If you’re interested in increasing traffic to your website, you’ve come to the right place. Each concise entry deals with a particular site feature or method of getting visitors to your website.
Website Productivity – Keep your site working hard!
Your business has a website because it’s a cost-effective way to supplement advertising to prospects and to maintain contact with customers. You’re probably aware that you should include the web address in all marketing material, correspondence, signage, email signatures, and phone directory ads. You want your site to be more attractive and more user-friendly than the websites of your competition. You’re happy with the design, structure and maybe even a cool Flash movie. You’ve added photos and images that reinforce the text. But once the site is online, it can be all too easy to neglect a key ingredient—your content!
The site may have contained informative and relevant information when it was built, but is it still current and correct? It can cost very little time or money to ensure that your website continues to do it’s best to help your business thrive. And if you don’t put that small effort in, visitors can be quickly “turned off” by faulty or outdated information. It’s always there for you, 24/7. Treat it as a cornerstone of your business.
Site Structure and Uniform Layout
Color schemes, font size, layout of pages, and navigation structure must be consistent throughout the site for the benefit of both humans and those search engine “tigers” that we want to keep well fed at all times!
Functional and uniform layout
Keep navigation consistent and clear. It is the most important concern for good “usability”. Visitors are more likely to stay at your site when they realize how quickly they can find their way around. Keep the link names (“anchor text”) as simple as possible. Your home page link should be easy to find so people can “start over” if they get lost.
Understandable Navigation
Arrange the pages (navigation) as if you are giving a tour which culminates in a purchase or contact. The hierarchy of the site should flow from most requested information to the least important so that significant areas are easy to find.
Keep site structure logical
Create a list or flowchart of the major content areas and sort individual pages into their relevant categories. It will be easier for visitors to locate the specific information they want if the structure makes sense. If a series of pages is dedicated to a particular purpose, include it as a directory name within your hosting account, giving you additional credit for keywords. For example, a shoe store may categorize items by type and then each type by brand. Great choices of directory and page names for “ABCShoes.com” could be:
Running Shoes
ABCShoes.com/running/asics.html
ABCShoes.com/running/brooks.html
ABCShoes.com/running/nike.html
Tennis Shoes
ABCShoes.com/tennis/reebok.html
ABCShoes.com/tennis/brooks.html
ABCShoes.com/tennis/nike.html
Keep the structure relatively flat, meaning as few layers (directories, sub-directories) as possible. Shorter paths to internal pages result in more credit by search engines.
Organize link menus
Ensure easy access to each page. Large sites may need a Site Map, Search Feature or drop-down menu such as at http://www.HealthandEndurance.com. In particular, a horizontal or vertical drop-down menu allows easy categorization of pages, while using a small area of the page. With multiple sub-menus, visitors can jump from one page to another with minimal clicks. New pages can be quickly added at to the appropriate location.
Maintain consistent layout features
All pages must show consistency in terms of backgrounds, colors, navigation, font sizes, etc. If they don’t look like they all belong to the same website, you don’t look professional. It also invites confusion.
Content is King for Websites
As a website owner, you must give your visitors what they want.
The main goal of your website is to “sell” your products, services or ideas. An eCommerce (Shopping Cart) site directly earns revenue by taking online orders. Informational sites seek to persuade visitors to travel to a physical location or request further details by phone, email, or signing up for a newsletter or membership. Whatever tactic your site takes, you must study the whole process from the visitor’s point of view.
Right from the start, your web pages must be engaging and provide what people came there to find.
Keep the people happy
“Content is King!” This has been the credo of web designers and SEO experts from day one. Incorporate the “keywords” and “keyphrases” your visitors are searching for throughout the site. Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines. The most popular of these expressions must be included on your pages in various places.
With endless choices for any subject, your site must be customer focused. Catch the attention of visitors within 3-8 seconds or they will try one of the other three million related sites, never to return again. First impression is crucial, so choose your home page headlines, text, images and colors carefully.
Capturing their attention within the first few seconds is most important, but you then have to make it easy to solve the problem that initially led them there. The home page needs to concisely explain how you can help
them. It needs to have a layout and navigation system where visitors will quickly realize that their answer is just one or two clicks away. Don’t irritate them by requiring 4 or 5 clicks or by making it a game to guess
which links may have the most pertinent details. Even if they “get lucky”, they may not be able to stumble upon answers in the future.
Web surfers prefer to sell themselves. In the real world, sales and marketing involves convincing prospects in person or via media to try what you’ve got. It often includes playing to their emotions to close the deal.
In the cyber world, there are so many website choices that surfers continue to look for “free stuff” whenever possible. Without seeing each other face-to-face, it’s harder to play to the prospect’s emotions, so they know
that they have the upper hand in that they can decide against you in one click of a key.
Knowing that they control the situation, your site must offer what they want, not what you think they need. Design the site from their point of view by providing complete information, answering logical questions, giving written and visual examples, displaying choices (such as colors and other options), displaying testimonials that people can relate to, and providing free samples! When prospects feel that a website is tailored to their needs, they’ll bookmark it or take the next step towards becoming a customer.
Know your audience
Keep visitors comfortable by designing from their perspective. Your site should reflect the values of your potential customers. If they expect instructions or FAQ pages or multiple photos, meet or exceed these expectations.
When you really prefer that they contact you for certain information (such as pricing or custom specifications) at least guarantee that the details will be provided without sales pressure. Offering a free or discounted promotional item can also entice them to continue the process. Give them what they want and they will return for more!
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