We Do Search Engine Optimization.

What are the best web design conversion elements to implement on your website?

I’m looking to compile a great list of conversion elements that can be included in a website. This is not for landing pages (although it could be used for them) but regular site pages, with emphasis on the homepage.

I approach every site design with conversion in mind – your design should help the visitor take desired action on your site. Keep out the fluff that will distract or alter the focus of your visitor.

Actions

• phone call
• completing a contact form
• subscribing to newsletter
• buying product
• tweeting/sharing page with friend
• downloading free ebook/whitepaper
• anything that captures an email address

I am defining conversion elements as anything that will strongly persuade a visitor to remain on your site and want to learn more about you.

Conversion Elements

• testimonials
• 3rd party logos: BBB, truste, D&B, chamber of commerce
• logos of good sized companies you have worked with or places you have been quoted: latimes, any inc5000, hollywood reporter etc.
• stats showing success: client sales increases, new orders, new engagements
• large and clear contact button – can be tastefully animated
• photos – (founder, real staff, highly targeted to your niche)
• short sales video
• phone number/address

For shopping sites that sell products directly, the required elements to gain users trust are more specific. Below are elements that increase online sales in descending order of importance.

E-commerce Elements

• product overview
• merchant guarantee
• availability
• image quality
• customer service available
• product specific description
• long description
• size chart
• toll free phone
• ratings & reviews

The above list is from the e-tailing group/ARS ecommerce

Below are some good nuggets about online business building and search engine optimization from Fantomaster.

This is no “secret sauce” use common sense by giving people what they need or enjoy or even get worked up about.

If I was going to produce a course about SEO in 10 minutes a day or SEO for dummies, this is some of the basic information I would include. There is no need for cloaking as long as you are doing your job in making your website the best it can be.

The good old classic SEO rules still apply and have actually never stopped:

• build web sites with good, useful information or content
• make your pages light, usetight code and fast to load
• use keywords in your title tags and text heading tags
• use meta tags sparingly but intelligently
• attend to usability as much for your human visitors as for the search engine spiders
• optimize on site navigation and internal linking structure.
• use secondary content features such as RSS, bookmarking and images

Adamantly watch your internal link structure and reduce orphan pages. Old pages should not be indiscriminately discarded.

whenever we conduct an on site link analysis of any large corporate site, there’ll always thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands of pages that are either entirely orphaned or bleeding link juice the wrong way.
In some cases we’ve detected that up to 25% of a site’s pages weren’t linked to from anywhere at all

Want users to come back to your site? Use subtle persuasion and make meaning.

publishing our SEO cartoons consistently week by week has proven a prime traffic magnet as well. Those cartoons are arguably one of the best investments we’ve ever made in terms of keeping the buzz level up.

External links are important, but only a portion of site ranking factors. The larger the website, the less effort should be spent on manual link building.

if all you can think of in terms of organic SEO is “links, links, links”, you’re missing out on about 90% of all those other possibilities and traffic conduits available

Cloaking is one of the most discussed and least understood tool of information delivery. It is one of the only ways to reliably rank for ultra competitive niches.

Tim Mayer of Yahoo! has publicly admitted that there are industries where you don’t stand a chance in hell if you don’t adopt hard core black hat SEO techniques including PPC: pills, porn, casinos. (This is not something we do, and have never engaged in cloaking)

Yahoo! or Google may roll out 800 new spiders within a couple of hours. there’s no reliable way of automating a list of spider IP addresses. “Poor man’s cloaking” such as delivery by UserAgent, free IP bot lists or JavaScript based operations are simply too risky to be worth the effort at all. Only use software that offers genuine IP delivery because there’s no other reliable approach.

An online business is very similar to a traditional brick and mortar business. There is a historical success rate of only 10%. Advice for starting a new online venture:

It’s also governed by the very same economic laws:

• don’t spend more than you have
• buy low, sell high
• listen to your customers
• watch out for your competition
• don’t give in to smug routines

None of this has fundamentally changed because it’s the way the world of commerce (or, if you like, capitalism) works.
Some ventures may prove to be a roaring success in no time (which, incidentally, tends to happen in the “real world” as well), most all operations will have to practice relentless perseverance before turning a profit.

