Marketing step 2: Tell

Your Web site has a story to tell. The best stories have a solid opening, a robust body and a happy ending. We take into consideration how many pages it takes to tell the story, including how they might best be structured for best search engine optimization.

This actually has an import on the optimized value of your Web site. So does their length. How you lay them out, and what you say, go a long way toward presenting your professional image. They also are very important to how you may be treated by search engines.

Every decent Web site has certain common elements...

Home page. This is your welcome page... the introduction to your site. It needs to load quickly -- with useful information showing up literally within seconds -- or your visitor will go away. It needs to immediately address his/her reason for finding you, or your visitor will go away. It must be easy to understand, or your visitor will go away.

What sets you apart from all the other stores/businesses in the world? Why do people really want to shop here? This is a key part of your marketing presence -- your special point of difference from other companies. Also, what special elements do you offer? You can help customers feel comfortable by telling a bit about your brick-and-mortar presence as well. It could be customer service, hours, product selection, handicapped access, special shopping services, size of parking lot, staff training, perpetual coffee pot, etc., etc.
Site map. This is a central resource, with links to all areas of your Web site. It's used by search engines, as well as by Web visitors looking for shortcuts. For on-line retailers, it can also be "dressed up" as a store directory.
Topic-relevant feature pages. Here's where you can provide useful background information on individual products and brands. Shopping guides. How to care for the product. How to compare one feature to another. Why a given feature is important. How to measure sizes.
Shopping cart pages. These pages lead in to your shopping cart. How will you have people find your products? Special introductory pages allow you to organize by departments, by product type, by brand, and even have a special, internal search engine page. Your shopping cart will also include order submission and receipt pages, as required.

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Boiler plate pages. You may wish to develop an entire "help" section... how to use this site, how to place an order, privacy statements, legal statements, how sales tax is calculated, how shipping is handled, your returns policy, directions to the store including maps, photo tour of your store, links to other important sites, local events, company history, special coupon pages, and even FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages.
Contact page. Use this for your email link, email form, phone contacts, and snail mail address. Have one set of links for yourself, with a separate link to your Webmaster, to handle reports of site problems the visitor may discover.

"Wait a minute. What does that have to do with site optimization? No one else we've talked to mentioned all this." Well, we think it's not only important, but it's downright crucial. Check our Web site guidelines page to see why multiple short pages are important to your success.

This part is a real balancing act. The less information you provide, including graphics, the faster your web site will appear on someone's screen. This is because there is less material to transmit. Meanwhile, the less information you have on your Home page, for example, the less likely someone is to stay for a visit. And, at the same time, the less "relevant" your page becomes to search engine spiders.

So, this part of optimization is concerned with a few items...

How many "objects" are on the page? The Internet is primarily an information resource, so in computer evaluations, text always wins out over graphics. A Home page which includes three image has four elements, including the page itself. Try to keep the number of elements under six to eight. The fewer objects, the more effective.

It's also a case of how big all those elements are when taken all together. Anything under 30 Kb is sheer dynamite. As for the text itself? You usually want to keep the "html" portion (visible text and underlying structure) under 20-30 Kb for maximum benefit.

A nice goal for search engine optimization is to keep it under 300 words. But you don't have much useful information if you don't have at least 200 words. It can be a tussle. It depends upon the real goals of the page.

Assuming the person's browser hasn't been rigged to "hold" the page from view until all info is downloaded, then 66 Kb should download in about 10 seconds at 56Kbps, not counting delays at the Internet servers. And that's what you want.

1) Web page structure --	" Show,
2) Pages to use --		tell
3) Sales/Marketing language --			sell
4) Being pro-active --				serve
5) Being reactive --					support
6) Using stats to succeed --						track
7) Submission --							deliver."

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