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Look Out For Content by Ken McKay

November 25, 2005 Reply

Search engines list web pages in order of relevance to a search. How relevant to a search is the content of your web site?

Content:

One of several factors contributing to relevance to a search is the content of a web site. If you search the web for say toys, then it goes without saying that websites at the top of the search results will be all about toys, more toys and have many details about toys.

Times have changed:

Websites built a few years ago had less competition for search rankings. There are now more competing websites being added every day on any subject. Many web sites still present just a home page mentioning the product or service once, with contact details. The pages may be well laid out with attractive graphics. But their owners need to understand why they are not high in search results. It is now almost impossible for a website with just a home page and a few inside pages to be found high in search results.

What is relevant content?

If Website A displays its products, details of their uses, descriptions, related information and articles about them, and Website B just displays its products, obviously Website A has more relevant content than Website B. Website A will be more highly ranked than Website B. If there are a million listings for that product, then it’s unlikely that Website B will be found in the first few pages.

How to get relevant content:

Fill your home page with many words about the products, mentioning the products as often as possible. e.g. If the products are toys, then say: “toys are… toys do… big toys… little toys… new toys… toys have… toys to suit…” etc. Persuade your visitors that you know everything there is to know about your products. Have as many inside pages as possible mentioning the products and linking back to the home page. Web pages for:
– descriptions of the products,
– expanded product details,
– comparisons with other products,
– uses for the products,
– maintenance of the products,
– frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the products,
– histories of the products,
– new products,
– newsletters, with archives of previous issues,
– top ten sales,
– special promotions,
– articles about the products,
– testimonials mentioning the products,
– links to other relevant websites about the products.

Get help from others:

Your customers can provide all the content for ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ pages and ‘Testimonials’ or ‘Feedback’ pages. If you can’t spend time writing articles, or can’t write articles, there are many article publishing websites happy to provide these to you. It all increases the content of your website.

Be relevant:

The more relevant content you can get, the higher your web site will rank. But if you don’t rank high because you don’t have relevant content, then all the money you have spent making the website look beautiful could be wasted if not enough people see it

About the Author

Ken McKay is an Australian web designer. More information on web design is available at platypus websites – www.platywebs.com.au

Abandonment – Why Visitors Don’t Turn Into Customers by: Halstatt Pires

November 16, 2005 Reply

Every good Internet business understands the value of conversions versus hits received. Far too often, businesses become fixated on the hits they are receiving instead of monitoring their hit to sale conversion rate. This misguided focus is the road to ruin because it fails to take in the issue of abandonment.

Abandonment

“Abandonment” is one of those terms that has a unique meaning when applied to the Internet. The term refers to reasons why a user abandons a site before taking the action the site owner desires, typically purchasing a product or making an inquiry.

There are a number of beautiful sites on the Internet with unique innovations. Unfortunately, these sites rarely turn a profit or unnecessarily limit their profit potential. Site owners must focus on only one thing when building a site – converting visitors to customers. To avoid abandonment issues, you should focus on the following:

1. The site should always load as quickly as possible to accommodate visitors that are using 56k dialup modems.

2. The site should be designed for ease of use, not “what looks good.”

3. All advertisements must click through directly to the items that are being searched, not the home page of the site.

4. Site pages should be kept short to improve load times.

5. Information that is not germane to the product or service should be removed.

6. Flash, music and other “atmosphere elements” of the site should be removed or optional to speed up load times.

7. Signing up for the site newsletter must be incredibly easy.

8. Customers should be required to fill out the minimum of information to make a purchase.

9. Newsletters should be issued in HTML and text since some email systems do not accept HTML.

10. All images should be compressed for quick loading.

11. All links and emails must also include AOL friendly equivalents.

12. All emails must have automatic text wraps at 60 spaces so that the recipient does not receive a disjointed mess of code in their email box.

13. Email communications from the public must be responded to within 24 hours.

14. Communications made after business hours must be responded to first thing in the morning.

15. The site should offer accumulating bonus points for purchases that eventually lead to a “free gift”

16. When an order is shipped, an email should be sent to the customer telling them as much.

The list is fairly endless, but you should always view site designs and advertising from the perspective of the customer. The universal question for each project is, “How could we make this easier for customers?” By emphasizing this approach, you will bypass many of the problems you see on the net and avoid wasting your advertising dollars

About The Author

Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com – an Internet marketing firm in San Diego.