Trust is More Valuable Than Ever in E-Commerce

This blog entry was posted on December 11, 2008.

According to reports from ComScore, spending for the holiday season is matching what was spent last year so far. And being in an official recession, I think I can sum up the feelings of most everyone:

Phew!

Spending at brick and mortar was slightly down from last year; so what helped bring us even with last year? ComScore reports that for the week starting on “Cyber Monday”, December 1st, through December 7th holiday spending online was up 7% from last year.

Which leads us to the question, why do consumers buy from one e-commerce site over another? It’s hard to argue that brand awareness and popularity play a big part, but so does trust.

What are some ways your e-commerce website can build more trust?

1. Have a professional website: Consumers are more likely to feel safer buying products off a professional, clean, website that utilizes smart business web design than one built with a template.
2. Use testimonials: People want reassurance that others have used your services and have had a positive experience.
3. Tell them about yourself: An “about us” page is more than the history of your company; it’s potential for the customer to identify with your company and know you are easy to reach via phone or email.
4. Respect their privacy: It’s common for a company to ask if the customer wants to receive a newsletter with deals on goods or news about the company during checkout. What’s uncommon is having to check the box to opt-in, instead of unchecking the box to opt-out. Just this little difference can make a very favorable impression on a customer.
5. Offer refunds: Having a refund/return policy shows that you stand behind the goods you sell – display this policy prominently.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design

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Where to Submit Your Site for Local Search

This blog entry was posted on December 9, 2008.

By focusing on local search you will bring in targeted traffic to your website. These are local people that are looking for local businesses.

So how do I submit my business website to local search engines, directories and online yellow pages? You should submit your website to the following sites for inclusion in their local search results. Most listings are free.

Before you submit, you should include your business address and phone on every page in your website. Talk about where you are located and communities you serve on your home page.

1. Best of the Web Local (free and pay options): http://local.botw.org/helpcenter/jumpstartproduct.aspx
2. citysearch.com (pay) https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/
3. Dex (free and pay options)  https://www.advertisewithdex.com/Dex/CDA/AWDSplash.jsp
4. Dmoz.org Open Directory (free) http://www.dmoz.org/  Find the most relevant category and click on “suggest URL) from within that category.
5. Google local business results (free): https://www.google.com/local/add/
6. InfoSpace (free) http://www.infospace.com/info/kmaint/kdbadd.html
7. InfoUSA (free) http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm Add or update your business record
8. Local.com (free) http://advertise.local.com/
9. MSN/Live Local Search (free) https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx
10. SuperPages.com (free and pay options): http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/business-listing
11. TrueLocal (free) http://www.truelocal.com/BusinessSuggest.aspx
12. Yahoo! Local (free) http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php
13. YellowPages.com (free and pay options): http://listings.yellowpages.com/
14. Yelp (free) https://www.yelp.com/login
15. Zoominfo (free) http://www.zoominfo.com/Registration/Register.aspx?type=6

Promote your website offline
One you have your website up and operating, promote it both offline to drive online traffic. Use your website URL on business cards, email signatures, newspaper ads, vehicle graphics, building signs, direct mail postcard campaigns and radio ads.

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Filed under: Local Search,SEO Strategies

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Local Search for Local Businesses

This blog entry was posted on December 7, 2008.

If you have a local business like a car mechanic, restaurant, dry cleaner or doctor’s office, you want to reach local people who are close enough to use your services. How do you target these people instead of people half a nation away? The answer is by optimizing your business website for local search.

What is local search?
Local searches use a general keyword phrase combined with a geographic location (state, county, city and zip code). People will search for “Dallas restaurants”, “Colorado eye doctor” and “San Diego car repair” when they need the services from a local business.

Benefits

1. Targeted Traffic: By focusing on local search you will bring in targeted traffic to your website. These are local people that are looking for local businesses.
2. Quicker results: It is much easier and faster to get top search rankings by localizing your website. There is much less competition for a local search phrase than a general nationwide phrase.

How to optimize your website for local search

1. Keywords: Describe your business using general keyword phrases in the text throughout your website.  Talk about what you do and who you do it for.
2. Location: Include your business address, phone number and a keyword rich tagline in text and on every page in your website.
3. Headline: Use a general keyword combined a location for the primary page headline (heading text). “Denver Laser Dentist” makes a much better headline than “Welcome to our Website.”
4. Title: Create a keyword rich Title Tag that includes both general keyword phrases combined with geographic locations. The Title META tag shows at the very top of the browser window. Search engines consider this to be very important.
5. Description: Use the META description tag on each page as a mini-advertisement for your company and include your business phone number. Google will use this in the body of their search results. You will receive phone calls from people who are in too much of a hurry to even click thru to your website.

