Image via Shutterstock

Almost three years ago, Google announced that it had begun factoring site speed into their ranking algorithm. Since then, SEOs have debated how significant an effect page speed has on actual search engine rankings. While Google may be using it as a signal, it’s clearly not an overwhelming signal.

Still, regardless of the algorithmic weight page speed has on rankings, we do know that it has a significant impact on site conversions. Every second visitors have to wait for a page to load is a proven loss in sales!

In a recent post titled, Why You Won’t Crush It This Year, Bryan Eisenberg wrote: ”It seems clear that trying to increase sales by driving more traffic to a site with a terrible customer conversion rate is like trying to keep a leaky bucket (your sales funnel) full by adding more water instead of plugging the holes.” It’s a good point, and one that I’ve made more than once before.

Bottom line: optimizing your website for rankings is great, optimizing your website for conversions is better, and optimizing for rankings, traffic and conversions is best! I wish all our clients realized this.

Let’s get back to the topic at hand — losing wait. Below, I’ve outlined a few tips and strategies you can use to increase your page load speeds and decrease the wait your visitors have when navigating from page to page on your site. I’m just a SEO – not a programmer, developer or designer – so forgive my lack of technical expertise in this post.  However, I hope to provide some good (if incomplete) tips on what you can do to make your site run faster.

Get Yourself A Fast Web Server

It all starts here. If your web server is slow, your site will be slow. It doesn’t matter how much you try to speed things up — you’re being blocked by the powers above.

The more traffic your site receives, the greater the need for increased server bandwidth to your site. This is especially true if you have peak seasons or sales where a sudden rush of traffic might end up taking you offline. When you don’t have enough bandwidth for your rush loads, your visitors experience slowdowns, hangups or even an inability to access your site at all. Be sure your allowable bandwidth increases with your traffic rates, allowing enough room for any sudden spikes that may occur.

Talk to your Web host about moving to a faster server or even getting a dedicated server. If you have to, find a new Web hosting company that can meet your requirements. A faster server will definitely cost you more, but then again, being on a slow server is already costing you a great deal.

Streamline Your Code

Most developers will tell you, should you ask, that there are many ways to code Web elements to get the same result. Websites can use “good” or “bad” code and still look the same to the average visitor. However, the performance differences between efficient vs. inefficient coding can be incredible.

Ensuring your website uses clean, minimalist code is a great way to reduce page file size and, therefore, load speed for each page. Many content management systems use bloated code that makes managing a site easy, but doesn’t do you any favors when it comes to code streamlining. And, the more added features or tools you add to your site, the more potential you have at bloating your own code.

Keeping your site code clean and tidy can go a long way toward improving your site’s speed and performance. I offer some specific tasks below that you can do along these lines.

Optimize Your Images

Code is relatively quick to download, provided it’s not overly bloated. Images, on the other hand, are much larger and take more time to load in the browser. Image-heavy sites are some of the slowest loading sites there are, so it’s a good idea to use images only as needed or appropriate.

When using images, be sure to use the correct format for the image type. Different image file types (.gif, .jpg, .png) have different purposes depending on if you are displaying a photo, a graphic, an image with few colors, or an image consisting of many colors. Using the right file type for the right kind of image allows the image to be created in the most optimized format possible, using the lowest amount of megabytes.

You also don’t want to scale images using HTML. If your image displays at 325×550 pixels, then create an image that is exactly 325×550 — no bigger and no smaller. Don’t use a 650×1000 pixel image and display it at 325×500. That forces the full, large image to be downloaded before it can be displayed when a smaller image would load much faster and achieve the same effect.

Move CSS & JavaScript Off The Page To External Files

Using CSS (cascading style sheets) is much more common today than even just a few years ago. Initially, your styling elements were written in HTML and had to be coded in for every styled element on a page. CSS allows you to code all similar elements with a single batch of code, streamlining your HTML significantly.

However, CSS (along with all JavaScript code) should be moved out of the HTML and placed in one or more separate documents. This allows all CSS and JavaScript code to be downloaded a single time and applied to every page of the site, rather than having to duplicate that same code on each and every page.

