Friday, June 25, 2010

Submitting Your site to Search Engines

If you've a web-based business concern or if a significant portion of your business is done on the web through your website, then the better advertisement and marketing is done by submitting to a search engine. No amount of press release, newspaper or radio ad, banner ad, spam email or newsletter will achieve the same results, although, maybe impressive in a small proportion.

Beware of companies that assure automated submission of your website to hundreds of search engines which are just only false promises. The best way to submit your site for search engine ranking and inclusion is to do it yourself or to rent an skilled person to do it manually, by contacting the search engine companies and directories.

Before you start to submit your website to search engines check your sites are soundly configured to the professional quality applying the right key words, effective graphics and images and the relevant article. Don’t submit sites that are incomplete. While submitting to a search engine, be sure to provide information about your website, keywords and any other information that possibly appropriate, including the name and contact information of your business.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Website as a Storefronts

A customer walks into the store, browses through products and shelves, picks up items, inspects, considers the prices, chooses a product and takes it to the cash register to pay. Now if you want to sell your products online, then your site must be enabled for e-commerce, where you must have the following features:

You need to provide plenty of content and product description like sizes, dimensions, colors and comparisons with other similar products. It must allow the customer to choose a product, get a clear pricing and shipping costs on the product, complete the transaction and get an order number, and/or invoice confirmation via email. Allow your customer to choose a shipping method.
You must tell the customer if the item is in stock or delivered against order. Ideally, you should have an email contact or live help if the customer has a question. Most importantly you must respond immediately! If you want to provide your own live chat and help desk services on your website, specialized softwares are available for purchase.
Be sure your customer service links are large and clearly marked, so your client does not have to dig around to find information.
Provide an ‘about us’ section or a section about your policies. If you have privacy statements and customer satisfaction policies, your customer will feel better about shopping in your store.
You probably want to have customer quotes and references on the storefront page, as well, to let your prospective client know that others are happy with your service.
Provide an FAQ with information about your return-back policies, guarantees, shipping prices and insurance charges if any.