Copy is absolutely crucial to not only delivering a great customer experience on your website but also converting all that traffic. This is true for traffic that originates from organic search as well as pay per click advertising. In fact, research has shown that organic search visitors tend to convert at a higher rate than visitors from search engine advertising. So how do we make the most of our efforts to attract visitors to our website?
Achieving a good balance between visitors from organic search and search advertising is important as the right mix will bring you more traffic. To maximise the opportunity this presents, I recommend you develop landing pages with "purposeful design". This is critical to the success of your online business.
When a visitor lands on your web properties (pages), their subsequent behaviour is determined to a large extent by what they see and experience within the first few seconds. How do you know what will work and what will not? Well we need to create different versions and test. This is where the science of landing page optimisation begins.
There are two types of tests that I like to apply. One is called AB Testing and the other multivariate testing. Each has its place in the optimisation process. Let me explain.
Let’s use an example to explain each. Let’s assume I have a website that sells products. Should I direct visitors from my pay per click advertising to a page that contains all the products in a category or should I direct them to a single product? Which will convert better? We use AB testing to find out.
AB Testing allows us to test the conversion rates of 2 different pages. So we might direct an equal amount of traffic to each of our pages for a period of time and monitor the conversions rates of each to determine which delivers the better result. Once we have a winner, we adopt that page for all subsequent visitors. We could do sequential testing on this page but that’s a topic for another time.
We can now apply multi variates testing to compare the performance of different elements of the same page to determine what works best. To do this, we select different parts of our page, for example the headline, an image and perhaps the call to action. Then we test each of these with alternative versions.
For example, each time a visitor lands on our website, we can display one of three images of the product. Once we have had a statistically valid sample of visitors through the page, we will begin to learn about which image works best. We can do the same for other elements.
It is important not to get carried away with the testing. I prefer to test perhaps one or 2 elements at a time with 2 to 3 versions of each. If you change too many elements, it is more difficult to assess what really makes the difference.
Once we have the results of our multi variates test, we adopt our highest performing option and then, you guessed it - we do it again!
I hope I have been able to explain how to convert your traffic. As a channel to market, the internet offers a rich source of information that can be used to fine tune your website. Over time, you will know what works and what does not. This really places you at a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.
Billy is an internet marketing specialist and writes on various topics such as landing page optimisation.
Article Source: http://www.free-articles-zone.com
Showing posts with label Link Building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Link Building. Show all posts
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic
It is really worth cataloguing the very basic principles that should be enforced to increase the traffic to your very own website and improve your search engine rankings.
a) Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
b) Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
c) Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
d) Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags Headers, etc.
e) Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
f) Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
g) Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
h) Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
i) Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
j) Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
k) Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
l) When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer 's experience fast and easy.
m) When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
n) Don't look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process.
The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually.
Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. New sites need not be "submitted" to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.
If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.
Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high.
Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.
a) Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
b) Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
c) Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
d) Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags Headers, etc.
e) Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
f) Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
g) Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
h) Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
i) Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
j) Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
k) Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
l) When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer 's experience fast and easy.
m) When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
n) Don't look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process.
The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually.
Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. New sites need not be "submitted" to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.
If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.
Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high.
Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.
About the Author
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs
For more information and resource links on site promotion visit: Search Engine Marketing Specialist
Article Source: Content for Reprint
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