Why SEO Is Like a Seed by Nick Stamoulis

Written on July 28, 2010

This is another useful article that NECSES Webdesign has found for our visitors benefit.

Why SEO Is Like a Seed by Nick Stamoulis

SEO is not something that happens right away. For most people they have learned to understand that search engine optimization takes time and you need apply good quality approach in order to make an impact on your targeted industry search results.

Here are some reasons why SEO takes time for those who are not so convinced:

Limited Space: For every keyword and phrase there are only ten parking spaces in the search results which means that you need to put in the leg work to be visible in these areas. If everyone did a little SEO wouldn’t it be impossible to have everyone rank in the search results for a specific word or phrase?

Competition: You really don’t know what your competition is doing as far as marketing to be ranking in those search results. You can search around and take a look but ultimately you don’t really know what types of link building activities they are performing for them to show up in those areas.

Ranking Factors: There are close to 200 different ranking factors that determine where a website ranks. It takes time for a website to cover many of these factors which is why SEO is a long term effort.

Age: If you are in an industry where the majority of the websites that rank on page one or two are aged, meaning they have been live online for a much greater time than yours it will require even more patience and time. Age is a very important ranking factor in the search engines so if you have just recently launched your website it is going to take some time to really catch up to your competition.

Volume of Business: The internet has allowed people to start businesses relatively easy which means that content and websites are being dumped into the web space at much higher rate than ever before. The volume of content that exists in the internet is astonishing and it is not slowing down any time soon.

Don’t compare the rankings you might have achieved years ago to now because the game has shifted and changed quite a bit.

SEO was once a much different effort. Several years ago, before social media marketing was effective, a company had to rely solely on SEO for their marketing efforts. The effort has changed and forced businesses to take a much stronger SEO marketing and branding approach in order to stand out from the crowd.

Top Ten Small Business Web Site Marketing Tips

Written on June 9, 2010

Many small business owners struggle with the seemingly overwhelming task of managing their web site. There always seems to be so much to do, yet no time to do it all (something we know all too well). This brief article should help to highlight the key aspects of web site management that will help them gain the most from their web site with the time that they have available.

The following ten tips are key to maintaining a successful web site. Follow these and your site will do better. Nothing will guarantee that a web site will be successful as there are simple too many different factors that impact web success – but as a general rule these ten tips will always lead to better performance.

• Content
• Freshness
• No Tricks
• Links
• Structure
• Accessibility
• Quality Code
• URLs
• Style
• Images

1. Content

Content is key!

Almost all the search engines scan a sites content now – almost ignoring things like meta tags. The more content you have on your site the more the search engines can scan – but there is more to it then that: people like content too. Many people measure a web site’s success by the number of visitors it gets – so ask yourself – why would people come to your web site? Do you offer them interesting and informative information that relates to your product or service? if not, why would they come?

Relevant content and lots of it is a key for a successful web site. There is always room for more content on a web site, and you can never have too much.

Take this article you are reading for example, while it’s fairly useful information for many of our visitors, it’s also additional content for our web site – and will serve to help our site do better. Writing articles about aspects of your industry is a great way to generate content.

Set asside an hour a day (or at least an hour a week) to devote to adding new content to your web site.

2. Freshness

Keep it current

Having lots of content is great – but if it is all three years old it’s not going to look like your site is much of a priority. The search engines actually track this. They monitor how frequently your site changes as they visit it for indexing. The more often it changes the better your rank in the freshness category.

What constitutes change? Pretty much anything – which is why keeping a BLOG or adding frequent news articles to your web site usually produces such good results. It is also the reason why having something as simple as rotating content and the current date on every page has been shown to make a difference.

3 No Tricks

Don’t try to outsmart the Search Engines – Eventually you’ll loose

Many web design companies promise success through the use of tricks, backdoors, and special tactics designed to sneak a web site into a top position rapidly. Something, of course, that the search engines are constantly battling to defeat. Why play the game? As the search engines find the cheaters they will plug the holes and a rank (that usually costs a pretty penny to achieve) will immediately be lost.

Rather, follow the recommendations of the search engines – most set out rules for web masters that outline what they would like to see in a web site. By following the rules the engines are actually battling all the cheating web sites and working to promote the sites that follow the rules – they are fighting FOR you!

