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.

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.

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