There’s no easy way out and no guarantees of internet success, no matter what some over hyped marketing “gurus” may claim when trying to pitch you on their overpriced stuff.

Read the full interview with Ralph Tegtmeier.

Using this small string, you can link to any frame of a YouTube video. Just append a 7 character query string to the end of a YT URL and you’re done.

This is a great way to skip unnecessary content, link to more meaningful and relevant content while reducing unwanted advertisements.

Code for deeplinking to Youtube Videos:

#t=1m5s

Here is a live example of a link with the location code included

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifXRkA8Y34o#t=1m5s

10 Tips for Writing Powerful Website Copy

1. Follow the 3 P’s: Preview > Proof > Post. Preview your content as it will look on your site, proof the text, then post with no errors.
2. Use compelling headings. This makes websites easy to skim and can lure the reader deeper.
3. Immediately answer the visitor’s first question, “Am I in the right place?” You only get 12 seconds to make a good impression.
4. Use hooks to draw the visitor in. Action words and verbs will create interest.
5. Carefully Create a Call to Action. Ask your visitors to perform a specific task such as signing up for a newsletter, completing a contact form, registering for a contest.
6. Be personal and easy going. Include visitors in your website’s conversation and make them be a part of your story.
7. Use pronouns such as you, you’re, your business. People love to read about themselves and will connect with you if they feel you care about their problems.
8. Promote benefits not features. Benefits are about them, but features are from your website. This is repeated again: say you not we.
9. Proofread with multiple editors. Always have more than one person review your copy.
10. Never assume your visitor knows who you are or what you are offering. Explain in plain, clear, basic english what you sell and how it works and why they need you.

Writing good copy can be the difference of a successful website and a website that does not make money. Channel your inner wordsmith to make your online content sing and I guarantee good things will happen.

Find out the SMS email address to use to send short messages through your wireless phone carrier. All cellphones can receive text messages sent from any device including standard email.

To send an email to a mobile phone use the email address that corresponds to the users cell phone plan

Wireless email addresses

Virgin Mobile: 125 characters phone#@vmobl.com
ATT Wireless: 160 characters phone#@txt.att.net
Beyond GSM: 160 characters phone#@txt.att.net
Verizon Wireless: 160 characters phone#@vtext.com
Centennial Wireless: 160 characters phone#@cwemail.com
Cellular South: 150 characters phone#@csouth1.com
Cincinnati Bell: 50 characters phone#@gocbw.com
Boost Mobile: 140 characters phone#@myboostmobile.com
Tracphone: 140 characters Tracfone.com
Nextel: 140 characters phone#@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint: 160 characters phone#@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Tmobile: 140 characters phone#@tmomail.net
Ait Voice: 100 characters GSM:phone#@txt.att.net
CDMA:phone#@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Alltel: 140 characters phone#@message.alltel.com
Qwest: 185 characters phone#@qwestmp.com
Metro PCS: 185 characters phone#@mymetropcs.com
Cricket: 143 characters phone#mms.mycricket.com

With the stock market down about 30% this year and many investments down 40% or more, I would like to look at positive ways to feel better and reduce life stress.

Stress from fiscal uncertainty does not need to be debilitating, and one of the best ways to overcome it is by engaging in worthy activities and helping your community.

New Happiness Research from Psychologist Martin Seligman shows us how to remain positive during an Economic Crash. Dr. Seligman is an expert on happiness and has previously studied depression and learned helplessness.

His latest research is all scientifically verified and published in the Princeton Alumni Weekly

There are three levels to happiness: pleasure, the delight you get from chocolate, fast cards, and sex; engagement, the feeling of “flow” you get when you’re doing something you’re good at; and meaning, the fulfillment you get from being engaged in an effort greater than yourself. Pleasure is ephemeral and contributes very little to real happiness… but meaningful engagement brings lasting contentment.

For classmates who are headed towards retirement, Seligman offers the following tip: “Material objects have almost no role in positive emotion. As you organize your retirement, spend it on meaningful engagement. Don’t squander your savings on boats and houses.”

It’s pretty simple, actually. Figure out what you’re good at. And then apply your strengths to a greater purpose (such as using your search engine optimization skills to help a charity or worthy cause). And don’t forget to cultivate optimism along the way.

I found this information via Tim Ferris and his post on raising money for needy schools.

