Often, a sitemap is completely separate from the look and feel of a business website.  So, while the sitemap is a critical starting place to get you thinking about your web project, it doesn’t dictate that your site will be “boring”. On the flip side, a website that is graphically appealing or full of pizazz may still come off as a smoke and mirrors magic trick if the user does not know what information is available or how to find what they are looking for.

Visualization

A sitemap can be viewed in two ways:

1. A list format – this is like a table of contents in a book.

   Think text book:  the information is grouped by chapter and each chapter has a few subsections.  In the web world, we call the chapters ’superpages” and the sections “subpages”.

2. A graphical map format – this is more like a mind map.

   Surprising, this can be dangerous. It looks great to present the end user with a visual map of your website, but during the planning phase of a website, it might become too easy to leave areas of your map too vague or to navigate a user through a series of pages without providing them a “map back” to main content.

Most important for anyone planning a website creation or redesign:  Not throughly planning out your website beforehand is an expensive disaster waiting to happen. Even when you are using great CMS technology.

Users love a new and engaging experience, but from the business world they expect a few constants:

• An “About Us” page: This should always be near a top-level page if not a superpage. It can be named something more clever as long as users will understand that the page is about your company.
• At least one top-level superpage devoted to your company’s products or services.
• A “Contact Us” page: Many times, users only go to your website to get up-to-date contact information. Remember, younger people are much less likely to use a phone book. Make this easy: don’t put up walls around the information your readers are looking for.

A Conceptual Template

• Home
• About Us
  • Our History
  • Our Staff
• Our Services
  • Service A
  • Service B
  • Get A Quote
• Submit Your Order
• Latest News
• Contact Us

Search engines have become increasingly good at recognizing legitimate businesses verses imitators by viewing a website’s sitemap and analyzing the content of each page. A well-structured site means that when a user searches for your company name, or related products and services in your area in order to buy and submitting orders for a specific product, your website is more likely to rank highly.

In fact, depending on your market, your Homepage, About Us, and Contact Us might all be listed in a search engine result so that users have one-click access.

XML Sitemap and SEO

Sitemaps are crucial when planning a website, but they do not have to be set in stone. One important aspect of the technologies we use is the ability for our clients to grow their website. This means that as a company expands and adds a service or adds a second type of service or product,  corresponding pages can easily be added to the website and and the content modified appropriately:

• Home
• About Us
  • Our History
  • Our Staff
• Our Services
  • Service A
    • Type I
    • Type II
  • Service B
  • Service C
  • Get A Quote
• Submit Your Order
• Latest News
• Contact Us

If a site has been structured correctly, search engines will pick-up on the addition and re-index your site accordingly. One last important step in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the existence of a properly formatted .XML sitemap that lives off-menu in the root directory of your website hosting server.

Check out Steele Agency’s XML sitemap.

As you can see, its a complicated array of URL’s and priorities, where superpages are given top priority and blog posts are given lower priority, which tells search engines to list your Homepage, About Us, and Contact Us pages first in their search listings.

Because this is one thing all the major search engines agree upon, there is a standard protocol for generating and submitting these links, and thus a we can build functions into your website that automatically update and submit a properly formated XML sitemap.

Final Notes

• When building a sitemap, start with a structure that is unlikely to change, but that will allow room for growth.
• Do not get in the habit of changing top-level pages, as Search Engines will take note and assume your content is unreliable and rank your website – and thus your digital presence – poorly.
• The sitemap can contain sections, for example, adding a top-level page call Blog or Recent News is understood as meaning that articles will be posted and displayed in that section.
• Every user experiences your site differently. Some may like your menu navigation and the way it reflects the organization of your content; however some people may prefer a simple organized list posted somewhere off-menu, for example: View Our User-Friendly Sitemap

Landing pages are used by many companies when they want to target a very specific market, direct a potential customer to specific information, a summary of their products or services, or a specific ad campaign.  The key difference between their main, home website, and the landing page, is that the website contains general information about the company and the products and services it offers, while the landing page is tailored towards a particular offer or information the company wants its potential customer to focus on.

Depending on the type, landing pages may be used to ask the visitor to take a survey, allow them to request more information about an offer, leave feedback, or direct them towards making an immediate or future purchase.  The included information is kept short and sweet so that the message conveyed comes across clearly; information about the offer, company name and contact information, and often times an information request form.

In addition to crafting these pages with keywords that will optimize the potential for a Google user to find them, landing pages are also used via email.  Including a live URL link in a newsletter or marketing email can also be extremely effective.  Because there is relevant information in the email, the target audience already has an idea of what is being offered.  But instead of simply linking to the homepage, a landing page directs the customer towards the specific offer or information, eliminating the possibility of them getting lost or distracted while navigating the homepage.  This precise directing of the visitor’s attention increases the chances of conversion—that is, that the visitor will interact with the page—fill out the information form so the company can contact them about their products and services, view the special offer, or provide the desired feedback.

Whatever a company is offering in the marketplace (do tie racks really need built in lights?), landing pages can be an effective way of getting out a specific message to a specific audience quickly, efficiently, and effectively, saving would-be consumers the hassle of wading through loads of extraneous information.  And can I resist?  They may also help your business take off…

5. Swag Branding

Everyone loves free stuff, and corporate branding of free merchandise is nothing new.  Leave-behinds or take-ways or whatever you want to call them have always held a vague prospect of getting your company in front of new people.  By placing QR codes on free promo merchandise, the person receiving it has more ability to interact with your company and more of a reason to share your merchandise with others so they can also interact the product (and you have a chance to see just how many and how often and for how long that product’s marketing life lasts.

