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The 3 Legged Website Stool

Doug Williams @ 6:51 am

This blog entry was posted on January 30, 2011.

You need to design a website that encourages people to ACT. I know using 3 Legged Stool analogies may be old, but this is important in planning your website’s strategy.  A successful website  needs 3 supporting strategies (using the acronym ACT):

  1. Audience: a deep understanding of your website Visitor.
  2. Conversions: How to deliver something of value to your audience that they will want.
  3. Traffic: A steady flow of prospects that could use what you offer.

Audience: Do you understand why your visitor is coming to your site? What is their motivation? What problem are they looking to solve? What are their demographics (age, education, sex, etc.)? This is website psychology and understanding their motivations. Your goal is to present a website that clearly solves their issue. You want to present the solution to their problem on your home page so that they can understand it with in the first 2-3 seconds of arriving.

Conversion: Design the solution you can provide so that it solves your visitor’s problem. Make it visible, clear and compelling on your home page. Design a selling sequence with a clear path to action. Take the time to answer their unasked questions. Design trust elements into your website to lessen their fears and show that you are indeed a trustworthy solution.

Traffic: Decide where your traffic is going to come from before your website is launched. This could be Paid ads such as Adwords, organic SEO, social media, email marketing or some other search engine marketing method. The important thing is to bring qualified and interested prospects to your site.

To measure the results of your website strategy, setup a measurement system such as Google Analytics. Establish your key metrics that constitute success and then chart these on a regular basis so you can see your progress.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Design Your Website For SEO

Doug Williams @ 5:38 am

This blog entry was posted on January 28, 2011.

SEO should not be an afterthought; it should be planned before design begins. Keyword research is the foundation for SEO. Keyword research gives you insight into how searchers think. Search engine optimization is much more than getting search engine positions.

SEO is about optimizing a website for people that use search engines. It is this human side of search engine optimization that is often overlooked. Use these keywords as a central theme in your messaging, your page headlines and your hyperlinks. It is about establishing relevance to what your visitors are searching for.

Use these keywords to attract attention and engage your visitors. You Engaging SEO writing will attract visitors as they search and then engage them once they arrive. Use keywords to draw in your customer and convince them to purchase. These same words will be spidered and indexed by the search engines and make your website available for search.

Website content that is loaded with keywords but written mechanically may work well for search engine spiders, but what happens when a real live person visits your website?

You are writing your content for two audiences. Use keyword rich content for the search engines. Engaging and informative content is for converting visitors into buyers. It takes both to make a successful website.

Your page headline should grab your reader’s attention and contain keywords. Body text should stimulate interest and assure your reader they are in the right place. Are you clearly addressing the “burning question” that your ideal buyer will have? Write in a customer focused style.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Mobile SEO: Mobile Results Are Different Than Desktop Web Results

Doug Williams @ 4:40 am

This blog entry was posted on January 26, 2011.

Mobile search results are different from desktop results 86.6% of the time according to a 2010 study comparing mobile and desktop search results of over 25,000 queries done by Bryson Meunier. Mobile search engines use different algorithms than traditional web search.

Local: There is a bias toward local results on mobile. Websites with local intent will rank higher. Google Places listings will rank higher than on desktop computers.

Bounce: Mobile search engines place a heavy reliance on bounce rate for sites viewed from mobile devices. Websites that don’t render well on mobile phones will have visitors quickly leave and will drop down in search rankings. If you want to do well in mobile search, you need a mobile version of your website.

On Page SEO: Traditional SEO practices such as title tags, heading tags and alt tags are important for mobile SEO. For your title tags and META descriptions it helps to add mobile to your tag. This alerts the web crawlers that your page is being created for mobile devices.

Content: Place your key content at the top part of the page. This makes it easier for users and bots to easily find it.

Code: Keep your designs simple and design with valid XHTML code. Don’t use Flash, Ajax or frames. Make your code simple and clean. This will help your site to load faster.

XML Sitemap: Create a separate mobile sitemap and submit to Google Webmaster tools under the mobile sitemap section.

Duplicate Content: Mobile content is not counted as duplicate; even if it is the exactly the same as your main website. You are even allowed to present your mobile content to the Googlebot-Mobile and your main website to Googlebot. See the video above.

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Filed under: Mobile Web,SEO Strategies



What’s More Important, SEO or Conversion Rate?

Doug Williams @ 5:20 am

This blog entry was posted on January 24, 2011.

Should you focus on conversions or on search engine optimization? Is it better to have more traffic that may not convert as well or do you need to add big red buttons and have a website that can look spammy?

Seriously, this is the internal struggle that many website owners go through. The correct answer is that you absolutely need to do both. You don’t need to create a “spammy” looking site to get good conversions; you just need to design in a clear and visible action for your visitor to take.

You don’t need to choose between conversions and traffic. You are much better off with an SEO campaign that draws in interested visitors AND having a website that is designed for conversion. My goal when working with any site is to improve traffic flow and conversion rates.

