What Good is a Website If It Doesn’t Convert Visitors into Customers?

Get Your Company Website to Generate New Business

Let’s suppose that your company’s website is on the first page of Google. (Congratulations!) Unfortunately, even the savviest business owners are prone to thinking that the digital marketing strategy ends there. But the reality is that being on the first page of Google doesn’t always mean success.

Of course, your site will get impressions and some traffic, but what you need to understand is how to get your visitors to stay on your website. In other words, your online strategy needs the components that focus on converting that traffic to business. Visitors are merely visitors. But think of the possibilities of turning those visitors into customers and, ultimately, driving new business.  Be sure to establish a proper sales funnel through which to guide your visitors.

Key Steps to Converting Traffic to Business

WSI’s Top 5 Steps Tips for Improving Online Conversion

Now that we’ve established that while a company may have built an attractive website, in the end most businesses want their site to get them more business. This is where applying conversion architecture will help to convert site visitors into new business when they contact you. Here are the top 5 things you can do to improve conversion:

1. Imagery and color: Carefully select images that complement the site’s content. Using effective imagery contributes significantly to keeping your visitors on the site and improving your website’s bounce rate. Similarly, color affects behavior, so choose the right color palette to portray your product and service in the right light. Remember, this is about the user experience, not yours!
2. Overall layout: Think if your target audience and the different personas you are trying to attract. Consider how they will look at the information on your site and identify your trigger points to ensure they will be attracted to your page.
3. Contact forms and phone number: Avoid making a visitor search through your site for a phone number. By simply adding your phone number or a small contact form on every page makes it easy for your visitors to contact you. This is simple, but can get you outstanding results.
4. Clear, concise content: Remember, website visitors are not book readers. Typically, your visitors will scan the pages. So develop content that is straight to the point! Incorporate effective titles and point form notes to promote higher readership.
5. Call-to-action: Your website visitors want to know right away if they found what they were looking for. An effective all-to-action will significantly improve a visitor’s “time on site.” So do everything you can to make your visitors understand what your business does.

These are simple but effective ways to increase your conversions quickly. Contact me for more tips on enhancing your online business strategy.    

Oh no not another Google update, you thought the last one was bad then along comes another beast in Google Penguin. Google has actually released another update, Panda 3.5, just before, but it was the Penguin update on April 24th that has really caused waves in the Internet community.

What Happened

This newest search engine optimisation update is predicted to affect a smaller amount of queries than Panda, but has still caused problems for some sites. The forums are a-buzz with talk of job and income losses, giving a rather bleak outlook and making Google look like the bad guy. Otherwise known as the WebSpam update, Penguin focused on penalizing those using spam and black hat SEO tactics such as cloaking, link schemes and general keyword stuffing. As much as we can’t help hearing from those that were hit, there were some winners with this update as well. It’s important to follow the rules. 

SEO Points to Remember:

• Quality. Focus on quality content that readers will want to share, rather than strictly writing for the search engines.
• Unique Content. Make sure your content is unique, not duplicated.
• Rankings Fluctuate. Don’t put all your marketing tactics in one basket. Relying strictly on Google search to make your site successful may not work.  Always have a back-up strategy, so that if there is another update and you get hit (even accidentally), it won’t matter as much.

What You Can Do to Your Site

If your site has been hit with the Google Penguin update, there are a few steps you can take. First see if there is something you could do better, does your content really explain what you do? If you believe you have been penalised incorrectly, you can submit a reconsideration request to Google.

If you’re worried about your rankings and how to get your site found, contact us today to plan out a successful digital marketing strategy for your business.

Here are some common mistakes to avoid with mobile marketing

While businesses have been quick to jump onto the mobile marketing band-wagon, not all their experiences are positive. Make sure you avoid some of the common mistakes:

• The mobile version of your website should be more than just a shrunken version of what your site looks like on a desktop computer. The content, design and interface should be very simple, user-friendly, and attractive and must load quickly.

• Many businesses create and sell content that is anything but mobile friendly. What you need to do is market content (texts, pictures or videos) via mobile, that is easily downloadable and offers users a pleasant experience.