Since many companies have not taken advantage of the QR revolution, using this technology now is both advantageous and informative.  More people will eagerly scan the QR codes so they can participate in this fun and inventive technology if you include simple directions.

4. QR’d Product Catalogs

Many companies rely on large product catalogs to show all that they offer.  Recently, many of these have begun seeing a real advantage in incorporating QR codes into every product they sell.

A QR-sprinkled product catalog does a few things: one, you can offer up-to-the-minute information about product availability if you sell customized products; two, you can notify production if you see that a certain number of items has been scanned frequently preparing for orders;  and three, product catalogs can be printed less often.

The other obvious benefit of this feature is that it creates a whole new avenue for customers to interact with a company. Viewers can share product information and samples with anyone all over the world all with a simple click of their phone, recommending products or  making the decision to purchase more convenient, timely and social.

3. Artwork

Since the image of the QR Code can be adaptable it can also be made to include logos or specific images and even video. This function helps create an extremely creative marketing art piece.

For example, the Pet Shop Boys released the single, Integral, in 2007 in protest to the British government proposing a national identity card concept. The single featured a QR Code as the single’s artwork that linked to a website that informed the user of ways to counter this proposal. They also included a moving QR Code into their music video that anyone could snap with their phone and be directed to the same website while watching their TV.  Regardless of their political agenda, it was very successful in raising awareness of their cause, and can be for anyone else too.

2. QR Billboards

Recently marketers in Britain have started dabbling with the successful marketing strategies Japan has had with simply displaying QR Codes on billboards. The photo featured here was for a DVD release for the movie, “28 Weeks Later”. While this advertisement could have done so much more with its code link, its presence did make the DVD release much more popular than expected in that area because it got people talking.

The great thing about its presence is that it creates buzz regardless of the consumer’s knowledge of the technology. For those who do know what it is and how to access it, the QR image lets them interact with your product and website. For those that don’t know, a web address or simply the company name will lead to many search attempts to find out what is going on with the advertisement.

1. QR Buildings

Now this is certainly not for every business (!), but what one company has done in Japan is truly one of a kind. In 2009, The N Building was unveiled in the Tachikawa district of Tokyo. The

Photo: Omori Yuki

whole side of the building facing the street is one large QR Code. Once the image is caught on your phone, the outside facade disappears and leads to a variety of extremely unique and intriguing functions: information on shops inside,  reservations for stores and restaurants inside, and special coupons only available to those who have captured their building’s image. The most impressive function? Speech bubbles of employees working inside who are twittering, as well as the ability to see where they are blogging from within the building (and track them if they are moving and, say, tweeting on a mobile device!). It is a very creative and interesting new idea that has quickly made this a very popular destination within the community. To see a quick video about this building, click here.

Click here to read an informative article about what a QR Code is and other ideas of how to use them.

While twitter is very simple to use, it’s features are a little hard to understand at first glance. So we’ve put together a rather practical guide to make even the least computer savvy person a twitter expert.

A Tweet.

This is the primary function of twitter. It is simply a 140-character post that allows you to describe things you’re doing, voice opinions on issues or share information that is deemed valuable. The “tweetbox” is the very first thing you see after logging in, and certainly the most interactive tool on twitter. If you find it hard to know where to start, answering the question “what am I doing?” always helps breaks the tweeting ice.

Follow.

Underneath your “tweetbox” is where you’ll see your tweets and any other tweets of people you elect to follow. To follow someone, simply search in the “Find People” section and click on their profile. On their profile, there will be a button that says “follow” directly underneath their picture. Simply press that button and return home, and magically their tweets will populate on your homepage.

Most industries have large lists of twitter profiles that publish information specifically related to the business you are in or want more information about. To find these lists, simply type the specific industry followed by “twitter lists” into a search toolbar like Google, and simply “follow” the tweeters you find relevant to you and your market.

@Reply.

As kcnn.org explains it, “twitter is a text-only medium, but it’s also intended to support back-and-forth conversation. Consequently there are a few clunky code-like conventions that let you tell Twitter what kind of message you’re tweeting, so it can get processed correctly. The most common and powerful of these is the @reply.”

This function allows you publicly communicate with specific users. By adding the @ symbol before the twitter username, you can publicly reply to another tweeter or direct your tweet in their direction.

The great thing about this feature is that it allows communicating with not just the person you’re talking with, but everyone else that is listening in on the conversation. So if someone has a question or concern, your answer or response may also satisfy someone’s need. It also allows more people to join in on the conversation and participate with you and your company.

This information is to the right of your tweetbox.

DM (or Direct Message)

With matters that need to be address in a private setting, there is a function for that as well. Instead of the “@username”, use a lower case d then a space than the username, like this: “d[SPACE]username”. Make sure the d stands alone so twitter can distinguish the tweet as a direct message, and ensure that only the person you’re writing to is the only one that sees the message.

RT (or Retweet)

To “retweet” is to repeat/quote someone’s tweet: When you come across an interesting tweet and you want to publish it as your own tweet – so that people who follow you can see it too – you retweet it.

To do this, simply write RT space then @username, so like this “RT[space]@username”. You are not sending the person you’re retweeting a message, it just let’s the person know you are sharing their content with others.

So with these simple functions understood, you are well on your way to conquering all there is to know about twitter and how to use it. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Be sure to check back later for more information about advanced twitter functions coming your way soon.