We Do Search Engine Optimization.

I love this TED talk and invite you to watch it, it’s only about 20 min long. This shows you on how great leaders inspire action and what makes people buy your products.

The key points are don’t tell people your title, or your company’s title, tell them what you do. tell them what problems you solve and why you do it – what is the purpose of your organization.
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Below is a fantastic infographic outlining methods e-commerce websites use to increase sales and improve buyer conversions. This graphic breaks down the sales process of a retail website into steps:

1. Design – using creatives and images to build trust
2. Buying Elements – make it easy to buy from you, remove purchasing obstacles
3. Social Proof – using 3rd party verification to improve trust: testimonials, ratings, buyers guides
4. Pricing – using a free trial to bring you in, free shipping, upsells
5. Scarcity – using timers to show ending deals, showing the remaining items in stock, remaining seats on an airplane, remaining tickets to a show
6. Follow Up – reminder emails with products you placed in your cart but did not purchase, ad retargeting showing products you looked at on other websites

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We are always looking for ways to improve website conversions and increase sales, and love testing different design elements to optimize our landing pages.

Perry Belcher graciously shares his highest converting shopping cart button and explains the psychology behind its design.

This button is specially designed to be used on direct response style sales landing pages, and may not be suitable for a retail e-commerce shopping cart.

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A large business management software company tested short, actionable call-to-action copy versus a top 5 list on a landing page for business intelligence solutions. The goal of the squeezepage was to get visitors to register for free access content, briefs, white papers, and product demos.

This is a features versus benefits test: should you always list customer benefits and promote your service offering from their perspective?
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A landing page is any page that users see first on your website, so it must be optimized for their specific browsing experience.

All landing pages need these fundamentals

1. Fast – Load time must be under 5 seconds
2. Attention Grabbing Headline – If you spend 3 hours writing copy for your landing page, spend 2.5 hours on the headline
3. Clear Call To Action – Make it easy for visitors to take the next step
4. Focus On Them – Clearly state benefits and use testimonials, logos and third party verification sources to substantiate your claims

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What if I told you that by using these proven techniques, you could increase conversions up to 300% while lowering traffic costs by 50%?

If this interests you then keep reading.
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Over the past 10 years the search engine game has never failed to remain in flux. The internet is a change medium, and I expect this to occur for at least the next 10 years.

Henry Ford didn’t invent the car, but he figured out how to let everyone have access to one. When the automotive industry first blossomed in the early 20th century, many styles and manufacturers flourished and it wasn’t until the 1940′s and 50′s that industry consolidation occurred and several large manufacturers took over the car making business.

The same will likely happen to web companies.

When I began as a web designer in the late 1990′s, our philosophy was I used to think build it and they will come. We created websites with a reverse L design (logo on top left, open header and navigation on the left column) and hoped visitors would come and buy. To our joy, they did.
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Conversion testing and landing page optimization is a never ending job. It is a challenge to get the best converting webpage and we love testing different versions to see what works best.

Below is a landing page test of a software sales page with real world results. See if you can choose the winning version.
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How to you encourage more people to fill out your landing page forms?

Vast.com tested a form using a narrative format and presented input fields to people as blanks within sentences, Mad Libs style.

I haven’t done MadLibs since elementary school, but it worked: they realized an increase in conversions of 25% to 40%.

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The creation, organization and refining of landing pages is the key to pay per click marketing and online lead generation. Landing pages are audience specific, and an automotive site landing page that converts 10% of users cannot be copied to a campaign selling insurance.

Users respond differently based on the time of day, offer, price point, demographic, education level, style preferences and past experience with your brand. Thankfully we can test and design for most of these variables.

Your landing page, or squeeze page is useless if the visitor can’t immediately find what they are looking for, and take appropriate action. The page needs to be scannable, use visual elements and be well organized.

There are several essential elements that make up a successful and effective landing page and increase your conversion rate.

Simplicity

The visitor must be able to understand the content of the page in less than 10 seconds, preferably 5. The longer s/he must try to comprehend your offer, the less likely they are to complete it. Your landing/squeeze page needs to be appealing to your visitors without distracting them from the goal.

Legibility

The text should be easy to read and the correct size for your audience. Text should be broken up and use lists. Some people prefer long sales pages, others prefer graphics and minimal text. Test this on your products to see which one works best for you.

Contrast

Create high contrast between background and text because to increase legibility, but be mindful of flashy backgrounds. A landing page is not a banner ad. It is a focused message encapsulated in a single page.

Links

Most landing pages have no navigation, and no extraneous links on the page. This gives the visitor only 2 options: complete your action or click the back button. You have a 50% chance of success.