Google Webmaster Tools can now display on your igoogle.com homepage. This is a huge competitive advantage for google, as having your website stats on your start page is convenient and helpful. One more reason to use google.com/ig for your homepage – I do. GWT is the only location that shows accurate link count data and any website spidering issues.

Steps add your website stats to your Google homepage

1. Login to GWT
2. Navigate to Tools -> Gadgets
3. Choose the datapoints of interest

Now you can see all your important website data and get immediate alerts to any potential problems with the Googlebot. Gbot now has one more hook into webmasters screen real estate, and it is slowly taking over our lives.

I’m a sucker for good data, and the GWT doesn’t disappoint. Hat tip to Shoemoney for this Google gadget.

While browsing the web we have all seen our share of good and bad site designs. This post lists 10 web design unspoken rules that will help you maintain a usable website and happy customers.

Choosing to ignore any of these rules could result in a complete loss of site visitors and receive flames from CSS gurus and web design forums

The Web Design Manifesto

1. No gratuitous use of animated gifs
2. Do not use blinking text.
3. Do not use Thou shalt not use marquee or rapidly moving text.
4. Do not label links ‘Click Here’
5. Do not use graphical flash intros with a ‘click here to skip intro’ button
6. Do not use background music that starts automatically
7. Do not use images in place of text
8. Do not use multiple font variations
9. Do not require Internet Explorer
10. Do not have animations or moving backgrounds behind text

Inspired by Dwight’s deadly sins of web design.

Guy Kawasaki’s new venture Alltop.com is looking for a logo and is having a contest to generate one. We decided to enter and created 6 variations. These were done by my amazing graphics colleague Darwin. He is a great addition to our web development team, and has an awesome name that is fun to say.

Checkout the logos for the uber venture capitalist’s website. You can enter the contest or read about how the logo contest began.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Option 6

*Update – we won! Thanks to all the voters who chose our logo and Guy Kawasaki for the iPod touch. The real prize is being affiliated with this great website.

If you ask any recent college graduate how they get the majority of their information, they will probably tell you from online blogs. Press releases and newspapers are dying mediums and corporations that self publish quality news and information on weblogs will be at the top of mind and the center of awareness. It may even make you cool.

Professional service firms in consulting, IT, law, and accounting, need more than brochureware Web. These are usurped replaced by a new generation of web 2.0 sites (accurate, but not my favorite term) consisting of blogs, forums, tagging, RSS syndication, and expert opinion that create virtual business communities that attract and retain active users and clients.

The Bloom Group, a Boston-based market research organization found most business websites left buyers struggling to find details of their firms’ expertise and experience, and most sites failed to provide prospects an avenue to open a dialogue about their business problems.

Tips to serve active business seekers

• Provide more context for your content
• Implement guideposts – provide clear navigation instrucion locations and a large contact button on every page
• Use external credibility indicators and provide 3rd party reinforcement through testimonials, seals (BBB, trust-e, epinions, powerreviews)
• Contact forms & phone number are essential – prominently display a toll free phone number and address so visitors know you are accessible, open, and friendly. Companies that do not publish contact details loose trust.

Create compelling video and audio content to demonstrate your expertise and strengths as a business leader. Webinars, newsletters, forums and blogs provide new opportunities to engage with prospective clients and allow informal engagement before a contract is signed or service plan purchased. Give users and clients the ability to control when and where they interact with resources and information on your site.

Smaller firms who take risks and provide information freely to prospective clients have seen this gamble pay for itself. A large company, has extra resources to attract more business, but is too slow to react to changes and generally too conservative to provide helpful information at no charge. Information wants to be free, and the websites that provide it will reap all the rewards.

Google started off as a 100% free service, with no advertising and they have parlayed a quality service and user trust into a 200 billion company.

Muzeview research firm in New York surveyed the top 50 accounting firm websites in the U.S. and U.K. The CPA websites had copious text, newsletters, briefings, thought leadership surveys, case studies, and event invitations. The majority did not use audio, video, social networking, blogs and other interactive capabilities. Only 4 of the U.S. websites studied included podcasts or RSS feeds, 2 had blogs, 11 provided a podcast or video content.

Here is a huge opportunity to get in the top of mind with younger, tech savvy users.

Get new customers, get better search engine rankings, get noticed: get a blog.