Build Website Trust to Increase Sales

Posted on October 16, 2011 by

Your website needs to communicate your message in the first few seconds. Your unique selling proposition and your opt-in forms need to be easily seen without scrolling down.

Design: Your website needs to portray a professional and trustworthy image. This includes the design, colors, fonts and the organization of your home page. Avoid dark oppressive colors; instead use light, bright and inviting colors. Avoid a wide variety of fonts, placing text in all CAPS or reversed out fonts. You want a professional design to instill confidence. Avoid strong colors.

Information Overload: Avoid overloading your visitor with too much information. Keep paragraphs short and give “bite size” nuggets of information. This makes it easier for people to scan your content and find what they are looking for. Include a link with “Learn more” that will lead them to more in depth information.

About-Us Page: This is the website page that humanizes your business. Your About-Us page is there to build trust and credibility. Visitors want to know the business or the person behind the website. They want to know to know your story. They want to know how long you have been in business.

Guarantee: People won’t do something that puts them at risk. Show visitors that you are trustworthy. Show prospects there are no risks. Build trust at every step. Show your phone number and address. Post a guarantee. Have a no-risk returns policy.

Buyer Keywords: You want to identify buyer keywords. These are phrases that show intent to take action. These are different than information seeking phrases. Simply focusing on attracting visitors that are motivated buyers will improve your website’s conversion rate.

Without trust, your website visitors won’t take action. Use these powerful conversion rate optimization techniques to improve sales from your website.

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Tips for Using Keywords In Your Website

Posted on October 9, 2011 by

Keywords are the phrases people type in when they do searches online. Keywords are how search engines categorize and index websites. Keywords are the foundation for your SEO for your website.

Let’s assume you have come up with the keywords for your website. If not see this article on picking the right keywords. Once you have your keyword phrases, then …

  1. Create a page plan for your website and assign 1-2 keyword phrases to each page of your website based on your research.
  2. Use these keywords as a central theme in your messaging. Use keywords to draw in your customer and convince them to purchase.
  3. Your page headline should grab your reader’s attention and contain keywords.
  4. Body text should stimulate interest and assure your reader they are in the right place.
  5. For blogging, articles and social media campaigns use the phrases in your titles and visible text.

Picking the right keywords is part art and part science. Sometimes it is best to get the help of keyword research services to set the right foundation for your search engine optimization

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5 Tips to Improve Website Conversions

Posted on September 25, 2011 by

Getting visitor traffic to your site will not get cheaper. Focus on getting your visitor to take action once they arrive. There are definite steps you should do to get your website to convert browsers into paying customers. A visitor needs to know he has arrived at the right place to get help.

  1. Audience: Are you attracting the right visitors to your website? The best website won’t convert visitors if you’re targeting the wrong keywords. Use keywords centered on the answers visitors looking for when they arrive.
  2. Initial Hook: Grab their attention with a compelling headline that includes the phrase they were searching for. Your objective is to grab their attention and pique a potential customer’s interest. Your opening paragraph should address the need they came to satisfy.
  3. Call to Action: Drive your visitors toward a desired action. Make it clear and highly visible. Place your primary call to action where it can be easily seen without scrolling down. It needs to be highly visible to arriving visitors. Examples of calls to action include- “Buy Now”, “Order Now”, “Join Today”, and “Sign Up For a Free Report”.
  4. Information Overload: Avoid overloading your visitor with too much information. Keep paragraphs short and give “bite size” nuggets of information. This makes it easier for people to scan your content and find what they are looking for. Include a link with “Learn more” that will lead them to more in depth information.
  5. Measure: Use Google Analytics or other website statistics package to track conversion rates. Decide what it is you need to measure such as form-fills, registrations or purchases. Start with creating a baseline or starting point. If you have multiple actions, place a dollar value on each action so you can measure improvements. Then systematically test changes.

Hint: Using social elements in your ecommerce builds trust. This includes product reviews, ratings, consumer feedback, wish-lists, favorites, blogs, forums or chat rooms.

Tips are from SEO coaching and conversion expert Doug Williams

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SEO Tips: How to Optimize Websites

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

The SEO work you do directly on the website is referred to as “on-page” SEO. Optimizing on-page factors include content, META tags, site structure, internal linking, domain and page URLs.

