When a show has been on as long as The Simpsons has (464 episodes and counting), you can be pretty sure it has explored and commented on pretty much every major part of our culture. The internet has not been able to escape their wrath. Like all great comedies, the show reveals greater truths about life; and in this specific case, what everybody should keep in mind when starting/maintaining a website:
1. The Spark:
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You’re struck with an idea so fantastic, that you must go forth and unleash it upon the world. Or maybe you just want to get in on a trend before the cash is all dried up. Either way, you have an idea, and from here on out it’s about making and executing a plan.
2. Branding:
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The internet is not really the “wild west” of our times as it’s made out to be. There is an order to it, and pretty much all the good real estate is taken. Pizza.com sold for $2.6 million. Beer.com went for an estimated $7 Million. Sex.com tops the charts at $14 million. Domain names like these are the Park Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard of the online real estate market. You need to have a website and domain name that is short & sweet, easy to remember, follows your brand, and (if possible) has a keyword in it to help you out with the search engines. All of this needs to be done within the constraints of what domains are readily available (this is why Homer can’t use Flancrest Enterprises), or at least are being squatted on within your budget. Good luck. Note – there are a number of tools to help research and find a good domain name.
3. Design and Usability:
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Get everybody around you, and we mean absolutely everybody, to test out the design of the site. You’re looking for feedback on two main things: does it look good, and is it easy to use? You’ll never truly know how your site will be used until you let your uncle who still uses a typewriter try to navigate around it. Don’t limit yourself to asking friends and family – they’re more likely to sugar coat their response to spare your feelings. Instead, ask web professionals to critique your design – they’ll give you honest feedback, most of them based on years of industry experience. Also, make sure you take an extended look at Homer’s site above. If any of part of his site reminds you of yours, you’re in trouble. Dancing hamsters and obnoxious background music should have died with the ’90s. It’s best to not annoy your potential clients, especially with auto-playing loud noises and any other element that distracts from driving sales.
4. Search Engines:
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The way to get that wonderful content of yours found is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of tweaking all the content and code of your site so that it is indexed correctly by the search engines, which will result in higher search rankings. Another major portion of SEO is getting links to your site from other sites. Done correctly, people find those great opinions and ideas and want to share them with others, driving even more traffic to your site. You can’t stop there, though. It’s all too easy to become a one-hit wonder; unless you continually create fresh and interesting content, people will lose interest and stop coming back.
5. Advertising:
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If you can’t wait the 90 or so days it takes for a search engine to fully index your site and rank it accordingly, you can always venture into the world of paid advertising. We strongly recommend Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which places your search engine listing at the top of the results in the sponsored section for a small fee. Great caution must be used with SEM, though. Since you are paying every time somebody clicks on your listing, you better make sure you will see a positive retun on investment.
So there you have it – if Homer Simpson can have some depth of success on the internet, I’m pretty sure you can too. Just roll up your sleeves, tie some onions to your belt and get to work.
Read more about the components of web presence management, or contact us for more information!
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