Get (Your Business) Online Checklist

Posted by: Nathan on February 13th, 2007
Category: General eBusiness, Seminars, e-Business Basics
Viewed: 3,455 times

The eBusiness Connection website has been updated with a checklist for businesses who want to go online.

Taking your business online can be intimidating if you don't have much experience with the internet or web development. However, since every business should be using the internet in some way, the following checklist is meant to give you a clear set of steps to follow to get your business online.

Read the information attatched to this checklist by following the links in the text. This will give you enough knowlege to talk intelligently with internet service providers and web developers who you may need to work with to get the job done.Before you start checking things off this list, you will want to develop your Web Strategy.

  1. Research & Register a Domain Name
    • Finding a suitable domain name is something that is best done at the same time as choosing/registering your business name.
    • There are a lot of great tips and tools for choosing suitable domain names
  2. Develop the Website
    • Understand what your basic needs for a website are.
    • 5 Options for Development
      1. Do it Yourself
        • Least expensive but probably most time consuming. Would you rather spend your time programming or running your business
      2. A Friend
        • Similar to DIY solution but they may not have the required design, development or Internet marketing skills and you may have to hire other individuals to ensure all your project needs.
      3. A Student
        • Can be cost effective for a small business.
        • May be lacking in experitence or skills in certain areas that may need to be farmed out.
      4. A Freelance Designer
        • May be more cost effective than a big design firm.
        • May not have all of the resources needed for larger projects and continuity in relationship (if they move or go out of business) can be an issue.
      5. A Professional Design Firm
        • Often provide the most comprehensive set of skills, resources and services.
        • Usually the most expensive option.
      • Note: Fill out an RFP while considering this decision. It will help you and your potential web developers understand your needs.
        *eBC Seminar - Taking Your Business Online
        *eBC Seminar - The Good, the Bad and the Effective Website
    • What Type of Site Are You Going to Develop
      • You need to decide how interactive your website is going to be and what services it will provide.
    • Are you going to use a Content Management System
      • A CMS allows you to update the website yourself, without relying solely on your web designer.
        *eBC Seminar - Content Management Systems
    • Develop Your Website Content
      • You are the only one who knows what content should be on your website. In order to properly represent your company on the internet, you need to supply your web developer with the content. Don't leave it up to them.
      • Content includes text, pictures, logos, media, or anything else you want to appear on your website.
        *eBC Seminar - Writing for the Web
      • Rules that apply to a normal business apply to online businesses as well.
      • Be aware that there are legal concerns specifically related to online business that you should probably talk about with your lawyer. These include creating contracts online, terms and conditions of use of your website, privacy policies, intellectual property rights and more.
        *eBC Seminar - Legal Tips for your eBusiness
    • eCommerce - Do You Need a Merchant Account?
      • Will customers be purchasing from your website (Selling Online)?
      • If so, how will you collect funds?
      • Credit Card?
      • Paypal?
      • Are you going to use a shopping cart?
        *eBC Seminar - eCommerce and Understanding Online Payment Systems
        *eBC Seminar - osCommerce - Shopping Cart Solution for Your Business
  3. Find a Hosting company
    • The hosting package that you choose is dependant on your present and future website needs.
    • There is a vast range in hosting options for your website. If you are working with a web developer, it is likely that hosting will be part of your package. It is a good idea to shop around in order to find out if your package contains a competative hosting rate for the services that you are using.
  4. Launch Your Website
    • Now that your website is ready to go live, you need to make sure that people can find it.
    • eMarketing and Search Engine Optimization are essential research topics if you want to generate traffic and sales on your website.
      *eBC Seminar - Search Engine Optimization
      *eBC Seminar - Online Marketing Strategies

For more information on a variety of related topics, check out our e-Biz Guides page.

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Top 10 Search Engine Ranking Factors

Posted by: Nathan on February 7th, 2007
Category: Search Engine Optimization
Viewed: 2,280 times

This is a list of the factors that can influence a web document's rank at the major search engines (Yahoo!, MSN, & Google) for a particular term or phrase. These results are from a survey of SEO professionals conducted by SEOmoz.org. The total score for each factor has been averaged out and displayed out of a possible perfect 5.00.

1. Title Tag - 4.57/5.00
Denoted by the <title> tags in HTML, this tag always shows at the top of a browser window and often appears in the SERPs as the title of the web page.
 
2. Anchor Text of Links - 4.46/5.00
The phrasing, terms, order and length of a link's anchor text (Anchor text is the visible hyperlinked text on the page) is one of the largest factors taken into account by the major search engines for ranking. Specific anchor text links help a site to rank better for that particular term/phrase at the search engines.
In a normally built site, anchor text is usually used to indicate the subject matter of the page that it links to. This pattern of usage has been applied in search engine algorithms to enhance the relevance of the "target" or the "landing page" URL for the keywords appearing within the anchor text.

3. Keyword Use in Document Text - 4.38/5.00
The use of queried terms (the keywords users search for) appearing in the document text.

4. Accessibility of Document - 4.3/5.00
Inaccessible documents could be due to 404 errors, server mishaps, plug-in requirements or other technical issues. Accessibility can also be compromised by using URL re-directs that search engine spiders cannot follow, hiding content behind select forms, JavaScript or other hard-to-spider forms of navigation including frames and Flash.

5. Links to Document from Site-Internal Pages - 4.15/5.00
A specific page's importance in a site's overall architecture can be measured by the importance and depth of the other pages on the site that refer to the page in question. An internally well-linked to document is generally considered more important than an obscured or buried page.

6. Primary Subject Matter of Site - 4.00/5.00
A website's primary topic (as determined through analysis of the content of its hosted documents) may influence how well it is able to rank pages on similar, corresponding or off-topic subjects. If a site is particularly focused in one niche or another (from finance to politics to restaurants) documents hosted at that site on specific subjects encompassed by the broader topic may have a better chance of ranking well. There are also many sites on topics like news or general information distribution (e.g. CNN.com, Topix.net, etc.) that encompass all or many subjects equally and may be able to rank documents for a wide variety of topics.

7. External Links to Linking Pages - 3.92/5.00
The external links that point to a document can have a strong effect on the power and relevancy that links from that document to other documents carry.

8. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - 3.77/5.00
Topical communities are measured by the search engines as groups of websites who interlink to and with one another frequently and carry a similar topic or theme. Since topical communities are relevant and "on-topic", the links from them carry great weight. A site that is included in a topical community by way of links from many other members may be considered more relevant and authoritative on the community's subject matter.

9. Global Link Popularity of Site - 3.69/5.00
Global link popularity simply measures the importance of all the links to a unique domain, with more links from more important sites (relative to their own link popularity) typically having stronger influence.

10. Keyword Spamming - 3.69/5.00
Stuffing, stacking or overusing key terms in an attempt to appear "relevant" for terms/phrases may negatively affect rankings.

Full results can be viewed online:
http://www.seomoz.org/articles/search-ranking-factors.php

SEOmoz
SEOmoz provides companies around the world with consulting, Internet marketing and search engine optimization services. Although our home offices in Seattle, WA serve as our base of operations, we're frequently found globetrotting across the US, Canada & Europe. Our goal is to provide a high level of service and education to businesses, individuals, non-profits and government organizations so they can best leverage the unique reach of the Internet to increase visibility and achieve success.

 
eBusiness Connection offers SEO and Internet Marketing seminars for small business owners who want to go online or expand their online presence.  To view our list of seminars go to http://www.e-bc.ca/pages/resources/seminars.php

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