Accessibility: It’s What A Web Site Is All About

KEEP IT SIMPLE TO GET THE MDA

Accessibility, when discussing web sites, includes a number of factors: easy navigation, understandable site text, no dead ends requiring a browser back click to escape (lots of users don’t even know browsers HAVE a back click).

Let’s start with the bottom line- yours: the easier it is for a site visitor to perform the most desired action (MDA), the more times that MDA will be performed.

Let’s Start With Navigation
Whether you go with a navigation bar at the top of the screen or a menu list in the first column far left, your navigation must be:

• simple
• unambiguous
• truthful
• always available
• always in the same location

Avoid numerous tabs, drop-down or flyout menus. Keep it simple. If visitors are faced with too many choices too soon on arriving at the site, chances are they’ll bounce.

Keep the navigation unambiguous. It’s routine to have a “Contact Us” page on a web site. If you label the contact link “Company Authority,” visitors are going to be totally confused. And again, bounce.

Truthful is just what it says. If the link says “Product Descriptions,” don’t make the visitor read through another landing page of sell copy. Deliver what the link says and go directly to the products.

Always available is an aspect of keeping visitors on site longer, and the longer they stick around, the more likely they are to perform the MDA. So, the navigation bar or menu should be available from every page so the visitor can surf at will, unencumbered by what YOU think the visitor wants to know.

Finally, keep the nav tabs in the same place. Don’t move them from bar to menu and back to bar. The last thing you want is a visitor trying to figure out how to return to the contact page to make contact.

Keep it simple. The fewer clicks required to get the visitor to perform the MDA, the better. So, go through the process and eliminate every unnecessary side road, dead end and yet another landing page.

Accessible Content
If your client site is for a professional medical dispenser, you can assume that the visitors have some knowledge of the subject, i.e. you don’t have to start from square one. But you still have to stay on target pointing out the benefits of buying the client’s medical products.

On the other hand, if you’re writing text for a hearing aid retail outlet, accessible text is understandable by the reader. So first, toss the thesaurus. Find the simplest, shortest way to say what needs to be said about products and services.

Be helpful and supportive to the new visitor. Make things simple to find, simple to learn and simple to bookmark. Returning visitors are gold. Eventually they buy something so earning a bookmark is a very good thing.

Skip the hype. Educate the visitor using simple terms, no jargon and listing benefits rather than features. This is the stuff site visitors want to know.

Finally, lay out the text so it can be scanned rather than read. No big, long paragraphs. Visitors scan from upper left to lower right so put your most important info upper left on the screen.

The easier it is to buy something, opt-in for a newsletter, or to complete a form, the more often those MDAs are performed. So make it as simple as possible (why do you think Amazon offers a one-click checkout? How easy can it be?).

Accessibility benefits both site owner and site visitor – a win-win. Also a no brainer.

Need to make your site more accessible? Dropme a line and give me a call. Let’s have a look at what ya got. Webwordslinger

Pros and Cons of Website Features: It Ain’t All Good, Ya Know

'Slinger Gives You The Skinny on Site Features

There are pros and cons to every feature you add to your site, so before you put up that blog and sign up for Adsense, consider these positive and negatives to the most popular site features.

You just registered your domain name. You’re one step closer to that dream of your own website and finally, financial freedom. But now what? Well, if you’ve signed on with a good web host (one who values your site’s success because it ultimately means the web hosting company’s success) you’ve got a box full of goodies to play with in designing your website.

You don’t need a pricey site designer. But you do have to decide on what your website will display and which features will be left out. There are lots of options which means lots of decisions – and there are pros and cons to each one.

A Secure Checkout
Pros: If you sell a product or service, and you accept payment over the web, you don’t have a choice. You must have a secure checkout with SSL encryption to ensure that sensitive personal information isn’t snared by a bad guy. The alternative is to use PayPal or some other payment service but the more payment options you offer, the more your offerings will move out of the warehouse.

Cons: Cost, for one. If your web host doesn’t provide free checkout software, like osCommerce, it could cost you a bundle. On the other hand, people want to pay with credit cards as long as they believe the transaction is secure.

Also, opening a merchant account – one that allows you to accept credit card orders – is going to cost you – sign-up fees, per charge fees and a percentage of every sale, so if you’re operating on tightrope margins, these additional percentages may mean the difference between a viable business and one that shuts down after three weeks.

