Put Islam on the WWW?

Secrets for “Putting Islam on WWW” - by Yusuf Estes
Many of our 2,000+ websites come up on page one of Google in searches for Islam,

Muslims and related subjects. "Today we have over 2,000 website domain names registered on the Internet. And in many cases we come up on page one of any Google search for Islam related topics."

"But it wasn't always like that. Back in 1993 when I first logged on to the Internet, I was in a print shop making prayer schedules for our masjid and a clerk comes up to me and says,   

"Huh?" (Good come back from me, right?) Then he says, "We got this new thing that goes through the telephone wires to different places in the world and you can look for stuff in libraries and universities and stuff too!"
Hmmm. . Aaaah - is it free?"
He says, "Sure! Check it out. Push that key and your on your way."

  He was right - I really was "on my way" - Little did I know, back them. Anyway, that was my first time to "go online" and I didn't even know I did it – In fact, I didn't the difference between AOL and LOL  ; )

Competing Against Billions on the Web
10 Tips for Best Sites on the Net

From “Putting Islam on the WWW” - by Yusuf Estes

It was 1993 when I first logged on to the Internet at a local Kinkos print shop. Naturally, the first thing I did was search for the word "Islam" - I was happy to find 6 websites dealing with the subject of my new religion. Amazing!

I thought, "Amazing - so much information, just about Islam" - little did I know what Allah had in store for us

It was in February of 1998 when we started our first website for Islam - We gave our first shahadah to a young lady in Arizona - the very first week!

It wasn't long until we stared up another website for Muslim chaplains. Wow! Two websites! Can you imagine? Those were the "good 'ole days" for sure.

Today we have over 5,560 website domain names and many interactive sites using the latest technology in broadcasting, on-demand videos, TV channel links, radio, television, on-line video conferencing, and not to mention literally thousands of pages dealing with the many aspects of the world's fastest growing religion - ISLAM.

But let me go back for a bit to give you some idea of how it all began for us and what the progress was really like, inshallah. Back in the early '90s, there wasn't much on the Web to look at. Compu-Serve was the big thing and none of us really understood much of how it all worked. For the most part, it was all just text anyway - no pics, no images, for sure there was nothing like audio or video back in the "Old Days" LOL.

Yet can you imagine this? Any site or ad that went up was swamped with visitors because the medium was still such a novelty.

Fast-forward to now. Nowadays, new sites are no big deal. Putting a url in an email or ad isn't nearly enough to draw visitors to your site unless you give them good incentive and pay off their investment of time with something really juicy. Most sites are bone dry though and not worth the pixels they're made up of.

Most all Muslim youths (and some of us old guys too) enjoy using the Internet and some of us even venture out into the area of writing in blogs, posting on forums and leaving messages on the boards - but some of us really go crazy, designing and building our own websites on the world wide web (you knew that is what the "www" stands for, right?

Many people ask me how we are able to compete with the billions and billions (over 33 billion last count) of web pages on the web.

Good question. Keep reading . .

1. Say it:
Be real clear - don't make visitors guess at your purpose. Say it from the beginning. Get to your point and stay on it with straight talk. Our most success comes from pages without doubt. Our number one site for people accepting Islam is www.ChatIslam.com and we state many times the following words about this site:

"Dedicated to presenting the truth about Islam in simple English"

Remember, Allah tells us right from the beginning of surah Baqarah in Quran:

"The Book wherein there is no doubt - a source of guidance for those who fear (their Lord) and believe . . ." (Quran 2:2)

2. Think Inside Your Visitor's Head:
What are they looking for? What do they need? Why did they come to your site in the first place?
Does Allah tell us to use our minds? Are we supposed to consider the conditions of the people before us and the people around us?

People are still the same today in many ways, as they have been for centuries. We all worry about our families, children, parents, food, shelter - life and death. We all think in our minds, "What is going to happen to me?"

A government agency on aging once asked me to talk about, "What Islam Says About Death & Dying" (several of the elderly loved it and became closer to Islam).

Many people visit this link on "Preparing for Death":www.islamtomorrow.com/Death.htm

3. Be Different From the Rest:
Our prophet, peace be upon him, taught us to be different from those who disbelieve, even to the extent of how we comb our hair or wear our clothes. Copying other people's way is not the way of Islam and it is not the way on the Internet either. We have to stand out from the rest and make folks take notice. Whatever type of site you have - hobby, business, games, sales, Quran, dawah or blog - personalize it with your own style and give visitors something to tell others about. We do it, inshallah.

Take a look at this one: www.AllahsQuran.com  

4. Information Design, not graphic design:

In B2B and many B2C cases, people are on a mission. They're leaning forward into the screen, looking for something pretty specific. You'll get better response rates and branding impressions if you help the user of your site get to what they want fast. It'll build loyalty and increase their comfort level. They're not going to believe your platitudes and puffy taglines. They'll believe their experience of you by how well your site performs for them at the time of need.

5. Be a Content magnet:

We all know now how important inbound links are, right? You know this is critical for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The search engines are impressed when they see authoritative sites in your field pointing to you. So how do you get sites to point to you? Not by sending out bot messages that begin "Dear Webmaster,"asking for links. Create content so good that other sites point to you as a resource. Tens of thousands of sites now point to the homepage of Web Digest For Marketers, not by accident. Often you will have the content in-house and not realize it; other times you may be best off buying content from a credible source. If you're budgeted for a content build-out, get in touch with me if you need an expert's input.

6. Blogs and RSS feeds:

We all read about the blogosphere and RSS feeds. Aside from attracting new prospects to you via the content they contain, the search engines also pay attention to these media closely as they demand frequent updates. Frequency is another very important aspect to SEO. You can optimize your website with all the relevant keyword phrases you like, but if your site isn't updated frequently, it's going to look as stale as last week's loaf of bread to the search engine spiders, and your search engine rankings will fall.

7. "Nichy Nichy":

Look for what your competitors aren't doing, and consider doing just that. It will help you stand out from the pack. Don't let them lead. You lead by staying at least one step ahead.

8. Look Back on Next Year:

As a Futurist speaker, clients ask me to look ahead and tell them what I see coming over the horizon. To do this, I imagine myself 12 months out looking back. For some speaking clients, I write future headlines for their industry. This exercise is helpful to get a jump on where to aim their site and marketing strategies moving forward.

9. Talk to me:
Does your website speak? I don't mean through an audio channel, though that is now much more commonplace. Rather, does your site have a specific "voice" and attitude? After all, it is your proxy. Ask yourself: How well does your site really represent you? Most sites I know do a crummy job of reflecting the company, its mission and people.

10. Don't over-engineer it:
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. The latest gizmos you can get through your homepage may be cool to tweens or 20 somethings, but if your audience encompasses people outside that demographic, you may be ignoring them or even irritating them.

Bonus Tip

11. Get Real: Many sites work well in somebody's mind or on a storyboard, but they don't translate well into reality. Think outside the box, but make sure you are not just talking to yourself.

Well, there you have it. Now you know all my secrets (well, not really all of them) for success on the world wide web.

And remember - "Have fun while you share Islam" (that's another one of our websites): www.ShareIslam.com
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More? www.LinksToIslam.com