Another Engaging Example

Oct 062009
 

A few days ago I wrote the post, Half Way to a Sale. It was about how a background check company quickly got visitors to engage in their site, and how it leads them half way down the sale process by filling out a two field form. The screening company really has it easy, and only is one step left for a visitor to make a sale. They just had to pay.

Not every service or product is that easy of a sell though. More information is often required. Using an example from this cheap auto insurance site, you can see how the engagement technique is used again. The auto insurance site needs to start the visitor engagement process somehow, and the way they do this is by simply asking for a zip code. Continue reading »

Why Meta Tags are Essential

Feb 262009
 

I was recently reading a forum post on how one of the members said meta tag are worthless, and that they are no longer using them. Boy, is that bad advice, and I was reminded of how bad that advice was when I looked at a new clients site today. It was made entirely out of flash.

If You Use Flash You Must

First, take a look at Meso Design. Their site is all flash. Keyword content? Zero. When search engines index their site, the only information that they can get are from the meta tags. So if you do things in flash, this is the only reason you need to use meta tags. I know there is a bunch of hype on how Google can scan flash, but it’s just in its infancy, and only Google can do it. Besides figuring out what a site is about though, what else does a search engine do to your site? They list it in a search result.

Do You Want Your Description or A Computer’s Description?

So take a look at Meso’s product design site again. If you were a computer what part do you think we be used as the description of the site? The logo? The green header? Who knows.

Here is what Google came up with:

googlesnap

So how did Google come up with that? It’s in the Meta. By good fortune the developers of this site included the meta tags defining the sites description and title. Key value here is that it was a description they picked, not some computers pick.

Meta Tags Make Sales

Say what? It’s true, they do. Though Meso hasn’t taken advantage of it yet, they will. If you word your description right, you can turn it into an action item. Here is an example of something that is happening to the smart webmasters out there. They rank #5 for a popular keyword, but they get more hits from Google than the #1 spot result. Why? Is their site more relevant? Nope. It’s because they have  finely tuned their page description to not just describe the page, but to get visitors to act on it. They have turned their description into and advertisement, and it’s paying way better than if they simply ranked #1. Imagine what will happen when they get ranked #1. Out performing, out performing, out performing.

A Little Sample

Their are tons of sites out there that can help you develop quality meta tags, but I thought I would at least give you an example by showing you mine. Here is mine from my usability analysis page.

<title>Usability and Design Analysis</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Want to improve your website? Get my usability and design analysis. This analysis is an easy ROI, and could substantially improve your desired visitor action.” />
<meta name=”keywords” content=”usability, usability and design, improve website, return on investment, usability analysis” />
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8″ />
<meta name=”Author” content=”Best Web Image” />
<meta name=”copyright” content=”Best Web Image” />

Meso Design

For those of you that skim like many of you do, you may have guessed that Meso designs websites. They do not. They are product designers.

Live Chat

Nov 042008
 

Selling a product online? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could see your visitors enter your site, be able to say hello to them, and offer to answer any questions they may have. You know, have a face to face just as if you were both in a real store. The advantages of simply being there for the sale are stacked in your favor versus those who are not.

Website, Help Wanted

Unfortunately technology isn’t really there yet, and I am sure for many of us, a cool advantage of buying online is the fact that you can do it in your pajamas. So as a website owner of an ecommerce site, how do you get the face time? Your turn your crutch (website) into a tool. How? By not relying on the site to make the sales. It would be nice if all sites were just cranking money making machines, but in reality they actually take  bit of salesmanship.

Live Chat

sunglassesHere is a technique this sunglasses site has used, and it is working wonderfully for them. They took the “hope your order from our website” mentality, and turned it into “USE our site to order”. Everywhere on the site are two key items doing this. Phone numbers (a personal favorite), and Live Chat. Both are methods to get that face, or at least attention time, needed to make a sale. According to the site owner, their live chat has been one of their biggest helpers, and also mentioned that the customers love the feature.

