Make Your Web Presence A Sure Shot Success - In 10 Straight Steps	1.8/5.0 (4 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Maneet Puri February 04, 2009

Creating a web presence is an easy job. All you need to do is to get a website build and place it on the World Wide Web to claim space in cyberspace.

However, there lies a world of difference between a mere web presence and a successful web presence. A mere web presence claims you some space on the world wide web where as a successful web presence establishes your brand on the Internet and acts as a revenue channel for your business.

Here are 10 steps to a successful web presence

1. Define Clear Goals and Objectives for the Website

Before you start the web design and development process, ask yourself the following questions.

• Why do I need the website for?
• How will it do what it intends to do?
• Who will it cater to?

The answer to these questions will define the core objectives of your website – the purpose, the methodology and the audience. You should have a clear idea about what you need your website to do and how it plans to achieve the set milestones.

2. Focus on your Audiences

It is your website, for your business and representing your company. However, it would who will ultimately use it is – the audience. Therefore, rather than creating a website that includes what you want, focus on including what your audiences would want to see.

Website users are the ones that make a site success or failure. So, pamper your visitors and don’t give them any reason to be displeased. When they enter the website, everything should be clear to them. Provide them answers before they can even ask the questions.

3. Make the Website Design Sleek and Comprehendible

Website design is a creative field to exhibit your expertise. However, to make the design appeal to your audiences, you should just keep it simple and easily comprehendible. Not only should your website be visually appealing but also, it should be functional.

Keep the navigation structure simple and intuitive

4. Put Quality Content

Content is the king and will remain so! Content defines the informational quality of your website. Web users strive for information and only and only if you have quality content can you satiate their requirements.

Quality content means the content should be fresh, unique, relevant and extremely informative. It would be no use ranting the oft-repeated things yet another in a different tone. Rather, your content should serve the purpose of value addition to the online users.

5. Optimize the Visual Elements

If a picture is worth a thousand words, it should just be the same with the visual elements of your website. Make sure you include appropriate Alt tags with all the images and graphics on your website in order to optimize them. This not only increases the accessibility of the website but also improves it performance on search engines. This is because search engine crawlers index the keywords within the Alt tags.

6. Adhere to Web Standards

The W3C guidelines and specifications are not legal obligations. However, to establish your credibility in the web world and to make sure that your website is accessible by maximum number of Internet users, you need to make it in compliance with the standards.

7. Test the Website for Compatibility

It’s like revising your exam sheet before submitting! After your website is done and ready, make sure you test it well. Scan through it from start to finish and look for any inconsistencies. As you discover them, make an effort to fix them there and then.

8. Search Engine Optimization

The design and development procedure of a website should immediately be followed by the optimization process. After all it is not just about creating a website and placing it on the World Wide Web. Rather, you should popularize it as well in order to acquire incoming web traffic.

9. Make your Website Popular in Cyberspace

Apart from persistent search engine optimization efforts, it is important you spread out on the Internet and make your presence felt. join the popular blog communities of your industry, be an active member on forums and social media website and subtly establish your website presence there.

10. Website Maintenance

Creating a website is a one-time process. However, maintaining it and keeping it in good condition is an ongoing task. It is very important that you monitor your website regularly and make sure it is well-maintained.

If you have interactive features on your website, like user comment box, forums etc. make sure there is no in appropriate content. Also, make sure that all the visitor feedback is duly answered.

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