Warning: Easy Web Site Templates Could Keep You Invisible!

By Ted Cantu

There are many web site owners out there who are convinced that only a handful of web site pages will do the job. These skimpy pages are void of any content and lack any real voice. The results are often very generic. They slip under the consumer radar.

But if you ask the web site owner he will shake his head in disbelief. Despite his dismal content he actually will pipe up and claim that he wants customers to actually call him! As a consumer it has to be hard to find a real sales message in any of these pages. But this is exactly what many web site owners are counting on.

In one of my Master Mind groups I was surprised to see a similar mistake made on a postcard. This particular postcard had the words, FREE OFFER written on the front of it. Keep in mind that this postcard was top notch all the way, four color print job, shiny gloss stock, oversized, and ready to sell. But the nitwits that put this together left no return address or any way to contact them. They didnt even bother telling you what was, FREE. I guess in all the hullaballoo of putting together this amazing sales offer it must of slipped their mind.

Sadly, many web site owners insist on running their online business the same way. I see a lot of doctor web sites and a people in the legal profession do the same type of thing. In fact, lawyers in general do a pretty ridiculous job of putting their sites together. They really miss the mark when it comes to selling. The businesses who are in this category often buy their web sites from a company that blows through town. I notice a lot of the same mistakes being made on a lot of these duplicated web site templates that pop up on search engines. If you look close it appears they are all from the same company.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uzjr2Iei_k[/youtube]

A lot of these sites are toys. I call them that because there really isnt a whole lot of guts behind them. Anything that comes from a WYSIWYG editor usually brings a certain degree of bad news with it. I ran into roughly 8 companies in the last 2 months that I will not work with. I have actually had to turn business away because the back end of these sites were literally nonexistent. I found myself unable to get into the pages and put in special SEO tags so I could get them to rank properly.

The customer who bought these sites are really counting on making some kind of profit. But making a profit is not on the menu if you purchase one of these sites. Getting them to appear in a Google ranking is going to be next to impossible without the proper formatting.

Meta Data tags are important. I know a lot of SEO geeks out there claim that search engines do not pay attention to them anymore, (this is not entirely true). Some search engines are looking for different things such as linking strategies, (this could be a big thing for you) and others are looking for reciprocal links to other sites. But if your WYSIWYG site is giving you only two options for Meta Data Tags then you should consider getting a hosting company that lets you upload straight HTML pages.

But I Wanna Make My Own Web Page Changes

There is some merit to making your own web page changes. But do not let this cloud your judgment when it comes to creating web pages. Some of your pages should be changed its true but not every page has to be rewritten and reposted. This is a backwards strategy. You want some consistencies when you post your pages. You should seek permanence. Look at JVC and SONY they rarely ever change their pages. They leave their pages up and create real infrastructures.

Whenever you get a page to rank and get indexed on Google it should be treated as, online real estate. If you discontinue a product or service you should leave the page up and have a redirect hyperlink to guide the consumer to another page. It takes a lot of sweat to get pages to rank properly on Google so keep it.

Do not keep reinventing the wheel over and over again.

Plus if you keep reposting new content to the same pages, moving them around, switching domain names, redirecting sites, (Ive seen guys do this on a daily basis) you are going to come off like an amateur. I have seen people totally confuse their audiences with this type of daily drama. Worse, when your pages do get indexed, (usually by an accident and not a miracle) they will most likely have the wrong information on them and your prospect will click off instantly.

If you insist on keeping one of these sites then you should get a few more sites that take solid HTML. Get some kind of hosting where you can actually access the back end folder structures. You may want to drop in HTML files, drop down menus, PDF documents and your own online ordering forms. You cannot do all of that with a simple client side control panel. Hosting is so cheap these days, (as little as ten bucks a month) you should get three or four of these sites and tie them all together using a little search engine optimization, (SEO strategies) and let the search engines know you exist.

This will help you make a real statement.

About the Author: Ted Cantu runs iMobile Media,

1seomichigan.com

and works out of NYC, Chicago, and Detroit, Michigan. He has the number 12 podcast show on www.podomatic.com you can listen to it here

1seomichigan.com/articles

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