One of the greatest business of the day is an online business. Using a blog or static website is the best way to make money online. Webmasters builde websites that focus on a niche. With the huge amount of traffic potential and exposure the Internet provides, the possibilities are endless.
The online business is not taught in schools and there is no degree, most of us are self-taught utilizing the many free resources and free webmaster tools that teach and provide support for webmastering, Internet marketing and web design.
Many think they cannot build a great website because they do not know code. This is not true, there are so many great ways to build websites and blogs, that do not require any knowledge of code, programming or design, so most anyone who is willing to work hard and put in the time necessary can succeed online. There are also tons of free places to get website templates so they design element is much easier and there is no coding knowledge required.
There are countless hideaous websites that make common mistakes that cost them visitors and money. These mistakes are sometimes in design, which is a sure fire way to send visitors flying off the site. Other times they are mistakes in promotion, where webmasters do not perform the required tasks for SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, which, when done correctly, is what enables websites to rank high in Search Engine Page Results (SERPS) and what brings the precious traffic that is necessary for success.
3 Top Webmaster Tasks
1. The Power of the Link for SEO
One of the cornerstones of SEO is link building, which is where links from external sites leading to yours leads to higher SERP rankings. The most important part of the link is the anchor text. The anchor text must have the keywords the site is targeting.
Many just add the URL or innacurate keywords in the anchors resulting in no SERP rankings or traffic.
2. Good Website Design
Another crucial task is to ensure good design with pleasing colors and good navigation.
a) Colors- Colors are important, not only for the look of the site, but because if the background color makes it too difficult to read the text then the visitor will quickly leave your site. A solid example of this is using black backgrounds with red or neon pink font that is harsh and irritating for the eyes. Many will leave your site because they find it hard to read.
The safest bet is to have a light background and dark text or vice versa.
b) Navigation – Another big mistake is to have confusing or worse non-existent navigation of all the content on the site. The website should provide clear navigation in the forms of menus, either left sidebar, right sidebar or top navigation bar form. The colors should also emphasize the navigation area, distinguishing its existence from the rest of the site. All the pages and content of your site should be easily and quickly accessible. The Internet crowd has a short attention span and if they cannot easily navigate they will leave.
3. Content
Lack of fresh, original and keyword relevant content is a typical newbie mistake. Deep webpages, those that have lots of pages are better for visitor retention. SERP positions are influenced somewhat by good original content.
The more content you have the more opportunity you will have for exposure to the ads, affiliate links, blog RSS buttons and whatever other actions you want visitors to perform.