Intellisites, the smart choice for web design

Chances are, your company sells more than one product.

Whether it’s a line of goodies for pets, an assortment of sparkly accessories, or an array of services that ranges from plowing snow to cleaning gutters, most businesses these days make their money from numerous products or services.

If this is the case for you, here’s a little tip to help increase traffic to your website.

Search engines try to deliver the most relevant results to their users.  You can take advantage of this by building different pages that focus specifically on each of your products or services.  Instead having of a page listing all of your goodies for pets, have a separate page for puppy rain coats and another page devoted to doggie feather boas.

And How Does This Get Me More Visitors?

People tend to Google exactly what they’re looking for.  If you happen to be looking for homemade dog biscuits, you’re more likely to Google that keyword than, for instance, “pet products.”  If someone types “homemade dog biscuits” into a search engine, the search engine’s first choice is to find a page devoted to that product.  If you have a separate page for homemade dog biscuits and your competitor does not, guess which one of you is going to come out on top?

And once you’ve got your visitors in the back door of your site to learn about your homemade dog biscuits, you may even find that they browse around a bit and end up purchasing doggie strollers and organic puppy desserts too.

But…My Website Will Have 597 Pages!

Having a page for each product is idea, of course, but you can definitely start small.  Figure out which of your products are the most popular or the most unique, and start by devoting a couple of pages to those. Like maybe one for plastic fasteners that lists all the types of fasteners you have.  You can always build more pages as you go along (e.g. plastic bolts, plastic u-bolts, plastic nuts, etc.)

So why not try setting up specific pages for your doggie charm bracelets, doggie roller skates, and doggie dream interpreter kit, and then go from there?

So you know how important blogging can be to the success of your site.  By blogging about topics relevant to your company’s area of expertise, your clients will get to know and like you better, and the search engines will like you better, too.

But in addition to adding more content that search engines will value, a blog can also help you out with another important area of SEO - establishing links to your site.

The search engines really like links.  Basically, if you can get the right links coming in to your website, your website will get better rankings.  And you can use your blog to entice other web users to link to your site.

That is, if your blog does something to lure them in.

And that, kiddos, is what we call link bait.  If you can come up with a blog post that other sites will be tempted to link to, your blog will take on a whole new role in your SEO.

So…what types of posts are considered link bait?  What are people out there itching to link to?

Link bait stands out. By being unusual, controversial, polarizing or extremely useful.

It could be a post with a point that you make that is really out in left field - something that other people aren’t already saying.  But of course, you have to believe and support what you’re saying, or you’ll have people linking to a site with no brand equity.  Controversy gets people talking, but of course, you need to make sure they aren’t talking about how out of your tree you are.

Writing extremely useful link bait might be a little safer.  Here, we’d look for a post that has really strong content that people can use as a reference.  We’re talking about things like 50 Frequently Missed Tax Deductions or 101 Ways to Cook Chicken.  The types of posts people forward to friends or print out for future reference are the types of sites to which people will also link.

Writing link bait isn’t really all that different from writing a regular post.  At the end of the day, you want the content in your blog to be stuff people want to read.  When a post qualifies as link bait, however, the author has gone the extra mile and made sure that the content will get people talking, and, of course, linking.

Did you guys hear about the experiment that Highrise did to see what type of copy would work best on their call-to-action button?  There’s a great little blog post that explains what they found out.

Their results showed the impact that subtle wording differences can have on visitors, but they also showed something even more valuable — the impact that split testing can have on the success of your website.

Split testing is setting up different versions of your home page so that different visitors will see a different version.  It uses the magic of the web to look at your visitors’ reactions to each version of the site.  Did your visitors click around?  Click your call-to-action button?  Leave?  All of this information can be tracked, so split testing is a good way to figure out which of several ideas is the best one.

In other words, if you can’t decide whether to have a button on your snowshoe company page that says “Shop Now” or “Click for a FREE coupon code,” you could set up two versions of the site and use split testing to track which button got more clicks.  After you’ve done your test, you can make an informed choice about what will make the snowshoe enthusiasts of the world delve into your site.