Having a top ranked site (SEO) may insure that a visitor will see your site, but without conversion rate optimization (CRO), you won’t make any money. A productive website has balance and focuses on search engines and users.

SEO is a long term, methodical process that gets your site ranked for your targeted keywords. The keywords you choose will bring in searchers with different sets of expectations. Some will have a stronger bias to take action and convert. This is just one example of CRO and SEO overlapping.

A holistic approach doesn’t put SEO against CRO, it puts them in alignment focusing on a common goal. The goal is to increase visitor actions (sales, leads, sign-ups) over both the short term and the long term.

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Filed under: Web Usability



7 Tips on Picking the Right Domain Name

Doug Williams @ 6:10 am

This blog entry was posted on January 22, 2011.

Choosing a domain is very important step for your business. Your domain should be easy to remember, easy to spell, easy to say and be a .com. Your domain is branding statement and if you choose correctly, can help you get better search engine rankings.

  1. COM: Choose a .com rather than .net, .info or .us. 74% of the domains registered in the US are .com. Choosing a .com adds credibility to your website and builds trust better with visitors to your website. Your second choice would be .net which has 11% of the US market.
  2. Memorable: You want people to easily remember your website URL. Try not to abbreviate or choose a hard to remember acronym. Easy to remember is more important than shorter.
  3. Short: Very short domains (3-4 characters) can be a very strong branding statement and position your business as a power player in your market. These very short domains can be pricey (5K – 500K). See more on buying a domain name.
  4. Older: Buying existing domains can be a good idea. Search for domains that have had a website for several years and have a good number of inbound links. This can be an effective way of getting a jump start on instant search engine rankings. You will pay extra, but this can be money well spent. You can search the domain auctions or contact domain orders directly.
  5. Keywords vs. Name: Your domain can be your business name (strong for branding) or use keywords (stronger for SEO). Shorter is better as long as it is memorable and easy to say.
  6. Hyphens: Stay away from domains with hyphens because these are easily forgotten when typing URLs or email addresses. If your domain purpose is strictly for SEO, hyphens are fine.
  7. History: Check the Wayback machine to see what other site may have been on that domain. Sometimes these past sites may cause a problem for your future website. We had one client that purchased a short domain name for a children’s motivational site only to later discover that the site once was home to a porn website. This caused problems getting good search rankings until a Google reconsideration request was done.

If your purpose for your domain is purely for SEO, then select your domain name to include your primary domain. In this case it doesn’t need to be a .com. It could be .net, .info, .biz, etc. Instead make your selection based on the keyword density in the domain name.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Your Website Needs a Clear Purpose

Doug Williams @ 4:24 am

This blog entry was posted on January 20, 2011.

Why do you have a website? What do you expect your website to do for your business? Your website, like your business needs to have a clear purpose with clear measurable results that you expect. Your entire website, the design, the text on the pages and the call to action should all support your website purpose.

Your website purpose could be:

  • To collect email addresses
  • To generate sales leads
  • To make direct sales

You may say that you want your website to do all of these things. They are all important. The problem with this is that your website needs an overriding and clear purpose. When you place three equally important goals, then you create confusion with your visitors and you achieve none of your goals. You create conflicting purposes for your site.

If you have multiple goals, then clearly define one of them as your primary goal. Take your primary goal and make sure you have clarity around:

  1. What you want your website to do for you
  2. Who is your website meant to serve (audience) and what is it going to do for them.

Identify your best buyer and what they are searching for. What specifically are they expecting you to help them with? Create a focused message that answers the needs of your best buyer. You need to grab their attention, show them you offer what they are searching for and then build their interest.

Every page should have a purpose for its content. It should be focused on getting your visitor to take action or at least direct them further into your selling sequence. Your true goal is to get your visitor to take action and make a commitment to you.

Provide a visual and clear path to action that will help your visitor and accomplish the purpose for your site. Without action, your visitor’s time on your site provides you no value.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Page Load Speed is a Google Ranking Factor

Doug Williams @ 8:15 am

This blog entry was posted on January 18, 2011.

It has been almost a year since Google officially announced that how fast a page loads will affect rankings on Google. Google refers to this as site speed. With over 200 ranking factors in the Google algorithm, just how important is site speed in getting a top ranking?

Page load speed is a minor ranking factor and priority needs to be placed on content quality, relevance and inbound links. But if your website is going after competitive phrases, then you need to look at every ranking factor.

Internet users prefer pages that load quickly. When a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there. This has been borne out in numerous studies. Google states that their number one goal is customer experience and the websites with top rankings should deliver a quality user experience.

How to check the site speed of your website

  1. Page Speed: This is a downloadable open-source Firefox/Firebug add-on to measure site speed through your browser. Page Speed evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement.
  2. Webpagetest.org: Website where you can test a website load performance plus an optimization checklist.
  3. Webmaster Tools: Go to Labs > Site Performance to see the speed of your website as experienced by users around the world

How important is site speed? Having a fast loading site won’t give you a top ranking, but having a slow loading site will prevent you from getting that top spot.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Does Your Small Business Have a Website? If Not, Why Not?

