Evergreen Features Of A Dynamic Website For Your Online Campaigns!

One very useful purpose of having a Website is that it gives you an Internet address. The address of a Website is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). When you want someone to find something that you have placed on the Internet, you simply give them the URL, i.e. the Internet address, to locate the document or information.

If you have registered your own domain name, your domain name is your main URL. This is very handy. In addition to using your domain name in online advertising and promotion, you can also print your domain name (i.e. your Website’s URL) on your business cards.

You can put your domain name in newspaper and magazine ads. You can put it on billboards. You can even put it in radio and television commercials.

Using your domain name, people can easily find the information that you have placed on the Internet.

This convenience of directing people to a place where you can put almost limitless information for them to peruse will continue to be an important aspect of the Internet and Digital marketing. So if you have not, now is the time to build your new Website or optimize your existing Website to be compatible with evolving trends of Internet traffic flow.

Doing so now puts you well ahead of the game.

PACKAGED INFORMATION UNITS

You need to organize your Website, to the extent possible, in terms of “packaged information units”. You still think in terms of web pages, but you look a little deeper at the information components that go into a web page and how those components are organized on a given page.

You also look a little closer at how your various web pages and their various information components tie into each other…and tie into other information on the Internet.

You should organize your information discretely so that a single web page has a single primary subject and a single primary purpose.

Your pages should be able to both stand alone and fit into different contexts as necessary. What we mean by this will become clear as you read through this article.

Looking at web pages as a whole, any given web page will fall into one of three main categories with respect to the role that the page plays on your Website. It will either be:

An organization page;

A payoff page; or

A working page.

These main categories can then be broken down further.

1. ORGANIZATION PAGES

An “organization page” is an integral part of the mechanics and navigation of your Website. The pages of your Website that play an integral part in the mechanics and navigation of your site should be your Home page (the primary introductory page for your entire Website), your Contact Page (where visitors can send you a message or learn how to contact you), your Blog Page.

In addition, you can have certain “Section Home Pages”, which serve as Home pages for different sections of your Website. If you have a “sitemap” page, listing all of the pages of your site, this too would be an organization page.

If you have “Terms of Use” or “Privacy Policy” pages, these pages are organization pages. Any page whose primary purpose is to provide information about using or navigating your Website can be characterized as an organization page.

2. PAYOFF PAGES

A “payoff page” is a Web page where you invoke action from your site visitors. A payoff page is where your visitors can purchase products or services, and join your opportunity. Another example of a payoff page is your Newsletter page, where visitors can sign up for your newsletter.

You can, of course, have several different payoff pages, each designed differently according to the item promoted and placed differently on your site according to their fit within the flow of information across your Website.

Your payoff pages are the pages that make you money, either immediately by bringing about a product purchase, or eventually by collecting a subscriber who may make a purchase in the future.

3. WORKING PAGES

When the main design of your site is outlined with the above organization and payoff pages, you can then turn your attention to the “working” pages of your site. These working pages are stepping stones in the flow of information across your Website. They can also be stepping stones in paths of information across the Internet.

With certain exceptions, you can think of each working page of your Website as an “article”.

It should contain information on a limited subject. That information should be organized and presented concisely. The working page should fit comfortably into the overall scheme of your Website.

From an information point of view, it should also be capable of standing alone. It should further be capable of fitting into an “information trail” across complimentary Websites. It helps to think of each working page of your Website as an interchangeable package of information that can be plugged into different larger packages of information at appropriate places.]

Working pages should be packages of information that can serve as building blocks. You should approach each working page of your Website with this concept in mind. Make each page capable of standing on its own AND capable of fitting into a broader trail of information on the subject of your website.

Your pages should tie in with other pages on your Website and with other pages out on the web dealing with the same subject matter. One way to accomplish this is by the appropriate use of outbound links.

INCOMING & OUTGOING LINKS

Today, search engines now carefully evaluate not only just each page of a Website but also each section of each page of a Website. This evaluation is based on not only the links coming into that section of the Website but on the links going out from that section of the Website also.

The search engines will evaluate each page and its sections on how well they fit into the overall trails of information across the Internet. To fit well, a page must have incoming links from quality pages on the same or a complementary subject matter. Just as importantly, to fit well, a page must have outgoing links to quality pages on the same or a complementary subject matter.

Search engines desire to promote information paths or trails whereby viewers can go from page to page, across different Websites, reading only what is of interest to them on each Website – gaining another useful piece of information at each stop.

You should think of each working page of your Website as a stepping stone in one of these information trails. Someone may come directly to your page from a page on some other Website and should be able to leave your page and go directly to a page containing complementary information on yet another Website.

Adding quality outbound links will enhance your Website in the eyes of your visitors, in the eyes of the search engines, and in the eyes of the publishers of another quality webpage on the subject. This enhanced perception of your site will result in more links to your

Design your outbound links to assist your visitors and to assist the free flow of Internet traffic.

Internet traffic is like the economy – everyone gains when things are moving, but no one gains when things slow down.

CONTENT BOXES

Web pages are not the only “packages” that can be used for information that is published on the Internet. Web pages can contain component parts that include different types of media (such as pictures, video, sound, scripts, forms, and many other things).

An excellent organizational tool in designing a Website is to use “content boxes” to package various forms of media. Content boxes can also be used as “teasers” for articles on other pages on your site.

Modern information consumers have become very used to what might be termed “multiple streams of information” presented simultaneously. When you watch the major news channels; you will likely see and hear an anchorperson on the main screen discussing one story, while at the same time you see a scrolling marquee across the bottom of the screen with headlines from other stories. When you read a newspaper, you can rarely read a complete story on the front page. Instead, the stories are continued further back in the newspaper.

Most newspaper readers read the beginning of several stories on the front page before turning to the continuation of the stories further back in the newspaper. When you read magazines, you will see inserted blocks of content sprinkled throughout the articles you are reading that are either complete little units or are continued at some point later in the magazine.

The point is this: links that you include in the content of your working pages should be for the purpose of providing choice to your viewers – not pulling them into closed loops.

Creating new working pages for your site should be a continuing effort. The Website of the future is a Website that facilitates new information being added continuously.

You should constantly be writing or finding new articles and new features that you can include on the new working pages of your site.

If you follow my suggestions for Website design, your site will continue to remain tightly organized even though it is continually growing with the addition of new working pages.

The Website of the future has a tightly designed organizational structure that allows for extensibility as countless additional working pages can be added to the site. The Website is seen favorably by the search engines, directories, and webmasters of similar sites because its working pages fit easily into larger information trails on the Internet.

The site’s pages fit these trails due to the quality information that they add to the mix and due to the quality outbound links (to complimentary information on other Websites) that they contain.

The Website of the future is an effective selling tool through the use of appropriately placed in-context payoff links and due to attractive content boxes in the columns of the design that packages the working pages

Thank you for your time!