Internal and external page links

September 17, 2012 by Ray

Abide by ‘best practices’ for linking within a website and to other internet resources. Use appropriate colors, underlining, Anchor text and code to receive the most value.

Links must be obvious
Make internal and external links apparent (blue, underlined) and stand out from the rest of the text on page. If links are bold, make them a different color than other bold text. Roll-over effects such as lighting up are very helpful. It’s wise to include internal links within page text in addition to those in the navigation menu. It facilitates visitors finding the specific details they seek.

Avoid underlining words that are not links
If links are underlined, don’t underline regular text. Visitors may become aggravated when they click on words that aren’t active links, since underlining is a conventional way to present them.

Include keywords in Anchor Text of links
Describe what you’re linking to, both internally and externally. You’ll get more credit by using search terms in the text of links. For example, let’s say you’re linking to a page about circus animals. “Click Here” doesn’t use terms people may search for, but “See circus animals” contains the exact phrase and will help give your circus animals page higher rank.

Text links are more valuable than buttons
Since buttons are basically images, even though they’re attractive, they don’t quite pull as much weight as standard text links, so if much of your navigation is based on clicking buttons or other images, at least include an additional set of text links (possibly at the bottom of the page). This keeps the tigers well fed and is also helpful to human visitors who find themselves at the bottom of long pages.

Add more internal links
Besides regular navigation links, include links within the text of pages to guide readers toward important (income-producing) areas.

• For long scrolling pages, links within text prevent people from having to go to top or bottom of page to move on.

• Contextual links make it easy for people to continue to the next step of the process as soon as they’re sufficiently excited. So you may want to include it in several places. Some people will want to read the whole page, but others will be happy to save time by continuing where they are being directed.

Ensure that all links function correctly
Remove dead or “broken” external links and test to be sure that all links function properly. Bad links annoy visitors and penalize you in search engines.

Tell search engine spiders which links to ignore
This is a little technical, but important. All links on a page share the total value of “link juice” that search engines assign. If there’s one link, it gets full credit. Three links would mean each gets one third of the credit and so on. More links mean less value per link. If there are certain pages on your site that don’t require high search engine position (such as privacy policy or contact forms or other administrative pages), you can tell the spiders to ignore those links, thereby keeping higher credit among the more important internal and external links. We use the “nofollow tag“:
<a ref=”privacy.html” rel=”nofollow”>Privacy Policy</a>

Treat external links the same way. If a third-party website may have helpful information to visitors, add it. But include the “nofollow” tag if their search engine rank is not as important as other external links, such as a second website you may have yourself!

Find out more about best linking practices and over 200 additional web design tips in my Boost Your Website’s Profitability eBook.

Standard Fonts and Use of Page Text

June 9, 2012 by Ray

Use standard fonts for text
Avoid utilizing fonts only you have installed on your computer. For those without them, they will be converted into a dull font and ruin the effect you were trying to achieve. Save special fonts for specific headers and convert them to images. The bulk of your site should use standard fonts so that as many browsers as possible will see it in the way you intended.

Recommended fonts for greatest compatibility are Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica and Comic Sans MS. Make sure your text is large enough to read, especially if your target audience includes seniors!

Do not center align most or all text
A large amount of centered text can be difficult to read, so except for headings and maybe subheadings, left-align the majority of text across the site.

Keep width of text blocks reasonable
Wide columns of text are difficult to read, so don’t allow them to stretch across the entire screen. Keep the width below five inches if possible

Always check for errors
Check for spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar, and typos because even one error noticed can give the impression that you are uneducated, unprofessional or just not concerned with accuracy. Perfection is expected, so proof-read all pages manually before and after uploading.

Avoid clutter and “busy” backgrounds
“White space” is important so text is easier to read and it is easier to decipher different sections of the page. Make sure that the text color contrasts enough with background colors or graphics to be easily read by your entire audience, especially if that includes visually impaired people.

Be concise
Avoid too much text on main pages of site. Your home page may be fine with only a few paragraphs worth of text, as long as you cover the main points of your site. It is better to have more short pages than fewer long pages that can feel like more work to read through, as long as you keep in mind an approximate minimum of 300 words to give the search engines something to chew on. (each page of this book contains about 350 words) Main pages can direct visitors to more detailed pages.

Make it easy to skim
I repeat: Use lots of subheadings and short paragraphs. Get ideas across quickly. If you are providing more details, put them farther down on page or give them a page of their own for those who are interested.

Many more ideas in website tips eBook!

Landing pages and Flash intros

May 8, 2012 by Ray

Using a “flashy” landing page as the standard entry to your site can cause more harm than good. Flash movies can be cool and attention-grabbing, but if your visitor is looking for specific information on your site, the added time to view your cute little introduction could aggravate them enough to leave your site before they even arrive at your true Home page.

Combine “Flash” with “Function”
Instead of requiring visitors to click on “skip intro” or “enter site” after 5 seconds of wasted time, consider just making your actual main website page more interesting while maintaining easy navigation to each topic. If you’re sure that surfers would enjoy your site more with some added excitement, just work backwards and include a cute little button to “View our movie” or “Watch us in action”. You can have your cake and eat it too, but you’re not annoying the percentage of folks who want to be helped quickly.

When entry pages are OK
To play it safe, take your cue from competing websites. If you have a beer website and all of the other breweries play cool videos, maybe that’s what visitors will expect of you. (Just don’t forget to give them the “skip” option). If you’re in the music or art field, an animation or brief movie makes more sense to showcase your talent. A legal site with dancing lawyers could drive away visitors within seconds – even if the entire video actually would have made a good point if viewed to the end.