Highrise found a way to increase their signups by 200%.  Can you believe that?  That’s HUGE.  But they never would have found it if they had never tried out the different possible options for copy.

While watching the Super Bowl ads the other day, 2 ideas came to mind:

1. Note to Self — don’t steal Doritos from Tim’s locker.  Ever.  (And, actually, avoid eating Doritos in the gym altogether because it’s kind of counterproductive.)

2. These companies could have saved a lot of money if they had set up pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns instead of paying a ton of money for Super Bowl ads.  And they probably would have done a better job of reaching their target audiences.

Superbowl commercials are about entertaining a huge audience and creating a bit of a buzz about your company.  And for companies with a lot of advertising dollars to spend, it can work out.  But if you’re looking to get a lot of bang for your buck on less than $67,000 per second, a PPC campaign is an awesome way to go.

And what’s a PPC campaign?  I actually wrote a little article about it a few months ago and just had a chance to post it, so check it out for the details on what PPC ads are and how they can work for you.

If Super Bowl commercials (or TV commercials in general) are out of your price range, PPC may be perfect for your business.

Have you ever been channel surfing at 4 AM, landed on a commercial, and wondered to yourself, Am I the only one in the world watching this ad? You may have even felt a little sorry for the poor guy who paid to have that ad run.  After all, you might have been the only one to see it, and sorry, but you just weren’t interested in purchasing one of those plant watering glass balls.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a form of marketing on the internet that eliminates the plight of those late-night commercials that no one sees.  With PPC, you have the opportunity to advertise in a way that reaches only interested parties.  And the best part is that if the advertisement never generates traffic to your website, you never have to pay for it!  Holla!

How It Works

Whenever you perform a Google search on a product, you are likely to see a little list of “Sponsored Links” over on the side of your screen.  (Go ahead, try it!  Google anything — “plant watering glass ball” even works nicely!)  See those links that just popped up?   Those are PPC ads.

The companies that designed those ads paid nothing to set them up.  They even told Google what keywords an internet user should type in to make them appear.  And then, when someone types in those magic words - boom!  The ad shows up right on the side of his page.  And so far, not a dollar has changed hands.

The only time these ads actually cost money is when the ad appeals to a web surfer enough to make him actually click on it.  But at that point, you’ve got him on your website.  And since he was googling something you’ve decided is relevant, chances are he’s interested in buying or at least heavy browsing.  Nifty, right?

You can even set up temporary PPC ads that focus on a specific promotion or sale that you may be running.  Do you have a home improvement business that’s running a special this month on vent cleaning services?  Add that as a keyword and make a special little ad promoting that particular service.  Then, when the sale is over, you can stop it and make a new ad focusing on something else.

So as you can see, PPC is an awesome tool that allows you to advertise to real, actual, interested people.  And when you know your advertising money is being well spent, you can rest easy.  And turn off the late-night TV.

Remember when JT and Madonna sang that peculiar little song about how they only had four minutes to save the world?  That really doesn’t seem like enough time to save the world, or, do much of anything, actually.

Well, you, my friend, have only five seconds.

Okay you don’t have to save the world, but it takes only five seconds for a visitor to your site to gather enough information to determine whether to go back out to the web or to stick around.  So you’ve got that much time to hook them.

And how is that accomplished?

You basically have to do one of three things to intrigue the average web surfer enough to hang around.

1. Deliver a Call to Action.  In other words, set up some kind of enticing button on your home page that pushes the visitor farther into the site right away.  We’re talking about a “Click Here for a Free Quote” or “Hundreds of Items On Sale - Today Only!  Click Here to Shop!”  Those types of appeals get the casual browser involved right away, causing him to stay around for awhile.

2. Communicate Your Unique Selling Position. You need to sell your uniqueness right off the bat.  Your home page has to be YOU, and make people see that YOU are different from and better than your competitors.  In the first five seconds, the visitor isn’t going to get the full picture of you, but if you have the right layout, design and content, they’ll get your vibe.  Are you the eco-friendly choice?  The professional choice with years of experience?  The new funky alternative choice?  Your page should be designed to reflect attributes like that in a way that a visitor can pick up in five seconds or less.

