Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category
5 Ways to Turn Off Website Visitors
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008After reading 5 Ways To Turn Off Customers (for Brick and Mortars) on smallbusinessnewz.com, I thought I would write my own version of this article using the same sub-headings applied to websites. The advice given in the original article is solid and can easily be adapted to online businesses.
1. Bad Location
While a “bricks and mortar” outfit will have trouble in certain areas depending on competition and other factors, the same problem can occur if a website is not properly “located” when it comes to search engine findability, domain name, and hosting.
It’s sad to see that many businesses today still need to be reminded that free hosting packages, bad keyword density and poor choice in domain name can all have an effect on whether or not people stumble in during their online shopping. So website owners should invest the time, effort and money necessary to ensure their “location” on the web is suitable to staying competitive in their market.
2. High Prices
Due to the nature of the web, and an increase in online competition, it is harder for companies to markup prices exorbitantly. But sometimes overhead costs force prices to stay relatively high. Website owners should try to battle this by offering online promotions, coupons, returning-customer deals and other sales techniques that will make the high prices not seem so high in the long run.
3. Dirty Store
Yes, a website needs to be clean just as a brick and mortar store does. Make the investment to ensure your website’s code is standards-compliant, cross-browser friendly, and accessible to users with disabilities. Also, ensure your online business has easy-to-use site navigation by means of site maps, site search, and breadcrumb-friendly page structure.
4. Pushy Salespeople
Your web page’s content can be just as intimidating as a pushy in-person sales person. So hire a good copywriter and keep your pages friendly and informative. Don’t make the users feel that they are stupid if they don’t buy your product, and certainly don’t insult their intelligence. You can still tell them how important your product or service is by being tactful and insightful, and by displaying a good knowledge of the industry.
5. Poor Customer Service
Your website’s forms and shopping cart functionality should not alienate the user from your company. Site visitors should always feel that you or your representatives are available to help them at all times in case there is any problem, or if they have any questions. So make sure you provide a good FAQ page, a help section, a toll free number to call, and an easy to use contact form — and follow this up with a fast turn-around on all customer service and sales inquiries.
Bricks and Mortar or Online — the principles are the same
So, if you have a standard “bricks and mortar” business complemented with an online store or brochure website, follow the advice found in the original article for your bricks and mortar, and apply some of these tips mentioned above for your online business and you’ll be sure to reap the benefits.
SEO Rules vs. SEO Concepts
Friday, July 18th, 2008Often times, web development blog posts recite easy to understand, step-by-step instructions on how to optimize XHTML code for SEO. Generally, I think this is good. The fact is, web users have low attention spans, and usually the best way to get a message across is to state it simply in point form. But in order for developers and internet marketers to enhance their abilities over the long haul, more is necessary, as we’ll discuss. With this article I’ll show how online writers and readers alike can become part of a long-term commitment to making the web a better place to surf.
Why lists of “rules” can often fail in the long run
It is often said that behind every rule there is an underlying principle. Let’s illustrate this with an example. When a blog post tells a user to use H1 tags for headings instead of something clunky like
<div class=”header_main”>My Example Heading</div>
then the whole reason behind the necessity of the H1 may become lost on the reader, especially a reader that is new to web development, or is picking it up simply as a hobby. In such a case, the reader needs to understand why such an approach to markup is necessary — not just that it is necessary. Simply stated, websites are more findable, search engine friendly, and faster loading when the markup is semantic. Now, I’m not going to go into the details of defining “semantic markup” here. That is a topic for another post. But I’m emphasizing that the rules can easily be forgotten over the long run if the readers are not understanding the reasons behind certain SEO techniques, best practice coding, and other standards-based ideas.
Online writers and readers both play a role
So writers should be more aware of the effect their content will have on the future of web development, SEO, and the internet in general. We as writers should strive to teach others based on strong foundations and concepts that are clearly understood. Likewise, we as readers need to strive to read and learn from others based on strong foundations and concepts that are clearly explained. Both sides have a significant role to play in what the web will be like down the road.
Readers and writers, aim for a stronger foundation of learning
Therefore, in conclusion, while the typical bulleted lists and point-form rule-sets have their place and can be very useful, the more important “reasons behind the rules” are what will truly enhance a reader’s development as a web site professional, and will, by extension, make the web a better place for all.
Should a web developer be concerned with SEO for client sites?
Friday, June 6th, 2008Every developer knows that SEO is a huge part of online marketing. Freelance designers and programmers spend countless hours optimizing their sites, link building, and validating their pages in order to get noticed, or to get to the “top of the heap”, as they say.
Pitfalls of a big development firm
But I find that in a high-volume, fast-paced development environment in which SEO has not been included in the budget, good solid — and sometimes very basic — SEO practices are often overlooked during development. Add to this the fact that many developers may end up working on the same website, and so, good SEO practices are even less likely to end up in the final markup.
Enter the “HTML guy”
But as a front-end developer, I feel it is my obligation to give the client as much basic site optimization as possible. In recent projects, I’ve been making a habit of incorporating many of the SEO practices that I’ve been learning about and researching.
Of course, when final page copy and site structure have already been decided upon before a single HTML tag is ever typed, there is only so much a developer can do. But even those few things that can be done will help the website make the leap from virtually no search engine findability to average or better, and potentially very strong findability.
I’ll give a couple of examples of some basic things that I’ve been doing to ensure that, at the very least, the site is SEO ready, even if it is not strongly optimized.
Some basic SEO optimization is not difficult
For one, I ensure that every page has a unique title tag. Although the client has the option of putting SEO friendly copy into each title, I find they almost never do. But a respectable web developer will put in the tags and fill in the basic page name.
Also, since I am responsible for actually slicing up the Photoshop file that contains the finalized design, I try to use as few images as possible. At my current job, we have a fantastic graphic designer who makes many image-heavy websites, but often it isn’t difficult to ensure that basic page copy is rendered as normal text. Our designer is familiar with basic web typography and this helps a lot, so he doesn’t use any non-standard fonts for titles and content. Of course, I could be lazy and include all headings as images, but I feel, as is the point of this article, that it’s my obligation to make the site as SEO-friendly as possible. Even if that just means making it ready for future page optimization.
Another good practice that I’ve developed is trying to ensure that each page has only one <h1> tag. Rumor has it (and we can never really confirm this), that Google will penalize a page that has more than one <h1> tag. Since this tag essentially represents the “heading” for the page, Google will give it more value than other text.
The benefits of basic SEO habits
There is a lot a web developer can do to help SEO on a site — and I’ve provided a few examples above. SEO should never be viewed as a separate entity altogether. It is a very integral part of web development, and should be viewed as such by all front-end coders who want to adhere to standards and best practices. And let’s not forget the extra-benefit of having developed sites that receive large amounts of traffic and increase profits for the client. I think that alone is reason enough to embrace basic SEO practices in all front-end development assignments.