4 Links

Links both in and out must be relevant

There has been a lot of talk about link exchanges – people linking to others merely to gain a higher rank (hmmm this smacks of breaking tip 3) if you are going to link to someone and/or ask them to link to you – ask yourself: is it relevant?

Any old link is not going to help you much – search engines will look at who is linking to you – they also pay very close attention to how many links you have off your web site on a page. This is being done to try and drop sites with pages of links (do you have a links page on your web site?)

It is far better to have relevant links places throughout your web site – on only those pages that specifically the topic that relates to the page being linked to.

Unfortunately you can’t exert too much control over the way that other sites link to yours but it is worth looking at how a site usually links to others before to specifically go requesting a link from them.

5 Structure

Organize your web site and everyone will thank you.

Both the search engines and your web visitors prefer a web site that is well structured. The search engines due to their very nature (being computer programs) must break down all web sites into elements based on the structure of the pages. People, so frequently rushing to find the specific information they are looking for, rarely read through web pages but rather scan headings and bulleted lists to find the detailed sections of interest. In both cases a well structured site will be far better received then one that is a mish-mosh of information haphazardly thrown together.

This is simple to do – but all too often missed. Make headings, use the correct coding tags for them, organize sections of content into groups, and use bold and bulleted lists to present key points.

Keep in mind when writing paragraphs of text that most humans will not read them unless they are specifically titled with a headline that matches what they are looking for.

6 Accessibility

A web site that speaks to all is better then a site that only speaks to some.

Tips no 6 and 7 are closely related: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides a list of guidelines for how to create web sites that are accessible to as many people (and systems) as possible. Think about your web site – can someone with a visual disability (perhaps even something as simple as colour-blindness) still get information about your product or service? If not, how do you feel knowing that you have just excluded a vast segment of the population from accessing your web site?

7 Quality Code

Well coded web sites perform better.

Many small business owners don’t have too much control over the code used to create their web site – but it is still important to know how important it may be. Standard compliant code that has been checked for errors is easier for the search engines to assimilate. It is more widely visible across varied platforms (computer types) and in different browsers.

Ensure your web designer is writing standard compliant code that is validated for errors. You can also check your own web site using free on-line tools from the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium – the standards body that administers Internet technologies). All NECSES Webdesign websites comply to W3C Standards – giving our customers peace of mind.

8 URLs

Prudent choice of URLs will impact your web site’s performance

Professional web designers should already know this – but if you are using a content management system to build your web site, or portions of it, it is important to understand the significance of the URL used to access pages on your web site.

Search engines look at the address of every page on your web site and try to extract key-words from the content of the url. For example, you may have a page about “Widgets” on your web site called “somewhere.com” creating the page with a filename of widgets.html will give a better keyword rank then page6.html

This is a fairly subtle point but makes a significant difference for most search engines. It can also make it much easier for people that are typing in a URL to access a specific page of your web site. Notice the URL for this web page – it’s called http://www.necseswebdesign.co.uk/top-ten-small-business-web-site-marketing-tips/ for a reason!

9 Style

Looks do matter – but perhaps not the way you think…

In the grand scheme of things the “looks” of a web site in the classic sense are not really that important – honestly! Once people have looked at a web site for a few minutes they will quickly discard their first impression (based on looks) and move immediately to asking – is this site giving me the information I need – and can I find it quickly (going back to tips 1 – content and 5 – structure)

So what are we on about with style? Simple – ensure the style of your site makes it easy to read. Avoid things like black backgrounds with white text (inverse text is harder to read) and ALL CAPS (humans read by identifying word shapes – writing in all caps forces people to read every letter and quickly becomes annoying – plus on the net it is used as a typographic method of indicating you are shouting) font.

10 Images

Selling a product – better make sure it looks good

If you are selling something that has a visual representation – then professional looking photography is key. Even a multi-million dollar resort will not look good if the photographs are amateurish. If you care about what you have to sell, then it’s worth investing in some professional photographs to show people what you have. Remember, on-line people can’t get a hold of your product – so you need to give them some really good photographs so that they can feel confident that it meets their needs.

