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Podcasting U
What if I don’t have a website?
Websites, by nature, never seem to be finished! Well, when you think about it, they are “living” documents. It’s important to realize that you will have on-going expenses to keep your website current, as they should always contain fresh new data for the search engine “spiders” to find. This is very important as it shows your site is active and, therefore, contains very relevant food for spiders. Now, I don’t mean that your site will be eaten. The term “food for spiders” references that the search engines will go to your site to “consume” your information. This is an essential part of the “Trinity” strategy.
A good website should have at least the following pages. Note that these pages do not have to appear in the same order as they might appear on your site.
1. “Welcome” page: Obviously a good welcoming page is very important. This is where you brand yourself, and explain what your site is all about.
2. “About you” page: Your listeners or viewers want to know about who you are. This page should be like a mini-bio or mini-resume showing your credentials, or something of that nature. I know it might be difficult to toot your own horn, but this page will do just that! If you can’t write it, then get someone who can help talk about you, your accomplishments, and who you are.
3. Contact page: This is usually your snail mail address plus your electronic contact information. Remember that “spiders” will come to the site and get this information, so don’t put an address out there that you don’t want the world to know about… like your home address!
4. Links page: This is very strategic when it comes to SEO, as these links hop off of your site to other sites, like your podcast page and blog page. The more “great” links you can have, the better. What I mean by great is that links should have relevance to your site. If you would like to have a link to some site that doesn’t have anything to do with your topic matter, then the relevance of your site is reduced.
5.Podcast page: You should have your podcasts on the site or a linked player on this page. This is also very important for the search engines to see.
6. Downloads page: A downloads page is very important for one simple reason, it’s a way to farm for your email addresses of your viewers. Types of things that you would offer as downloads would be PDF’s of your brochure or other information documents. You might request a person fill out a form, then you will send out an email with links for the download.
7. News page: What is happening in your world? This is very important to your fans. It is like a blog, but more like a news page so your fans can learn about your everyday business-related life. This is a great place to communicate your thoughts, travels (if you dare), and other things which are going on in your world.
8.“What’s hot”: This is a page dedicated to the topics or activities that you find “Hot” or interesting. For example, if you were upset about some law passing, or about a ruling being made, this is where you would discuss it. If there was a rally or a gathering that you thought was of importance, this is the place to discuss it.
9. For sale page: Clearly, if you are going to develop downloading assets for sale or even consulting time for sale, you need a place to show your purchasable “offerings”: this is that page!
10. Disclaimer page: It is always a good idea to have a disclaimer page. If you are in the legal arena, then you understand the need for having a disclaimer. If you are into martial arts, then you understand that you should have some page discussing the health of the participants and “don’t try this at home” type of website warning. If you don’t know what you should have, then discuss this with your attorney and I’m sure he or she can help you figure out what your disclaimer should say.
Websites can have many more pages than this, but these are my recommendations for a good site. This is the kind of site that “reeks” of good relevant content! Another thing to keep in mind is that most webmasters say they know all about SEO, and it has been found that few really do. So you might want to consider that, if you don’t use me for your SEO website, you should try to find a company that can work on your site with your webmaster.
Again, websites are never completely finished. They are living documents. Realize that you will require periodic updates to your site, and this will, of course, cost some money. A good podcaster will budget for periodic updates to stay in the game for the search engines to come back frequently and get “new” material.
A good website should have at least the following pages. Note that these pages do not have to appear in the same order as they might appear on your site.
1. “Welcome” page: Obviously a good welcoming page is very important. This is where you brand yourself, and explain what your site is all about.
2. “About you” page: Your listeners or viewers want to know about who you are. This page should be like a mini-bio or mini-resume showing your credentials, or something of that nature. I know it might be difficult to toot your own horn, but this page will do just that! If you can’t write it, then get someone who can help talk about you, your accomplishments, and who you are.
3. Contact page: This is usually your snail mail address plus your electronic contact information. Remember that “spiders” will come to the site and get this information, so don’t put an address out there that you don’t want the world to know about… like your home address!
4. Links page: This is very strategic when it comes to SEO, as these links hop off of your site to other sites, like your podcast page and blog page. The more “great” links you can have, the better. What I mean by great is that links should have relevance to your site. If you would like to have a link to some site that doesn’t have anything to do with your topic matter, then the relevance of your site is reduced.
5.Podcast page: You should have your podcasts on the site or a linked player on this page. This is also very important for the search engines to see.
6. Downloads page: A downloads page is very important for one simple reason, it’s a way to farm for your email addresses of your viewers. Types of things that you would offer as downloads would be PDF’s of your brochure or other information documents. You might request a person fill out a form, then you will send out an email with links for the download.
7. News page: What is happening in your world? This is very important to your fans. It is like a blog, but more like a news page so your fans can learn about your everyday business-related life. This is a great place to communicate your thoughts, travels (if you dare), and other things which are going on in your world.
8.“What’s hot”: This is a page dedicated to the topics or activities that you find “Hot” or interesting. For example, if you were upset about some law passing, or about a ruling being made, this is where you would discuss it. If there was a rally or a gathering that you thought was of importance, this is the place to discuss it.
9. For sale page: Clearly, if you are going to develop downloading assets for sale or even consulting time for sale, you need a place to show your purchasable “offerings”: this is that page!
10. Disclaimer page: It is always a good idea to have a disclaimer page. If you are in the legal arena, then you understand the need for having a disclaimer. If you are into martial arts, then you understand that you should have some page discussing the health of the participants and “don’t try this at home” type of website warning. If you don’t know what you should have, then discuss this with your attorney and I’m sure he or she can help you figure out what your disclaimer should say.
Websites can have many more pages than this, but these are my recommendations for a good site. This is the kind of site that “reeks” of good relevant content! Another thing to keep in mind is that most webmasters say they know all about SEO, and it has been found that few really do. So you might want to consider that, if you don’t use me for your SEO website, you should try to find a company that can work on your site with your webmaster.
Again, websites are never completely finished. They are living documents. Realize that you will require periodic updates to your site, and this will, of course, cost some money. A good podcaster will budget for periodic updates to stay in the game for the search engines to come back frequently and get “new” material.
Many new podcasters don’t have websites, and I can remedy that problem. I can build them one from scratch. Or, if they have a website, I can attach pages to their existing website to carry their podcast. Websites, as I said earlier, should use the SEO strategy. If you don’t have a website, it’s good to start fresh. Don’t feel bad if you don’t have a website yet, many new start-up podcasts are in the same boat.
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