Best practices for online business

Posted by jd
October 24, 2006

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I have received dozens of emails asking about best practices for operating an online business. Here are the Top 10 practices that we follow at eCreativa Media resulting in over a million visitors a month without spending a penny on online advertising:

    Fire your search engine optimization (SEO) firm or whatever misleading name they might use. Yes, I am serious. All search engines, and Google in particular, hate SEO. And remember that good web design practices and SEO are two things. While the former should be used at all times, SEO typically means use of shady tactics to improve your rankings in search engine results. This could even result in blacklisting and/or outright ban by a search engine.
    Hire a good internal web team. This is one function that has become too important to be outsourced. Do not set unrealistic goals for them lest they be tempted to work like SEO firms.
    Focus on Google. You can safely ignore Yahoo, Live Search, and all the other so-called search engines. If you are ready for Google, the other search engines will be taken care of. In any case, most decent website receive close to 80% of their traffic from Google.
    Google asks, “Would I do this if search engines didn’t exisits?” Listen to this advice. Do not design your website for bots or search engines – design your website for readers.
    Keep it fresh. It gives an incentive to visit again. However, manage the pace of change. If you make major changes, release them slowly rather than going ahead with a major update in one stroke.
    Search engines dance all the time and that means you may see wide swings in traffic and rankings. Stay calm. Pretend that nothing is happening. If you have done nothing wrong, you are OK.
    Spoil your customers. Stay on top of what they want and provide it. They will reward you by returning and recommending you to friends and family.
    Follow highest standards of business. Declare your privacy policy, do no evil (spam, malware, etc.), label advertising appropriately, and respect the intelligence of your visitors. Magic will happen.
    Build a brand – not a website. That is what leads to repeat visitors, referalls, and buzz.
    Content is king – never forget that.
Marketing, Technology

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