Conversion

Tag Archive for 'conversion'

7 Tips For A More Successful Website

Published
by
Michelle
on April 28, 2009
in Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
. 1 Comment

As a SEO Marketing Strategist, my clients are looking for success from their websites. They want ROI - Return on Investment and frankly, so do I. Here are 7 things that I work diligently to educate my clients about their web marketing experience.

1.) Do you know why you have a website?

Understand for yourself, why you are choosing to have a website - are you collecting leads, selling online, online brochure or just trying to outshine your brother-in-law’s website.

Was it designed to do the purpose you intended?

How well is it performing that purpose?

2.) It is not about traffic, it is about conversion.

Traffic tells us how many “hits” or “visitors” our websites have. Conversion tells us how many take our desired actions.

If your website receives 100 visitors a week and 2 visitors request more information your weekly conversion ratio is 2%

If your website receives 100 visitors a day and you sell 1 order per day, your daily conversion ratio is 1%

It is the number of actions that bring sales to your company - not the number of visitors.

In terms of Sales Revenue - 1,000 visitors who take ZERO action are probably worth less than 10 qualified visitors who take the DESIRED ACTION on your website.

In simple math: 1,000 x 0 = ZERO … 10 X 5 = $50 (assuming that action was worth only $5 to you)

3.) Know what you sell

As you are developing your site - you do need to know what it is you sell - and incorporate those products and services as keywords on your website. And be specific.

For example: If you are a Plumber, don’t just include the words plumbing and plumber, you will also want to include clogged drain repair, or toilet installation. If you are a financial advisor - perhaps your niche is retirement planning or 401K Rollovers.

4.) Know what your customer is buying

That seems simple, right? Not always. Many industries use cryptic abbreviations, industry terms and code words that ONLY other people in that industry understands. Treat your website as if you are explaining your services to 12 years olds. You are not trying to impress the customer with how smart you are, but how good you are at the products or services you offer. People buy promos and imprinted pens, not specialty advertising.

5.) Give them what they need

Create a flow that allows QUALIFIED customers the ability to decide to do business with you. Provide information, give great data, ask for their info, give them a way to CONTACT YOU. Make it simpler for them and they will give you more of their business.

(Side Note: If you currently have a 1% conversion ratio on the web - and can take that to 2% - you will DOUBLE your results). In other words if 2 people sign up out of 100 instead of the original 1 - that is twice as many opportunities for sales. ) A 100% increase - not a 1% increase.

Remove roadblocks that keep them from doing business with you.

6.) Answer their questions

This can be done in two ways - first, have great Frequently Asked Questions with answers on the site / service / product page and second and more importantly - when they call you or send you and email or fill out your online form - RESPOND FAST! The early bird gets the worm is in the past - now its the fastest bird.

7.) Build your website to attract and convert customers - not win design awards.

Don’t get me wrong - a website should look good, credible and reputable - but that should NEVER come at the expense of the ability to attract and convert customers - EVER. If it is beautiful and no one ever sees it, it really doesn’t matter that its there. If it has amazing colors and fantastic design elements that match perfectly with your letterhead - YAH - but if it does not drive customers / sales - it really is nothing more than a billboard at the North Pole.

Sometimes I butt heads with great designers on this, but sales and profits trump pretty and branding.

So that’s it - to me it is really that simple. Know what they want and build a website that attracts and convinces them to take the next step to do business with you. AND NO… this is not just about online retail. It works for Dentists, Lawyers, Restaurants, E-Commerce, Consultants, Plumbers, Marketing Agencies, all of them.

Want to know more ? I’d love to come and present this to your group, corporation or students. Lets continue the conversation - drop me an email at michelle [at] redhawkstrategies.com

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Where does website traffic come from?

Published
by
Michelle
on July 28, 2008
in Website Traffic
. 1 Comment

Attracting Humans to Your Website

When a human visits your website they are there from one of only a few traffic sources. If you have a method that doesn’t fit in this group, I’d love to know. Some of these ways are more effective for conversion, but all in all traffic is good, targeted traffic is even better. Take a look at the many different ways you can attract traffic to your website. Many of them are low cost or even FREE sources of traffic.