I can’t imagine many questions that would be needed for a buy a pair of sunglasses, maybe if they wanted to know how durable their sports sunglasses are. The thing is though, if I did have a question, there is someone their to answer my questions, and I don’t have to play the email game waiting for an answer. My answer is immediate, just as if I were in a store.

Communications

Opening the doors to communications is a solid business model, and if it doesn’t at least help you in sales, it could at least help your credibility.

The Value of a Form

Oct 252008
 

Need a limo for Toronto? Check out Toronto Airport Limo. Want to learn a lesson about how valuable your websites forms can be, take a look at their reservation page. What’s so special about the reservation page? It up-sells.

Comparing their reservation site to ten other limo sites that I found for San Jose, Ca. here is what I found. Six of them did not even offer online reservation. Well if you are catering to persons who like to do things online, those guys are surely missing out. Then there is the other four sites. They did offer online reservations, but their was one main thing they missed out on compared to Toronto Airport Limo.

Of the four that had  reservation pages, none of them offered a return trip. They simply assumed you wanted a limo just for one day, or one just for one way. Toronto’s limo site offered the returned reservation, and when you make it easy for slapping in an extra service with only one payment you will make more sales.

Up-selling

When I was younger I used to wait tables. The managers allways pushed up-selling, and at first I hated it. I hated selling extra crap to customers, because honestly, I thought they hated it. The reality is though, they often love it. They don’t always know, or even think about the possible add-ons you may have. “Get a limo for the way home from the airport? I didn’t even think of that.” Getting a limo for the way home may be  obvious for some, but out of all those ten other sites I looked at, they blew it on catering to those customers. Toronto Limo figured it out though. Don’t forget to take the time to up-sell!

Dead Ends Don’t Sell

Aug 102008
 

When selling products online there are several challenges in store for you, but the two big ones are number of visitors, and percentage of sales per visitor. Though we can not have absolute control of either, we can influence them. We can buy traffic, and we can work on our site design to improve the number of sales made per 100 or 1,000 visitors. Often, improving site performance is the most economical.

When trying to sell a product on line the visitor often needs to be lead by the hand to the final conclusion. All barriers must be removed, and the simpler the better. I was recently asked to take a look at this Satellite Internet site. Right on the home page they had a big “Order Now” button which I thought was an excellent start. When clicking on it though, I found the classic dead end by confusion order page. The page offered a complete breakdown of different services, but the buy now buttons were gone. All that is left are some “Read More” buttons that lead you to another order now page for that particular package.

readmore

On the net, this is a dead end. Though there was a way to complete the order, the natural method was confused, and improperly worded. “Order Now” does not lead to “Read More”, it should lead to “Enter Payment Information”.

The easy quick fix? Change those “Read More” buttons to “Order Now!”

Getting Forms Completed

Mar 202008
 

Most website owners know that getting a form completed on a website is usually a good thing. It can be a sale, a new member joining a newsletter, or a lead. There is really an endless supply of reasons to have forms, but almost all of them face one common problem. Only a small percentage of visitors fill them out. So how do you get them completed?

Speed Things Up

The reason I am writing this post is because I did an analysis on a site yesterday, that I kid you not, had over 200 form questions just to consult an attorney. Visitors are typically hooked when interaction begins. Once they hit that submit button, they will often wait for a response, and will give some dedication to your company. Putting a visitor over the coals as an introduction will most likely result in no interaction, and no form submission. This same form, could have been reduced to just a few items, like name, phone, and reason for contact. Two minutes to fill out a form, or half hour? What do you think will get submitted more? Fill in the blanks after you have captured the visitor.

Consistency in Form Element

Another method to speed things up is by being consistent in method of questioning. Imagine your form is long, and has to be, because it’s for a credit application. To speed this form up try to use consistent form elements, or at least try to group them together. To better explain, avoiding having a form that follows a path like this: Text box, drop down, text box, drop down, check box. When a visitor fills out a form like that, they have to keep switching from keyboard to mouse, and back. Try to keep them at one spot as long as possible without switching between devices. The ideal form element is a text box, and if possible I would suggest using it.

© 2012 Best Web Image Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha