What Sitemaps Can Do For Your Website

While your homepage will give visitors the basics and general idea of your website, what if visitors want to know exactly what information is present, and where it can be found? A sitemap is the solution to this conundrum. Like a table of contents, a sitemap may be quickly scanned to see what information the site contains.

Undoubtedly, your next question is: What 's a sitemap? Simply put, a sitemap shows the structure of your site; e.g. how the pages of your site link together. If there are a very large number of pages on your site, it may end up being a challenge to create, and confusing to visitors. This can be helped somewhat by listing links the way the site maintainer would see them, as a sort of "tree" - this is called a hierarchical view.

Sitemaps are not just for humans anymore, however. Search engines bots, aka spiders, search through sitemaps compiling links in their search for certain keywords. Having a well organized sitemap in place can help you show up in more searches.

Benefits of a Sitemap

You may be thinking that this business of creating a sitemap sounds like a lot of work. While it can be so, there are a lot of benefits to having a sitemap, for instance:

1. A sitemap can be used as a tool for planning web design.

Eaven if your site is very small, having only a few pages, it 's a good idea to have the structure of your website plotted out this way. This will be a big help when adding pages in the future, as you will already be able to see where they will go. Your site will not become a tangled mess pages without their relation to one another difficult to decipher.

2. No page will be left unvisited.

The search engine spiders will visit each page of your website if you have the foresight to create a sitemap. Your pages will be included in search engines databases, increasing your page rankings, meaning more visitors for your site in the long run.

3. Visitors will have an easier time to navigate your site.

One factor why visitors stay on a site is ease of navigation. A sitemap gives your visitors an idea of what the contents of your site are. They can also easily find those pages they'd like to see within your site. Without a sitemap, your visitors may not stay on your pages, returning to search engines to search for information that may right there on your site.

4. A sitemap can encourage more traffic.

As your website grows, you must update your sitemap to keep pace with that expansion. This way, visitors can see that content is being added, which encourages them to become repeat visitors. This is doubly important if your site sells products or offers a service. Potential customers will know right away about your newest products or services by examining your sitemap.

5. There is potential advertising value when using a sitemap.

With a sitemap, potential advertisers have an easier time evaluating targeted ad placement on your site. This, of course means extra income for you.

The benefits of sitemaps are well worth the time and effort of creating them. Not only do they aid you in designing your website, they make navigation more easy for visitors, help your website get higher search engine rankings, increase traffic, and help you get more income from advertisements.

About the Author

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

12 Benefits Of Having A Website

Do you think having a website is an avoidable cost? Although the Internet no longer remains a "new" technology there are still many business owners who are averse to the idea of having a business website either because they are not comfortable with the new medium or they simply deem it unnecessary. Now, we are not suggesting that the guy selling hotdogs at the street corner should definitely have a business websites (well, why not?), but if there is business somewhere and you cannot do it simply because you don't have a website then we will say that you are missing a big opportunity by not having a website.

Having a business website immediately propels your visibility and reach to a higher level. All of a sudden you are accessible to your customers and clients 24x7. Both old and new customers find you approachable and progressive. We at ForeScene Creative Solutions don't mean to proselytize you but here is a list of 12 benefits of having a website, whether business or personal.

1. Instant visual representation

Just imagine what thrust your business would get if people from all over the globe could visually see the products or service options you have to offer. All information pertaining to your business can be put on your website so that your prospective customers and clients can view it at their own convenience and without you having to be there each time something needs to be explained.

2. Keep your business open all the time

When you decide to offer business through your website, it is like a store or an office whose doors are never closed; people can come in and review your products and services at their convenience. In between if they want to do business with you and if your website is automated enough they can do even that. This way you can run your business non-stop without having to put in the extra hours.

3. New customers and clients can find you through search engines

Once you have accumulated a decent amount of information on your website people begin to find you on the search engines for the keywords and expressions relevant to your website. For instance if you sell perfumed candles and if someone searches for "sandalwood aroma candles" and if you have information on "sandalwood aroma candles" then there is a great possibility that people will find you on various search engines, come to your website, and place orders for sandalwood aroma candles.

4. Easier and cheaper advertising

Publishing on your website doesn't cost you extra unless you are paying for every new page you create. Once you have set up the basic website structure you can keep adding new pages without incurring extra cost.

