Home page – introducing yourself, you business products and services. I do not recommend having a pretty picture with “Click to Enter” as this prolongs the time your visitors get to find out more about you. It is also not good if you want a site that is trawled regularly by the search engines as they really do like lots of content.
· About us/me – Biographical page(s) – about you and the work you do. Could also include links to pages/sites of personal interest, favourite places, etc as appropriate
· Products/Services – page(s) about what you have to offer, work ethics, interests and procedures.
· Case Studies, reviews and testimonials – about previous clients, success stories, etc
· Legal and official information – Privacy policy, trading terms and conditions, copyright, etc. This is a must have if you want to comply with international internet and trading laws and guidelines.
· Links and recommended resources – sites that provide services and products which support the work you do.
· Articles of Interest – could include articles on how to promote projects – in other words worded in such as way as to not make people feel that they don’t need you whilst at the same time allowing them to get to know you and how you work. You could also include articles you have written about the companies and organisations you have worked with linking it in with the case study pages. Like attracts like and if people can relate to the people you have worked with then they are likely to appreciate you. Writing reviews etc is a great way to introduce projects that you would like to work on but haven’t as yet. Articles are a fantastic way of attracting people via the search engines and building up relationships with future contacts without actually having ever met them.
· Press information – pages which specifically target and talk to the press and publicity contacts you communicate with on a regular basis. Could include press releases.
· News page –Can include updates on the projects you are working on – press releases, thoughts, aims and ambitions, etc.
· Email and contact details – setting up several email addresses for different type sof contacts, with or without auto responders can be a very useful way of managing communications from people whilst also monitoring how your marketing is working.
· Email mailing list option – Email marketing is vital. Once your visitor comes to your site – you have a matter of seconds to capture their attention sufficiently to buy into your products and services. Once gone – will they ever com back again? The easiest way to encourage this is to collect their email addresses so that you can send them regular newsletters to encourage them to return time and again.
· Site Statistics – all websites need to have visitor statistics which will allow you to see which pages are being viewed the most allowing you to sculpt the site according to what is working. The statistics include hits, visits, entry pages, exit pages, search phrases used, referring agents, robots, etc. They will tell you which on-site and off-site activities are working for you.
· Bookmarking, newsfeeds etc – development of technology is exploding at a faster rate than many of us can even begin to comprehend however we can at least take advantage of a few simple tools which help our users experience of our websites.