Web hosts should offer free checkout software. And, a premium service will let your site piggyback on the host’s SSL certificate, saving time and money.

A Blog
Pros: Blogs are great for keeping a site fresh with new content. A closed blog (one in which posts are limited to your control) is easiest to maintain. They’re also useful for a couple of other reasons. First, it’s easy to post new content when you have a blog module as part of your site’s infrastructure so you can update daily with a couple of clicks.

Blogs also create site communities. Once a reader begins a thread, others follow the lead and in no time, you’ll discover the same people conducting conversations and debate on your blog. These are visitors who return to your site often. A very good thing.

Finally, blog software should come free as part of your tool kit. If it doesn’t, look for another web host that does offer freebies by the pound at a reasonable price. They’re out there.

Cons: Conversely, if you allow visiting readers to leave comments to your posts, maintenance may become a problem. There’s always some foul-mouthed, trouble-maker who stirs up more interest in his online antics than the topic at hand. As the boss of the blog, you can block these distractions, but that doesn’t eliminate the need to monitor threads. You want an active blog but you also have to maintain it with regular posts and constant oversight of readers’ comments. This means part of your day will be used up in editorial duties, a real con.

Google AdWords
Pros: There are thousands of site owners who create websites for no other reason than to generate PPC (pay-per-click) revenues. They put up a little content, stuff each page with AdWords skyscrapers and wait for the money to roll in. And it does. Some of these site owners see $200 – $300 a month in click-through revenue per site, and if they maintain 10 such sites, it starts to add up to some real “walkin’ ‘round” money.

AdWords is a simple, easy-to-manage way to monetize a new site quickly. You only pay when search engine users click on your link so you’re not wasting money.

Cons: I don’t care how well designed a website is, AdWords – those cheesy little blue links on the top, bottom or side of a web page, diminish the perception of quality in the mind of the visitor. And as we’ve said many times in this blog, on the W3 perception is reality.

If your law firm maintains a website (and it should) you want to project a professional, positive image, not the Lionel Hutz “I Can’t Believe It’s A Law Firm” image.

Another con: click fraud. A competitor can just click on your AdWords link and have all of her friends do the same for five minutes a day. Your AdWords budget gets eaten up by black hat tactics and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. If you can prove click fraud, Google will give you credit, but it’s up to you to prove the fraud. Google get’s paid whether the click is licit or a scam.

Affiliate Links
Pros: A great way to make cash fast. Affiliates are companies into which you enter agreements. You agree to display the mother company’s logo and link on your site and, in return, you receive payment based on the number of visitors to your site who click on the link and perform some action. For example, put up an eBay link and collect $35 a head plus a nickel for each bid one of your referrals places.

Get a couple of hundred eBay buyers placing bids everyday and that money can add nicely to your site’s revenue stream. Also a great way to monetize a site quickly.

Cons: Same dealeo as Google AdWords. If you access a site jam packed with affiliate links, it doesn’t add much to the process of building visitor trust. The site looks cluttered and cheap.

More negative news: each one of those affiliate links takes up space that could be used to sell your products or services.

And finally, each one of those affiliate links is a ticket off your site. With a click, they’re off looking at something on an affiliate site. You may pick up a few bucks a month in affiliate revenue, but you aren’t making the real money you make selling your own goods or services.

One suggestion: As we said, affiliates do generate cash and fast, so if you’re runnin’ on empty, add affiliate links to a single page with a navigation link labeled “Our Partners,” “Our Favorites,” or “Our Picks.”

Pictures and Other Images
Pros: Pictures sell more than words. Online buyers want to see what they’re paying for and, yes, one good product picture is worth a thousand words. So you will sell more with high-quality pictures.

Carts and graphs are useful for providing a lot of information in a small space.

Cons: Unless you own a decent digital camera and unless you know how to dress a set (the place where the product will be shot) and you know that the product should be lit from at least three directions, don’t use product pictures that you take yourself.

Log on to eBay and look at the range of quality of product pictures. Some are ripped from the web so they look okay. But some are nothing more than a front-on flash that blows out the object to a hot white blur floating against a blacked out background. Awful stuff, and not a good selling point.

If you can get product pictures from your wholesaler’s marketing department you’re all set. If not, have those pictures taken by a professional using a hi-resolution camera, lit properly and attractively staged. It’ll cost you some cash but it’s a lot better than using home-grown product pictures that don’t do justice to the product.

Charts and graphs should also be professionally done, unless you know how to create images in Photoshop or some other image manipulation software.

The Choices You Make Now…
…will often determine the short- and long-term success of your site. And remember, your site will evolve. You may start out using AdWords until your site is pulling in enough traffic to make up the lost AdWords revenue. Then, you drop AdWords and…

… your site takes on a much cleaner, more professional look.  

Need more straight talk about building a successful website? Okay, visit me and give me a call. Webwordslinger does it right and at the right price.

Making Opt-Ins Work Out

Opt-ins build your client base when used properly

 

Most site owners know the story behind opt-ins. Webmasters bait the trap with a free eBook download or “10 Tips to Immediate Wealth.” Pretty tempting. But, we all know what happens when we give up our email addresses to receive a weekly newsletter about a particular industry.

But opting in provides more than straight information. A newsletter from the competition gives you a peek behind the curtain, a look at what the competition is doing. And that info is delivered to your inbox weekly or monthly. Can’t get easier than that.

 

Opt Ins – Beware the Backsell

You know it, I know it – anyone who’s spent more than 15 minutes on the web knows it. The object of an opt in is to get that email address. Then, backsell. Once the user has given up his or her address, you’ve established a relationship with that buyer. That makes it legal to email them. In fact, it makes it legal to slather the poor opt in with spam until her inbox explodes!

 

So, do you want to plow through 100 hard sells each morning, along with the 250 legitimate emails you get from customers, clients, vendors and site owners looking for a links exchange? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

 

Making Opt Ins Work For You

First, opting in to competitor sites offering a weekly or monthly newsletter reveals a great deal about the web site and the humans behind it. And that information is very useful in creating your site’s unique selling proposition or USP.

 

Sure, each site owner is going to urge you to sign up for the $97 (why $97?) secret charting system for picking micro-caps, or the seven signs of some horrible disease. You know this going in, so it’s a given. Delete, delete, delete.

But some of the information is going to be very useful to you. For example, let’s say you’re in the micro-cap oil and gas sector. Sign up for every newsletter, free eBook or the “12 Secrets to Micro-Cap Millions.” It’s free.

The secret, of course, is to dissect the newsletter, not as someone interested in buying micros drilling for oil in the Tasmanian Sea. Instead, analyze the content. Is there an article about some aspect of micros you think might make a good piece for your site?

You can’t steal the words. They’re copyrighted and belong to the site owner. On the other hand, as we’ve mentioned previously, you can’t copyright an idea. That means that you can use the competition’s newsletter to spark ideas. Conduct your own research on the topic, rewrite the text (so that it’s completely unrecognizable in relation to the original), add your own spin (so and so says blah, blah in his weekly newsletter but I must respectfully disagree with my competitor.) Then, off you go presenting a different view, opinion, slant or position. Controversy sells.

Don’t be afraid to name your source of inspiration. As long as the rewrite is different from the original in content architecture, vocabulary and even point of view, you haven’t violated any copyright laws.

 

Meet Your Competitors

As an op in, you hold a special place in the hearts and minds of site owners who now consider you part of the family. This does a couple of things that work to your advantage.

 

First, you understand more clearly the SEM efforts of your competition. Some provide more news and a little hype. Others cram those weekly missives with garbage that surrounds the one actual news story. Read between the lines. Is the competitor driven by dollars, by slow and steady connectivity and expansion, building links popularity and other reasons the W3 is strewn with digital litter?

Second, as an opt in, you usually have an access point to speak directly to the site owner. If you send a note to info@www.somebodyelsessite.com, you may get a response. Or your email may be deleted without even a look. The person sorting through the swamp of e-garbage in the inbox clicked you to oblivion.

On the other hand, as an opt in, you’re in a much better position to contact the site owner and say ‘Hello.’ Why? This is a great way to build links popularity – a reason for competitors to link to your site. If you contact Ol’ Bob over at eyeglassheaven.com, Bob is going to be more interested in linking to your site for seniors, onefootinthegrave.com. And why not? You aren’t a direct competitor (you’re not selling eyewear), but your typical site visitor wears glasses and may be looking for a place to order on line.

Links popularity increases all on its own. No more links begging. “PLEASE link to my site. Aw, come on. I’ll be your friend?!) Tough nuggies. If there isn’t symbiosis – if there isn’t something in it for the newsletter publisher, you won’t get the link.

 

Building Your Own Weblet

As you opt in for more and more free newsletters and eBooks, you have the opportunity to meet other site owners who make up parallel competition. They don’t sell the same products but they do market to the same demographic. So, using our seniors’ site, you could create a small group of sites – a weblet – that’s inter-connected with 10 or 15 different sites all marketing products to your target demographic – seniors.

 

A word of warning: owners of higher ranked web sites will be reluctant to link to you PR2 site. On the web, you’re known by the company you keep. Conversely, if your site can deliver real, cash-carrying traffic, the fact that your site has a lower PR than your new opt-in friend won’t matter much. You’re making the site owner money.

Expand to other goods and services using the members of your weblet to build links popularity. “Hook up with us and you become a member of a 15-site weblet. That casts a wide net and will drive traffic to your site. In turn, you drive traffic to the sites of other weblet members.”

 

It All Starts With That Opt In

That’s the door opener. That gives you a look behind the curtain at the people who have created and run the site. Once you’ve become a member of that site’s community, you’re in a much stronger position to seek out a links exchange. And the more opt ins you sign up for, the bigger your site family becomes.

 

Use the opt in for good topic ideas, but remember, it’s not nice to steal the work of others. In fact, it’s plagiarism and just not worth the hassle. But an idea is just that – an abstraction. Take ideas from competitors’ newsletters or eBooks and rewrite them for your own newsletter or site news section.

Track the competition for a few months until you develop an idea of the drives behind the site. Rip off, low life, straight up, well researched, expert in her field. It won’t take long to determine the nature of the author. As an opt in, the newsletter will also provide contact information that may or may not appear on the site itself. Try to reach the site owner directly.

Explain that you’re a fan of the newsletter, you look forward to it each week and “would you be interested in a links exchange to create marketing synergy.” The site owner is much more likely to listen to your proposition because you’re a member of his or her site community. You opted in.

Finally, if you find that your being spammed to a slimy, spammy death, most newsletters have an opt out link somewhere on the newsletter. If you’ve contacted the author of the opt in and it’s a no-go, opt to take a hike to find another site owner who recognizes the importance of connectivity within a narrow market segment.

Don’t fear the opt in. Take advantage of it to build your own small, interconnected weblet. You’ll expand your site’s exposure, you’ll help visitors continue their searches and search engines will think your site is tops, increasing PR, albeit gradually.

So, don’t view opt ins as time wasting opportunities to backsell. See them as entre into the office of the competitor webmaster – the one who shares your interests and your desire for success.

In no time, you’ll have your own weblet, your own newsletter opt in and a bunch of new online friends all eager to create synergies within their sites and the market.

Managing Customer Objections

 

Keepin' The Customer Satisfied: Success At Work

If you’ve built a career in sales you know all about customer objections. Objections are the reasons prospective customers give for NOT buying a product or service. It’s too expensive. It’s too complicated. I don’t really need it. These are common customer objections whether we’re talking about buying a new car or whatever it is you sell on your web site.

 

 Even if you sell the best products or provide A-1 services, and even if you have the lowest prices on the entire web, you’ll encounter objections. Problem is, you won’t encounter them face to face in the world of e-commerce, which means you won’t have the opportunity to address objections face to face. Therefore, controlling objections must take place in the content of your website.

Additionally, in the real world, managing objections is reactive. The customer objects. The salesperson reacts with a counter to the objection. In the impersonal marketplace of the W3, managing customer objections must be proactive. Assume you will encounter objections and address them before the visitor clicks off to another site.

What Objections Will You Get?

Depending on what you’re selling, objections will differ. For example, most customers won’t be concerned with a long-term warranty on a $15 calculator. If it dies, buy a new one. On the other hand, if you’re selling $2,000 laptops, your customers are going to be looking at your warranties, guaranties, return policies – anything and everything that protects them from being ripped off.

And as a good citizen of the web community, you should have no problem posting warranties and return policies where they can be easily found and easily read! (Wouldn’t you like to get your hands on the guy who invented fine print?)

So what objections are you likely to encounter?

It costs too much money.

I saw it for a lower price.

I don’t have the money right now.

My old one is good enough.

It looks confusing.

I don’t understand how it works.

I don’t understand the guaranty.

I don’t (really) need it.

My (insert relation’s name here) would kill me.

Maybe another time.

There are plenty more. I’ve already got one; I want something with more features or fewer features (usually not the same consumer, btw); I don’t like the color, shape, size, design, feng shui or some other aspect of the product. The list is as varied as the customers who visit your web site.

And you better know what objections visitors will raise and proactively address them in your site’s content.

How To Address A Customer Objection?

Once you’ve determined which objections you’ll most likely encounter from site visitors you develop a strategy to address the objection before it even becomes an objection.

 Example #1: It’s too complicated.

 Okay, take a look at this 3-minute Flash demo that’ll show you how to assemble the (whatever it is you sell). You’re not addressing the objection with a long body of text explaining how to assemble your gizmo. You’re providing a clip that actually shows each step of assembly with text burns identifying key steps and just where Tab A is.

 Example #2: It’s too expensive.

How will the product improve productivity or quality of life? Let’s say you’re selling hot tubs. You point out the benefits to the consumer. Forget product features. The “too-expensive” buyer must see personal benefit(s) in order for you to manage the objection.

 “You come home from a stressful day, hop into the heated, soothing water, turn on the relaxing massage jets and feel the cares of the day melt away.” The buyer who believes “it’s” too expensive doesn’t care about the 15hp motor, the 18 water jets and the automated chlor-tab release. S/he needs to see personal benefit. Once that’s established, move on to features in you sales copy.

 Example #3: I saw it for less at www.thecheapestsiteintheworld.com.

If you can’t beat the competition on price – and many times you won’t be able to compete with big box store prices – time to highlight the quality of your service, your easy return policy and the fact that there’s no re-stocking fee. (Wouldn’t you like to get your hands on the guy who invented the restocking fee?)

 Some sites offer a “Beat any legitimate price” guarantee. You can, too. Even if your price is a bit higher, most visitors won’t take the time to find the lowest of the low and if they do, you’ve lost a few bucks but have a happy customer – one who’ll be back to buy the accessories.

 Example #4: I don’t want to buy a (fill in the blank) on the web.

Would you buy a $4,000 diamond engagement ring online? From a site you never heard of? Not many people would. Too many risks. For all the buyer knows, you’re selling “diamacroids” as real diamonds. And if you’re half way around the world, the buyer has no recourse.

 Establish trust be establishing verifiable credentials. Member of the online BBB, certified by the Diamond Sellers Association of the World, graduate of the School of Gemology, 140 years in business, etc. You’d buy a diamond online from Tiffany’s because the trust factor is built in. Not so for www.billscutratediamondbazaar.com – no matter how low Bill’s prices.

 You get the idea. To successfully convert a visitor into a buyer requires that all objections be addressed in site content using a variety of media to get the job done. A Flash demo,  an audio clip and picture of you, a picture of your factory, a virtual 360° tour, a step-by-step, idiot-proof assembly guide, 24-hour tech support – whatever works best to counter the objection.

 All kinds of people will stop by your web site and each will come with his or her own expectations and objections. Meet those expectations and counter those objections right from the start. It’ll do wonders for your conversion ratio.

 It’ll also keep your repeat buyer list growing. Why? No objections. 

Six Website Stumbling Blocks: Why Make It Hard For Visitors?

What if you went to your favorite clothing boutique and discovered the door was locked? A note on the door states “Please enter your access code to enter.” Access code? Never mind, I’ll just go across the street to buy a new tie.

In the real-world retail sector, merchandising is a science. Makers of your favorite breakfast cereal fight for shelf position at the supermarket. They all want the eye-level shelf because that’s where most shoppers look first. The boxes of cereal on the top and bottom shelves don’t move as fast because of shelf placement.

And how about those displays of soda and hot dog buns you see at the end of each supermarket aisle. This is prime selling floor real estate and food makers pay the store for these prized locations. Same with all the gum, candy and other “impulse” items by the checkout. Those products are there because people waiting to get checked out buy them on impulse. “Oh, I deserve a treat,” so a Mr. Goodbar gets tossed into the shopping cart along with this week’s fabulous edition of The National Enquirer. The buying activities of store shoppers are studied, critiqued, focus-grouped-to-death, analyzed, utilized and ultimately, the entire store is arranged to generate more sales.

Well, the same principles apply to website design. The design of your website can make it easier or harder for a visitor to make a purchase. Here are six stumbling blocks you can remove from your site today to see your conversion ratios improve in a matter of days. Really.