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Filed under: Local Search,SEO Strategies

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Add Some "Cheer" To Your Site This Holiday Season

This blog entry was posted on December 5, 2008.

Deck your website with holiday accents,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to improve your online conversions,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Host a snazzy holiday sale,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Adorn your site with holiday cheer,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Ahem. I’ll refrain from scaring you off with the rest of the song, but you get the gist of the message. Why not add some holiday accents to your website? It shows that you care, you’re topical, and hip!

Have a snowball whiz past the top of your logo, add some icicles to the bottom of your logo – holi-daze your site by changing some of the colors to red and green!

“Happy Festivus” by Monceau via flickr

Respect other holidays around the same time, and refrain from being overtly prejudice for one particular celebration. The benefits include not alienating web surfers, and if you stick with a more general “winter” theme, you can keep your design changes up for longer than New Years Day (which should really be the mandatory date for taking down your lights, come on now, people).

In the end, it all amounts to adding some personalization to your site. Keeping it fresh, relevant, and memorable.

Obviously, one site may take the idea and have a penguin sliding off the end of the “s” on their logo and for another site, it may not be appropriate whatsoever. The thing to take from this is that customers identify with the holiday season. Whether you want to flank your logo with holiday wreaths or host a holiday sale, new and returning customers will appreciate the attention you give to your web presence by using smart business website design.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start training for the Feats of Strength held after dinner for Festivus on December 23rd…

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design

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The Business Website: Design vs. Content

This blog entry was posted on December 3, 2008.

Both content and design are both important in getting results from your business website. Design is very much like the canvas that content is applied to. Design will capture your visitor’s immediate attention but it is content that will inform and drive your visitor to take action.

Design: The look and feel sets the mood and readies the visitor to listen. It defines your image as a player in your industry. It is the visual and emotional element that tells the visitor that he has arrived to the right place. This includes the organization, the simple elegance that guides your eyes to what is truly important.

Content: This is the message. This is the answer to what the visitor is searching for. It presents your offer and describes your products, services and your company. Great original content that makes it point quickly and clearly gets results. Website content writing tells the story and is the meat of the website

An elaborate, ornate or showy design will confuse and hide your message. It can distract the visitor from taking action. When designing a business website, it is important to use design to highlight and enhance the message. Keep your design quieter, simple and elegant with a focus on helping the content tell its story. Design is about making a good presentation.

Content is King but Design is Queen
So which is most important in business website design? Visitors come searching for a solution to their problem and graphics are not the solution. If content is king, then design would be queen. If either content or design is absent, then the business website won’t be a success.

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Filed under: Website Design

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How to Create a Website for Your Business

This blog entry was posted on December 1, 2008.

You have “create a business website” on your To Do list. How do you go about this? A top notch business site is focused on what the visitor wants to know and delivers a memorable marketing message around that need.

1. Purpose: Start with defining your objectives. Do you want to sell products online? Is your website a place to send interested prospects as part of your sales process?
2. Ideal Customer: Are they upper income investors, soccer moms or will you be selling trendy clothes to college students. What “burning question” will they have when they arrive to your site?
3. Your Competition: Spend time looking at your competitors’ websites. Visitors arriving to your site certainly will. Look at the style and look of their websites. Use their best ideas and avoid the worst
4. Web Traffic: You can optimize to be found in the organic search results, advertise using pay-per-click (PPC), advertise on other websites with affiliate advertising or simply refer people to your website with offline advertising.
5. Pages to include: Design your navigation to follow your ideal sales conversion. Your home page receives the most visitor traffic, but did you know that the second most visited page is usually the “About Us” page?
6. Content: Web content needs to be written in a short attention getting style. Every page needs to direct your visitor to take some action, even if you are just directing them to the next page in your sales process.
7. Build the site: You can build it your self, use a website template or hire a business website design firm. If organic search traffic is important, then stay away from Flash websites and online website builders.
8. Promote: Once you have your website up and operating, promote your website both online and offline. Include your website domain on business cards, advertisements and in your email signature in every email you send.

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Filed under: Website Design

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