Website Evaluation Checklist - Rank tops at Google with this checklist
By Markus Allen, Publisher of the $10,000 Marketing Tip of the Day
A recent survey of 251 service-based business Websites found most failed miserably on seven key points.
Does your Website pass the test?
Scott Stratten of Un-Marketing.com found these startling revelations:
• Envy - No Testimonials (72%)
• Gluttony - Demanding too much from people to sign up for the newsletter (89%)
• Pride - No articles for people to learn from, only "I" statements and a bio (83%)
• Lust - An orgy of 25 (on average) directions from the homepage a visitor could click on...
• Sloth - No products for sale (79%)
• Anger - Being accused of spamming because you don't double opt-in your newsletter (80%)
• Greed - Wanting people to only hire you, instead of giving knowledge away in a newsletter (56%)
Website evaluation checklist
Over the last 6 years, I've been creating a massive checklist that keeps me focused on creating Webpages that are:
• Search engine friendly...
• Visitor friendly...
• Bank account friendly
Today, my checklist is your checklist to borrow.
Whether you maintain a Website (or you're thinking of creating one), this nifty website evaluation checklist is a keeper...
Search Engine Optimization
Paying close attention to both the HTML coding and actual text and graphics on your Webpage can literally be the difference between driving thousands of free, pre-qualified buyers to your Webpage or just a trickle of "tire kickers."
Focus on niche keyword phrases
Far too many Web designer "rookies" try to included dozens (or even hundreds) of keywords within their Web pages in the "attempt" to attract search engine referrals.
Instead, focus your Web page on just one keyword phrase. For example, if your Web page is about buying "Little League baseball bats", then have your Webpage be only about "Little League baseball bats".
Copy into your title tag
Make sure the keywords representing the them of your Webpage is included in the title tag more...
Don't forget META tags
Far too many "gurus" claim the Keyword and Description META tag isn't worth worrying about. This is a boldface lie. Trust me, it's worth the extra 60 seconds of time to work on it.
Want proof... just about every major search engine (even Google) uses the META Description information on their search results.
Take a look:
This is how my listing for the search free marketing ideas shows up on Google...
See how it uses my META description information from the source code of my Web page?
Remember, if you're told META tags are irrelevant these days, show 'em the proof.
Populate the ALT tag
Include your keyword phrase in this often-ignored tag... doing so is a perfectly legit way to have duplicate your keyword phrase "density" without suffering a keyword-stuffing penalty.
Also, it helps people with disabilities view your site.
Script an organization
If an organization name includes a keyword that's part of the theme of your Web page, wrap the italics tag around the entire organization name.
Focus on the first paragraph
Most search engine "spiders" or "robots" only spider (analyze) the first part of your Web page... make sure your keyword phrase is in the first paragraph of the body text... at least twice if you can.
Bottom feeding
Savvy search engine optimization experts find including your targeted keyword phrase somewhere in the last paragraph of text and at the very bottom of your Web page (maybe within your bottom navigation menu) gives an extra boost.
Keyword link exchange
Make it easy people to link (recommend) to your Website with copy and paste, preformatted link area.
For example:
Link to this Webpage
You have permission to link to this Webpage... simply copy and paste the HTML code below:
This is how the link will display:
Website evaluation checklist
website evaluation checklist
Bonus tip #1:
See how the link description (a.k.a. anchor text) includes the keywords I focus on with this page - website evaluation checklist.
Bonus tip #2:
Bold your link description (anchor text) for a quick ranking boost.
Bonus tip #3:
Submit your Web pages to redirection services like TinyURL.com.
Watch for 1 to 7%
If you create your Webpage with only one keyword phrase in mind, it should be easy to have your keywords show up in the body text frequently.
Savvy designers keep an eagle eye on their keyword density... it's a percentage of the number of times a keyword or phrase is displayed for every 100 words of text. Ideally, you want to have your keyword phrase (as well as the individual keywords) fall between 1% and 7%.
This is easier than it sounds.
For example, my keyword phrase for this Webpage is:
website evaluation checklist
... The strategy is to have the phrase website evaluation checklist show up between 1 and 7 times per 100 words of text.
The good news is you don't have to manually count your keyword density... you can use this nifty free KeywordCount.com to do all of the hard work for you in just a few clicks.
Obviously, a keyword density of less than 1% won't get you featured in search engines. But a keyword density of more than 7% might flag your Webpage as spam.
Skip subdirectories
Normally, being organized has its benefits. But when it comes to search engine optimization, that's not the case. Being organized works against you.
Have your Web designer store your Webpages on the "root" level of your Web server.
Good:
http://www.cgiconnection.com/index.html
Bad:
http://www.cgiconnection.com/cgi-bin/cgi-con/sitetrack.cgi
Outsource
If you're intimidated by this, you might consider hiring a professional search engine copywriter at $50 to $150 per Web page.
Ken Evoy's SiteSell.com offers a software solution that automates the entire Webpage creation process. I already created my own software to create perfectly optimized Webpages, but I wished I just used Ken's service... it would have saved me a lot of time and money.
Are you invisible to Google?
Don't use the parameter "id" in your URL string... search engine robots tend to ignore 'em. You can accidentally hide your pages from getting properly indexed by Google. Google assumes this is a session ID and would not follow the link.
For example:
http://www.marketing-ideas.org/website-evaluation-checklist.php?PHPSESSID=587aasdf2sag3
See how the URL ends with PHPSESSID=587aasdf2sag3? That's a tip off that you're using a session ID, and it might prevent your Webpages from getting properly indexed by search engine robots.
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