3. Search engine friendly website4. High converting website5. Build traffic from various sources, organic, paid and affiliated sources6. Constantly monitor on how improvements can be made7. Keep up to date with modern technologies8. Hard work, Hard work, Hard work!

4304:06 PM

Brain Storm of a Successful website

4404:06 PM

Questions?

• ....• ...• ..• .

4504:06 PM

Further Information

• www.justsearching.co.uk• www.seomad.com

4604:06 PM