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Do you utilize the sidebars of your website?

by Dina Giolitto

I'm a huge fan of the sidebars on a website page. That's one big reason why I prefer HTML-based websites for myself, as well as for the clients that I build websites for.

The sidebar is an ideal area to include "extra" information that may be related, or in fact have nothing to do with, the featured article or copy that runs down the center of your web page. You don't want to break the continuity of whatever your visitor is reading, and yet you have plenty of other announcements and enticements to present. So you add those little "and then some's" to the sidebar, and voila... another exciting diversion for your avid webfans and readers.

Spread the news in your sidebar. The sidebar is the perfect spot to advertise that upcoming seminar you have planned for fall, the launch of your company magazine, or whatever other goodies you have planned.

The sidebar is for sign-ups. You can put a graphic in the sidebar that tells people to sign up for your newsletter. Some marketers even squeeze their newsletter sign-up form right there in the sidebar, although I don't because mine is stored on its own page, where there's room to ask for more information, such as address, company name, and other details.

Get some SEO love via the sidebar. Maybe you've been posting lots of new information to your site, and you want to add keyword links for search engines and humans to click and enjoy. The sidebar is an excellent place to do this.

Post a sidebar survey. A lot of people ask me questions like "how many times should I send out a company newsletter in a month," or "how high should I price my e-course?" Sometimes, the best ways to find answers to those is to just ASK your readers, in the form of a survey. Tuck a brief intro to the survey in your sidebar, with a link to click more.

Add some sidebar snippets. You can include the best lines from your client testimonials, with a link to read the rest of the page. Or how about a quotable quote for the day? Pretty much any little nugget can go in the sidebar, with a link to read the rest.

One might think that keeping the sidebars of your many website pages current would be a rather arduous and time-consuming task. It's really not, if you know how to use Dreamweaver to design a website efficiently. The truth is, that an update to the sidebar that affects the entire site, which could be as big as 200 pages or more, can take as little as 15 minutes.

Are you missing out on all the potential interest and business that can be drummed up in your website's sidebar?

If so... don't wait another minute! Contact Dina@Wordfeeder.com for a website critique and possible redesign today.

Wordfeeder.com is the home of Dina Giolitto's Copywriting, Copy Editing, Web and Print Marketing Services. Interesting in learning how to market your business successfully using the latest online and offline methods? Eager to master the art of writing copy that gets you more clients and sales? Then keep following along! We publish articles regularly and post them on our home page. Write to dina@wordfeeder.com with comments or for a project quote today.

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