You can also complement your advertising efforts with your website. There are two ways of doing this. Whenever you publish your advertisement you can include your URL so that the information that you cannot include in the advertisement can be easily viewed on your website. Once your online traffic has gained momentum you can even run advertisements directly on your website. The best way of doing this is developing an online community so that lots of traffic builds up.

5. Highly enhanced public relations

You might not know that hundreds of or even thousands of your customers and clients might be using the Internet for all their information and research needs. Millions of views are exchanged on the World Wide Web. If some disparaging news regarding your organization gets circulated you can easily counter it, or at least present your own side of the story, through your website. High-value content and regular interaction with your visitors makes sure that you have a dedicated community of evangelists who would like to protect your brand and reputation even at the cost of putting in extra effort.

The more you interact through your website the more solid your reputation grows.

6. Reach distant markets

Although ForeScene is a New York based web design company we get web design projects from all over the world and from very high-profiled clients. This becomes possible because our website is easily accessible to everybody who has an Internet connection. If you provide a service that can be delivered via the Internet or if you have a product that can be easily dispatched after taking an online order then you should definitely tap into this vast online market and promote your business in different parts of the world.

7. Create extra income streams

You can start new business ventures from scratch if you run them through your website. Unlike starting business ventures in the brick-n-mortar world the Internet ventures require very little startup income and they can be initiated in a matter of few days, or even few hours. In order to start a new business all you have to do is, have a great idea or product ready, register a domain suitable to your business, obtain a web hosting account, design the website or get it designed and voila! You are ready to go.

8. Interact with your customers and clients regularly and obtain their feedback

Compared to telephonic conversations it is a lot easier to interact with your customers and clients through e-mails, blog posts and regular updates on your website. You can also host a forum where your customers and clients can leave feedback and exchange ideas regarding your service. This will improve your goodwill and reputation a lot and will also nurture a sense of trust and transparency. Getting good feedback to your website can be extremely critical to your further product development and service improvement efforts. You won't have to wait for months and even years to know how your products and services are being received by your consumers.

9. Conduct low-cost market research

Since it hardly costs your visitors any money to participate in quizzes and polls on your website you can use these marvelous tools to conduct low-cost market research and launch new products and services or make improvements to existing products and services.

10. Save on office space

If you manage most of your business operations through your website then you hardly need office space. There are many online store companies that conduct millions of dollars of transactions online every month and still don't need a place to stock their inventory. Some online companies don't even have regular staff; all they do is take orders from the website and then forward those orders to the original manufacturers and suppliers. All they have to do is maintain and promote a website and this can be done from your basement too.

11. Establish your brand

Many artists, authors and consultants establish and promote their brands through their websites and blogs. They make use of their authority and knowledge to create a fan following. Numerous bloggers and webmasters have got great book writing contracts through their websites.

12. A website opens a slew of new opportunities

There is a complete new world out there on the World Wide Web. Millions of people access the Internet for leisure, communication, education and business every day. It is a huge business, marketing and promotion potential for your organization.

About the Author

ForeScene, a New York web design company, develops and deploys cutting-edge websites and online applications. Feel free to browse for articles.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

All You Need To Know About Website Building And Hosting To Get You Started

There are only three things you need to know about Website Building And Hosting

1. It 's far easier than you think
2. The software is free
3. You already have the technical expertise required

The first statement will be a surprise to many. The reason for this is because when we have seen what the background code is like, it is obvious that html is a complex programming language. You can view the source code of this web page now, just select "View" then "Source" in your browsers toolbar. Chances are you are as bamboozled as I was about what it all means. Many of us would not even contemplate the prospect of being able to deal with this level of programming. Don't you need years at college or university to become a software engineer?

Well, the reason it is far easier to build websites than you think is that to produce your own websites, you don't have to understand html or JavaScript. The software does all of that for you. It is true that you will have to dive into all that code to do some of the things you will need to do, like inserting html scripts to display material from other websites, but even that is a simple process once you know how.

As for the second statement how can software to do such a complex task been free. Have you seen how much programs like Dreamweaver cost? And won't you need to produce graphics? How much is Photoshop? You also need to get your website uploaded to your web hosting provide. What software does that?