While there are reasons to keep some CSS and JavaScript on the page, moving it off the page whenever possible makes the most sense when trying to streamline your code and reduce bloat across the board.

It’s also a good idea to place CSS at the top of your code and JavaScript at the bottom.

Image via Shutterstock

Use “Include” Files For Duplicate Sections Of Content

Both CSS and include files can significantly help reduce wait times. On top of that, they also speed up the amount of time invested in making site edits. The time spent developing a CSS-based website with include files alone is worth the time saved on the development end later on. Heck, losing wait isn’t just about your visitors, it’s about using your own time more productively!

Implement CSS Sprites

When you use multiple images together, you can use CSS sprites to combine them into a single image download. By reducing the number of downloads, you reduce the strain on the server and make the downloading process much quicker.

Use Page Speed Optimizer

Google offers a PageSpeed Insights tool that will give you suggestions on things you can do to increase your page speed. Many of the suggestions will cover things mentioned above, plus a whole lot more I haven’t touched on. It’s a good resource if you have a developer who can work on these issues for you.

I’ve offered only a few ways you can increase page speed, and this is by no means an exhaustive list. It should be enough to get you started, though. Depending on how slow your site currently runs, it’s entirely possible that you may see a rankings boosts once you begin curing the slow disease. But even if you don’t, losing wait means increasing conversions, which is always good for the bottom line.

One of the most important aspects of that funnel is the “Contact Us” information and page on your site!

Contact Us can have a powerful impact on a site’s ability to generate sales and leads. Not only does it provide a way for potential customers to connect with you, it should also offer multiple contact options and ultimately deliver assurance that assistance is just a phone call or click away if a need arises.

While many websites are smartly displaying their phone numbers on every page of their site, this strategic bit of placement is no replacement for a well-crafted Contact Us page. Unfortunately, too many sites make their contact page (and phone number) difficult, if not impossible, to find.

Sometimes, contacting you is the only way for customers to get the information they need to make a smart, informed purchase. When questions come up, and you don’t answer them, you can be sure your competitors will. And, they’ll get the sale because of it.

A quick search for “contact” related keywords (minus those intended for “contact lenses” shows that there are quite a number of searches being performed each month:

Of course, not all of these are searches for your contact information, and there are quite a number of brands that top the list (Apple, Google, and Norton were some of the top brand “contact” queries), this does show that there is value in having an optimized Contact Us page that does more than make your site search listings in Google, but is optimized to get the conversion once someone lands on it.

The argument against having a contact page is usually that it increases the need for support staff to answer phone calls, email, faxes (joke) and Web forms. This is true, but you have to run the percentages. If the value of increased sales is greater than the cost of support, you have a surefire winner!

When shoppers don’t feel they are able to reach a real person to address their question, problems or concerns because of limited contact options, they are less likely to buy. Below are some options for improving your Contact Us page, increasing your sales as a result.

Site-Wide Contact Links

Placing your phone number in your header is great. Having a “Contact Us” link in your primary navigation is smart. But these two contact options only cover a small percentage of what makes visitors feel secure doing business with you. More is needed if you want to increase your sales and lead generation capabilities.

Add global, site-wide contact options throughout your site. While navigation “Contact Us” links tend to blend in, look for opportunities to add contact buttons or linked text throughout your site.

Try different verbiage such as “request a quote,” “talk to a representative,” “get your questions answered,” “let us help you,” etc. These varying word changes and buttons will not only stand out, but will encourage visitors to seek out support rather than abandon the site for another.

Multiple Contact Options

On your contact page, a phone number is not enough. An email address link isn’t enough. A Web form is not enough. An online chat option is not enough. By themselves, none of these options are significant, but all are a part of a successful Contact Us page.

The problem with visitors is they all have their own preference. Not everyone likes (or even can) pick up the phone and call you. Maybe they are at work, or the TV is loud, or the kids are, well, being kids. Or maybe they are running out the door and want to come back to an answer via email. Maybe they don’t want to make a decision now, which means online chat is the best option for them and the best way for you to get a sale now.

The point is everyone is different. If you don’t have a contact option that works for them, they may skip it, and the sale, too. Sometimes, a contact option is nothing more than security. Having a phone number visible provides the security that someone will be able help them, which makes them feel confident that you’ll also answer your email promptly. To these types, the phone number provides confidence and security.

