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Copyright by Axandra.com. Internet marketing and search engine ranking software.
You know that a high ranking is very important to get high quality targeted traffic to your Web site. The more targeted your visitors are, the more you'll sell on your site.
However, a high ranking alone is not enough. Many webmasters have the problem that their visitors don't buy something on their site even if the way the visitors reached the site indicates that they're interested in the products.
For that reason, we're going to tell you in this article what you can do to improve the effectiveness of your Web site.
When Web surfers come to your site, it's very important that you make a good first impression. Before a Web surfer starts reading the copy text on your Web page, your page must pass these three critical points:
Web surfers won't wait for slow loading Web pages. If your Web pages don't load as fast as is possible, a lot of Web surfers will go away before they have had a chance to take a look at your Web pages.
Don't forget that still the majority of Web surfers use a 28K/56K modem to surf the Internet. If your Web page is 120 KB big (including the images), then it takes 17 seconds to load the page. Would you wait so long?
Make sure that your Web site has a professional layout. People don't want to purchase from a shady backyard business. It's very important that your Web pages look perfect. Hire a professional Web designer if necessary.
The same is valid for your link pages. If you want to exchange links with other sites, make sure that your link pages look attractive. A link on your link pages should be something other people want to have.
Make your link pages accessible from your other Web pages and use a great layout for your link pages.
Automatically created doorway pages might bring some visitors to your site. However, they'll land on a Web page that was designed with search engines spiders in mind.
Automatically created doorway pages usually look ugly to human Web surfers. Often, they consist of nothing more than a list of buzz-words. You won't get good results with this method because human Web surfers will quickly close such a Web page.
If your Web site fails under one of these categories, Web surfers will leave your site before you even have the chance to tell them your marketing message.
Last week, we told you which three critical points your Web site must pass before Web surfers even consider taking a look at your Web page. This week, we're telling you what you can do to keep these visitors on your site.
Your home page is the most important page on your site. It's the very first page of your site and the page that people see first when they come to your site. Therefore, it's important that your home page is interesting for your visitors.<./p>
Every visitor wants to get a prompt answer to the question "what's in it for me?". On the first paragraph of your home page, you should tell your visitors the following:
If you don't answer these questions quickly enough, people will go away.
Of course, every home page owner is convinced that they have the best product on earth and that everybody should buy it. Unfortunately, visitors don't know that.
If you don't tell them the major benefits of your product, no one will take the time to dig into your site. Web surfers are a very impatient group.
Some people use Flash animations or big pictures with a meaningless text such as "Welcome to the world of tomorrow" as their index page that redirects to their actual first page. Don't do that if you don't want to lose a big part of your visitors.
Flash intros take minutes to load on a slow modem connection so most Web surfers will go away before they even had a chance to see your actual home page.
In addition, Web pages containing only a Flash animation cannot be indexed by most search engines. If you use a Flash intro as your index page, chances are that your site will never show up on search engines.
Until high-speed Internet access becomes widespread, don't use large bandwidth-clogging graphics.
As a rule of thumb, no single graphic should be larger than 30 KB to 50 KB, and no single page should have more than 200 KB of graphics.
If you must include a large, detailed image, provide your visitors a smaller, thumbnail version so they know if seeing the larger image is worth their time.
Not all Web surfers use Microsoft's Internet Explorer in version 6. It's important to test your Web site with different Web browsers.
Try to test your Web site with Internet Explorer version 5.0, < a href="http://www.mozilla.org/releases/stable.html">Mozilla, Netscape and Opera.
Professional Web sites always have their navigational bar at the same side. They use a consistent style for headlines, headers and text. Don't use more than three different fonts in different sizes.
Try to avoid colored or textured backgrounds. They make text difficult to read. Of course, dancing buttons and blinking text don't belong to a professional Web site, either.
Once Web surfers have decided not to go away on their first impulse, you have to keep them with a good sales copy.
Last week, we told you how to keep visitors on your site. This week, we're telling you how to convince your visitors with a good sales copy.
As soon as people are on your Web site, you must convince them with a good sales copy. Always remember: People aren't necessarily interested in your product or in your company. You have to fulfill their needs if you want to sell them something.
Before starting to write sales copy, be sure that you know your product and that you're passionate about it. You have to fully believe in your product. If you don't, you shouldn't sell it. You cannot write convincing sales copy if you don't stand behind your product. You must be sure that you're doing your customers a favor by offering them your product.
Your customers want benefits. What can your product do for them? What can it do for them now?