H1, H2 Heading Tags: H1 Tags are the main web page headline. They should contain your most important keyword phrase and grab an arriving visitor’s interest. Many sites that have H1 headings, waste this important real estate with a very prominent WELCOME showing on their home page. H1 tags should include the primary keyword phrase for the page. Additional keywords can be placed in the H2 tags. H3 tags carry only a minor importance with the search engines, so use sparingly with keywords.

Title Tag: The only META tag that is still important is the Title tag. Place your keywords into the beginning (for prominence). Place your company name or website at the end of the Title tag. Title tags should be 65-70 characters. They can be longer, Google just won’t display over 70 characters.

Body Text: Use each of your keywords 2-3 times within the body text. Pages that you optimize should have 400-600 words, but certainly at least 250 words. Use your keyword at least once in the first paragraph. Text presented in graphic images will be invisible to search engines.

Internal Linking: Link to other pages within your website using phrases such as “learn more.” It is common for internet marketers to overlook the power of keywords in anchor text when directing visitors to deeper pages. These internal links are powerful SEO tools. See chapter 11 for a more in depth discussion.

Broken Links: Regularly scan and fix broken links as part of your routine maintenance. This includes both internal and external links. Broken links are a symptom of a broken website.

For more helpful SEO tips, go to the Doug Williams SEO Services Company website.

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Use Corporate Awards to Build Your Company Team

Posted on September 10, 2011 by

Corporate awards shine the spotlight on a group of individuals and turns them into a team by building a bond of trust and respect.

Team recognition has a very powerful and meaningful impact on both the employees and the employer. Since team-oriented work is common in today’s business world, take a moment to consider learning about how to make teamwork effective in your organization.

Employees who are recognized with corporate awards are more engaged in their work, accomplish more in less time, and help the business make more money as a result.

When selecting employee awards, you should always keep the unique characteristics of the recipient in mind. Match the award to the achievement and personal style of the recipient, carefully taking color, shape, and size into consideration. We have outlined a series of sample questions that you can use to gauge which employee awards your recipients would prefer.

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Keyword Research Service: Longer Phrases Are Better

Posted on September 3, 2011 by

People will come to a website with a specific need or intent. This can be to research or to learn. They can also be ready to buy. Buyers will use longer, more specific phrases when they search.

Phrase Length: People begin their buying process in the research phase with short 1-2 word keyword phrases. They search for more general phrases. As they get closer to making a buying decision, the search phrases become longer and more specific. They will include make, model or geographic location. Buyer keywords are typically 3-5 words or even longer.

Specific: More specific keyword phrases almost always have fewer competitors and it is much faster to get top rankings. Buyers tend to use highly specific phrases as well as singular rather than plural forms. A person looking for new furniture is more likely to type in “leather sofa” rather than “leather sofas.”

Buyer Words: You will want to think like your customer, not an industry expert. Did you know most realtors instinctively want to be found for “real estate for sale” yet most people actually search for “homes for sale”?

Buyer phrases are action oriented and very specific. Usually it is best to hire out keyword research services if you are going to SEO your own website.

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Perpetual Award Plaques for Service Recognition

Posted on August 28, 2011 by

Perpetual award plaques are meant to be displayed in the company lobby in recognition of employee achievement. This could be employee of the month or honoring employees that have archived a certain years of service.

Rewarding employees for years of service within your organization is an intricate part of service recognition programs. Across the world, organizations are establishing service recognition programs to reward employees for their ongoing commitment to the organization. Service recognition programs are critical to retaining top performing employees and offer many benefits to the employee and organization. Two of the major benefits of service recognition programs are increased employee engagement and lower turnover.

Studies show that service recognition programs boost employee engagement. Engaged employees are mentally and emotionally invested in their job. They work harder and faster than other employees, making them more productive and profitable to the organization.

Service recognition programs also decrease employee turnover and the costs associated with hiring new employees. Studies show that employees who are recognized for their achievements are less likely to leave your organization for alternative employment opportunities.

Perpetual awards are a great way to recognize employee service.

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SEO Services Company: Getting an SEO Quote

Posted on August 20, 2011 by

What should you expect when you ask for a quote from a SEO services company?