The more options you provide, the more secure the shopper becomes about your ability to assist them in a time of need.

Various Contact Points

Not every visitor will need to contact you for the same purpose. Some might have questions about your products or services, others might be looking for information on shipping or guarantees, while others may want to talk to the billing or return departments. You’ll also have those who are looking for job information, want to give you verbal pat on the back (it can happen) or need to talk with someone in a specific department. One-size-fits-all contact options are not the best option for your visitors.

Providing multiple points of contact gets your visitors where they want to go without the danger of getting lost in a “general” email/voicemail box or the requirement of listening to a menu tree as large as an Oregon Redwood. Too often, people get frustrated trying to find the right person to help them. Making this easier on them reduces frustration and builds a stronger customer relationship.

Map & Driving Directions

If you are a local business with local customers, or even a national business that has a destination-type location (i.e., ski supplies in Colorado, potatoes in Idaho, steaks in Omaha, etc.), it’s a good idea to display a map with the option to provide driving directions to your store.

Local customers will always want to know where you are, even if they don’t plan on dropping by. It’s a great way to highlight easy access. It also gives the perception that because you’re “there” (local), you might know a bit more than the guys who are not.

A simple map to your store or office can help people relate to you in a way they don’t with large national chains. Many people like to do business with small businesses, provided they feel safe doing so. A map may not make them feel safe, but it can make them feel more at home and at ease.

Hours Of Operation

If you have specific hours each day for doing business or answering phones, returning emails, etc., it’s a good idea to display your hours of operation on the Contact Us page. This information can also be marked up using Schema.org attributes to display this information search results as well. This sets visitors’ expectations regarding when they can expect to reach someone or get a response. In customer satisfaction, expectations are everything!

Online Contact Form

Online contact forms are a great way to allow visitors to reach you without mass interruption. This allows you to respond on your time and to handle multiple responses all in the same block of time. Be sure to respond to all contact requests within 24 hours at the most, though the sooner you do, the better off you’ll be. Who knows, maybe they are posing the same question on multiple sites and the first response gets the sale!

Reduce the contact form to as little information as necessary to handle a request. Name, phone number, email address and comments are the basics. Don’t add anything else unless it’s absolutely necessary. When customers feel they have to submit a survey just to get someone to respond, they are less likely to do it and more likely to move on to another site. Keep the form as clean and simple as possible.

Live Online Chat

Adding a live chat option can be great for keeping customers on your site and getting their question answered before they run off to another site as they wait for your answer. Not everyone wants to chat live, but those that do appreciate the ability to reach a representative without a long delay or a phone menu tree from hell.

Just make sure all your online reps are skilled customer service people who can truly answer questions and not just point them back to the website.

When shoppers are not secure in a website’s ability to respond to their concerns, either before or after the sale, the trust level diminishes. Without a strong level of trust, your ability to get a sale is reduced, as well. By improving your Contact Us page, you increase the trust component that leads to increased leads and sales.

Image credit

Many business owners rely on content to push the customer through the sales process. There is no doubt that the content of the site is strategically important to convincing the customer to buy. But beyond the content, there is the site itself. While the content may be getting the message across, does the site help or prohibit customers from moving forward through the buying process?

Image credit

Shoppers come to a website not only with an intention to buy something (clearly the most desired end action from the site owner perspective), but to also learn, research and compare what you offer against what your competitors offer.

When landing on a product page – either via internal site navigation or external site search – shoppers need to have their informational needs met before they’ll even consider pulling the trigger on a purchase.

This is where your product pages come in. Not only can your product pages provide this information, they can also serve to help buyers find relevant pricing information, delivery costs, warranty and/or return policies, and a whole lot more.

Effective product pages are able to satisfy the various needs of each of your visitors. Raw product information isn’t enough! Your product pages must be designed with usability and conversions in mind. Effective product pages convert visitors on an intellectual and emotional level (content) as well as on a sub-conscious level (usability).

Here are 11 product page conversion optimization tips that can help you turn your product pages into your best sales staff.

