Corporations, associations, and just about everyone else in the meetings industry are recognizing the value of the Web for marketing and improving customer/member services. We are building Web sites in record numbers! Unfortunately, there are wide discrepancies in the quality and effectiveness of these sites.

The three keys to make your site successful are knowing:

• how to be found (how to improve your ratings with the search engines and directories)
• how to be read (how to build a site that is interesting, useful, user-friendly, and visually compelling)
• how to be bookmarked (how to bring your visitors back repeatedly).

1. How to be found - using search engines effectively

On average, 40-50% of all web site "hits" come from search engines, the electronic card catalogs of the Web. If you cannot find your company/association by searching on its name or services, your site's effectiveness will be greatly diminished as people will not be able to find you.

Submitting:

Generally, you must submit your new Web site to these search sites to let them know that you are there. Submit-it (siteowner.linkexchange.com/free.cfm) is a free site that will allow you to submit your web site to 20 of the largest search sites by filling out a single form. However, my recommendation is to go directly to the top six search sites listed below, representing about 95% of all the search traffic, and submit directly as, each is slightly different in the process.

An important "search site" is Yahoo ( www.yahoo.com ) which is a popular search site and frequently visited. More people use Yahoo than many of the other search sites combined! Consequently, it is imperative to submit here. Fortunately, it is relatively simple. Click on the "How to Suggest A Site" link at the bottom of the Yahoo home page and follow the directions.

The other major search engines are: Excite ( www.excite.com ), Infoseek ( www.infoseek.com ) , Lycos ( www.lycos.com ), AltaVista ( www.altavista.com ), and HotBot ( www.hotbot.com ). These sites catalogue web sites with a robot software programs that analyzes key words, opening paragraphs, images, and, with some, every word in the site. Look for "submit a site", "add an URL" or similar verbiage at each of these sites and follow the directions to submit.

Improving your ranking:

If you don't show in the top 10 listings when searching on key words that describe your business, you might as well not be there -- people often will not look further. It is very important that you (or your web site developer) use all of the tools to help your site be correctly catalogued by the search sites. These include the "meta tag" and "meta name descriptions" which should be located in the non-visible code at the start of each page. More information on these and other tools to improve ranking can be found at searchenginewatch.com. Eureka www.best.com/~mentorms/eureka.htm  describes and links to more that 40 of the major search sites, as well.

2. How to be read -- the elements of web style

The next step is to get site visitors to read and explore your site. Listed below are some of the more important items:

Home page:

The home page is often your only chance to make a first-impression. It should be cleanly designed, it should come up quickly, it should have a central focal point, it should concisely welcome the visitor and succinctly state what the site is about.

Design consistency:

Strive for a common look and feel throughout the site. Use the same font styles, color scheme, and similar page layout on each page. Additionally, a company or association logo is recommended for brand identification. An excellent example of design consistency and quality is BMW's www.bmwusa.com/index2.html

Good Navigation:

A site must be easy to navigate or it will not be explored. A consistent navigation bar that appears throughout the site is recommended. The "3-click" rule should be followed -- any page on the site should not be more than 3 (with a maximum of 4 clicks) away. A consistent navigation scheme throughout lets the visitor know where he/she's at and where they are going.

Speed:

It won't matter how pretty your pages are -- if they do not come up quickly, they will not be read. The following are a few recommendations to increase the speed:

• Keep each overall page size small (<45,000 bytes)
• Limit the use of graphics (use thumbnail images that load quickly but will enlarge when clicked)
• Limit the use of animated graphics (they take longer to load and are distracting)

Finally, there are numerous web style manuals available on the web. One of the betters ones is: www.websitesthatsuck.com/home.html which shows a number of examples of what to do and what not to do.

3. How to be bookmarked - getting the repeat business

Getting the visitor there once is great, but getting them come back as a repeat customer should be the ultimate goal.

Attractors:

Gist, a leading web site marketing firm, recently reported the key characteristics in getting repeat business. Successful web sites are:

• Fun and entertaining
• Provide relevant and personalized information
• Provide immediate and gratifying results
• And give an experience of belonging
• Strive to add these elements in your site to keep them coming back.

Guest books & forums:

A web visitor is anonymous until they tell you who they are. Therefore, guest books should be used to capture visitors' names for future marketing. Forums, web based email lists, and discussion groups will add content to the site and can help establish that "experience of belonging" mentioned in the previous section.

Content:

Ultimately, the most important reason why people will come back is content -- content that is relevant and fresh. This not only includes the basic meeting facility information or company/association profile, but it should include the news, the press releases, the special offers, the changes and additions to your web site. "News" or "What's New" or "Newsletter" sections are important elements in adding content and making the site fresh.

Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP is a professional speaker and consultant focusing on meetings technology. With 20 years of experience running international citywide technology meetings, he now helps clients worldwide use technology to save time and improve productivity He can be contacted at his extensive web site: www.corbinball.com