1. Eliminate the member log-in from the home page. You see this a lot and you wonder what the site designer was thinking. When most visitors see a log-in box, they know they’re giving up their email addresses to gain access to the goodies on your site. And they expect the back sell – the sell that takes place once a visitor opts in.

Why make it harder to place an order?

But it makes no sense to place the opt in log-in on the home page because visitors don’t even know what their opting for yet. Instead, use the home page to entice the visitor deeper into the site. Show visitors that by opting in they get a valuable service or good information – free. In other words, prove the worthiness of site information before making the pitch for an opt-in.

2. Provide good information free. And plenty of it. Articles, stories, pictures of products in use embedded in informational content lends credibility to you, the site and the product.

Often times, buyers don’t know what they don’t know. They’re trying to learn as they window shop and you’re going to teach them by providing good informational content about product pros and cons. You want the buyer to purchase the right product. It saves time, money and the hassles of returns so teach and sell on your site. It’s a potent combination. And it works, too.

3. Make it easy to find the right item. There are two ways to do this. Use both.

There’s a web design dictum: The fewer the number of clicks the more sales. Absolutely true. The easier it is to make a purchase the more purchases will be made so making it easy to find a specific item, or to browse items, is essential.

Most sites use a “Products” link off the navigation bar, which works fine if you only sell a few items. This drill down screen can also be used as a product category directory with links taking the visitor to a specific product ‘section’ of the site. This is especially useful for companies that market diverse inventory.

However, even this drill-down design requires some discretionary thought on the part of the site visitor, and if seems like a hassle, a lot of visitors will get tired of endless clicks and move on to a simpler site.

The second option – and frankly a must-have in this era of site interactivity – is a ‘Site Search’ feature. By far the fastest way to find a specific item by name, by make, model number or any number of other search criteria. A ‘site search’ feature contributes to the reason most web shoppers shop online – convenience.

Everything – everything – about your site should point to ease of use, accessibility, functionality and moving the visitor through the purchase cycle without so much as a blip.

4. Add shopping cart convenience. Even if you sell a limited number of items, offer visitors the opportunity to place items in their digital shopping carts – even if it’s one item.

The shopping cart should allow the visitor to:

• Review items purchased.
• Change quantities.
• Delete items.
• See the total cost of items in the cart.
• See the shipping and handling costs for the items in the cart.

Also, throughout the purchase cycle, reassure the buyer by providing prompts on each page. A perfect example: a link to the “Check-Out” on every page – prominently displayed. Easy, easy, easy. Shoppers want convenience and reassurance that “they’re doing it right.”

5. Check out your checkout. Remember that number of clicks axiom from above? This is doubly true during the checkout sequence. Simplify the process for first-time buyers by limiting the number of pages (clicks) required to “get outta here.”

Simultaneously, provide reassurances that the buyer is doing it right. If a piece of information hasn’t been entered properly, return to the form page and tell the visitor what needs changing. Don’t make them figure out what they did incorrectly. Tell them so they can fix it and get outta here.

Provide a final review page of all order information as entered by the buyer. Even the most seasoned web buyer sits at the monitor reviewing everything – name, address, credit card number, quantities and so on. It’s so much easier to get it right the first time than to hassle with returns or unfulfilled orders because of some confusion.

Finally, there needs to be some trust building going on during the checkout sequence. Knowledgeable buyers look for security logos from companies like VeriSign. They also look at the address box of their browser to make sure there’s an ‘s’ in ‘https’ indicating a secure site. Provide buyers with assurances that all is secure just before they click the ‘Submit Order’ button.

6. Deliver an immediate order confirmation. As part of the checkout sequence, buyers provided an email address. Once the buyer has made the purchase an auto-responder should be generated describing all details of the purchase, including tracking information. This assures buyers, cuts down on customer care calls and enables quick resolution of any customer complaint. (Good customer care is a basic building block of any retail business, online or in the real world.)

It’s simple, or at least it should be. The first time buyers are gently guided through the purchase cycle, reassured at every stage and in control, and regulars should have the convenience of providing all information required for a one-click checkout. Ship it here. You’ve got my credit card. I’ve got other things to do. Convenience. That’s what today’s web buyers want.

Think of it this way: a confused customer is a gone customer.

 

editor@webwordslinger

10 Tips to Lower Your Bounce Rate. Boing

Boing

Boing. Boing.

