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Maximize Conversions: Call to Action Buttons

Doug Williams @ 4:34 am

This blog entry was posted on October 30, 2009.

Great website design is not only pleasing to the eye; it communicates your message and guides the visitor toward action. I came across a really good article on “Call to Action Buttons” By Jacob Gube and I wanted to share a summary of his key points. Please go to his article to see many great visual examples.

  1. Size: Grab your visitor’s attention with a button larger than the surrounding elements. The larger it is, the more visually important it is. If your page has multiple calls to action, then vary the sizes according to their importance.
  2. Position: Place the button where it can be seen when a visitor first arrives. Give your button a prominent position such as the top right corner of the page where it will be quickly noticed.
  3. Whitespace: Use whitespace or a lack of other graphics (dead space) around a call to action button to make it stand out. If you vary your amount of whitespace, you can make it appear connected to your text. Increase the whitespace to visually separate a button from a block of text.
  4. Color: Use highly contrasting colors from your background to make a button stand out and get noticed.
  5. Secondary: Add a secondary call to action next to your main action to increase conversion. As an example you may place a “learn more” next to a “buy now” so you better convert someone who is still unsure.
  6. Urgency: Add urgency by using bold, confident and commanding words. Create the perception that waiting could create a penalty or missed opportunity. Using “introductory pricing” subtly suggests that waiting may result in a higher price.
  7. What to expect: Tell visitors what they should expect. If they sign up for your newsletter, will they receive it weekly or monthly? How many megabytes is your download?

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Filed under: Web Usability,Website Design



How Does Website Size Affect Search Rankings?

Doug Williams @ 4:32 am

This blog entry was posted on October 28, 2009.

Larger websites with a focused topic plan and content filled pages tend to have much better search rankings than smaller websites. But there is much more to rankings than just the size of a website. Getting links from other websites is important in getting Google to actually index your website.

Search engines do love content, but is important to create a focused plan for your website and then follow up with linking strategies to obtain links from relevant websites. Search engines index text content, so highly graphical sites with little text will have a poor search engine presence.

Planning: Start by creating a master plan for your website. Look at your objectives and audience for your website and create a content plan that will appeal to your targeted visitor. Select keywords around your content plan and use these as a guide in planning the link structure and logical sections of your website.

Focus: Simply adding more pages to a website will not improve search engine rankings. It takes planning and organizing a website into focused topics around a focused relevant theme. Original content that follows the website plan signals the search engines what subject a website is about.  Websites tightly focused on a topic do better with search rankings than websites that ramble over many diverse subjects.

Incoming Links: Obtaining links from relevant websites is important to encourage indexing of your website’s pages. Adding great content, articles, press releases, FAQ or a blog to your website can help attract inbound links.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Is Search Engine Optimization Ethical?

Doug Williams @ 4:59 am

This blog entry was posted on October 26, 2009.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a series of techniques used to get a website ranked well for a particular keyword phrase or for multiple phrases. But is SEO manipulation of the search engines and therefore unethical? I had this posed as a comment recently on one of my older blog postings. This got me thinking about this at a philosophical level.

By its very nature, SEO is manipulation. Keywords are selected based on how people search. Phrases that are searched most often are given preference because they will attract the most visitors. These phrases are used in prominent places such as Title tags, heading tags, body text and in hyperlinks. So yes, SEO does manipulate the document to be compliant with what the search engines are looking for. It is about getting SEO results.

But is manipulation unethical? I believe intent is critical here. If the word manipulation or SEO more clearly communicates the message at the heart of the web page or the blog posting, then in my opinion “NO”, it is not unethical. If there is no intent to deceive, then NO, this is not unethical. It is smart marketing to clearly communicate your message to both the search engines and to your visitors.

I do agree that SEO CAN be used for unethical purposes to attract visitors to a page that has no relevance to what searchers are looking for. For the web page owner, what good does this do them? If you arrive to a page that is not what you are looking for, then you are gone in a quick click of your mouse.

Purists argue that SEO is artificial and comparable to tinkering with the genetic code of an unborn child. It would be like genetically changing the sex or appearance of the unborn baby.

I am interested in your opinion. Is SEO ethical?

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Why Would My Business Need a Mobile Website?

Doug Williams @ 6:29 am

This blog entry was posted on October 24, 2009.

By now I am sure you are saying that my company is a small local business. Why would I need a mobile website? Well, your type of company is the most searched for from hand held devices. When your customers are out and about, they are not near their desktop computer.

If they are hungry, they want to find a place to eat. If they are in a mood for a movie, they will look up the movie theater to see what is playing.

What happens in an emergency? What if their car breaks down and they need to find a nearby repair shop? What if they get into a car accident and they need to find a body shop to get towed to?

Let’s say you have someone coming to see you because of your ad in the newspaper. They get lost and go to their phone to find directions. They can’t find you, or your website won’t work on their phone …but they do find your competition. They click on your competitor and get turn by turn directions to their door. Now you have lost a customer.

