Written on January 5, 2010
I’ve had a lot of people asking about this web metric recently. So just to clarify a few things on what it is and isn’t. The bounce rate is the amount of people who leave your site immediately on first arrival. A high bounce rate can be indicative of a number of things, but can also be influenced by a number of things.
Here’s a brief break down of a few of those:
1) Your content isn’t what they expected
So you turn up on a search for “bananas” when you are selling “apples”. Nothing much you can do about that, but don’t expect visitors to wait around. You may want to perhaps start growing a potential banana business by providing a page on your site about where they can find them.
2) Your site design isn’t professional
We make judgement calls on people’s appearances within 30 seconds of seeing someone. Unfortunately the same is true online. If we are in “buyer mode” then it is all the more important to make first impressions count. A poorly thought out navigation system, or an ugly site banner, could be enough to put people off.
3) Where you’ve been linked from
If you have been linked to from a highly trusted resource, the chances are your visitors will stay longer than if you get a link from say comments in a blog.
Think of it this way.
If you are stumbling on the web, and are in what I call the “bored browser” mindset, you will be fickle. If you have ever used StumbleUpon – you’ll know what I mean by this. If however you are in the “ready to learn” mindset you examine web pages more carefully, you read around the subject you are researching.
4) The speed of your site
If you are running on a slow server, people aren’t going to stick around. Better to invest in a lightning quick hosting package than to have visitors leave because they are waiting for pages to load.
5) Audience profile
Lets say for the sake of argument you are a retailer selling shoes. If your traffic is coming from young and hip social networks such as Bebo or Myspace or Facebook – you need to analyse how many of these people are bouncing. Adding additional tracking metrics can help you determine if your online stock is appealing to younger audiences, and can actually help shape your buying decisions. Remember that age can influence how fickle an audience potentially is.
Written on December 3, 2009
A lot of us work hard to promote our online business but one thing we might forget is that we can get a lot of traffic by promoting offline as well. Following is a list of ideas you can use to promote your online business, offline.
1. Brochures – Brochures are a great marketing tool because you can provide a lot of information about you and your business. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce and other businesses to see if you can put out your brochures.
2. Newspaper Ads – Run classified ads in some local or not so local newspapers. Remember these points when writing your ads:
3. Radio Ads – Check with popular radio stations to see what they charge for a short ad and make the ad pop as much as possible.
4. Promotional Items – Have your URL printed on caps, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. and give them to as many people as you can to wear. This can be very effective in getting your business known.
5. Postcards – Postcards are very cost effective and versatile. You can announce new items, offer special deals, promote a special business event or announce your website and what types of products/services you offer.
6. Offline Networking – Join your local Chamber of Commerce. Get involved in business clubs and groups and talk about your business whenever possible.
7. Car Signs – These are great products because they allow you to advertise your business wherever you go – family outings, running errands, visiting family, etc!
8. Business Cards – Design your business card wisely. They are no longer just for listing your name and address! Have your business card double as a coupon or gift certificate. Hand them out whenever the opportunity becomes available.
9. Flyers – Distributing flyers is a very affordable way to market your online business. Be sure to specify what service/product you offer and use incentives to get people to ACT NOW. You can also encourage people to pass the word if your products/services can help anyone they know. Parades and other public events are great opportunities for handing out your flyers.
10. TV Ads – TV ads are a bit more expensive but if you have the budget it would definitely be worth looking into.
11. Coupons – Print out coupons and hand them out wherever and whenever you can. Offer special deals, sales discounts, etc. This can lead to many sales and a larger customer base.
12. Freebies and Samples – People love getting things for free. Offer small items as free samples. You have seen grocery stores do this many times. Give a free sample of a good product and you will get more sales!
13. Letterheads – Have your business name and URL on everything that gets mailed out of your office/home. You never know who will be reading it and if they might take an interest in your products/services/opportunity.
14. Catalogs – If possible, have catalogs made and distribute them as much as possible. Use direct mail as well, if you can. Offer x amount of dollars off their first order or a free gift with first order.
