Moderated by Ted Ulle,

First up is …

Ted Ulle

Suggests that web designers should come last. (During his presentation he pretty much made it clear that he doesn’t like designers)
Create a usable navigation. He mentioned that your website navigation should tell a story.

Too many choices equals NO CHOICE! Make it easy for the customer to shop

Do not rely on your IT people to do your web writing. Never let a programmer write an error message that is going to be visible by a site visitor

Look out for designers who just want to show off and have absolutely no respect for your industry

Be sure to document every decision you make so that you can always go back to it and see why you did things the way they are

Once again … he hates designers.

Next up is…

Jennifer Slegg

She stresses on unique content (we know about that … let’s get some meat please)

Avoid free article sites

Many ecommerce sites make a mistake of using manufacturer copy to describe the product they are selling. She points out that site owners should write their own unique copy for every product. (This is not that hard … I hired a pretty good copywriter before to write copy for 800 products. It was good and under $800)

Be sure to add new content on a regular basis (Engines love this … especially MSN)

Suggests using Copyscape.com as a tool to check if the content is unique

Forums are a great way to generate unique content as well as ideas

Comments on your blogs also create that unique content

Next up is …

Heather Lloyd-Martin (sorry for the bad picture)

Sites should have keyword focus. Usually 2-3 keywords per page

Short copy doesn’t position well. Less than 250 words per page is not suggested though there are exceptions.

Be sure to have different titles for each web page

Don’t stuff content with keywords