Place - website marketing strategies

	Your website is the face of your software, and it should attract business rather than scare people away
	Content is still the most important part of a website, so you need to make information available to your visitors
	Don't forget about the people who are using old browsers- don't shut them out buy using too many advanced tricks.
	Make things easier on yourself by structuring your site in an organised way right from the start

Your website is an important part of your business, and may well turn out to be the very base of your whole structure. This is why it is vital to plan it accordingly. A good idea is to start by working out the aim of the site. Is it a publicity tool for one particular program? Is it for your company as a whole, and will include several different programs? Are you trying to attract new customers, or offer a service to existing clients? Don't try to do everything at once, and be careful not to lose site of your goals. It's very easy to get carried away and forget what you were trying to do at the beginning.

Bear in mind that if you're only using the site as a glorified promotional leaflet, you're throwing away some serious opportunities. A leaflet can't interact with your existing or potential clients, but a website can. A leaflet can't make sure that people will keep coming back to read it again, nor can it make it easy for you to contact the reader, offer to put itself somewhere accessible, or keep updating itself on a constant basis. As with all marketing techniques - keep it focused, don't overdo it, and keep it in good taste.

The next big decision is what to put on your website. It seems fairly simple and obvious, but a large number of companies are making the same mistakes time and time again. The most important thing is to make sure that it's clear who you are, what you're offering, and how you can be contacted. Not every visitor will come via the front page, so you have to make sure that every page on your site has this information. A handy hint is to also remember that someone may print a copy of the page for future reference. Make sure that each page has your website URL on it - not all browsers will print the current URL, and some are unrecognisable. Cover all bases, and take nothing for granted.

Making your site easy to navigate is also critical. Don't assume that you're always going to have just three or four pages; the content of your site is as sure to expand as you are to be successful. As long as you've planned your site reasonably well, setting-up a good navigation system should be fairly simple. Make sure that people can not only find the page they're looking for, but also that it doesn't take twenty-plus clicks and guesses. Structure is critical here - you shouldn't try to link to every page on your site, or there'll be too many bewildering options. And watch out for the ultimate boo-boo - having a page with no links leading in. Sounds stupid, but it can happen.

Moving swiftly onwards to the final topic. Even among golden rules, there are kings of golden rules, and this one is the most important of them all. Don't exclude anyone from your site. It's difficult enough getting visitors to come to your site in the first place, but if the first thing they see is that their browser won't display your pages, you've lost them. And there are so many ways you can lose them.

Different people have different browsers; if you're using some sort of fancy Active-X component that will only work with the latest version of Internet Explorer, then you're automatically pushing away a fair number of potential buyers. The same applies for anything that needs a plug-in - FLASH may well look great, but if there's no non-FLASH alternative, another one has just got away. And believe it or not, some people do still browse in a 640 x 480 display, sometimes with only 256 colours. Make sure your pages fit, and that anyone can view them. The same applies to ALT tags on your images. Many partially-sighted or blind surfers rely on these for finding their way around the web - if yours are empty or just say "BLYLOG.JPG" then listen for those footsteps as yet another sale is lost. The colours used are also important. We've all left a site in a hurry as a result of revoltingly garish colours, but don't overlook the fact that the partially sighted will find some colour combinations almost impossible to read. Again - cover all your bases. You won't find many store entrances five feet up from the ground, as few shoppers will have either the equipment or athletic ability needed to get up there. Make sure your site isn't doing the same thing.

A few final tips. Page titles are crucial - not just for the search engines, but because many browsers will list the bookmarks by their titles. Make sure they know what your site is when they come across it, and can find it again if they need to.

And aside from the visitors, don't forget to be kind on yourself too. Use a logical system for storing your pages and files - name pages in a way that will be easy for you to recognise, and use separate directories and sub directories to keep things tidy. At the very least, keep all your images in a separate directory. If your site expands, the last thing you want is 200+ pages in your directory with mystifying filenames and extensions.

Your website is almost certain to start as a small collection of pages, but is hopefully destined to expand. Never lose site of the fact that many potential buyers will judge you and your company by what they see on your website. Make sure it's not only visible and accessible, but has the professional air and confidence that comes from having a good product.