Doug Williams @ 5:37 am

This blog entry was posted on January 16, 2011.

If you have a local business, you need a website. People don’t use the yellow pages anymore. If they want something… they Google it. The biggest Internet trend is toward local. If you want Pizza, if you need a dry cleaner or if you need a plumber, you find it on the Internet.

If you want to tap into the biggest source of ready customers, you need a website first.

You need to consider two things as you plan your website

  1. What to put in your website.
  2. How to get people to come to your new site.

When people come to your site they want to know what services you offer, the hours you are open, where you are located, phone numbers and your story (About-us page). Here are some ideas for different types of businesses.

  1. Restaurants: Include menus with prices, photos of your restaurant, the hours you are open and coupons and specials.
  2. Consultants: Include testimonials and case studies of projects you worked on.
  3. HVAC Companies : Include your service area, seasonal specials for maintenance, you can sell filters online and include a 24/7 emergency phone number.
  4. Contractors: Include a photo gallery of homes or remodeling projects that you built, include a detailed list of the types of construction that you do (bathroom remodel, decks, fences, etc). Include licenses that you hold and testimonials from past clients.
  5. Photographers: Include a portfolio (photo gallery) of photographs, pictures of their studio, how to set an appointment and provide contact details.

To get traffic to your website, make sure you list out your products and services and list your address and communities that you serve. People search for local services most often with the service and the city name. Listing locations on your site encourages your site to come up for local search. Then use a backlinking service to push your website up in the search engine results

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Filed under: Local Search,Website Design



Web Forms: Keep Them Short, Simple and Relevant

Doug Williams @ 5:03 am

This blog entry was posted on January 14, 2011.

Filling out a web form is the most common way to interact with a website. Have you tuned your form to make it easy to complete? Web forms are often one of the most neglected after thoughts on a typical website.

If you ask for too much information or if it is not easy to fill out, people will abandon the form and just leave your website. Filling out forms is something most people dislike doing.

  1. Location: Placement of the form can greatly affect how many people complete it. Frequently the upper right corner of the web page is the most visible. Sometimes placing the form on an interior page will improve conversion rates. You need to test this.
  2. Form Title: Have a clear and understandable form heading. The title or headline needs to communicate the benefits of completing the form.
  3. Form length: This depends on what is being signed up for. People will enter more information when purchasing airline tickets than signing up for your newsletter. Keep your form as short as possible and only require information that is really needed.
  4. Instructions: Eyetracking studies show forms are scanned with a left to right eye movement. This means instructions placed on the far right will be ignored. Try placing form labels to the left hand side with 1-2 word instructions between the field name and the entry field.
  5. Easy to read: Use a sans-serif screen font such as Verdana. Design the form colors to be visually pleasing yet having a high contrast between text and backgrounds. Having a good color and layout design encourages trust from visitors.
  6. Wording: Use plain English and avoid the use of acronyms. If you use acronyms, use their full meaning next to it. Be polite in asking for form information and extra polite with error checking messages.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Web Usability



People Judge Your Business by Your Website

Doug Williams @ 5:01 am

This blog entry was posted on January 12, 2011.

“75% of web users admit making judgments about the credibility of an organization based on the design of its web site” – BJ Fogg, Stanford Web Credibility Project

The Stanford University Web Credibility Project developed the 10 guidelines of web credibility based on three years of research that included over 4500 people. You should use these guidelines to improve the trustworthiness of your website.

Summary of the 10 Guidelines of Web Credibility

  1. Make it easy to verify information: By providing third party citations or links to the source data you make the information you present more believable.
  2. Show your organization is real: Provide evidence that you have a real business by posting a physical address, photos of your offices or listing your membership with the chamber of commerce.
  3. Highlight your expertise: If you have experts on your team, show their credentials. If you are affiliated with respected organizations, show and link to these. Links and associations with organizations that are not credible will damage your credibility.
  4. Real people behind the site: Show that there are honest and trustworthy people that stand behind the website through the use of photos, bios and listing their responsibilities.
  5. Make it easy to contact you: Clearly post your phone number, physical address and email address.
  6. Professional (appropriate) website design: People quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. This includes layout, typography, images and consistency. The visual design should be consistent with the site’s purpose.
  7. Useful and easy to use: Website should be both easy to use and useful. It is not about dazzling the visitor with graphics and technology.
  8. Update content often: Websites that were recently updated or at least reviewed are trusted more.
  9. Minimize promotional content: Minimize offers and ads. Content should be written in a clear, direct and sincere style. Avoid the use of hype.
  10. Avoid errors of all types: Typographical errors, broken links or your website being down hurt a site’s credibility.

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Filed under: Web Usability



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