Just as you need to set objectives for your traditional marketing materials, having clear calls to action on your website is also very important if it is to generate the results you want, especially from first time visitors.
Here are two common mistakes that we see:
So many web pages, and blogs start off with all the essentials – great headline, good copy, nice graphics and design – and then ….. nothing! Unless you tell your visitors what to do next, they may view other pages on the site, and then click away, fully intending to return another day. But will they?
It’s a good idea to give them really simple, clear instructions, like “the next step you need to take is to visit the xyz page.” Don’t worry – your visitors won’t feel insulted, they’ll be happy to know what to do! For example, you’ll want to capture your first time visitor email address – asking them to type their details in a sign up box is a perfectly valid call to action.
Other web pages, blogs, even sales pages, are often very ‘busy’ with so many different offers and graphics that it’s a bit like being in a sweet shop as a child – you don’t know what to look at first! I saw this on a sales page recently and found myself drawn to look at and click on other offers – which were taking me away from the product this page was selling! While it’s nice to earn some affiliate revenue, it shouldn’t be at the expense of selling your own product or service!
There’s a great saying in marketing that goes: “the confused mind always says no.” Don’t confuse visitors to your website by giving them too many choices. Similarly, don’t make them guess what they should do next. Have just one objective for each of your web pages; leaving your visitors in no doubt as to what you want them to do next.
by Sam McArthur on June 30, 2009
in SEO
You’re probably wondering why I’m writing about age this time, but it’s not your age, but the age of your website. I’m not talking about youthful age, but older age, and yes, it does have an effect on how your site performs in the search engines.
In some of the blog posts I’ve written for Savvy Marketers, I’ve talked about things that the search engines use in the way they rank sites, such as keywords, content, meta tags, links etc. Another of the things search engines look at is the age of a website, and unfortunately it does have an effect on rankings, particularly for competitive keywords.
When a brand new website is launched, it does take a while before results are seen, not so much for niche keywords, but for more competitive keywords. Google uses trust in the way that it ranks sites and since a brand new site has no history, and usually, few, if any sites linking to it, it doesn’t have much to go on in terms of trustworthy sites linking back to it. This also means that sites trying to artificially inflate their back links using link farms and other dodgy techniques won’t just get to the top overnight. It’s always quality over quantity.
So, what does this mean for your fledgling website? For starters, it does mean that you need to be patient and find other ways of attracting visitors to your website. However, as I mentioned earlier, generally it’s the most competitive keywords which are harder to come by, so why not seek out niche keywords that are easier to rank for, and could mean that you stand out from some of your competitors? Ranking for niche keywords which are less competitive not only means that results can be seen more quickly, but also that those people who find your site are going to be highly targeted visitors and hopefully, even more likely to enquire or buy from you.
It’s important not to get too obsessed with high traffic competitive keywords, when often it’s the more niche keywords that convert well, leading to sales and enquiries. When your site is more established with a number of quality links pointing to it, then you can try to target some of the more competitive mainstream keywords. But if your niche is serving you well, then you may find you don’t need to compete for these keywords anyway.
So in the case of SEO, having older age on your side does help, which is fine by me!
by LouiseBJ on June 25, 2009
in Blogging
Judging from recent conversations with fellow business owners, one of concerns that holds them back from starting a blog is not knowing what to write about. While it seems some ‘bloggers’ can rattle off a 500 word topical post every day of the week, that’s probably because blogging is their full-time ‘job’ so they can afford to spend much of the day (and night) writing.
For the rest of us however, writing blog posts (as well as newsletters and articles) is something that usually has to be squeezed into tiny pockets of time. Doing a bit of forward planning will make it easier to meet those deadlines. You may like to try some of the techniques I’ve found helpful:
Decide how often you’re going to post each week, and stick to it (as much as is humanly possible). Here’s a post from Graham Jones who gives good reasons why we need to do this.
Pick a few themes from within your area of expertise, 4-6 is a good number (my own include time management, planning, productivity and marketing). Write them down as headings on separate sheets of paper (or on separate pages if you’re typing). This will stop you from drifting too far off track from your core business and confusing your readers.