Well it is true that Dreamweaver and Photoshop each cost hundreds of dollars. And they are both remarkable programs, the favourite of professional designers. The reason that professional designers like this software is because it is full of highly advanced functionality which for us mere amateurs would never get used. In fact, if I was to splash out for this software I would be simply wasting most of the purchase price because I would never use, because I don't know how, nost of the software I was paying for.

Actually the software you need is far simpler to use and totally free. First of all there are a number of great web page editors available through open source. My favourite is NVU. This software means I can build websites from scratch and I can import existing online websites. For graphics, I have discovered that combining the functionality of my word processor with a free graphics package, Irfanview, means I can produce great looking web page headers and advertising banners at no cos. For FTP I use FileziIla - another great Open Source program,.

Now, when I was first faced with designing a website, I didn't know what to o. My reasons for choosing to build a website myself, is that I could not find an alternative which exactly met my needs. I tried online website builders and found that each offered a different set of feature, but I couldn't find one that did everything I wanted. So, I had no alternative to build my own.

I am an average computer user, I can use a word processor, a spreadsheet and write emails. I was amazed to discover that I had all of the technical expertise that I needed. To be fair it did take me many hours of research to learn how to apply that knowledge. But each time I learnt something new, I was amazed at how simple it actually was. Yes you do have the technical knowledge to create your own websites from scratch. You just need someone to show you how and then you can build site after site after site.

About the Author

Craig Summer is creator of

Internet Publishing Made Easy

a simple video course which will enable anyone to create site ...after site ...after site

www.e-bookcountry.com/ipvideo.html

Article Source: Content for Reprint

The 7 Essentials of Successful Websites

If you want your website to succeed and become a powerful lead-generating tool for your business then you need to ensure that you have these important bases covered.

1) A site that can grow with you

You will rapidly outgrow a site that offers you a fixed number of pages. Although you may think that 5-10 pages is sufficient now you will quickly find that it is nowhere near enough.

Once you read all about implementing a marketing strategy to build your online business you will discover that you will need a site that is flexible and can grow with you. With all this content you also need a content management system (CMS) in place otherwise you'll be swamped by the complexity of creating and linking static html pages. A good CMS is as easy to use as an office program and can create, manage and publish your content.

Instead you need a solution that offers this level of flexibility, scalability and the choice of two leading content management systems.

2) A quick start then the stamina for the long term

Many hosting and website companies offer a quick start solution to get you online quickly but then leave you high and dry. The problem is these quick start solutions where you select a template and build your site in minutes lack two of the most important ingredients that a website should have - content and customers.

Instead you need a solution that offers both a quick start solution backed up by a long term strategy to build a winning website.

3) Arm yourself with the knowledge you'll need

Most small businesses that create a website are doing so for the first time. Unfortunately, the majority of companies in this market only seem to care about one thing - getting your cash.

Instead you should look for a solution that offers you free information and email courses that explain all that you need to know about setting up, designing and marketing your new website.

4) A marketing strategy = Getting customers

To survive your website needs customers. Not hits, or traffic, or any other vague term used by lesser companies but actual customers that buy your product or service.

You need help to realise your passion and analyse your customers so that you can build and implement and successful marketing strategy.

5) Building on sales so that they're the beginning not the end

The secret of long term success is to regard a sale as the beginning and not the end of the process. By using "back end marketing" you can nurture your existing customers and turn them into regular clients that buy from you for years to come.

You should get help to create and implement a back end marketing campaign to nurture your website visitors.

6) Passionate support

No matter how skilled you are or how much time you dedicate to creating your website it is almost inevitable that you will need some help. Unfortunately, so few hosting and website companies offer support, and if they do, it is usually only technical support.
Instead you must have the combination of technical, design and marketing support.

7) The chance to upgrade

Too many hosting and website companies offer a "one size fits all" approach to creating a website. You create your quick start, fixed page website and that is that.

You need to develop and upgrade your website as your business grows. You need to invest in your website success or get additional help with graphics and additional functionality whenever you need it.

About the Author

Jon Beal, MD of Netflare, has recently launched www.businesswebfactory.com that offers you the complete website start-up solution and a 7 week email course to guide you through everything you need to know to build long term success. you through everything you need to know and articles and further email courses unlock the marketing secrets that will build long term success.

Article Source: Content for Reprint