Web Site Management

A Web Site Self-Examination Checklist

By Charles Snodgrass
Deep Creek Arts

This article originally appeared in The Lantern, a publication of the North Carolina Bed & Breakfast and Inns association. While written for innkeepers, the article applies to anyone who owns a web site.

ow healthy is your web site? Does it get high search engine rankings? Is it an effective sales tool that generates reservations for your bed and breakfast? Here’s a checklist of ten questions to help you assess the effectiveness of your site.

1. Do you know the key search phrases people use when searching for accommodations in your area? When they go to Google, do your target customers search for "your town bed and breakfast" or "your area B&B" or "your town lodging"? It’s important to know, since these phrases are your most valuable internet marketing tools.

A search engine is essentially a match-maker. When the web user enters a search query, the search engine scours its massive database looking for all the web pages that contain that phrase. And when it compiles its results, the web pages with the exact matching phrase usually go toward the top of the list followed by all the other pages that contain the words in no particular order.

When assessing your key-phrase marketing, keep in mind that it’s difficult to optimize any single page for more than two or three key word phrases. And you’ll probably have more than three phrases that you’d like to use. But you’re not limited to your home page. You can optimize every page on your web site, each with a different set of key word-phrases.

Choosing which search terms are best for your target audience doesn’t have to be guesswork. A Google search for "Search Engine Optimization" or "Search Engine Marketing" will lead you to a wealth of "how-to" information on the subject. And online database tools like WordTracker are helpful and affordable. Or you can hire one of the growing number of search engine optimization and marketing specialists to perform your key phrase research for you.

2.  Does your page titles contain your strongest key word phrase? This is the first place a search engine looks for key word phrases, so it’s crucial to make every word count. If you can include two key word phrases and stay within the 50 character limit, that’s even better.

And don’t use your B&B’s name in the title unless it’s also a valuable search term, one that the majority of your target customers would likely search for.

3.  Does your web site begin with an "enter" page? This is the kind of web site design I love to see on my competitors’ web sites — a purely visual statement unspoiled by useful information!

First of all, waiting for an empty page to load can be extremely annoying. But more importantly, an empty page gives the search engine spider nothing to index. With no key word phrases to tell the search engines what your web page is all about, you’ll get no search engine traffic at all.

4.  Are your pictures an asset or a liability? In reality, your guest rooms may be delightfully decorated with beautiful furnishings, nice lighting and attractive creature-comforts. But on your web site, those rooms are no nicer than the photographs. If your photos are sub-par, you’re compromising your advertising message. Hire a photographer!

6.  Are your pages fast-loading? The web’s popularity is built on the premise of instant gratification. And there’s nothing instant or gratifying about a slow loading web page. In fact, if a page takes more than a minute to load, you’ve lost your audience. Many lose patience after twenty to thirty seconds.

On the web, text loads immediately. It’s the photos and graphics that slow things down. So here are two things you can do to minimize those load times:

• Before adding a photo to your web page, make sure the original jpeg image is sized and cropped to the exact dimensions that will appear on the page. Reducing a photo after it’s added to the web page only changes the dimension, not the file size.

• Use Adobe Photoshop’s "Save For Web" feature to reduce a photo or graphic’s file to the smallest possible size. While the full version of Photoshop carries a professional price tag, the smaller Photoshop Elements version can be purchased for less than $100 and has most of the photo-editing features of the full version, including "Save For Web".

Other Articles:

Internet Marketing
(introduction)

Search Engine Optimization

Link Popularity

Domain Management

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