If your website has been a victim of scammer’s techniques and you have been penalized by search engines for it, here are some strategies to get yourself re-listed on search results. Having your site removed from major search engines like Google can be devastating for your traffic, but it might be helpful for your site itself as it gives you an opportunity to look over the site, see where you need to make changes, and give an overall “facelift” to your pages. Remember that search engines do not read Flash so if your site uses animations be sure to add plenty of tags and relevant content so a search engines spiders will know what your site is about. Ensure your server is working properly too as your site won’t attract anyone with technical problems.

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In the Disney movie “Newsies” the lead female character, played by Ele Keats asks, “So what makes a good newspaper headline?” Christian Bale, a newspaper boy named Jack Kelly responds, “Uh you know, catchy words like maniac or corpse or love nest or nude.” The reason these words work well for headlines is because they catch people’s attention. Since this is the basic premise behind marketing, it makes logical sense that using similar striking techniques as “catchy words” will work well for online marketing. Here are a variety of ideas to help you with marketing.

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With technology constantly advancing and new, bigger, and better techniques constantly being marketed to you, it might seem tempting to overhaul your website to “keep up with the times”. But do you really need to have the latest and greatest technology on your site? More importantly, are these “bells and whistles” actually “search engine friendly” or serving a real purpose? Here are a few things to consider before upgrading your webpage with some of the latest technology features.

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Many web developers do not consider the importance of the browser’s back button when building web pages. Even when they do, it is usually not considered as something that can be avoided. According to some experts, “the back button is one of the most important web buttons on any web page… most people come to a web page and skim. If it doesn’t look like what they needed to learn or wanted to read about, they leave. And the quickest route out of any web site is, you guessed it, the back button.”

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Designed to help protect children, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), impacts how web sites can collect information from children. Passed into law in April of 2000, it affects every site that might have a thirteen year old or younger visitor. Even if your site is unlikely to have children visiting it or is not specifically designed for children, it makes good business sense to be aware and consider following the law anyway to “improve consumer confidence in your site.”

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Greater usability is the goal of website navigation. Making the site clear and easy for visitors to navigate should be an important goal of every web designer. For large sites with many pages of information, or businesses with a variety of products, simple and straightforward navigation “has to be properly researched and designed.” Remember that not all the individuals who come to your site will be computer literate or savvy. Making information clear and easy to get to is vital to ensuring you reach the maximum number of potential customers.

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