SEO do’s and don’ts

Written on March 24, 2010

10. Don’t Use Flash for SEO

Flash websites are very eye-catching, but search engines cannot read or index this type of content. If it is impossible to avoid a Flash-centric website and you need search engines to index it, you will have to offer an html version too. Search engines don’t like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

9. Don’t Use too Much JavaScript

Searchbots are not designed to read and understand JavaScript code. If a website contains a few lines of text in the JavaScript code, chances are that searchbots will ignore the entire block of code along with the text. This is true in the case of JavaScript menus. Try to keep the use of JavaScript to a minimum. Alternatively, create an external JavaScript file if it is unavoidable.

8. Do Implement a Robots.txt File

The primary purpose for using a robots.txt file is to gain complete control over the data indexed by the searchbots. Implement a Robots.txt file only when you want to prevent unwanted web pages from being indexed. A robots.txt file is always placed in the root folder of the website where the searchbots can access it easily.

7. Do Target the Correct Keywords

Targeting the wrong keywords is a common mistake many optimizers make and even worse – veteran SEO professionals do it. Marketers select keywords that they think are explanatory of their website, but the average searcher does not think in those same keyword terms. Picking the right keywords can increase or decrease traffic to your SEO campaign. A first-class keyword suggestion aid, for example the Google search-based keyword tool, will help you find keywords that are appropriate for your site.

6. Do Include Long Tail Keywords

With a million websites competing for short tail keywords, it can take more than 6 months to rank in the top 20 for a competitive keyword. In this case, long tail keywords come in handy. Long tail keywords are more specific and can contain the name of a specific product, brand or city. Ranking for long tail keywords is comparatively easier and the rate of conversion is better than that of short tail keywords. Do include keywords in the title tags.

5. Do Maintain a Uniform URL Structure

If your website is dynamic, then you need to modify the URL structure of the web pages. This maintains uniformity and helps searchbots to understand which page it is indexing. It is very easy to maintain the URL structure in dynamic websites. Blogging platforms like WordPress provide an option for permalinks.

4. Don’t Link to Low Quality Websites

Link building is a very crucial aspect of search engine optimization. Search engines consider the number of incoming links to a website as an indication of their popularity and give them priority rankings. Many beginners fail to realize that it is links from authoritative and quality websites that are important and they mistakenly link to low quality websites for higher rankings. This tactic can cause the credibility of the website to go down with search engines and in some cases, the website may get banned.

3. Do Perform Competitive Intelligence

Before starting your search engine optimization program, visit the competing websites in the top results. Research these types of questions:

A. How many websites are competing for the same keyword?

B. How old are the websites in top search engine results pages?

C. How many back links do the top ranking websites list?

D. What type of social media is used by the competing sites?

2. Do Take Advantage of Google Analytics

2009 was the year when web analytics gained momentum. Google Analytics came up with advanced metrics and intelligence report features which revolutionized free analytics tools. Companies realized the benefits of using web analytics tools to extract their relevant data. Implement Google Analytics to analyze data and build a 2010 plan to increase traffic and rates of conversion.

1. Do Create Fresh Content

Search engines are famous for penalizing a website for publishing duplicate content. With plagiarism on the rise and availability of content checking tools such as Copyscape, marketers have become more cautious. Yahoo is considered to be among the harshest of all the search engines with regard to this penalty. Add fresh content to your website to help build visitor interest and credibility with the search engines.

These 10 simple do’s and don’ts can help you to avoid making potentially dangerous SEO mistakes and ensure your site is indexed and boost rankings.



DSI Ltd

Written on March 1, 2010

Design, Supply and Install Ltd (DSI Ltd) in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk required a website with an integrated content management system to allow them full control of their website content, as well as the search engine optimisation of the website, with a design and structure that promoted the many faceted aspects of their business in Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering as well as their Fabrication capabilities.

Features within the site include a built in slide-show, on-line booking form, a Google location map and breadcrumbs for easier navigation.

Bounce Rate Explained

Written on January 5, 2010

What is the Bounce Rate?

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.

Off line Marketing ideas

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:

• You must get the reader’s attention.
• Once you get their attention, you must keep them interested.
• Turn their interest in desire for your products.
• Give them a call to action!

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.

Template Website: The Pros and Cons

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.

Pros 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.

Cons of Template Websites

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.

Search Engine Optimisation – best tools for the job

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.

Landing pages – can they help achieve more sales?

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.

3 steps to sales satisfaction

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