Optimising your web presence Simon Brock Wide Area Communications

Introduction Background What is your web presence? How do you use the web as part of your business? How do you optimise that use Conclusions

Background Wide Area was founded in 1995 Most of the business is serving publishers: –Web site creation –Content management –E-commerce –Online strategy

On the web… …everyone is a publisher We all have: –Our own home page –Our own blog –Hundreds of people visit our website every day, and –Every day I check all my staff’s blogs

Which is wrong There is a difference between: –Owning content –Publishing content There is a discipline to publishing We will need to understand a little of that discipline

What is a web presence? There are two parts: The part people see – your web site The part you see – how you use web services Will concentrate on the first but I will offer an observation on the other at the end

Your web site A company’s web site can serve many purposes: –Brochure –Shop front –Communication channel Many web site are not built for purpose

The ‘Field of Dreams’ web site If you build it they will come

Very much the mantra of the ‘.com’ bubble sites Was never true Building a web site is the start of a process and not the end of a process Even now, poor choices mean web sites cannot be changed

What can we learn from this… Your web presence must be part of your business: –If you have a brochure site mention it everywhere –Keep your site up to date –It should not be expensive to keep your site up to date

If you build it, will come The rise of the search engine has affected how web sites are structured Many companies are now completely dependent on search engines to generate audience

The death of the home page A site used to be designed from the home page to listing page to article Google takes people to article pages On some sites, 90% of users never see the home page

Every page is a home page If you don’t want the first page a user sees to be the last page then Every page must be a home page If not then your user is only two clicks away from your competitor

Every page must… Have clear calls to action Make sure it shows content which is important to the user Show content which is important to you Must not be a dead end

If they built it might come The mantra of the SEO ‘industry’ Search engine optimisation is important SEO is also obvious and simple

The SEO rapper To understand SEO, seek out the Poetic Prophet – the SEO rapper

Your web provision should… Implement search engine folk lore Create meta tags Allow you to change titles and descriptions Have pages which are search friendly

Ranking Ranking is a method by which a search engine decides if your site ‘has value’ It is dependent on whether other people value your site and link to it

What about PPC Pay per click is important Google is not search engine Google is an advertising engine Two forms of adverts –Paid for on the RHS –Free in the middle SEO says you pay for both!

When Google breaks…

How you use the web Web is bringing applications into organisations as services Google Apps Microsoft Exchange, Share Point Salesforce.com

Simon’s diary 10am: Meet with WorkingMums.co.uk Using SalesForce to manage clients 2pm: Meet with national newspaper Using SalesForce to manage subscribers 7pm: Meet friend for drink Major software house developing solutions with Salesforce

Remember this… The left and right will use the web effectively because –They can –They must The M business will be squeezed

Conclusions Always remember the web is part of your business Your web presence should be adaptable and flexible You should understand your relationship with the web The web will continue to change your business