So what kinds of businesses need a mobile website? Every coffee shop, restaurant, night club, doctor, dentist, lawyer, accountant, car repair and dry cleaner needs one.

…If your business depends on local customers, then you need a mobile website.

…If your business depends on advertising in the Yellow Pages, then you need a mobile website.

…If your customers want to get their information on the go, then you need a mobile website.

The mobile industry is still in its infancy, but it is growing fast. Now is the time to create a mobile friendly website and be the leader in your market.

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Filed under: Local Search,Mobile Web



What are Mobile Websites?

Doug Williams @ 5:12 am

This blog entry was posted on October 22, 2009.

Most companies today have a “regular” website, but the new frontier is the mobile web. This is the Internet as viewed on your cell phone. Very few businesses today have a website that can be easily viewed on a mobile phone. But is this important for a local business?

Mobile websites are very different than traditional websites. Cell phones have small screens and as they access the Internet they cannot read “regular” websites very well. Cell phones require simpler websites, smaller in size and with few graphics. A separate mobile website is needed. Mobile websites are much smaller and have fewer pages. The message is much more focused to what your mobile audience wants to know.

The mobile web is lighter than the normal web. Desktops connect to the internet through a stable high speed connection. Cell phones by their nature have to connect on the move. Connections are transferred from cell-tower to cell-tower and are affected by carrier coverage. This makes mobile devices limited in bandwidth.

There is a tremendous variety of mobile phones today. They range from very small screens to the larger screen of the Smartphone such as the iPhone. This creates challenges to create website for phones with different capabilities, features and restrictions.

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Filed under: Mobile Web



Basics of Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Doug Williams @ 5:18 am

This blog entry was posted on October 20, 2009.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is Internet marketing that focuses on branding, marketing communication and interaction with your targeted market. Social media marketing fosters two way communications rather than a one way broadcast of your marketing message. SMM makes use of online venues such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, forums, Digg, Delicious and more.

Effective social media marketing makes use of multiple venues and multiple media types. Media types can include content, images, videos and audio. The goal is to engage and interact in many places and in many ways.

Social media gives people a chance to talk, ask questions, share information and opinions, learn, network, bookmark, vote, give feedback and other social activities around a given topic. It is not about direct marketing, selling or direct promotion.

Social media marketing can be used to:

  1. Create a buzz: Use Twitter, blogs and videos to attract attention give attention to an event, product or service. The key is to make it fun and interesting… not salesy.
  2. Build a following: Use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or other social networking to build a loyal fan base that you can reach out to. Blogging does this too.
  3. Engage in conversations: Use blogging, forums and social networking. Interaction and conversation is at the heart of social media.

Social media marketing is not advertising. It is not fully controlled by the organization. It strives to interact, engage and encourage participation. It is a marketing campaign not built on control, but on honest and respect. It is about people getting to know you.

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Filed under: Social Media Marketing



Add a Blog to Boost Your Website SEO

Doug Williams @ 5:52 am

This blog entry was posted on October 18, 2009.

Adding a blog to your website can boost your organic search rankings dramatically. This is especially true on a content thin site such as a small ecommerce site.

A blog adds fresh regular keyword rich content to a website. Blogs written with interesting original insights and opinions attract links from other blogs which build up the link popularity of the website. On blogs new postings are broadcast via RSS automatically so new visitors will begin arriving within minutes of a new posting.

Keywords: Before you start blogging, select a topic related to your website that your best customers would find interesting. If your website sells baby furniture, maybe your blog would be about planning for the new baby, selecting names, etc. Prepare a list of keywords from your topic that you can use in your posting titles, links and in your content.

Writing: Blogging is not about selling product, it is about educating and engaging readers with interesting and thought provoking writings. You are branding yourself as the authority and expert in your market niche. People will return over and over to hear what you have to say.

Link Popularity: If what you write about is interesting and original, you will develop a readership who will return over and over to read what you have to say (stickiness). Others will comment about your postings on their blogs and they will naturally link to your posting as a reference to support what they are writing about. These links help your blog, but the entire website with its link popularity, improving your website rankings.

RSS: This stands for really simple syndication (no kidding). When you publish a new blog posting, RSS “pings” out the blog title, the first 25 words of your post and the URL location of your blog post to the search engines. These are indexed and can appear in the organic results within minutes of publishing a new posting.

Blog marketing by adding a blog to an existing website is a great SEO tool. Blogs add high-quality valuable content and helps to attract inbound links.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



7 Popular Twitter Myths

Doug Williams @ 5:58 am

This blog entry was posted on October 16, 2009.

Some call it micro-blogging, others call it social networking, others call it a form of text messaging. What ever you call it, Twitter allows you to publish sort, succinct thoughts, messages and witticisms all in 140 characters or less. This can be done from a mobile phone, computer or via instant messaging. Most people misunderstand the real power in Twitter.