Keep Your Product Page Layout Consistent

Try to maintain as much visual continuity from one product page to the next. Your content management system should use a single (or very similar) template(s).

Images, product descriptions, specifications and pricing should all be in the same place for the shopper who jumps from product page to product page. This consistency eliminates the need to re-orient themselves with each product page and provides the ability to compare information much more easily.

Provide A Printer-Friendly Page

Not every shopper is ready to buy. Some will want to print out the product information, either for review later or for someone else’s review. Ensuring your product pages are printer friendly allow for your product information to be printed, saved and passed on in a format that is easy to read, compare and perhaps even make notes on.

Below is an example of non printer-friendly page. I’ve circled in red all the things that are not needed on the printed page.

This, and all printer-friendly pages, should be stripped of unnecessary navigation elements, including linked breadcrumbs and links to other content. In case you weren’t sure, nobody can click navigation links on a printed page. I’ve tried.

You also want to ensure all the relevant information prints legibly. Consider font style, font size and information placement on the printed page. Once you strip out all the unnecessary stuff, there is room to ensure the remaining content is plenty legible.

Have Your Contact Information Available

Ideally, we want our product pages to close the sale, but that can’t always be the case. Sometimes, a shopper has a question that hasn’t been answered on the website, and providing a way for them to get that question answered is critical to their completing the purchase.

Understandably, displaying contact information will increase the number of emails and calls for questions that have been answered on the site, but the risk is losing the customer altogether. They are contacting you because they either were unable to find the information or needed additional clarification. Without the ability to get in touch with someone who can help them, the odds of getting the sale diminishes.

Write Robust Product Descriptions

Each product should contain a unique product summary, overview or description. This information is the crux of what the product is, does and will accomplish for the buyer. It’s the “meat” of the product page and is what will (or won’t) convince the shopper that this is the product they want or need. Use this space to address the emotional needs as well as the “what’s in it for me” question.

Include Detailed Product Information

In addition to your product information, you also want to include detailed information on the product’s features, specifications and benefits. If some of these features require more information, provide links to pages that have more details on each feature. Include as much information here as possible, so as not to force the visitor to leave the page unless absolutely warranted.

Use High-Resolution Images

Images are extremely important for helping shoppers get a greater understanding and appreciation of what they are (or may be) purchasing. And with monitor quality improving rapidly, you should use only high-res images for each of your products.

There isn’t a lot of lost with the low quality image on the right above; however, it’s enough to make the eye have to work harder. When low-quality images are used, the visitor is left with a low-quality impression of your products. Better images improve the perceived value of what you offer.

Add Enhanced Image Views

Sometimes, one image isn’t enough for the shopper to get the full appreciation for the product. Adding additional images and image enhancements allow the shopper to see your product in a more interactive format. Consider adding images of the product from various angles, in use, in storage, zoomed in, in a video or or even just a larger view option.

These enhanced image views gives the shopper a greater appreciation for the product that they cannot yet hold in their hand, and this can often be a defining factor in being able to make a decision to buy.

Incorporate Product Comparisons

Whenever possible, incorporate the ability to compare your products side by side, showing varying features and benefits of each. This comparison helps reassure shoppers that it’s the right product for them, which in turn reduces the likelihood of a product return. Side-by-side product comparisons emulate an in-store benefit that shoppers don’t often get online.

Prominently Display Pricing Information

All product pricing information must be displayed in an obvious place on the product pages. For most shoppers, the quality and value of a product has no meaning until they can affix a price to it.

Don’t hide your pricing information or tell people to “call for more information” unless it’s absolutely impossible to put a finished price on your products. Even still, a “starting at” pricing can often help provide a baseline of expectations, eliminating calls and questions from shoppers who will never be your customers.

Provide International Pricing Options

If you sell products outside your home country, it’s a good idea to including pricing in different currencies. This can be as easy as allowing the shopper to select their own currency and having the calculations made on the fly. If you’re unable to provide different currency prices on the site, link to a currency conversion site, allowing your shoppers to make the conversions easily on their own.

Calls To Action

Finally – and most importantly – every product page absolutely must have at least one (or more) calls to action. The single most important action a user can take is to “buy now,” but other actions can be used as needed. These can be (but are not limited to): “purchase now,” “add to cart,” “save for later,” “add to wish list,” “compare” and “print.”