3. Give Them Something Valuable. If a visitor finds something with perceived value right on your home page, he’ll stick around to find out what else you’re giving out.  It may be as simple as some good content that answers his questions.  If it looks like you know your stuff, and you deliver the right message right away, visitors will likely poke around to find out what other information you have to share.  In addition to appealing content, an actual giveaway could also do the trick.  This idea links back to the previously mentioned suggestion of a call to action. You could use that call to action to do a giveaway (e.g. “Click here for your FREE coupon!”).

So, if you want your casual browsers to delve deep into that website of yours, you need to have something significant going on as soon as they enter the site.  Whether it’s your unique charm, some free information or a giveaway, or a flashy clicky button, make sure that you have something that will keep your visitors interested past those first five seconds.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock.

Okay, so now it’s time for Sample Problem #2.

This week, we’ll be taking a look at a pretend non-profit organization as it attempts to use e-marketing to collect some paper for its noble cause.  We’ll call the nonprofit something a little corny and obvious like Holy Shirts and Pants.  Whoops, that’s already taken.  Okay, we’ll go with Kollecting for Kids, and we’ll say their role in the community is to collect money to buy toys for underprivileged children.  We’ll say the NPO has a pretty good following on social networking sites - including 3000 Facebook fans and 500 followers on Twitter.

So, with our background set, let’s look at the sitch that Kollecting for Kids was in when their campaign began.

They needed to market their annual campaign to raise money to buy holiday gifts for kids.  Our recommendation to them was to put together a campaign that leverages their social media connections to generate donations.

We encouraged them to start by coming up with five blog entries that each focused on convincing people to donate money to their charity.  The idea was to really pull on the readers’ heartstrings and move them to donate.  These blog entries incorporated specific anecdotes about real children who would be helped by this campaign, and every entry included a section specifically asking for donations and linking to a donation site.

With the blog entries prewritten, KFK published one entry every Monday for the five weeks leading up to Christmas.  They connected their blog to facebook and twitter too, so every week the Facebook fans and Twitter followers had another opportunity to hear a compelling reason to donate.

So without spending any money, KFK was able to generate 17,500 impressions.  And if even 1% of the fans and followers were moved to donate, there would be a lot of happy kids on Christmas.

That’s right, boys and girls.  You too can use the magic of Twitter and Facebook for free advertising!  And whether you run a non-profit or a for-profit business, you’ll be shocked at how effective it can really be.

It’s safe to say that traffic to your website is a good thing.  Any visitor to your web page are like people walking into your store. It’s a good sign.

But what we really like to see are visitors who kick off their shoes and stay awhile.  After all, those are the visitors who are likely to go from browsing to buying.

A website’s “bounce rate” helps to determine whether visitors to the site tend to poke around or leave the site right away.  It’s figured out by making a little fraction with the number of visitors who don’t click past the first page of a site divided by the total number of visitors to the site.  Change that fraction to a percent, and you’ve got bounce rate.

For example, if your site has 100 visitors and 50 left after seeing your homepage, you have a 50% bounce rate.  If that really was your bounce rate, by the way, would indicate that you have some work to do on your homepage.  Ideally, you are looking for a bounce rate of around 35-40%. Because no matter what you do, there are a lot of tire-kickers in the world.

How Low Can Your Bounce Rate Go?

What can you do help your bounce rate shrink?  It’s all about the awesomeness level of your homepage.  The more that your homepage pulls people in, the lower your bounce rate will go.  And the more sales you will ultimately make.

You can help that bounce rate shape up by making some changes to your home page, like…

• Adding Call to Action Buttons.  Get your visitors hooked right away by incorporating a tempting button that’s just begging to be clicked.
• Making Your Copy Convincing. The text on your homepage has to sell.  Make sure it makes your visitors thirsty for more.
• Offering Free Stuff.  It never hurts to offer a little incentive.  If you want people to dig deeper into the site, let them know that there is a treasure in there somewhere.  (You don’t have to give away the store for this to work.  We’re talking about a coupon.  A free sample.  Maybe free shipping.  It doesn’t have to be a million dollar prize to catch someone’s attention.)
• Keeping Things Interesting With a Blog. Blogs are really getting to be a big thing.  Make sure to include a prominently displayed link to yours on your home page.  You’ll be surprised how many people you can hook in just by promising the opportunity to read your thoughts.