  1. 140 characters are not enough to say something meaningful. The real beauty in Twitter is that it forces you to be short and to the point. 140 characters. This gives you 25-30 words to say what you have to say. Many “Tweets” are summaries that point to other blogs or websites.
  2. Your “Tweets” should answer the question “What are you doing?” Although this is the question everyone sees on Twitter.com, it really has turned into “What do you want to share with the world?” In this way it really has turned into a micro-blogging platform.
  3. Twitter is now used for shameless self-promotion. There are some who try to use it this way, but spamming Twitter to generate traffic and sell your products doesn’t work. Think of it this way, If you tried this at a social gathering, people would just excuse themselves and walk away.
  4. Twitter offers too much information. In some ways this is true. But you have control over whom and how many that you follow. Keep your network focused on those that you find meaningful and quickly unfollow those that you find to have meaningless babble.
  5. People don’t care what you are eating right now. This is true, but they do care if you found a new great place to eat. Keep your tweets confined to interesting topics that are helpful or you will lose your followers.
  6. You should follow everyone who follows you. No, you should follow those that you find interesting. It’s about quality rather than quantity. Use Twitter to foster relationships and selectively listen to those that you want. It is not about getting as many mutual connections as possible.
  7. Everyone who follows you will read your tweets. No this might happen if your followers are only following just a few people. Many people are following hundreds or even a thousand people. You can only get a sampling of the activity and tweets that are occurring.

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Filed under: Myth Busters,Social Media Marketing



Is it Jedi Mind Tricks or Website Design Psychology?

Doug Williams @ 4:06 am

This blog entry was posted on October 14, 2009.

Getting website visitors to want to buy when they arrive does not take knowledge of the ways of the Force. You do not need to be a Jedi master to get people to click further into your website. In “Star Wars,” Jedi Mind tricks use the power of the “Force” powers to influence the thoughts of sentient creatures. In building websites we use website design psychology in much the same way.

  1. “Stretch out with your feelings”: The best websites tap into human emotion. Most people shop logically, but they buy emotionally. Websites that create surprise, passion, and excitement create emotions that cause people to throw caution to the wind and make a purchase.
  2. Color psychology: There is a powerful emotional effect caused by color. Web Design studies show that over 60% of the initial impression is based on color alone. In general, red, orange, and yellow are exciting colors while purple, blue and green are calming ones.
  3. Visual layout: Cluttered and disorganized pages drive visitors away. A simple, clean website layout with easy navigation and attractive relevant images encourage people to stay and look around.
  4. Customer focused: People come to your site to solve a problem or answer a need. Does your website answer what people are searching for? The best sales people adapt themselves in real time to the personality and needs of a prospect. Do this in your website by creating multiple navigation paths, each based on a specific visitor’s needs.
  5. Psychological triggers: People react to questions, phrases and images at an emotional and sub-conscious level. Use questions to engage your visitor. Certain trigger phrases create emotions. If you truly understand your buyer, you can use these to your advantage to grab their attention and create a bias for action.

If you truly understand your best buyers, their motivations, their hot buttons and their core needs, you can use these to attract them and get them to take action. These are not Jedi Mind Tricks but instead use proven website psychology strategies that create business websites that sell.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design



Promote Your Website With a Squidoo Lens

Doug Williams @ 5:21 am

This blog entry was posted on October 12, 2009.

Are you looking for ways to bring more visitors to your website? You can add your own pages to a popular website called Squidoo. According to Alexa, squidoo.com is ranked as the 336th most popular website in the world. You can add a page to this website about most any topic for free.

Squidoo is a user-generated website. It is a collection of organized information put up by users from all over the web much like Wikipedia. The difference is that only you can update and change your web page or lens as Squidoo calls it.

Each page that you create on Squidoo must be focused on a single subject. Squidoo calls the web pages you create a “lens” because of this focus. Each person who builds a lens is called a “lensmaster.”

Why build a lens? Building a lens allows you to build up your authority as an expert on a topic. On your lens you can include links back to your website which readers will follow to learn more. Search engines give importance to these links so they will help your website rankings. It is easy to do and it’s free. You can even generate income by getting paid for the traffic being generated by your lens or donate your earnings to charity.

Can you write about anything? No, they work hard to exclude spammers and to include the best quality content. They do want to include a wide variety of ideas, viewpoints and passions. They developed their SquidDon’t list of forbidden junk topics. This includes pharmaceuticals (Viagra and diet pills), scammy medical cures, gambling, credit card debt relief, ringtones and illegal and topics. These are the topics that generate nuisance spam emails.

If you spend time searching through the million plus pages on Squidoo, you will find many great sources of information and ideas.

>>More on Squidoo Marketing

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Filed under: SEO Strategies,Social Media Marketing



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