• Make the interaction worth their time to users. The rewards you can offer are only limited by your ingenuity like coupons, videos, convenience, recipes, extra information, contests, free downloads, etc.

• Mobile users become frustrated when information doesn’t translate correctly on their specific device, so ensure you optimize your campaign for every medium, device, system and browser. 

• Don’t simply use a QR code to drive people back to your website. Instead, send users to mobile-friendly landing pages, informing them about specials and promotions, or providing an exclusive experience via their phone.

Revamp Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

Make no mistake; the world is turning mobile…now. Mobile web usage has already grown rapidly in recent years, prompting companies to optimize websites for smart-phone and tablet users. However, marketing strategies must also be updated to keep pace:

• Mobile shopping leads to sales via smart-phones and tablets, as well as in-store purchases. Update your mobile marketing to encourage mobile purchases.

• Social media marketing campaigns can reach prospects on the go. Simple sharing features built into mobile operating systems will complement those leveraged by web developers and social media teams.

• With so many smart-phones already capable of capturing, viewing and sharing video; it’s time to exploit video marketing that’s customized for handheld devices.  

• Optimize your online presence for local search, taking advantage of Google Places and other geo-targeted directories. Let smart-phone users find you easily.

Smart-phones are used to connect to information as well as friends

The era of mobile devices is definitely here. People are spending more time than ever before on their mobile devices, using Internet applications to connect to their entire world of friends and information. According to a Microsoft study, by 2014, mobile Internet usage will overtake desktop Internet usage and already more than 50% of all ‘local’ searches are done from a mobile device. Driven by bandwidth and a rich ecosystem of ‘anytime, anywhere’ wireless capabilities; mobile online activity is rising dramatically along with communication, entertainment, social networking and media capture.

Those who use computing devices to access the Internet, e-mail, watch videos, listen to music or play games now rely on mobile devices to do it better, easier, faster, more portably and more conveniently. They also have more fun and enjoy being online in a manner that is ‘cool’. 

What Gives Mobile Devices That Edge?

Today's smart phones are driving the increased use of networked applications and Web content. What is it that has so greatly enhanced their appeal?

• While service providers now bundle mobile devices with Internet access on 3G and 4G networks, the growing number of public Wi-Fi spots makes it more practical to browse with a mobile device than using a laptop.

• With GPS services, your phone knows where you are. Businesses can provide geo-targeted information, guiding users to local products and services, monetizing this local intent through advertising and offers.

• Internet applications for mobile devices or ‘apps’ allow you to customize a phone to your specific set of wants and needs. They range in size and complexity from a simple flashlight application, to a navigational system that will let you plot positions on a marine chart, to a medical reference guide.

• In-phone cameras facilitate video calls, point-and-shoot photography, recording videos, reading QR codes and interpreting barcodes. Capturing and sending media in the same motion on a mobile is much faster and easier than transferring images from a camera, or using a camera on a PC/laptop. The microphone too, is always ready to go.

• Phones are soon becoming the consumer's wallet and the retailer's storefront. Mobile access is being spurred on by ease of e-commerce, featuring location-based services, time-based offers, mobile coupons and push notifications, etc.

• Smart-phones and tablets provide a more interactive Internet experience since they use browsers custom built for mobile devices. Exciting capabilities like precise location information from GPS, user orientation from a digital compass, multi-touch input from one or more simultaneous gestures, device positioning from an accelerometer, etc. have surpassed PC-based Web browsers.

When people ask me about how to get things moving on LinkedIn and I look at their profile it is usually obvious that they have not got the basics right. So here are 7 top tips to get started with your LinkedIn profile 

1. Complete your profile to 100% and add a good quality professional picture make sure you use the description that is relevant to your business goals. Include keywords in your pitch so that you will be found when people search for experts in your area.

2. Solicit previous customers for recommendations – focus on quality over quantity. Aim for those customers who have clout in the industries you focus on. Where possible, guide them on the areas you’d like recommendations on.

3. Join the key groups in your sector and get a digest of new activity – then, once you’ve listened for a while, look to see how you can join the conversation with helpful comments and links.

4. Follow companies on your prospect list so you get regular updates – pay particular attention to joiners, leavers and company announcements.