15. The Yellow Pages – Get listed in the Yellow Pages so more people can find out who you are and what you offer!
16. Billboards/Signs – We all notice billboards and signs and they can be very effective in increasing your business.
17. Job Fairs – If you offer a good business opportunity, make it known by participating in job fairs and career days.
18. Print Magazines – Purchase advertising or try submitting articles to various print magazines. Getting an article published can do a lot for your online business.
19. Greeting Cards – Send personal greeting cards or even thank you notes to all your customers as well as people who expressed an interest in what you offer. This is guaranteed to make a lasting impression!
20. Gift Certificates – Print out gift certificates and distribute them as much as possible. Put them in mailings both personal and business. Work with other businesses to distribute each other’s certificates (complementary not competing businesses).
21. Community Involvement – Getting involved in your community events and activities can be one of the most effective ways to get your business noticed. Volunteer for school activities, work for charities, attend social functions, etc.
Written on December 3, 2009
There’s much to be said about the respective values of social media and SEO, both as individual entities and a collective. A cornerstone of search engine optimization is linking, while social media is all about being, well, sociable. But which is better today?
That’s very much a question that’s open to debate, depending on who you ask, you could expect to hear a whole range of answers. Networking has become ingrained in the Internet marketer’s psyche, building relationships while interacting with your fellow professionals and consumers. But can it really compete with building an impressive linking infrastructure when it comes to marketing your website online?
Both techniques work in very different ways. You build links by making requests, payments (only to the right people – directories and the sort) and creating content that causes a stir. Networking can of course help this process. When you get noticed by more people, they may be inclined to link to you; there’s no certainty of course, but social media is a way of raising a profile and showing off your expertise to the world – prime link bait conditions.
There are easy ways to get links and hard ways. Even if you create a fantastic blog, a great new piece of shareware or a stunning design, there’s no assurance that people will find you. Quality links are often those that happen organically, the kind of thing that you can’t force. Article submission and press releases will assure you of at least one (sometimes more) link back to your site; while the every little bit helps strategy is a good one, that link can take time to gain and time is precious, particularly when the outcome doesn’t quite justify the means.
Of course the main reason most people create an article or release, at least in an SEO capacity, is to get it picked up and syndicated across a number of sites. The dream ticket is a major news agency picking up a story on their newswire and sending it global; this, of course, is extremely rare. For this to happen, it needs to be relevant, it needs to be interesting and it needs to provide something new. Regurgitating the same stuff over and over again may save time, but that could well prove to be a false economy.
But once again we’re thrust back into the realms of Web 2.0. If you want to get people talking about your content, you may first need to start shouting about it. Herein lies the weakness though of social media.
There is still a cloud of mysticism that hangs over the social side of the Internet. Just how effective is it? If you have the time to dedicate to interact with the wider community day in day out, then the benefits can’t be argued. Normal people have become celebrities, while the celebrities themselves have been out there growing legions of new fans. All very positive. But what is the value of a follower or a friend? Commenting on blogs, reciprocating tweets and conversing offers a fantastic community spirit; allowing users worldwide to get involved in a continuous conversation.
What all this won’t do, necessarily, is improve your site and its strength. You might get traffic, in fact you will almost certainly get traffic, but if this comes from the same basic group of people, none of whom have the slightest interest in using your business or buying your products, is it really worth the investment of time? Friends and followers aren’t just an ego trip; it shows a level of influence and provides a wider sphere of influence. A strong linking strategy though goes further.
Every link you earn will join a wider group of inbound pointers. Google likes websites that people like pointing to. Therefore, Google likes nothing more than a site with links going to all pages, coming from a variety of sources and in a natural fashion. While there are dangerous links out there, toxic ones that will cause more damage than good, these can be avoided and banished if need be.
Whether it’s on a directory, bolted onto an article or has come from a respected source organically, the power of the link is hard to question. Aside from a permanent new gateway for targeted traffíc to find you, it adds vital strength to your website’s overall profile. PageRank maybe all but defunct, but that doesn’t mean that links are treading the same path.