The benefits of your product should be the first words on your site. Make them bold and make them big.If your visitors don't know what's in it for them after the first few seconds, they'll leave your site.
People don't read everything on your page. They scan it for interesting information. Grab their attention with benefits.
You must differentiate between features and benefits. Features are the attributes of your product, benefits are what your product promises. For example, if you sell a solar-powered clock, then the feature is "runs without batteries". The benefit to the buyer is "you save money because you don't need to buy batteries anymore".
Don't bore your potential customers with technical details. Tell them what your product will do for them. How they will feel when they tried your product. Maybe your product or service will make them more money, maybe it will save them time. Tell them and don't be shy.
Your customers must trust you. They won't buy from you if they don't. On the World Wide Web, you cannot speak face to face with your customer so you have to establish credibility in other ways.
The most common things to establish trustworthiness is to offer a free trial and a money back guarantee. Use testimonials. You must literally speak with them in your sales copy. Write with a natural style. Don't try to be over friendly. Just write it the way you'd say it to a potential customer face to face.
Make sure that customers know that a real person is sitting behind this Web page. Include your full contact information on your Web site and make it easy to find. If your visitors don't know from whom they will purchase and how to contact you, they won't buy anything. Show your privacy policy.
Nobody will read your entire page. Make it easier for your customers by dividing your page into paragraphs where each paragraph has a headline. Your headlines should make clear what to expect in the next sentences and they should grab your visitors' attention.
Use words like "free, proven, benefit, first, discover, complete, exclusive" and avoid words like "should, could" and "but".
Be sure that you use "you" more than "I" or "we". Remember: Your customers don't really care about you and your business. They only want to know what's in for them.
Not really. :-) However, urgency sometimes helps to improve the performance of your sales copy. Make a special offer for the first 200 subscribers, add a special bonus if people purchase this month or until midnight.
At the end of your copy text, you must tell your visitors what to do next, e.g. "Download a sample chapter" or "Click here to order now for immediate delivery".
Use the tips above to write as persuasively as you can, but remember not to deceive your customers in any way. You'd risk poor word of mouth, legal action, no repeat business and refund requests.
Last week, we've told you how to write good sales copy to convince Web surfers. This week, we're telling you how to direct your visitors to the right (order) pages.
Your navigation must be easy to understand. People must be able to find your links and they must know how to use them. To achieve this goal, your navigation (and your whole Web page design) must be consistent from page to page. It's a good idea not to reinvent the wheel. Blue underlined text links work best as everybody knows how to use them.
Even if you have an image map (a picture with links) or navigation icons (see below), you should always have text links on every page. Some users turn off the display of images in their Web browser. They need text links, as well as the search engines which cannot index text on images.
Don't use Flash/Shockwave to design the navigation of your Web site since many users cannot access them.
Many people use little graphics or photos that link users to their pages as navigation elements. These navigation icons are offten unnecessary.
If your icons don't denote by themselves what the page stands for, don't use them. For example, don't use a meaningless icon like a smiley for a link to your contact page.
Your visitors want to know what they can expect on the other end of the link before they click on it. Use descriptive link texts so that your visitors know what they get when they click on a link.
For example, the link text to your contact page should be called "Contact us" or "Contact information". This is what users expect and what they know. Don't experiment with texts like "Our address" or "Tell us".
It's important that you guide people through your site. Don't give them too many choices. That will only confuse them.
Make sure that your visitors don't have to search for your important "download" or "order" links. Make it easy for your customers. If you have several support pages on your site, you don't have to list them all on your index page. A single link to your main support page is enough. You can link to all other support pages on your main support page.
Don't link to other Web sites on your index page. People have finally managed to come to your Web site. Don't send them away by placing outgoing links on your index page.
Links to other Web sites are an important way to make your Web site more valuable for customers and for getting reciprocal links from other sites. However, use an extra "links" or "resources" page for outgoing links and open outgoing links in a new window.
Be sure that you customers can find what they're looking for on your site and that they don't have to search for it.
Make a test with a relative or a friend who is a bit unsure surfing the Web. Tell him or her to find out the price of your product or service. Look over his/her shoulder and find out how people can find ways you've never dreamt of. :-)
Your Web site navigation should be easy to understand and it should be consistent throughout your whole Web page. If people cannot find what they're looking for quickly and easily, they will leave your Web site.
When people have finally decided to purchase your product, you must make sure that your order page doesn't drive them away. Statistics indicate that more than 60 percent of online shoppers abort the ordering process.
Check if your potential customers can easily order the products or services on your Web site:If you agree to all points, then your order pages won't stay in the way when your visitors decide to purchase from you.
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