 

A site’s bounce rate is a measurement of the number of visitors who stopped by the site but immediately clicked off to another site, aka, bounced. There are lots of reasons web users boing from one site to another, which means there are lots of things you can do to lower your bounce rate and keep visitors on site long enough to convert.

Here are ten tips to help you take the spring out of your web site.

1. Don’t assume the visitor lands on the home page. A visitor can enter from a number of access points. For instance, by conducting a search for a A324 converter, the visitor might land on the product page for said converter. (There’s no such thing, btw.)

This means that many different pages may be the doorway to your site so treat each page as a home page. Read on for design suggestions from your web host.

2. Keep critical information above the fold. Above the fold is an old newspaper term that described the newspaper’s front page “above the fold.” This is where the most important (or sensational) news is placed in newspapers today.

In website terms, above the fold is everything seen by the visitor without the visitor having to scroll – prime site space. Your most important information should appear here. A recent study on how different groups of people use the web showed that the 50 and older crowd don’t scroll as much as their web-wise grandkids so if you want it read, keep it above the fold.

3. Web users scan your site pages from upper left to lower right. So, what visitors first see in the upper left corner of their browsers will often determine if they stay or boing, boing, boing.

4. Create compelling headlines. “Who else wants to make a million dollars before bedtime” and other web clichés do not compel visitors to stick around to read your long-form, Dan Kennedy template sales letter. Headlines create interest among human readers and search engine spiders who recognize headlines as important text. So make your point in and add keywords to headlines.

5. Layout your home page in a three column format. Using three columns, you can create three headlines above the fold. If two headlines don’t capture the attention of the visitor, maybe the third one will.

Again, also useful in optimizing your site so make sure to build keywords into your headlines to keep everything in sync and max the utility of both the site text and your top tier keywords.

6. A picture IS worth a thousand words. A visual image (not just text) above the fold naturally draws the eye and attention of visitors so a small image or an image banner is helpful in breaking up blocks of text, and starts off the visitor slowly. A walloping pile of text, no matter how compelling, isn’t going to appeal to those “on-the-fence” visitors looking for a specific service, product, message or arcania.

A couple of points. First, if you’re using a photo, make it a photo worth seeing – a photo that instantly delivers your site’s message. Google “pre-fab homes.” You won’t see innocuous clip art. You see beauty shots of the prefab on a snowy evening with a warm fire going in the fireplace. So don’t waste pixels. Maximize every one.

Charts and graphs are a terrific way to transmit a lot of information in the blink of an eye. You can write pages of text testifying that your stock picking formula is the best, or you can create a chart showing your online portfolio delivering gains of 150% a year. A chart showing rising value (whatever the product or service) makes a strong statement very quickly.

Charts and graphs are also useful in making complex information more accessible to the reader. Your typical visitor won’t read through pages and pages of company financial statements but s/he will make a buying decision based on proof in image form.

7. Make navigation simple enough for a well-trained chimp. If the visitor is confused, even for a moment, you’ll see a bounce. Life is too short to “figure out” how this works. We’ve grown extremely impatient in the digital age and if it even LOOKS hard, boing.

Keep your navigation bar in the same place throughout the site and provide the option to return to the home page from every page of the site. A visitor may get lost and want to start over, learn more or use the links on the homepage to further explore the site.

8. Appeal to the drives of your ideal buyer. Needs-driven buyers have already determined that they’ll make a purchase and pay a lot if the purchase meets their needs. For example, there are a million books for sale on the web telling you how to avoid foreclosure “even if the sheriff is knocking on the door!!!!”

Okay, now that’s a needs-driven buyer. Facing foreclosure. Sherriff at the door – that site visitor will pay $99 for an e-book download if s/he believes the product provides (or is) the answer to his or her foreclosure problems. That’s a needs-driven buyer – a prospect who needs what you market – products or services. These buyers are less concerned about how cool and stylish your site is, how many interactive features it has and so on. These people are looking for solutions and benefits.

Other on-line shoppers are more casual in their buying habits. For example, many browse the web to comparison shop for prices and then run off to the big box store to make the actual purchase. Or, they just may bounce to a competitor site to make their online purchase. It’s a very fickle marketplace. But…

… if something catches the eye and addresses the drives of your demographic bulls-eye, your bounce rate decreases quickly. This means:

• Know your target demographic. Describe your perfect buyer.

• Know your products – inside and out.