We wouldn’t ever discourage people from using social media; it has fantastic potential and is evolving all the time. But if website promotion and search engine marketing is what you’re looking to do, the tried and trusted link may well prove a more constructive use of your time. It maybe a quieter way of going about things, anti-social even, but links get you seen on search engines and search engines get you seen by consumers.
Your online profile may ebb and flow, your popularity wane, but when you build a strong link profile you create stability and open the door to continued development. They are the foundation to any successful site; so while it’s always nice to have flighty friends, the stability and long-term benefit of a link is still very much the method of choice for most.
Written on October 22, 2009
While NECSES Webdesign does not build template websites we do want to give consumers all the facts about template sites so they can make an educated decision about what type of website best suits them. Below is a list of the pros and cons of template websites.
Template websites are a less expensive method of making websites. Template websites are a lot easier and take less time to create than custom websites which is what the site cost should reflect. While template websites should be cheaper than custom websites, that is not always the case. Many website design companies say they build custom websites but in reality they build template websites and charge clients for a custom website.
So how can you avoid paying too much for a template website? Get a quote from a custom website design company and compare it to the price of a template website company. Since template websites require a lot less work than custom websites, the price of a template website should be significantly lower than that of a custom website. If the custom website is close or lower in price than a template website than just go for the custom website.
Template websites are usually simple designs that take less time to build than custom websites. Template websites are less complex and have less functionality than custom websites thus taking less time to build and get running. Companies that are looking to get an online presence up immediately may decide to go with a template website.
It seems as though there are many more website design companies that offer template websites than custom websites. That being said, it could be easier for a business to find a template website company than a custom website company. More availability could make it that much quicker to find a website design company to build a template website than a custom website.
While template websites usually offer simple and clean designs, they can be very limiting. With a template you get what you see. Template websites are very limited in the changes that can be made to the design and functionalities that can be added. For many companies paying less money for a website is not worth the limitations offered by template websites. Companies should not build websites around a template but websites should be built around a company. Custom websites properly reflect who a company is and what they do, while template websites most of the time do not properly reflect this.
The simplicity of template websites does not let companies stand apart from others. Custom websites stand out from template sites because many template websites look similar and don’t offer much distinction. While template websites are very similar and plain, you can design custom websites any way you want allowing businesses to have a more professional unique appearance.
Most template websites are not search engine optimized. If a website is not search engine optimized it is likely to not be found in search results. What good is a website if it cannot be found? One of the reasons NECSES Webdesign builds custom websites is so that they are search engine optimized. If you want a website to show up higher in search engines then a template website is not the way to go.
Many smaller companies may be fine with having a limited amount of website functionality but larger companies especially require more functionality than template websites offer. Template websites are premade so they are not built to suit any particular company. Larger companies should choose a custom website design company to work with rather than a template company so that the website will be built around all of their needs.
Template websites are quick and easy to build because they work from a pre-made design and structure. Premade designs work for some companies, but they limit what can be done to the site. As a business grows their website should grow with them. Template websites cannot be built scalable so as a business grows and changes their website will not work for them.
With all of the cons associated with template websites, why would any company use a template site? Template websites may save companies money initially, but will cost more money and cause problems in the long run. Custom websites are the perfect solution for nearly every business. Contact NECSES Webdesign to discuss how a custom search engine optimized website can help your business.
Written on August 27, 2009
Every Search Engine Optimiser uses different tools and resources. Some tools are paid, some are free and some are internally developed tools that we use for ourselves and our clients – but we all use them. Very often I get asked what tools people should use if they’re looking to optimize their own sites and what resources they should use to keep up with the latest going’s on. While telling people how to optimize their own sites and what the tools we use isn’t generally the best of business practices it can help to de-mystify some of the practices and if your budget doesn’t allow for the hiring of a professional SEO company – trying it yourself may be the only option.
Firefox
I don’t know if Firefox is officially the browser of SEO’s but if not – it should be. You can download it here. The award-winning Web browser is better than ever. You can browse the internet with confidence – Firefox protects you from viruses and spyware. Enjoy improvements to performance, ease of use and privacy. Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. And then there is the extensions that make this browser invaluable to SEO’s …
SEO Quake
If I had to lose all but one of my SEO tools – this would be the one I’d keep which is why it gets listed first. This little tool allows users to quickly look at the top 10 results in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and within seconds see all the PageRank, indexed page numbers, backlinks to that page, domain backlinks, the age of the site and much much more.
This tool doesn’t provide any revolutionary information, as all it’s data that can be accessed directly. However it reduces the time to complate tasks drastically. It then provides easy links to more detailed information. A fantastic tool. Oh, and it also adds a line through all nofollowed links. Very handy when link building.
Web Developer
With this tool we’re getting a bit more advanced. For those of you who understand coding or are learning this tool is incredible. It allows for quick testing and viewing of a site for it’s structure including image info, table and cell information, W3C compliance, CSS details and MUCH MUCH more.
Search Status
This is another tools with many uses. On the surface it simply displays PageRank, Alexa and Compete rank and mozRank data but with a right-click of the icon you get access to a whole sleugh of additional information including fast links to whois, the robots and sitemap files, keyword density information, Archive.org info and it’ll even highlight nofollow links.
Now this is the main sleugh of extensions I have installed for Firefox. This isn’t to say that’s all there is and I can’t stress enough the benefits of visiting https://addons.mozilla.org/ and looking for more useful extensions specific to your needs (RSS, Twitter, coding, etc.) I have about a dozen more installed than are listed here but those above are the main Firefox SEO tools I use daily.
Written on August 27, 2009
Building a great landing page should be on top of any business’s priority list if you want your website visitors transformed into customers.
While a great looking website can grab the attention of your visitors, a strong landing page will keep them involved and get them to buy your products or services.
Wikipedia defines a landing page as:
‘The page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.’
Wikipedia’s definition sums it up nicely but there is certainly more to a great landing page then relevant and keyword rich content. Here are 10 things that you should be looking at when optimizing a landing page:
Relevant Content
A landing page’s content should be directly related to organic search results, PPC campaign, anchor text in inbound links and any other targeted inbound advertising, online and offline. If people don’t get what they expect, they will be more likely to leave.
Multiple Landing Pages
A landing page shouldn’t necessarily be your homepage. In many instances a homepage is a good landing page. However, for more targeted traffic and better results, you want a landing page to be focused on a specific offering and specific call for action. To accomplish this, a given website should have multiple landing pages. Create some deep link landing pages that will focus on a specific proposition and your conversion rate will be higher.
Focus on Functionality
More and more visitors seem to judge the professionalism and credibility of a site by its design. To satisfy this, many website owners concentrate on the design aspect instead of focusing on its functionality. A well-designed landing page is essentially worthless if the prospect can’t accomplish anything. While I wouldn’t suggest skimping on the design, it shouldn’t be your priority. Focus on the exact steps you want your visitor to take and design a page with that in mind.
Call To Action
You got visitors to your landing page, now direct them to take action. Make it clear and highly noticeable without overwhelming your audience. Whether it’s a sign-up form or a “buy now” button, make it the focus of your page.
Send a Clear Message
Keep your landing page clean and clutter free so your visitors stay focused on your message. Emphasize the biggest reasons that they should carry out the applicable call to action with larger text, contrasting colors, images. Make it easier for them to scan the content by using lists and getting right to the point.
Provide Incentive
Bribing your visitors with freebies and samples is a proven method of enticing them to sign up. Provide more than your competition but don’t sell yourself short either. Provide a list of reasons why your offering is better and what exactly the visitor can expect. Provide references and testimonials.
Make Visitors Stay
Avoid sending your visitors to another page unless it is absolutely necessary. That includes any internal navigation as well as external banners. If you eliminate all distractions and limit navigation options, you stand a better chance of keeping your visitors around.
Simple is Better
Make it easy for your visitors to complete the action you want them to. Less confusion and decision making for your visitor means better conversions rate for your landing page. Don’t provide multiple choices and throw in optional extras. Focus on the pitch the page was created for.
Power of Freebies
Everyone likes free offers. They are hard to resist and can be a powerful conversion tool. Whether a call to action is free or something free is received as a result of carrying out a call to action, it certainly doesn’t hurt. If your competition charges for something and you provide it for free, you’ll win the customer. Remember, just because you make a free offer doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be quality.
Provide Guarantees
Providing a guarantee for your customers inspires confidence in your products or service. A money back guurantee or price guarantee could be the factor that sways your visitor to buy from you.
Testing
Testing various text, call to action forms, layouts will give you a true idea what produces the best results as far as conversion. With NECSES Webdesign’s content management system websites, you have control of your website and can make changes instantly, making the testing process that much easier.
Creating a successful and effective landing page takes a lot of work but should be the focus for anyone involved with a website. As a website owner you must be aware of the components that comprise a solid landing page. After all this can mean a website’s success or failure.
Written on August 26, 2009
It always surprises me when speaking to some business owners when they say ‘Oh, we don’t need a website. We get our clients from recommendations.’ or ‘We don’t need any new business. We have more than we can cope with.’
Both of these statements are valid. Word of mouth advertising is still one of the best forms of advertising that there is, whilst not over-stretching your resources is sensible.
However, there are four key points about having a website that negates both these arguments.
Firstly, with word of mouth advertising a business has little control on the message that is given out or over who the message is given out to and, indeed, when it is given out. It could be a long time before word of mouth advertising starts to give any sort of return. With search engine optimisation of a web site, a good, clear message, and eye catching design a web site can do the ‘word of mouth’ advertsing to a much larger audience, delivering the message that you want to broadcast.
Secondly, according to InternetRetailing.com 97% of the UK’s internet users shop online and with almost 16 million households with internet access according to National Statistics Online that is a lot of potential customers these businesses could be missing out on. Even if you don’t sell products online, people expect to be able to look up a company’s products and services online before making a decision to purchase.
Nowadays, people use a website address much the same as a phone number (and some would argue web addresses are much easier to remember) and so, if a business has their website on their vehicles or signs for instance, it provides a much more memorable reference for passing motorists or pedestrians.
Thirdly, having a website can reduce a business’s work load. A well thought out website will have applications that reduce the amount of time spent on the telephone, for instance. Orders can be processed online and payment taken without any involvement from staff. When I pressed one business owner as to how they communicate with their clients, they answered that they send a monthly newsletter by post! This could be carried out with much less time and effort (and cost) using e-mailing software integrated in to a website.
Finally, having a website can enhance a business’s client experience. If a new piece of legislation is published for an accountant’s clients for instance, this can then be published online and a newsletter sent out to their clients to update them.
Now, these benefits of having a website may seem obvious to most people. If they do, please do some word of mouth advertising, and point the unconverted in our direction.
Written on August 26, 2009
Sales Completion: How to get it
One of the main problems in Internet marketing is that it is often a “winner takes it all” game. That means that the best website will get the deal and all other websites will get nothing, no matter how good they are.
Suppose someone wants to book driving lessons in Bury St Edmunds. They may search Google for driving instructors in Suffolk, take a look at the top 10 results and then decide to book their driving lessons with one of the sites. That means that one site gets the sale and the other 9 sites get nothing.
Your sales can dramatically increase if your website is just slightly better
The above has an important implication: you just have to be slightly better than your competitors to get many more sales. If you make the change from being one of the discarded sites to the site that is chosen by the searcher then your sales will increase dramatically. You’ll make the change from getting nothing to getting everything.
How to be better than your competitors?
1. Choose the right keywords
Being better than your competitors starts with choosing the right keywords. If you target keywords that aren’t used by the people who want to buy then you might get a lot of visitors but no sales. Your web pages should be optimized for keywords that attract people who are looking for the products and services that you sell on your website and who are ready to buy.