Human Referrals

Existing customers can tell others about your website, and they will, if you give them a reason to. If you do a fantastic job, they will want to tell their friends. But they will also tell them if you just ask them to. Restaurants have been doing this for years with phrases like: “If you like our restaurant please tell your friends, if not please tell us.”

Humans also will tell others when they see a “cool” story about you in the news or trusted source. They send emails, forward articles, and may even use Twitter to broadcast your site to their followers.

Paid Advertisements

There are a ton of paid opportunities to get traffic to your site – but you have to remember one simple thing– all your paid ads – print and electronic – need to include your web domain. (I cringe at the business cards I am handed each month that don’t include a website link). If you want to up your chances to get visitors, give them an incentive – coupon code, free quote, or even a premium gift.

What kind of paid ads are out there? You can advertise with Email Blast companies, use co-registration services, print advertising, billboards, magazines, news journals and more. Just remember when you are paying for traffic, the marketing needs to have ROI. Understand what your revenue and sales goals are, and measure, measure, measure the results.

News Sources

Getting press coverage is a great way to generate traffic to your site. Getting listed on sites like SlashDot, DailyCandy and Digg can drive a flood of traffic quickly, but it doesn’t mean it will drive lots of sales. Consistent news coverage is more likely to bring more buyers, than curiosity seekers popping around the web for trendy hot stories.

Don’t neglect offline news opportunities, too. Local news stations, business reporters, and beat journalists are always in search of a great story. Help them out.

Search Engine / Directories

Getting your website listed in the search engines is crucial, and will likely drive the highest traffic and sales. But getting listed doesn’t mean that you are ranked high for your keyword terms. Continue to refine your online marketing plan to take advantage of this free traffic source.

Website Links (non paid)

Getting listed on other “regular folks” websites, blogs, and bookmarks can drive traffic to your site, too. Responding to great blog posts by adding value to the conversation is just one way to get listed on someone else’s blog. Delicious, Technorati and similar sites are great ways to get your site picked up and posted on lots of other websites.

The great news is you don’t have to be stuck with just one way to get traffic, and in each category there are truly dozens if not hundreds of ways you can get your website out there and get clicks into your website. Put your thinking cap on, and I welcome your comments with other great ideas here.

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Search Engine Optimization is Silly

Published
by
Michelle
on June 15, 2008
in Human Search Optimization and Search Engine Optimization
. 1 Comment

Ok, instantly I know that I have you up in arms just a little, but just be patient, I have a point that I’ll eventually get to. According to the Wikipedia entry on the subject, and I quote

“According to industry analyst Danny Sullivan, the earliest known use of the phrase “search engine optimization” was a spam message posted on Usenet on July 26, 1997.”

And if that account is accurate, that is where the silliness began. We hem and haw and strategize about how to make search engines love us, you’ve seen the ads, “turn your site into a Google Magnet”, “Guaranteed 1st Page Listings” and all such nonsense. First, if any one or any company guarantees permanent first page placement for your organic search terms, beware. Remember, it’s only death and taxes are all we’ve been truly guaranteed.

But really what is the point of the Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing? Do we really care if Google loves us? Well actually, I think, no we don’t. However Google and other search engines are the primary means that drive traffic to many websites.

The point being is that we really want qualified traffic coming to our website, right? I remember being utterly amazed in 1998 when I was shopping for a new Honda, I put “honda prices” in the search engine and a BANNER AD appeared for guess what - HONDA. “Whoa! that’s way cool” That is a marketing strategy, right, and a paid one at that. Sure YAHOO made money for displaying the banner ad, but Honda did better by getting ultra qualified traffic to their website.

OOPS, traffic, here we go with another “buzzword”. Traffic is a fancy, over appreciated term, that means prospects, customers, competitors, researchers, employees, friends, neighbors, family, and don’t forget spiders and robots. What? Spiders and Robots? Sure, when you look at a traffic report, sometimes its a robot visitor or search engine spider that is driving your page views and visits up.