• Know the motivations of your ideal buyer – need, the desire for prestige, acceptance, to be part of something larger (to belong) – what motivates your buyer? Example? A site selling acne cures should appeal to the consumer’s natural drive to improve his or her appearance in order to better “fit in.” The human desire to belong and to be accepted is what fuels the cosmetics industry, the fashion industry and other “personal signature” industries.

So, the owner of the acne cure site can create three distinct headlines that address the drives of buyers of skin care products and place them above the fold: (1) Look Better The Natural Way, (2) Why Dermagel Really Works and (3) Stop Covering Up – three headlines aimed with laser precision at a site selling acne cures and other sensitive skin care products.

9. Real information. Not sales hype. If site visitors discover useful information that will directly benefit them on each search engine accessible page of your site, they’re much more likely to stick around and learn a little something.

Sure, if you’re operating on razor-thin margins and “Low Cost” is your prime selling point (WE BEAT ANY PRICE ON THE WEB) then that needs prominent, “can’t-be-missed” display on the home page – somewhere. But to lower your bounce rate, add a little informational content or a big link to your site’s information bank, blog or archives. There’s plenty of opportunity to make a sale once the visitor has begun to explore your site for additional, useful information.

10. Don’t follow the herd. 6,000 new websites hit the W3 each and every day. There are over one billion active websites worldwide. And if your online sporting goods warehouse site looks like every other sporting goods warehouse site you’ll continue to see a higher than acceptable bounce rate. You’ll never get your bounce rate to zero. All you can hope for is to lower it.

One last humbling fact: the average web user decides whether to stay on a site or move on in less than six seconds. Six seconds!!! That’s how long you have to compel the visitor to stay on your site before bouncing off to some other site.

Six seconds. How can your site grab attention in just six seconds? That’s the challenge we all face as site owners.

 

Paul Lalley

Webwordslinger, Paul Lalley

 

 

editor@webwordslinger.com

The 10 Dumbest Site Design Goofs

Despite some of the posts on
SEOmoz.org, site optimization is NOT a science. Science requires accurate, contestable data. No metrics or analytics deliver empirical data so it ain’t no science. SEO Pros don’t even agree on which weighting factors have the most impact on PR and TR.

However, it doesn’t take rock solid numbers to identify dumb design decisions – decisions that prevent access, make buying difficult and make site navigation a wonderland of surprises.

Thus, I offer the 10 Dumbest Design Practices: 

10. Flyouts or drop down menus that cover site text. Umm, yes I want to navigate to that page but that flyout covers home page content that I want to read. Dumber still? No way to close the flyout. Duh.

9. Limited payment gateways. DIY site owners happily launch with PayPal as their only payment gateway. A lot of buyers have never even heard of PayPal, they don’t have an account and they’re not going to the trouble to open one.

The more payment gateways, the more orders you’ll receive. Get a merchant account.

8. Spamglish. Yep, it’s still out there on critical pages that, ostensibly, are designed for humans. Keyword density, as a factor in PR and TR is losing significance so why stuff pages with keywords.

7. Critical site information in graphics. Bots can’t read graphics, so important indexing data may be lost, tucked in a bitmap somewhere.

6. No telephone number. This one is a poser. As a site owner, you went to a great deal of trouble, time and money to get that visitor on site. Wouldn’t it be great to have a telephone number (toll free) so visitors could call with questions or, better yet, orders?

5. Ambiguous navigation. The assumption, here, is that site visitors know what a link labeled “Damsels” means – kinda like those rest room signs in theme restaurants, i.e. “Buoys and Gulls.”

4. No site map. Come on, you guys. You can buy a site map generator for less than $100. And. in creating this remarkable map, you help visitors and bots find their ways around.

3. Dated, duplicate content. We’ve all encountered the entrepreneur who wants a low-ball site populated with public domain and syndicated content and 1,200 affiliate links. The site is dated the day it launches.

2. The long-form sales letter. I’m sure Dan Kennedy meant no harm but these endless pages of mixed type faces, heaps of hype and the never ending (literally) PS, PPS and PPPS bonuses are insulting to the intelligent of a chimp.

1. Home page opt ins. Are you nuts? I don’t even know what I’m opting for (or against). If I have to give you my email address knowing that you’re going to back sell me to the grave, I want to know what I’m getting.

Why place this HUGE stumbling block on page uno. I’m bouncing.

Paul Lalley

webwordslinger.com