5. Connect to as many people as you can – contacts breed contacts. Make use of LinkedIn’s ‘people you may know’ feature. And always send a contact request within 24 hours of meeting anyone new.

6. Connect LinkedIn to your Twitter feed and make sure you show a link to your company website.

7. Check your contacts’ contacts for other people you can connect to – do this religiously for all new connections.

Try to invest a little time on a regular basis to keep up with what is going on and make sure you join in the conversation.

LinkedIn Groups are an often neglected part of the site where people sign up to a group then to not get engaged with it, so get no results from their efforts.

Off-Page Optimisation

Offsite optimisation is all about acquiring quality inbound keyword links. It is best to get links from high ranking websites and web pages, but internal repeating links within your own website also count. Here’s how to improve off-page SEO:

• Submit articles to various article directories for syndication and curation, making sure your content contains many keyword links back to your other content pages.
• Go social! Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networks to get links from existing customers.
• Cross-reference related items between individual product pages (include accessories or similar products). This creates healthy internal links.
• Create and share video content to attract more visitors.
• Create a blog and be active in forum discussions in the area of your business.
• Issue press releases and PR briefs about product launches, events and promotional offers regularly.

Just starting out as an online retailer with a few products to sell? Selling thousands of products online for many years now? Either way, make sure your eCommerce site is optimized for the search engines so you are most visible to your potential customers.

WSI can help optimise you eCommerce site for higher page rankings, better conversions and increased sales.

If your business relies on an eCommerce site, then you know it's important to appear in the organic search results ahead of your competitors; especially if your competitors are selling the same products online. Having top rankings for an eCommerce website is crucial for long term success in the online marketing world.

On-Page Optimisation

Optimising an eCommerce site isn't that different than optimising any other type of web site. To make a page rank well in the organic search results, it needs a good title tag (that includes the keywords you're targeting); and good content on the page that includes the appropriate keywords. Here are some more tips for on-page optimisation:

• Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
• To achieve good keyword focus, limit yourself to just one or two keywords per content page. You can even create a page for each product in your store so that you can take advantage of long-tail keyword phrases.
• One reason why product pages on eCommerce sites appear in the search engine indexes and then disappear is because they are duplicating content (which the search engines catch on). Keep content and tags unique.
• If you're selling products that your competitors are also selling, then your product descriptions need to be unique and different from theirs. Don’t just copy the generic product descriptions of items that are provided by the manufacturer. You’ll risk having your page considered a duplicate page by Google and other search engines.
• Add links to related products or accessories, or perhaps a testimonial about the product. Adding ‘related products' type of navigation on your product pages will help visitors stay on your site.
• Product Reviews can increase your visibility and improve your page rankings. This gives the search engines more content to read and also creates a third party endorsement for your product.

Online shoppers are using search engines to compare product features and prices, and if your eCommerce site isn’t positioned in the top search engine results, you're missing out on a lot of potential online sales!

A business blog today is much more than an online journal for companies to share news and views. Yes, it’s true that blogs can transform your business but more than that, an effective blog can change the way your customers, employees and associates perceive your business. As thought leadership becomes the leading objective of your blog, a growing audience starts to recognize the distinctive value your company brings to the table.

Your business blog can truly transform the way the world sees you—and the best part is, you are in control to shape and nurture this image for greater profitability, steady growth and dominant leadership in the competitive landscape.             

What a Blog Can Do For Your Business

Business blogs are an excellent corporate tool to share a company's expertise, offer a perspective on the industry, i.e. trends and developments, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers. Blogs are popular with online audiences because they offer fresh new voices and opinions. Business blogs can increase SEO ranking by on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking.

• A blog lets you reach a bigger audience
• With a blog, you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry 
• Gives you free publicity through search engine results pages
• Can bring more traffic to your website
• It’s another way to interact with your customers
• Makes your website look more active and content rich (great for SEO)
• A blog shows the human side of your business, and that you aren’t just an anonymous Internet entity.

Gives you a medium to promote new products and offers feedback / reactions quicker than other methods. If you would like to find out more about how blogging can help your business to spread the word please contact WSI South East.