So you’ve created an incredible looking website, and you’re ready to launch it on the Internet and start making money. Audit your site first. There are nine essential elements that every website should include if you want to ensure success.

1. Privacy Policy/Disclaimer:

Note, Im not an attorney and I dont pretend to be one, but these two documents that should be part of every website you develop. People want to know, and are entitled to know, just how youre going to use their personal information. That’s what a privacy policy does.

You need to include a disclaimer, or terms of use page. In todays litigious society this document protects you and indicates to your visitors what theyre agreeing to by using your website. You can find several sites on the Internet to help you draft these documents such as:

* DMA Privacy Policy Generator http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/PPG/ * OECD Privacy Statement Generator http://tinyurl.com/5plgpc * Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator http://www.serprank.com/privacy-policy-generator/index.php * Privacy Policy Generator http://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/ * Free Site Disclaimer http://www.easyriver.com/free_disclaimer.htm

This is not legal advice, so if you need help or feel your website has special legal needs, consult with an attorney familiar with Internet law.

2. Contact Us Information:

Would you want to do business with a website that does not include a way to contact the owner? While you may not be able to include a phone number, you should at least have an email address or a contact us form. Your visitors will feel much more comfortable when you provide this information, knowing theres a way to contact if they need to do so.

Need a form and dont know how to create your own? Try one of these free online services.

* Bravenet: http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/emailfwd/ * Freedback: http://freedback.com/ * Email Me: http://www.emailmeform.com/

3. Search Box/Site Map:

If your site includes many pages, you should also include a way to search the site, or at minimum have a site map. There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest method is to use Googles free service at- http://www.google.com/sitesearch/

or try PicoSearch: http://www.picosearch.com/

A site map is one web page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by category. Another resource – FreeFind: http://www.freefind.com/

4. Google Analytics/Statistical System:

After you launch your site, you will want to start watching your traffic. Who are your visitors and how many hit your site each day, what pages are the most popular, from where is the traffic coming? All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good statistical program.

Some hosting servers provide free statistical packages such as Webalizer or AWSTATS. If not, the easiest way to track your traffic (and it is free) is Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ Just register there, and you may add as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. Youll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and youre done.

5. Newsletter Sign Up:

Typically, people don’t buy from you the very first time they come to your website. One good way to stay in touch with possible customers is to offer a newsletter, or ezine. As each person signs up for the ezine, youll be building a list of the email addresses of possible customers.

Youll find many free and low cost newsletter services online. Its your choice, depending on your needs and what you can afford. If you dont want to pay anything, some great free services are:

FreeAutoBot: http://www.FreeAutoBot.com Yahoo Groups: http://www.yahoo.com/groups

You may offer an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. RSS feeds make it easy for users to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is FeedBurner: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

6. Consistent Navigation:

While it sounds simple, making the menus consistent is important to any site. No matter what style of menus you choose, just make sure it is consistent on all the pages of your site.

Menus guide your users through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they want to go.

For more see:

* Eye on Web: http://tinyurl.com/dyh9fm * Web Page Mistakes: http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/website-navigation/

7. Search Engine Optimized Content:

Many web developers do not think this is so important, but trust me it is. You want your pages to rank well in the search engines and there are a few steps you can take to ensure this happens.

Every page of your website should be optimized for no more than 2 to 3 keywords/phrases. For optimal results, use your keywords in your titles and in the content of every page. Don’t forget to use them in your image titles, alt tags, and in the names you give your pages, too. Analyze each and every page individually and determine its theme, then optimize accordingly.

For help see:

* MarketLeap: http://tinyurl.com/ce8ffd * CopyBlogger: http://www.copyblogger.com/seo-copywriting/

8. Social Media Share Button:

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, are becoming more important everyday in marketing websites. Be sure to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.

Most of the social media sites offer a way to add a share button to your site. In addition, youll find several free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a share button to your web pages so that users can instantly share them with their friends.

To generate your own buttons see:

* AddThis: http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php * TwitThis: http://www.TwitThis.com

9. Meta Tags:

Some web developers will tell you that meta tags are dead – no longer useful. Dont listen. Unique meta tags should be included in your HTML code at the top of every page of your website. Many of the top search engines read those tags to pull a title and description to include in their search results. (This includes Google)

Once again, each and every web page should be optimized separately and have a unique title, keywords, and description meta tags.

For more information, go to:

* Submit Express: http://www.submitexpress.com/metatag.html * Submit Corner: http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Meta/

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Tags: elements of websites, how to make a website, search engine optimization, SEO, web design, website development

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