Category: Marketing

Nobody keeps the same website forever.  Websites get redesigned and on a regular basis.  Websites also need their content updated or reorganized to keep up with a growing business or organization.

When you change the structure of your site (move pages, rename them, or delete them altogether) you could be losing valuable traffic and costing your business or organization signups, purchases, or more.

One of the primary ways that a site generates traffic is from people clicking on links to it from search engines, other websites, or e-mails.  The search engine part is obvious.  Links from other sites could come from your website being listed on someone else’s site, or links posted on blogs and forums.  Links in e-mails are simply that, a link to some page on your site, sent to someone in a e-mail.

A link is simply the address, or URL (Uniform Resource Locator), of a given page or website.  In this case we are talking about links to specific pages on your site.

The reason why rearranging the structure of your site could cost you traffic is because there are very likely many different links to specific pages on your site posted on other websites.  Moreover, all of the search engines have those specific pages categorized in their databases.

For example: let’s say that your about us page’s URL is http://somedomain.com/about.htm and during a redesign it is changed to http://somedomain.com/company/about_us.html to make it a sub-page of a new "Company" page.  Now that you’ve made that change, all of those links to http://somedomain.com/about.htm on other sites, search engines, and e-mail no longer work.  Visitors will get a 404 (file not found) error, and you will likely lose any search engine ranking that you had with the content on that page.

This can cost you big time!

That’s not to say that you can’t reorganize and revamp the structure of your site, you just have to do so intelligently.

There are two ways to go about it:

1. Leave any existing URLs alone and just add new content to those pages.
2. Set up redirects for the old URLs to the new ones so that when someone tries to access an "old" link, they are redirected to the new page, and so that the search engines know to update the entry for that specific page without losing your search engine ranking.

So, when you decide to do some clean-up and re-organizing on your site, just make sure you take a few minutes to note the existing URLs of your pages so you can set up any redirects and this will keep you from losing valuable traffic to your site.

— Ryan Chapin
President, Nuts & Bolts Interactive, Inc.

This month we welcome a guest contributor, Chip Cooper, a leading information technology, software, and Internet attorney with over 25+ years in practice.  Chip operates http://digicontracts.com, a cost-effective, online contract drafting service for drafting website legal compliance contracts featuring “do-it-myself” and “do-it-for-me” options.

It’s extremely important for website businesses to stay on top of new legal risks, as well as new opportunities, as they develop.  So, I highly recommend that you sign up for Chip’s FREE newsletter, Website Law Alert — I read it regularly (it’s a quick and easy read), and I wouldn’t recommend it if it weren’t the best I’ve seen.  You’ll also get Chip’s FREE downloadable Special Report as a bonus.  Click here to signup.

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If you haven’t been following the legal developments on the Web in the last couple of years, you may not be aware of the significant upswing in litigation aimed at interactive and ecommerce websites — both large and small.

To help you stay on top of these developments, I’ve boiled down the 5 factors that are driving this wave of litigation.

No. 1: heightened concerns regarding privacy and data security.

You probably know what’s behind this — it’s everyone’s concern over identity theft. This overriding concern has government regulators hypersensitive regarding how you collect, use, share, store, and secure your customer data online.

No. 2: consumer (and consumer watchdog) concerns regarding online fraud and scams.

Online fraud and scams perpetuated on consumers is a growing problem. Consumers and their consumer watchdog organizations are on the lookout for perceived violators. State government regulators operating in the offices of state attorneys general are becoming very active with legal actions against out-of-state interactive and ecommerce businesses that sell into their states.

Example: Florida has recently created a new task force to deal with Internet-related fraud called the CyberFraud Task Force. The group is part of the Florida Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division. The first case filed by the Task Force was against AzoogleAds US Inc., an online media buying company.

No. 3: the overly litigious society we live in.

Daily, we see examples of ridiculous suits brought for spite or possible financial windfall.