Start by advising them of your goals, keyword phrases you are targeting and your budget if you have one set.  Quoting should always start with a site assessment. This could be called a SEO audit, SEO evaluation or a SEO analysis. This should include a look to see if there are any technical problems with your website that would be SEO barriers.  This is the diagnosis phase before prescribing the right SEO method.

Technical Problems: This could be an all Flash website, a site built in frames or a website that is all graphics with little or no text. There could be spamming methods such as hidden text (white text on a white background), cloaking, keyword stuffing, etc. These are things that would prevent your website from getting top rankings.

Keywords: The SEO services company will need to know what keyword phrase or phrases that you will want to be found for. They should then evaluate if this is the best phrase(s) for your business. They will look at searches per day, competition level, should local terms be used, etc.

Website: The website itself then is looked at for current traffic volume, number of pages, Title tags, H1s, number of pages that could be optimized. The number and quality of current backlinks as well as what anchor text is being used to link back the website.

The SEO services company is now ready to recommend the SEO needed for your website along with the price. SEO should include both an initial SEO (on-page) as well as monthly SEO. The SEO recommendation should include keyword research and selection, optimization of pages, content growth strategy and a linking strategy.

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SEO Expert Services: Use Keyword Research to Plan Content

Posted on August 14, 2011 by

You want a website to have maximum appeal to your market niche. You not only want to attract the correct visitors, you want to draw them in once they arrive. You do that by writing your website content around what they are searching for.

For many people, keyword research and SEO are some of the last steps in developing a website. That is completely backwards. Keyword research should be the very first step.

This is the process I follow as I plan new websites as part of my SEO expert services.

  1. Categories: Create a list of topics, services or market niches that you are planning to cover in your website. This is your list of what you want to talk about on your website. If you are a business consultant, you may want to talk about financial consulting, management consulting, team building and strategic planning.
  2. Intuitive keyword list: Create a list of about dozen phrases that describe your categories in step one. These are the phrases you believe people would use to search for your services. These will become your “seed keywords” that you will use in your research. You will want one or possibly two keyword phrases per category from above.
  3. Keyword research: Using a keyword research tool like Market Samurai, perform a search on each of your seed keywords. Each search should yield 400+ search phrases. Export your list to Excel and refine your list to the 25 best phases for that topic. Repeat this for the remaining seed phrases. Combine these onto a master spreadsheet.
  4. Rate for Relevance: Rate each phrase on a scale of 1-3 with “1” being highly relevant”. 1 = These would be our best buyers . 3 = this is a low probability that they would convert into a clients.
  5. Analysis: Using just the phrases rated as a “1.” Look at the number phrases in each category as well as the searches per day, calculate how many pages of your website should be weighted for each topic. This gives you a rough content plan that your visitors want to see.

You can do this type of analysis yourself or find a SEO firm that offers keyword research services to do this work for you

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The Rule of Three in Marketing

Posted on August 8, 2011 by

We see this power of 3 in marketing every day. Realtors will try and show 3 houses to allow a buyer to keep their options straight. Gas stations offer 3 grades of gasoline.

There is something simple and powerful about the number three. The human mind can easily comprehend three variations and keep them straight. People can easily make a choice when given three options. On your website, keep it as easy as 1-2-3. Apply this to all your Internet marketing

Always try to limit your visitor’s decisions to a maximum of three.

  1. Keep focused: What one thing do you want visitors to do when they come to your website? Call, sign-up or buy now? These are the actions you want them to take. One call to action is best, but don’t offer more than 3 choices. Otherwise they will make no choice and just leave.
  2. Make it Clear: You have just 3 seconds to convince a new visitor to stay and look around your website. Make your website messaging very clear as to what you do and what problems you can solve. Use the page headlines and navigation to communicate your offering. People are impatient and if they don’t instantly understand, they just leave.
  3. Keep it simple: Present your products giving up to 3 options. Let’s suppose you have 17 different services that you can do for people. If you make them select from a field of 17, they will make no choice, and just leave. Instead group them into 3 bundles. This good, better, best makes the choice easy.

If you have a buying process or checkout, keep it to three steps or less. Really make it as easy as 1-2-3 to prevent frustration and process abandonment.

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