All right, that’s it for now — time to bounce.  (Sorry.  Couldn’t resist.)

Sometimes certain websites rub search engines the wrong way.  But keeping search engines happy with your website is enormously important if you want website traffic.

So…what kinds of things tick search engines off?

1. Site Structure. I talked a little bit about tables vs. DIV/CSS in a previous entry, but to reiterate, search engines aren’t big fans of websites constructed in table format.  If your website is made using tables, it’s probably time to rebuild.

2. Buckshot style keyword selection. In an attempt to drive traffic to their sites, some people select tons of semi-relevant keywords.  This might have helped their search engine rankings 5-7 years ago, but search engines have become wise to this overkill technique, and now having 67 keywords can actually make your search engine rankings lower.

3. Irrelevant tags. Another way some people try to slyly increase their search engine rankings is by including slightly relevant or completely irrelevant image (or other) tags.  Again, this sneaky idea might have helped them out back in the day, but in 2010, search engines will put the hurt on you for that trick.

4. Irrelevant content. From an SEO standpoint, the content of your site has to be relevant to the back end content of your site.  Among other things, making sure your relevant keywords are present in the copy is big.

5. No updates. Search engines like dynamic websites that change and grow.  If you are neglecting your site, so will Google.  Keep things interesting on your website, and the search engines will appreciate your efforts.

Not sure if your website is a culprit of a search engine faux pas?  We’ll gladly check it out, and, if needed, work to patch up the relationship between the search engines and your site so you can all be friends.  That’s what we do - making peace on the web, one website at a time.

I’m an example kind of person.  Back in high school, my math teachers could talk about polynomials and imaginary numbers all day, but I would stare at them blankly until I snuck a peek at sample problems #1 and #2 in the book.  Walking through these made everything click.

Let’s look at an example of the kinds of things we’ve been chatting about on this blog: how a company can use web technology to set up an e-marketing campaign, start to finish.

Let’s talk about Bababerino Diapers. A local (fictional) business that sells (surprise!) diapers.  The marketing folks at Bababerino have already encouraged their customers to register an e-mail address on Bababerino.com in exchange for some printable coupons. After a year of collecting, the company has collected e-mail addresses for 3,000 baby mamas and daddies.

The sales crew at Bababerino was preparing for their big holiday sales push - trying to sell 300 “Mucho Packs” of diapers online.  They set a goal of one week to complete the push, and offered the Mucho Packs at a 30% discount.

To help guarantee their success, they leveraged their database of customer emails.

They sent an e-mail to their 3000 customer mailing list.  The text of the e-mail read, “We want to let our best customers in on a little secret.  Our quality diapers are online at an unbelievably low price!  Click below to get a coupon code that will entitle you to 30% off our mucho pack.  That’s a savings of almost $20!  But you have to act fast - this sale only lasts until Friday.”  Under the text was a huge, brightly-colored button that read, “Click now for your money-saving coupon code!”

The Bababerino team set up a landing page where e-mail recipients would arrive when they clicked on the big tempting button.  On the landing page visitors found the code “DIAPERS4XMAS” positioned right next to a big flashy button that said “Get My Discount Now!” When clicked, visitors were directed to an online catalog where they could add as many Mucho Packs to their cart as they wanted.  To stress the limited time frame for the promotion, the Bababerino people added a clock to the page, counting down the seconds until the end of the sale.

Using persuasive language on an e-mail and a subsequent landing page, Bababerino made a pretty solid case for why their customers should purchase their mucho packs right away.  And whats more - they made it extremely easy for their customers to buy from them. Even if only one customer in ten was enticed enough to order, Bababerino would easily reach their goal.  And that means happy Bababerino employees, hundreds of satisfied customers, and just as many dry baby bums.