Here’s a good example — in 2007, Leroy Greer, a married man, sued 1-800-Flowers.com for $1 million for revealing that he was cheating on this wife. Greer bought flowers for his girlfriend through the 1-800-Flowers site. Greer stated that he was careful to review the site’s privacy policy, which indicated that customers could request that personal information not be shared with “third parties”. But 1-800-Flowers sent a receipt to his house, and his wife read it. She requested a copy of the receipt, and 1-800-Flowers faxed her a receipt that revealed that Greer had sent his girlfriend a dozen long-stemmed roses with a note that read: “Just wanted to say that I love you and you mean the world to me”. By Greer’s way of thinking, he wasn’t responsible for his troubles at all — 1-800-Flowers was. So, he sued.

No. 4: high visibility on the Web.

Think about it… your site is highly visible and accessible from anywhere in the world. It’s there for all to see! This means that government regulators, disgruntled customers, overzealous competitors, and content suppliers have easy access to your site… and with it, an open invitation to examine your site and content for legal violations.

No. 5: expansive legal interpretation regarding jurisdiction.

This is the least obvious to non-lawyers. Due to the worldwide reach of the Web… combined with expansive legal decisions extending the scope of jurisdiction, you are now subject to civil suits — even criminal prosecution — by out-of-state plaintiffs and government regulators.

Example: in a recent case, a U.S. District Court in New York ruled that a Missouri-based website operator, who sold 19 books to New York residents, was subject to personal jurisdiction in New York. This means that the case that was filed in New York by New York residents, will remain in New York, and that the Missouri-based website operator must travel to New York, hire New York attorneys, and defend the suit in the courts in New York.
What’s The Solution

Don’t ever forget this simple truth (and I’m speaking from over 25 years’ experience representing software, information technology, and Internet companies)… even if you win one of these suits, YOU LOSE. So, your overriding objective is to stay out of court.

The best way to begin protecting your website business is to get a legal check-up. Your basic protection begins with a well-drafted and coordinated package of website legal documents consisting of one or more of the following:

• Terms of Use;
• Privacy Policy;
• Customer Agreement (usually referred to as a subscription agreement, account agreement, terms of sale, or SaaS Agreement; and
• DMCA Registration Form.

You also need a way to stay on top of new legal developments as they arise. My FREE newsletter, Website Law Alert, is designed to provide this timely, “need to know” information to you. You can sign up at my digicontracts.com site.

Copyright 2008 Chip Cooper

This article is provided for educational and informative purposes only. This information does not constitute legal advice, and should not be construed as such.

Chip Cooper is a leading information technology, software, and Internet attorney who helps small ecommerce and interactive website businesses nationwide stay out of court with affordable website legal compliance. To sign up for Chip’s FREE newsletter, Website Law Alert, and his FREE Special Report, “12 Sure-Fire Ways Your Website Can Get You Sued”, visit Chip’s digicontracts.com site, and also learn about his “Do-It-Myself” and “Do-It-For-Me” service options.

This is an article written by a colleague, Bhavesh Naik of Ambica Training.

Bhavesh has some very interesting insight into how things played out in the primaries and how they relate to business. 

So you have a Contact Us form on your site, with which, customers and prospects can easily send you an e-mail.  That’s all well and good, but if you don’t respond to those e-mails in a timely manner you could lose a potential new client.
This all ties into basic, human psychology.  People want instant gratification and they want it on their terms.  Which is one of the reasons why providing a contact form is so important.  It enables a prospect to send you an e-mail directly from your website without having to manually copy your e-mail address and then compose and send you a message.

The Contact form makes it easy for them to send you an e-mail, right then and there.  But that is only the first half of it.  The timeliness of your response to that e-mail is crucial for brining in new business.

Responding right away helps to make a great first impression on your prospect and tells them that you are on-the-ball.  Moreover, in many cases if a prospect is actively looking for your product or service and submitting contact forms on multiple sites, they are likely to go with the first person who can get back to them and then demonstrate that they are able to solve their problem or provide a satisfactory product at a reasonable price.

Waiting a day or so to return those e-mails can cost you a new customer.