So back to the point at hand - why I think Search Engine Optimization is silly. Well, I think that the words Search Engine Optimization are silly because we are really optimizing our website to attract the most possible interested humans. But that’s not where the journey stops, that is only where the journey begins.

Time and time again as a professional web master in corporate land I fielded calls from agencies wanting to build me a website and guarantee my submissions to 1,000s of search engines. In fact they have had such an affect on companies, a prospect called me last week and wanted to know “are there some new search engines you can submit me to - we aren’t getting enough customers”. It’s a real disconnect. After looking at their site, it’s no wonder there’s not any business - and it’s not her fault - no one told her the secret ingredient: HUMANS … Everyone is thinking about pleasing the search engines — HELLO — we need to be pleasing the people.

It’s not enough to make the search engines come to us even though they are powerful, mighty, electronic creatures. Last time I checked search engines don’t have credit cards, and can’t fill in a lead generation form. (But we know that some robots can– even when the robots do, they are not there to buy). Search Engine Optimization is silly because it doesn’t drive sales, it only drives traffic. You can’t just get traffic (uh sorry) humans to your website and throw your hands up in the air, and say OOPS it didn’t work.

There are many on-site search engine optimization tactics that work and are effective. But none so effective as presenting content (a.k.a. product and service information) that is good for your qualified humans. You see, it is the human that type words in the search engines. Somehow there continues to be a disconnect about that. Search engines are not typing keywords into their own search box - they are machines — waiting to serve humans results.

I especially love it when “alogorithms” change and everyone thinks that Google is out to get them. I once believed that too, but then I was reminded that the search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Live, AOL, and all the others… have but one job: to maintain their brand. So what is their brand? Quality Results ! If you type in “3 ft pool cue” you expect to receive web pages about a 3 ft pool cue. If you search time and again and the search engine doesn’t give you relevant results, you are going to stop using that search engine. When you stop using that “free” search engine - the Search Engine Company loses sales. (I will expound on the subject of free services generating revenue on another cloudless day.) But it gets better as humans we blame the search engines when they don’t bring us what we want, when in fact, the search engines generally (yes there are some exceptions) bring us the best they have. It’s the best they have because companies are busy optimizing for the search engine, and not for the humans.

Humans don’t care if its a paid listing or an organic listing, they just want to find what they are looking for, and when search engines don’t deliver, the brand believability is reduced. To keep up with their customers Search Engines have to continue to revise their formula (aka algorithm) to deliver the best results to their customers.

A specific example is my 3 foot pool cue. Well, if you sell 3 foot pool cues, you are missing out on some web traffic. I don’t know how many folks type in 3 foot pool cue, or if it’s even a search term worth considering, but I can tell you, I got cruddy results (at the time of this writing). Click here to go search 3 foot pool cue for yourself . No one is thinking outside the box on this one. Even the paid results are lukewarm at best. Don’t think a 3 foot pool cue exists? YUP they do, for small spaces, or mini pool tables. And even though the industry standard is in inches - if I am a newbie to pool, I just may not know that. So help your customers. Make pages that speak to them. If you want them to visit your site, make the site worth visiting. Guide them down the primrose path to your door (uh website … and checkout pages).

So now we have searchers (humans) blaming the search engines, and of course website owners blame the search engines, but really isn’t it a matter of personal responsibility ? (oh boy is this getting political now? NOPE…don’t worry).

As if Google being out to get you isn’t enough … to add to the mayhem, every day there are new competitors coming online. So while your site may have been loved by the Search Engines yesterday, you have 3 new competitors today that are coming to get customers online for themselves. And you have to proactively manage that.

Search Engine Optimization is silly, but indeed necessary to attract qualified traffic. But search engine optimization is not a one time tactic, it has to be thought of as an ongoing marketing effort. If you still use the yellow pages to advertise your business, you can’t advertise in the book for one month and stop. On the web, you can’t do the same thing either. You should always be looking for ways to implement even the smallest progressive steps to increase the flow of qualified humans to your website. Pe

rhaps I should invent a new term and call it human search optimization? Ahhh that may be best left for another day.

Human Search Optimization

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