If you are a serious Internet Entrepreneur, your website should be a direct reflection of you and your business. Creating a professional website takes a great deal of time and effort. The seven most important elements for online success, as there is much more to take into consideration than design, are:

1.Have a professional looking website:

If you are serious about creating a successful business which will stand the test of time, then you need to have your own “virtual presence”.

Your website is the most important sales tool you have. A professional website should be pleasing to the eyes, well organised, easy to navigate and load quickly.

2.Effective Content:

Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Whether it is your website, sales letters or advertisements, words play a major role in determining your success. The following details must be kept in mind while content writing:

Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention
Interest - Intrigue and create curiosity
Detail - Provide details about your product or service
Action - Call for action, phone, email, visit office or dynamic contact form.

3.Traffic Drivers:

Create a steady stream of traffic to your website. Give your visitors a reason to visit and continue to visit in the future. Blend your content in with the focus of your website and update it on a regular basis.

4. Search Engine Optimisation:

Design the website to rank high in the Search Engines. This involves much more than just including META tags. KEYWORDS, TITLE, IMAGE ALT tags, Text and the overall design, all play an important role in determining how your website will rank.

5.Reliance:

The visitors should know who you are. Provide complete information with respect to your company including, address, phone number and email addresses to request information and support.

Also, inform the visitors about their privacy through pages like Privacy Statement, Privacy Policy etc and let your visitors know how will their personal information collected through the website will be secured or used.

6. Gain Confidence:

Gain your visitors trust by displaying customer testimonials. This will help in boosting the potential customers’ confidence in you and your products or services.

7. Patience:

Be realistic in terms of your expectations. Online business can bring you a considerable income, but it needs investment of time and effort from you.

A professional website specifically designed to sell is one of the most important factors in determining your success. Take your time and make sure you’re looking at the complete picture before you begin as the success depends on it.

My marketing manager said SEO doesn’t achieve instant results?

Your marketing manager is correct to a certain degree in that SEO will not have instant results, i.e. if we start a campaign tomorrow your inbox will not be flooded with new leads. SEO is a medium term strategy to make you an on-line leader in certain areas. Generally we at James Blake Internet say we can make a difference within 3-6 months.

If you do need instant results then we would suggest mixing an SEO campaign with a pay per click campaign (PPC). This will help you get the benefits in both the short and medium term.

However we believe that internet marketing needs to be looked at in conjunction with other aspects of your business such as your offline marketing in order to maximise the potential of any campaign.

a) Establish a brand – what does your business really offer? By this we don’t mean fancy design and new logos etc, Is there an area you specialise in within your field and want to tell the World (on-line and off-line). Once this is established then there is a message to spread (online and offline)

b) Once you have established the brand and the message we suggest you look at all your marketing to see if this reflects your message. If you have a current website its vital you look at the design and structure to see if it’s in line with your brand and message. When people hear about your business they often go on-line to see who they will be visiting (even if referred). Does your website convey the message that your marketing (again both on-line and off-line) is saying. Otherwise you will not be maximising the potential of your spend.

c) I would then look at how people will get to hear about your business e.g. How many people will search on-line to find your business or how many people will use the yellow pages etc. If you feel that most of your business comes from referrals then that’s where you should now spend your money. If you think there is a strong percentage that search for your business on-line, i.e. Google, yahoo, Yell etc then this is the market that SEO can capture.

James Blake believe that online advertising should be done in conjunction with offline and not separately. Both need to have the same message as they complement each other.

James Blake went out live on Scottish Radio station L107 on Tuesday 13th October!

James Blake was invited to take part in a live discussion on the effect the internet can have for businesses in times of recession.

Some of the key areas of discussion were
a) How important is good web design really to the success of your business
b) How do you market your website to ensure that it is found
c) Do you have to spend huge amounts of money on SEO and internet marketing
d) IS the Internet safe for ecommerce?

The James Blake Director, David Gelb held discussions with the L107 radio presenter in a lively discussion.