Description:
In an ideal world, there would be truth to the old saying, "If you build it, they will come." However, back here on earth, smart professionals know that, without the proper marketing tools, even the most impressive Web site can get lost in cyberspace forever. With the WebWorks Internet Utility Suite, not only will you increase traffic to your site, but also you'll learn more about your customers, while testing and repairing your site's content. Installing WebWorks was surprisingly quick and easy. It took only about 10 minutes to load up the three major components of the application, Web Site Traffic Builder, Web Site Traffic Analyzer, and Web Site Medic. The application also comes with a 45-day free trial for Microsoft FrontPage 2000, so that you actually can build your Web site, then use WebWorks to track its progress. Web Site Traffic Builder, the first component of the application, is designed to help businesses promote their Web sites through various Internet search engines and databases. Traffic Builder can either import META tags (if they already exist in the user's code) or create META tags by using the Site Details form. Once the tags are complete, the Categories pages will help you decide where and how you wish to promote your Web site. WebWorks gives you access to most of the major search engines, including Yahoo!, AOL, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves. You also have the option to submit your site to lesser-known engines and foreign-language sites, too. However, as with all processes, it can take anywhere from hours to days to months for your site to begin surfacing on any given search engine. Once you've got your site listed on a bunch of different search engines, you're ready to see whether your efforts actually are working. That's where the Web Site Traffic Analyzer comes in--use this function to find out how many visitors your site is getting, and see which images/pages/files are the most popular and even which days of the week are your busiest. You can analyze local reports, or ones that are stored on an FTP site or a Web server. The user manual even will give you tips on how to read the reports and analyze your data. (A few marketing courses, however, might be a good idea, too.) Finally, the Web Site Medic will help you fix what might or might not look broken to the naked eye. Check for broken links, oversize pages, missing page descriptions, multiple URLs, and other common site issues. The interface is fairly easy to use, and issues are laid out in an impressively straightforward manner. While it won't take the place of a knowledgeable business development or marketing associate, WebWorks is a cost-efficient and timesaving way to give your business a strong and reliable Internet presence. --Gisele Toueg
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