Why I Got Lost and Left Your Site

Category General, Tools and Resources | 17 comments »

I spend hours surfing the web, reading articles, and watching videos. Each site gets about a second to lure me in or watch me leave. Knowing how many users are enjoying your content, and how many are bouncing away is the first step in creating a useful website. Making sure you follow acceptable usability guidelines is the next step.

Good navigation is a must for any website. Going from one page to another should be intuitive and easy. Make sure each page has a navigation bar that points to major parts of your site.

The more options people have the better you chances of someone finding something they like. Be careful not to overload the navigation bar though, that might just turn people away.

One thing many people don’t do, but I highly recommend is making your logo a link to your home page. Giving people multiple options to get to your front page allows people to easily start over if they get lost.

Another question to ask yourself is, “Can people read what’s written?”. Using large legible fonts is important. Users are moving towards larger screens, with higher resolution. That size 11 font is a thing of the past, move to something easier to read and easy on the eyes.

Once you know your site is usable and people aren’t bouncing because of the way the site looks and flows, it’s time to decide what are important parts of your site.

Start by creating goals and conversion points. For example, are you trying to get users to sign up for your newsletter? or are you pushing a specific product?

Google offers the ability to track your conversions via Google Analytics. You should definitely set it up and watch it often.

When we talk about website flow we’re referring to how well your site funnels visitors. How long do they stay? How many are sent to conversion points? How many convert?

I’m going to leave the end of this post open, since there are so many different tips about navigation. I’ll post my favorite tip and ask that you add one in the comment section. When everyone has had a chance to sound off, I’ll compile them all together.

Samir’s Tip: Most users refuse to click on more than 3 links to find pertinent information. The less obstacles to a conversion point, the more likely they are to convert.

Now it’s your turn…

Popularity: 50% [?]

Advertising on AdWords for Local Business

Category Advertising, General | 4 comments »

If you’re a local business owner wondering how the Internet can be useful to you, realizing that online advertising is not only for large companies is the first step. While it’s true that corporations use broad advertising for branding and creating national recognition, smaller companies have a different goal from their marketing budgets.

AdWords keeps this in mind, allowing companies to target geographically who will see an ad. Meaning that businesses offering services or products in a specific area can create and deploy ads only meant to be seen by web users from that area. Since AdWords follows a pay per click method, as a business owner you only pay for people who click on your ad (generally people interested in your product or service).

Getting Started

Getting started with AdWords is simple, Google has made it as intuitive as possible. First you’ll have to deposit $5 to create an account. The money you deposit will go towards your ads, and you can add a credit card to pull funds from later.

Once you’re logged into Adwords, you’ll want to create your first Online Campaign. Usually, as a basic user, you’ll want to create ads based on keywords.

Name your campaign something that is easy to track, either by the name of the product you’re targeting or something you’re testing. Be sure to also name your ad group.

At this point we start to target our ads. You’ll want to begin with choosing the language your customers speak. This is the most basic of targeting.

Next you can be even more specific. Click on the link to “Change Targeting”. This opens up an entirely new page, where you can choose to target via country, state, town, or even zip code

.

Local businesses will want to create multiple ads for select areas.

If you know the demographic of your key customers can be found in a zip code near you, target that area with an ad that reminds people to visit your store or or with an ad that strengthens your company brand.

When you’re attempting to increase your market share in surrounding areas, you’ll be able to create ads meant to introduce your company to these future prospects.

Test, tweak and adapt

Remember, online marketing is dependent on extreme testing and tweaking. Make multiple ads, try to see what works, and invest the time.

Want to see how big of an impact your advertising is doing? Just ask your customers where they heard about you from. Use this feedback to determine your future online advertising budget.

Although this may seem extremely time intensive, it doesn’t always have to be. Getting started takes a good amount of effort and attentiveness, however, once you’re happy with how much you’re spending and the return you’re receiving you can lower the amount of time you invest in maintaining your online advertising.

Related Reading:

• How to get the most from your Adwords GeoTargeting
• Google AdWords: Local Advertising
• The Importance of Pay Per Click Account Structure
• Where are your clicks coming from? (Geographically speaking)

Popularity: 41% [?]

User Name Check – A very cool tool

Category General, Tools and Resources | 5 comments »

I came across a handy little toy the other day that has some interesting applications for those playing in social spaces for fun and profit… It’s called; User Name Check.com

This funky little application searches a TON of the more popular social media, networking, book marking and multi-media websites to see if a given username has been taken. While that is, on the surface, pretty cool… there are a few things your can do with it such as;

Researching company/website names – if you are starting a new company or website, you could definitely use this in co-ordination with domain name research to ensure the best possible choices. If there are SMM elements in your marketing plan, certainly something to look into.

Securing all profiles for SMM campaigns – obviously if you have a new client/business/website and are including elements of a social media marketing campaign, this tool is wicked handy. There are so many listed that it makes securing all the relevant ones a much easier task. It also helps when researching the potential usernames to ensure you get one that is fairly Virgin across the majors.

Researching targets for marketing campaigns – let’s say you’re crafting some link bait and want to target various social media influencers, this tool would be great to stalk them and really understand what types of content might appeal to them. Cyber stalking is made easy with this little bad boy.

Monitor the competition – you can also use it to keep a close eye on the competition by identifying profiles and setting up some monitoring.

This little toy should definitely find its way into your social media marketing toolbox; great for business and stalking too…

(Note; in early testing there were some bugs and false/positives noticed by Andy, so be sure to double check listings while the bugs are being squashed)

Have a great weekend!

Popularity: 51% [?]