Websites with authority compare to people with authority; everyone either knows them or knows of them. You should make it your goal to position your online shopping cart website as an authority in your industry. The first step of making your website an authority in your industry requires following these eleven tips.
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1. First Impressions
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Just like a job interview, dress for the occasion.
Imagine you use online shopping cart software to sell Harley Davidson products. Would you dress your website with Cabbage Patch Kids? Not likely.
Your visitors have pre-disposed expectations.
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2. Be Creative
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Do not be a dullard. You and/or your team have some creativity within you; use it.
Challenge the creativity of yourself and your team.
If you're challenging your team, offer monthly prizes for the most creative idea each month and/or week. You can base the award system on votes from the team or viralness of the idea.
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3. Industry Accepted Language (Jargon)
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Every industry has its own accepted language. Experts within the industry know the lingo.
When you fail to use the accepted language, you present the idea that you’re a novice.
Ensure you meet the expectations of other experts and novices by defining the terms somewhere on your website and linking to them.
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4. Avoid Misspellings
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Although countless tests have shown that people tend to read the word correctly as long as the first and last letters of a word are correct. That, by far, provides no excuse for misspellings.
Allowing misspellings to remain in your content provides a clear indication of laziness and lack of respect for the reader. Always triple verify your spelling.
Technical writers learn to read sentences backwards to help them identify misspelled words.
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5. Use Word Correctly
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Is it red or read?
Using words incorrectly indicates you have a poor vocabulary.
Always use a dictionary and/or thesaurus to ensure you have chosen the proper word.
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6. Use Proper Grammar
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Always ensure you use proper grammar and writing styles.
According to Wikipedia.org, "In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer to orthographical rules, although usage books and style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and punctuation."
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7. Use Proper Writing Styles
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According to Wikipedia.org, "Writing style is the manner in which an author chooses to write to his or her audience. A style reveals both the writer's personality and voice, but it also shows how she or he perceives the audience, and chooses conceptual writing style which reveal those choices by which the writer may change the conceptual world of the overall character of the work. This might be done by a simple change of words; a syntactical structure, parsing prose, adding diction, and organizing figures of thought into usable frameworks."
Would you use a Dr. Seuss-style dialogue to sell professional services such as legal or medical? If you did, you readers would probably mock you more than hire you.
Always ensure you write in a manner that provides a strong, positive impression of your audience.
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8. Proofread
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You were probably taught in school, you should always proofread your paper prior to turning it in to the teacher. The same applies to writing an article, blog post, and product description. The more precise and accurate your dialogue, the greater respect people have for you.
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9. Avoid Tangents and Stay on Topic
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By avoiding tangents and remaining on topic, you signal to the search engines the theme or niche of your website. Divergent thoughts and topics can creep in like termites eating away at your niche and skew the search engine's view of your website.
The more on topic you remain, the more respected you become.
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10. Prove Your Expertise
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Have you been interviewed by other industry experts? Have your written a book? Have you conducted studies in your industry? Do you have special credentials such as Ph. D., MBA, or other acronyms you can plug behind your name?
Getting interviewed by magazines, TV, radio, internet radio, or bloggers can lend credence to your expertise. Writing an e-book and publishing it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other websites lends credence to your expertise, especially if you obtain the title "Best Selling Author."
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11. Take a Stance
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Remember, you’re the expert in your industry. You can choose a topic and defend it or attack it. Either way, some people will find your stance offensive and begin talking about you. Others will appreciate your stance and link to you. In both cases, you need to make your stance public.
Your Takeaway
Position your website as an authority by consistently following these eleven tips. As people find and respect or challenge your views, your website will start receiving links from other websites. You can expedite getting people to find your website by following various methods of building links to your website.
Additional Parts:
9 On-site Features for Creating Your Authority Site
11 Off-site Ideas for Building Your Authority Site
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