In flipping websites, you can begin the process of adding value to it once you get hold of a site that meets your requirements. There are many ways to do these and the changes that will be implemented depend entirely on the purpose and goals for the site. Thus, discussion in this article will be limited to the general improvements that can be made. You must also remember that you need not be a web-design expert to do the upgrading, as you can easily tap the services of a freelance coder to do the job for you, with just a little additional investment in your part.
Giving the site a new look is a great way to regenerate interest, particularly for websites that are around for some time. One may opt to rebuild the web pages from the ground or just do minor facelifts to make it more appealing. Changing the fonts, backgrounds, graphics and layout are the more obvious design modifications but you must remember that making the site more user-friendly and accessible is more important, as users are turned-off with complicated set-ups that waste too much of their time. It is imperative to put in place tools and widgets that enable users to do tasks such as registration, updating membership records, subscribing to newsletters or buying products in a breeze.
A crucial factor that one must think of in the new design is ad placement and sizes for more effective results. Placing the ads in more prominent areas and allowing bigger ads such as banners can increase revenue immensely. You may also incorporate text link ads, affiliate programs and sponsorships to bring in more cash and add more value to the site. Sponsorship also affords the unique possibility of the sponsor buying the site in the future when you decide to sell it.
Search engine optimization, the buzzword nowadays, is also a must-have factor in your upgrading. All that design improvement is rather useless if the search engines, and consequently the users, can’t find your site. Optimizing means looking for the right keywords that users are usually searching for that are applicable to your site, and including these keywords in the title, text and tags of your web pages. It may be necessary to rewrite existing titles and articles to add the keywords, but this additional work will certainly reward you with better page rankings, visibility and traffic.
You should take advantage of sites with existing membership features, as users who have been at one time loyal patrons of the site will most likely welcome the upgrading. Once you’ve implemented the changes to the site, you should provide members with updates and what they might expect from the rejuvenated site. Ask for feedback and comments, provide direct emails and newsletters, and offer special discounts for your products.
The changes mentioned here are the most common and proven ways to add value to the site. Innovativeness and creativity are valued qualities in the Internet, and having a forward-looking concept might just be the thing that will set your site apart.