There are a number of things that you can do to make it easier for you to be aware of and respond to these e-mails:

1. Get an e-mail enabled hand-held device:  Treos, Blackberrys, iPhones and others allow you to receive e-mail anywhere you have cell coverage.  This enables you to keep an eye on your Inbox even when away from your desk.  These devices are becoming much more affordable and are worth their weight in gold if you spend anytime out of the office.
2. Have multiple people in your organization receive Contact Us form e-mails:  Set up the form such that multiple people in your organization will receive these e-mails.  Then have whoever sees it first respond and BCC everyone else on the list.  This let’s everyone in your organization know that someone has this one and gives you wider coverage.
3. Set your e-mail client to automatically check mail:  You can configure your e-mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) to automatically check mail for you and alert you when new messages come in.  This will let you know immediately when you get a new e-mail from your Contact form.
4. Make sure to have a computer on and e-mail up at work:  This sounds obvious.  However, not every business owner or salesperson is always sitting behind a desk.  We have one client who runs a restaurant.  She keeps a laptop up and running in a place where she can easily check her e-mail during the day.  This enables her to see requests for carryouts or catering as they come in.

Keep these tips in mind and make sure to respond promptly to any e-mails that come to you via your website’s Contact form and you will hopefully see an increase in new business.

In age where it’s easy to copy anything that can be put on the Internet, how do you build and maintain value in intellectual property that is perceived as something that should be free?

Here is an excellent article by Kevin Kelly and articulates this new paradigm.

When people see a website with an “Under Construction” or similar message it typically translates to “This site will never be updated, don’t bother coming back”.

A much better approach is to publish whatever content you have, and add to it later.
There are two main reasons why the “Under Construction” message has turned into the kiss of death for a website:

• It’s so over used
• and in many cases that message will sit on a website for years before anyone gets around to updating that page

You are much better off having a single page with a paragraph about your business with a contact form and phone number than having a bunch of empty pages with “Under Construction” messages on them.

There is no good reason to advertise what you haven’t yet done on your site, so just add those pages later.

One of the things that will make it more likely that you’ll actually add those pages is using a content management system or focusing on writing the content and then handing it off to a web developer to make the updates for you.

Remember, there is nothing wrong with having a one page website as long as it tells visitors something about you, what you can do for them, and gives them an easy way to get in touch with you.

Your website is (and should be) an ever evolving resource for your prospects and clients, so don’t stress about it being “finished” or “perfect”.  It’s better to go with what you have, than advertise to people what they are missing.

— Ryan Chapin

During website content discussions with clients, NBI frequently hears the same three questions:

1. "What should we say about ourselves?
2. What do we want our website visitors to do on our site?
3. and how do we make it easy for them to do what we want?"

Our response to these questions is "Tell us about information that your typical prospect is looking for when they first contact you."

The answer to this question helps you craft content that is more appropriately targeted to your website audience, and this content will help you drive more traffic to your website.

An effective website is designed to provide information valuable to your target audience. Top ranked websites, in any industry, always have the same basic characteristics.

• They all provide free, valuable information,
• in an easy to use format,
• that is relevant to the target audience.

The three main reasons why writing your content with your visitor in mind is a good way to go:

1. Visitor centric content typically generates a lot of relevant traffic from links on other websites. What is relevant traffic and why is that good? Relevant traffic is website visitors coming to your site who are already interested in whatever product or service that you provide. Having someone come to your accounting firm, or catering company website who is already interested in what you do greatly increases your chances of making a sale.
2. Visitor centric content helps increase your search engine rankings. The aforementioned links that drive that relevant traffic, they also help with your search engine rankings. The more relevant links TO your site on the Internet, the higher your site ranks in search engines.
3. Providing good, reliable, free information is part of the nature of the Internet. The Internet is an open, vibrant, global community and much of what makes the Internet possible is free and part of the public domain. By offering your content you get the opportunity to contribute to what makes the Internet great.

When thinking about the content of your site, think about things that you know about your type  of business or organization that would be of value to a website visitor; things that would help make them an informed consumer and a confident buyer. Get that content out there, and you should see good things happen on your website.