Next, think of all the different angles you could write about each theme and note them under the relevant headings. Keep these lists safely and set aside time each month to update and add to them.
If you have any special promotions or new product/service launches coming up, plan some appropriate blog posts to tie in.
Be ready for inspiration for a blog post to strike - often at inconvenient moments! Jot down those gems as soon as you can (I like to keep a special ‘ideas’ notebook and carry it everywhere, just in case).
For more ideas on planning your editorial calendar, I recommend you read this post from Darren Rowse.
Do you have any writing routines or techniques that help you to be productive? We’d love you to share them with us!
When meeting prospects or starting work with new clients, one thing I always try and do is manage their expectations. Many people still think that soon after launching a new site, they’ll soon see it ranking highly in the search engines, or if it’s been optimised, results should be seen in a short space of time. Unfortunately those days are long gone, and oh, if it were so easy!
Like any marketing, web marketing needs to be done proactively and consistently. Whether you’re advertising in a magazine, doing some PR or optimising your site, it’s an ongoing activity, not something that can be done as a one off and then forgotten about. Online marketing needs to be incorporated into the whole marketing mix, you can’t just rely on the search engines to build your business.
So, what should one’s expectations be when promoting a website?
Well, this depends on many factors, such as: how long the site has been around for, who is linking to the site, what resources are available to promote the site (time and money), how committed you are to achieving high rankings. The internet is highly competitive with more and more websites being launched every day - this is making it much harder to be seen and if you’re in a particularly competitive market, it’s those who spend the time and/or the money who are most likely to succeed. Even when you’re seen, is the message right? Is your website going to convince someone to contact you and not the next company that’s found?
What can a small business with limited funds do who’s keen to drive sales and enquiries through their website?
Commit time - the more time you can spend on promoting your site and adding fresh content regularly whether it be news, special offers or even starting a blog. Not forgetting those all important links, particularly if you’re a new site. Get found on appropriate industry websites, get some articles or news published on other sites, encourage people to link to you however you can.
Try things out - SEO isn’t the be all and end all, and let’s face it, with the frequency changes in rankings, it’s never been a good idea to rely solely on the search engines to deliver traffic. So try some pay per click ads, build up a list for a regular newsletter, be active on forums, write your own blog and post on other blogs, get into social networking. Even pay for a few well-placed links on targeted sites. There’s never been a better time to try things out with all the new, low-cost technology that’s available to the masses.
Be patient - don’t expect instant results because it just won’t happen. Be prepared to wait for your marketing efforts to pay off, whatever marketing you’re doing and keep repeating your message.
Don’t give up - as with anything, persistence generally pays off, so if you keep proactively marketing your business online, you’ll eventually be rewarded!
by Sam McArthur on June 18, 2009
in SEO
Anchor text is the clickable link that appears in text on a web page indicating that you can click through to another page of the same site, or to another website. It usually looks like this. (although on this occasion, it’s not clickable!)
Anchor text is important to how search engines view web pages and what’s written in the anchor text can influence how a page ranks. It’s therefore worth giving some consideration to how you display anchor text on your web pages.
When displaying lists of products on a web page for example, rather than put ‘click here’ for more information, why not make the product name the clickable link? You could also have ‘click for further information’ or something like that at the end too. So if you’re displaying several items on one page, make the clickable link the product name, even the image of the product can be clickable and if you have a description of the item below the image, put some text at the end that the visitor can click through for further information.
What the search engines read in the anchor text can help the page the link clicks through to, towards ranking for the keyword within the link. You can do this to link to any page of your site, not just ecommerce sites either. So if you sell services, make sure that links to your individual service pages contain the keywords that relate to that page. It’s not just your internal pages either, but your external links.
External anchor text is more difficult to control as websites will link to other sites how they want and often the company name is the anchor text. However, if there’s a short description of the company (containing keywords) next to the company name, then the anchor text of the description can help the website rank for those keywords.
This is a very basic explanation of anchor text, but bear in mind next time you’re linking to a web page within your site or even to a web page outside of your site, that what you put into your anchor text can influence it’s rankings for those keywords. The search engines use many factors in their ranking algorithm (how they rank web pages), but anything you can do to help with this is one step closer to gaining higher rankings for your all important keywords!
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