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CLIENT CALLS TODAY

My client, Marg, is upset with her webdesigner. She says, Doesnt he understand its my website? I dont want this to be a constant battle.

Nancy designs websites. She tells me, I did a beautiful site for the client and then they c****** it up. I cant even use it for my portfolio. She changed everything and its really hideous. I think shes colorblind.

Sandy is working with a webdesigner, too. She tells me, I outlined what I wanted, but I left [the web designer] plenty of leeway. I know theyre creative and want to express themselves. Ill tell her from there, take it.

THE BATTLE OF THE EXPERTS

Since Im an Internet marketing coach, Im often in a triad the client, the web designer, and me! It becomes a battle-of-the-experts, a nightmare for all concerned. Basically when I accept an Internet marketing client, one of my stipulations is that they listen to what I tell them.

Youd think someone paying you would do that, wouldnt you? Instead, they listen to their brother-in-law or the guy at the post office, or they start reading things on the Internet. One client, Julio, even started hiring other people a PR consultant, a logo designer, an advertising agency. It became an impossible situation with input from all directions. Each of us contradicted the other at one point. Julio then made the decisions, trusting no one. Why, then, I asked him, did you hire people? (And then I fired him.)

THE IDEAL CLIENT DOESNT CONFUSE HIM/HERSELF

Other clients pay me and listen to what I say. Its a novel concept, but it works well. When I started working with Gordon, I said, Yes, I will tell you what computer to buy, but not if you plan to then go ask everyone you know for their advice. That would waste your time and mine. Gordon said, I wouldnt do that. Then Id get confused.

Gordon is the ideal client. He paid me for my marketing consulting, listened, took action, and his practice is thriving as a result. He saved us both a lot of time, which, since I bill by the hour, saved him a lot of money. He’s a smart man.

So how should you proceed if you are working with a web designer? There are a few musts. Many of them work in a world of T1s, LANS, and DSL. This is a very different world from the rest of us mere mortals. WE live in another world only 7% of us have broadband and this percentage doesnt appear to be growing. What does this mean? Most people visiting your website surf at 56K or slower. 60% still surf at 28.8k. If you want people to visit your website and stay there, make sure the front page loads fast enough — 8-10 seconds at 28.8k. Web designers, like all creative people, get bored. Okay? They like to try all the new bells and whistles. This may or may not work in your situation. Its like the choir director at church. Most of us would like to sing A Mighty Fortress every Sunday, some hymn we know and love. Its been around a long time because we love it! It works. The choir director, on the other hand, wants to be on the leading edge, try the new things. Know what you want and stick to it. Do your homework before you get there. Find 3-5 websites you like. The style, colors, font, layout, navigation. Show these to your web designer rather than trying to describe. Be clear about what you want. Something professional-looking is open to interpretation. A site like this one: www.professional_website.com works a lot better. Trust your intuition. If they show you something you dont like, go with your feelings. Find one with expertise in websites in your field. It will save you having to explain a lot of things. Find someone you trust and let them do their work.

HOW DO YOU FIND THIS PERSON?

1. Get a referral from someone whose opinion you trust.
2. Find a site you like and find out who did it.

I recommend two web designers to my clients. I know them and I know their work. They are excellent in every aspect:

They can get out of their own head and put the client on the webpage. They have the technical skills required. They are professional and responsible. They meet deadlines. They set a price and stick to it. They are courteous to my clients.

All those points are important, but Number 1 is MORE important. (In fact you should expect the others.) Its most important they have the knack of translating you onto the Internet.

THE RELATIONSHIP

Ive been in marketing for many years. It happens to be a field everyone thinks they know something about and indeed we do. Were all consumers, and we have marketing working on us all the time, so we have our opinions. It isnt like going to the dentist, for instance. I really havent much knowledge about root canals, and I pretty much leave it up to the dentist.

Its takes maturity and emotional intelligence to make it a successful relationship that produces the kind of product you want. That means you need two mature people with EQ skills. Some web designers are all IQ and tech skills, with little ability to relate. Avoid those. Some web designers are the creative genius type, like Frank Lloyd Wright, who wanted to do what he wanted to do, the hell with the client. Avoid those.

Something in between is nice. It doesnt have to be a fight. If its feeling like a fight, you need a new web designer. Start with a web designer who comes well recommended. Then enter a relationship of mutual respect. He or she knows how to design a website. You know you and what you want. Together you can make music!

About the Author

Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, GLOBAL EQ. Emotional intelligence coaching to enhance all areas of your life - career, relationships, midlife transition, resilience, self-esteem, parenting. EQ Alive! - excellent, accelerated, affordable EQ coach certification. Susan is the author of numerous ebooks, is widely published on the Internet, and a regular speaker for cruise lines. For marketing services go here.

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Effective Website Design For Massive Traffic

 by: Brian Daniels

STEP 1:Do your homework

Plan and think about your content. Think big, have a vision of at least a 100 page site. The pages should have “real content”, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright… etc pages.

STEP 2:Buy Domain name:

Invest in an easily brandable domain. You may want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains will go no where, whereas branding and name recognition are the in thing. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to Search Engines. Get them

STEP 3:Site Design:

As a rule of the thumb: develop for MS Internet Explorer. As for text content, it should out weigh the html content. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring.

Use less of these heavy stuff: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for javascripts is just one of them).

Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.

Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Visit Google.com and learn from them. Simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.

Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request.

If you need help, visit http://www.xcelweb.com for the latest web design packages.

STEP 4:Check Page Size:

The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can.

STEP 5:Build Content:

Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture.coms keyword suggestor and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

STEP 6:Check Keywords placing

Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and spell check it. Spell checking is becoming important as search engines are moving to auto correction during searches.

STEP 7:Cross links:

Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your Page Rating (PR) value across your site. You do NOT want an “all star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily.

STEP 8:Put it Online:

Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).

Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo.

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