I have spoken about websites before,  in my post ‘not to be a part of the crowd’.    We have discussed the importance of logos, names and websites…   Of course we are still in a scenario where there are a number of businesses who have not leveraged the power of the world wide web.  But this post is for the web site owners who wish to increase visibility online…

Generally there is a mis-conception that web sites will just get visitors if they are designed well and built well.  It won’t take long time to learn that the slogan “If you build it, they will come“ is just not true.  You have to build it well, thoughtfully and ambitiously and innovatively,  inventively and then you have to keep rethinking it and rebuilding it, if you have any hope of attracting a crowd.

There are numerous web site designers and developers building just websites.  What about the bigger role the websites can play?  What about using them as a marketing tool?   Are they helping you drive visitors?  Who cares….web site development is a one time job ha? If you want to disagree read on…Your web site is should not be just a piece of html code sitting on the world wide web.   It does not solve any purpose.

There a 2.1 trillion web sites hosted across the globe.  There are about 1.5 million  (65% of total search volume) searches per day on Google alone.  So what are the chances that you get noticed?   Recently Google announced that the website speed will be taken into consideration for ranking.  In this post I am just going to list out some very useful tools which you can use to find out  ’asis’ status.   In the posts that is going to follow I will elaborate on each factor affecting the website.  Subscribe to rss of this blog for updates.   Here goes the checklist..

1. Are you on Google?  Fist try should be with your company name. Search on google your company name.   The name should be the first link found on google.   Eg: Check out iPOTT.   Next check for your service / product name.  You sure should find it on the first page.  Eg:  Software on wheels.  Your product name on the first page?  Great ! No?  not a good situation to be in..
2. How popular are you on Google?  Now pick up a few key words related to your product or service.    If you have difficulties to find related keywords use the Google keyword tool. If your product page is appearing in the first page of Google for any keyword, that is a good beginning..   Eg: Business authentication.  We will talk details in the next post.
3. Does your web page look same on all browsers?  IE, Firefox and chrome can be considered as the top 3 browsers.  The websites must look and behave the same in different versions of different browsers.  Moreover different browsers will be working on different OS’s.  Try checking here.
4. Is your website developed with standards?  W3C has set standards for coding, for css files, for accessibility etc.  the SEs give priority to web sites which are designed and developed based on these standards.  Check iPOTT site for HTML validation
5. Does your page load quickly? Is your demo downloadable easily?   A very critical component.  Check your website speed here. This site not only provides information about the speed of the webpage but also gives suggestions on improving the speed.    If your website attracts global visitors check out the speed at various locations in the world
6. Do you have valid rss feeds?  Check for validity at W3C

Spending a little time and energy to make websites usable, accessible and SE friendly will have huge benefits.  Why don’t you write to my Creative Head,  Suresh Kumar, for suggestions on your website?   He will surely be of great help… alternatively you can also drop me a line…

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