Guidelines for media use
Everything on your site should support your message. If a video really would be the easiest way to convey your thoughts, include the link prominently on your index page along with brief explanation such as:
“See how we can help you in this 30 second video!”
Give the viewer control and give the viewer the information they need.

Audio messages can be helpful, but speakers may not be turned on, so again, instead of the default being set to play an audio message when site is entered, show a link to click for the message and include an alternative such as a page with the same introductory text along with photos. Even a PDF document that can be downloaded for easy printing (of course you list your website address and contact info on the pdf!!)

Make it easy for visitors to find what they want and put control into their hands and it’s more likely that they’ll stick around to the next step of the buying process!

Email Marketing and Newsletters

April 2, 2012 by Ray

One of the most effective internet marketing methods is gathering emails to build a list of prospects. You can then either send individual (personal) messages and/or send messages to the entire list occasionally or on a regular basis. This allows you to keep your products or services in front of prospects along with the opportunity to build a relationship with them.

Build your list by gathering contact info
To use your website to generate a list of prospects, you can take many different avenues:

Offer something for free (PDF, white paper, eBook) to anyone who submits their name and email address
Add a “Newsletter sign-up” form in prominent places on your site
Add a checkbox to receive regular emails on your contact form
Run a contest, take a survey, or any other way to gather addresses to add to the list.

mail

Once on the list, be sure that any regular emails allow for people to “opt out” so that you don’t start to annoy potential customers. As long as it is the truth, tell them that their contact information will not be sold or shared. Display a privacy policy to put visitors at ease.

Marketing to your email list
The larger the database, the more valuable it is and the more worthwhile it is to take an organized approach to converting visitors into customers or to ensure a greater re-sale rate. Individual or random messages can take lots of time. Sending bulk emails in text or html format allow you to better track the information that is being sent out and give you more bang for the buck when you have timely promotions or new product announcements.

Give FREE stuff or something of value!
To ensure that people actually read your messages (and maybe even pass them on to friends), be sure to include useful information or offers that contain real value. Don’t just try to sell, sell, sell or your messages will be ignored or sent to their spam folder.

Email marketing vendors
You should consider one of the popular email marketing software solutions to easily send bulk emails, formatted monthly newsletters and auto-responders to build your customer or prospect mail list. They save time by providing newsletter templates that are easily customized with your logo, images, and information. Lists are automatically updated. Price depends on the number of contacts on your list and usually start at $9.95 per month or less.

Start a free trial newsletter
Get more info or start a free trial for Constant Contact, Vertical Response, or iContact at our email marketing page.

Here are some of the benefits, according to iContact’s website:

iContact has whitelist agreements with major ISPs so our clients can enjoy industry-leading deliverability. A third-party company, Pivotal Veracity, scores our email deliverability rates between 98%-99%.

Track the performance of your email blasts at a glance with our charts and graphs that are populated in real time.

Use one of our 250 professionally designed email newsletter templates or one of your own for beautiful permission-based email marketing campaigns.

Easily set up, organize, and leverage your mailing list to boost your email marketing into overdrive!

iContact combines sophisticated features such as surveys, autoresponders, and RSS feeds into one easy-to-use all-inclusive product.

Ready to start a free trial? Check out Constant Contact, Vertical Response, or iContact at our email marketing page.

Fresh Content Increases Return Traffic

March 22, 2012 by Ray

Capturing the attenion of viewers is difficult enough, so when you keep them more than a few seconds, make sure that they see a reason for future visits as well. Return traffic is like gold!

Out of date content is a turn-off
Periodic updating and addition of text helps rank by showing that there is “fresh” and current content on individual pages and the site as a whole. If visitors notice incorrect or out of date information, their impression is that your website is untrustworthy. When your “coming events” page lists items from the previous year, you may as well be asking people to leave your site. They might assume you are no longer in business!

A regular schedule of web updates could be monthly, quarterly or even annually, as long as information remains valid. If it costs you money each time a web designer or webmaster makes changes or uploads new material, you may want to set up a couple of pages to update yourself at no added cost. Have your designer create a database and code for you to easily log in with a simple username and password to add, edit or delete information. This works well for an “Announcements” section of your homepage or a “Company News” or “Coming Events” page.

A website built to display a schedule of events (meetings, softball games, concerts, etc,) can include a calendar that is easily maintained by an administrator without the need for technical know-how. When clicked on, any entry can display a page with full details – part of the same database of information.

Use original page text
Do not use similar text on several pages of your site, just to have more content. Do not copy text from another website just because it contains good keywords. Google levies a “duplicate content” penalty which will cause the duplicate pages to be filtered out, making them worthless in search engines. This is done to prevent “mirror sites” from both appearing high in results and usually means that whichever page was first indexed would be regarded as the “valid” source by Google.

Add pages for special occasions
Do you have a brand new idea or service or product line? Are you seeking a new target audience for existing products or services? Add a page to address their needs and concisely show how you can fill those needs. You may want an advertising campaign to lead directly to that page, instead of the home page. After a site is already built, additional pages can be added quickly and inexpensively, since the standard page template merely needs to be filled in with words and pictures.

Focus on your specific niche market
Especially if you’re in a large or very competitive industry, a smaller player needs to find and fine-tune factors can be used to your advantage. If you specialize in certain segments of the market or serve a group within the general population, your website must reflect that in text, images, headlines.

Emphasize your specialties and highlight aspects that make you unique. If you’re a travel company which specializes in adventure trips to Costa Rica, you may want to mention that on every page to show that you’re the best choice for that situation. It’s no secret that a company should play up it’s strong points. “Travel” is the mostsearched-for term on the internet. Chances of appearing high in organic search results is remote. Your odds are considerably better for “adventure trips” and greater still for “Costa Rica adventure trips”.

Enjoy your trip to the top of the search engines!