2. You must be in the top 10 results
While it is important to target the right keywords, your website must also be found on the first result page of Google, Yahoo and Bing to attract customers.
Most people only take a look at the top 10 results on the first result page. If your website cannot be found on the first result page for your keywords then potential customers won’t find your website.
3. Your website must be convincing
It’s not enough to be listed on the first search engine result page. Your website must also be convincing. It should give the customer what he is looking for, it should have a professional design and it should make it as easy as possible to buy your product or book your services. That is why it is so important to work on improving the conversion rate of your web pages. By improving your conversion rate, you can generate more money “out of thin air” from your existing rankings.
A trustworthy and professional website with a good conversion rate also has positive side-effects. Your customers probably will stay longer with your company and people are more likely to link to your website.
The winner takes it all
It takes some time to optimize your web pages, but it is worth the effort. Even small changes can have a huge impact on the number of sales that you get. Make the change from being one of the discarded sites to the site that gets the sale and your sales should improve.
Remember that your competitors are also working on their websites. Even if you are better than your competitors you have to continue with the optimization to stay ahead.
NECSES Webdesign’s content management system inclusive websites give businesses the flexibility to manage their search engine opptimisation themselves, allowing them to constantly monitor the effectiveness of their site’s optimisation and adjust accordingly. For further information on how our websites can be of benefit to your business please click here
Written on August 24, 2009
Google appears to be testing breadcrumbs in some search results, at least in some areas. If you are unfamiliar with the term breadcrumbs, it refers to the hierarchical display commonly used in site navigation. For example: Home Page>Product Page>Product A Page.
This is a feature that has been introduced by NECSES Webdesign for all of it’s web designs to aid navigation by users. Another example shows the breadcrumbs displayed in a different position within the search result:
Google’s use of breadcrumbs appears to only be a test, and a limited one at that. Google has talked repeatedly about sites having good site architecture in the past. This allows Google to more easily and quickly crawl sites.
Bing acknowledges this too. Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center recently said, “You can have great content and a plethora of high quality inbound links from authority sites, but if your site’s structure is flawed or broken, then it will still not achieve the optimal page rank you desire from search engines.”
If Google does begin incorporating the breadcrumbs display, on a mainstream level, that will be all the more reason to clean your site architecture up, at least in the navigation area. Site architecture certainly goes beyond this, but it is a key part of usability anyway and one that we at NECSES Webdesign always take in to consideration when designing our clients web sites.
Written on August 24, 2009
What’s your biggest technology disappointment? For me, it’s pervasive public wi-fi.
Only a few years back a whole host of commercial and community schemes were underway in the UK and elsewhere which promised to blanket towns in free – or very cheap – wireless connectivity.
But as I wander round Britain visiting new clients I rarely find wi-fi that is both easy to use and affordable. I’m far more likely to get on the internet on the move using either a 3G phone, or a USB mobile broadband dongle (not cheap either – but easier) and, given the soaring data traffic across mobile networks, I suspect that’s the same for many people.
Municipal wi-fi, which attracted a lot of interest and investment in the early part of the decade, has proved something of a “bubble” phenomenon with many projects abandoned and others failing to deliver a return for their investors.
BT’s recent announcement that it had now built half a million wi-fi hotspots across the UK, and to set a target of hitting a million by next February, is encouraging, but still has a long way to go to give blanket coverage.
But BT isn’t giving up. They say the technology is moving forward and the demand for mobile connectivity is growing exponentially. That’s obviously true – the question is which technology will triumph.
It could be Wimax – although this “wi-fi on steroids” technology is doing better in the developing world than in places like the UK. It looks more likely to be new flavour of mobile network, whether it’s called 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution). Users won’t really care, as long as they can get online anywhere at a reasonable price.
But it matters for businesses, which will want to offer customers a seamless broadband experience at home and on the move. Mobile operators – already offering broadband at home – will believe that they have the most complete wireless technology offering.
BT – which doesn’t have its own mobile network – will be wondering whether it’s wise to keep on betting on wi-fi as its solution.