Each of these calls to action has a specific purpose and can keep the visitor engaged in the site without forcing them to purchase or leave. Don’t overload your shoppers with options, but only include those that you feel will be most valuable to them.

The two primary roles of your product pages are to inform and to sell. Generally, you won’t get the sale unless the page provides adequate information. The more complete the information, the more likely that the page will become a “top seller.”

Shoppers that are well informed are more likely to not only complete their purchase, but also to make the best purchase possible and then return later to do it all over again.

Quick sales can turn into sale headaches that convert a profit to a loss. But giving visitors the information they need steers them to the right product and helps them make an informed purchase – creating profits now and hopefully for years to come.

When pursuing an online marketing campaign, whether it be SEO, PPC, social media or link building, keyword research helps you understand your potential audience. And, understanding your audience is key to developing smart and effective usability practices on your website.

Using a variety of keyword research tools that are available online, you can gather some very important intelligence about how to reach your key customers. This, in turn, will help you create a website that improves your on-site customer engagement, visitor satisfaction and total site conversion rates.

When building a better website for your visitors, there are four things you need to know that keyword research will help you better understand.

Customer Terminology

One of the most important pieces of intelligence you can find with keyword research is the terminology your customers are using when looking for the products or services you offer.

Of course, most business people already know the “correct” terminology, as they are smack dab in the middle of their own industry. And if you believe that one, I’ll sell you the merchandising rights to the Star Wars franchise!

The truth is that those of us in any industry know our terminology. What we don’t always understand is how the customer talks about what we do, or, more specifically, how they search to find us.

Some might search for proper names, others might search for results or outcomes, while still others might search in descriptive terms. All these variables are in play because different people have different knowledge levels and think differently about what it is they need.

To give you a quick example from my own industry, many people refer to what we do as [SEO] or [search engine optimization]. Others call it [website marketing], [internet marketing], or even [inbound marketing]. Yet still, many people searching for what we offer are looking for [search engine rankings] or [website promotion].

All those terms can pretty much be used interchangeably. Those of us in the industry might use them with a bit more nuance, but the reality is, there isn’t a whole lot of daylight between them to the average searcher. We might just call it SEM.

But without looking at this smorgasbord of term variations, we might be missing out on a significant customer base if we don’t speak in their terms rather than our own.

Using Google’s keyword tool, a search for [website marketing] minus [marketing] produces different ways people refer to the same general service.

However, car dealers would be wise to dig into their audience’s terminology a bit. If they did, they’d find that a vast majority of searchers use the term [used cars].

Shocker.

In fact, [used cars] is searched approximately 1,000,000 times per month. Pre-owned cars is a good addition to the overall customer acquisition strategy; however, unless dealers go after [used cars], they are leaving hundreds of thousands of potential customers in the proverbial dust. Even if only 0.1% of those searches turned into a customer, that’s 1000 cars per month left sitting on the lot!

Understanding your customer’s terminology helps you write content that speaks the language that not only has meaning for them, but ensures that your content is immediately relevant to how they think.

Yes, the audience may put 2 and 2 together and realize that a pre-owned car is also a used car, but not everyone will. Don’t make your visitors connect the dots. Do it for them.

Customer Desires

Keyword research gives you insight on what your customers desire. This information can help you establish navigational elements, informational call-outs and calls to action that help each visitor get the information they need more quickly.

All good keyword research tools will give you a search volume number. Now these numbers won’t be perfectly accurate, but they will give you a good base of reference for comparing one keyword against the next. As you dig into your product or service categories, you begin to see variations on how searches are made.

For a site that sells kids ski and snow gear, your keyword research would show you that thousands search for [kids ski jackets] while only hundreds search for [kids snowboard jackets].

Both may be great keywords, but by sheer search volume alone, you can see there is far greater consumer desire for ski jackets over snowboard jackets.

Does that matter to your customer? It might. If you only targeted [snowboard] terms you are, again, missing out on a big chunk of your audience.

Let’s look at another example. Say you make or print ID badges. Keyword research will tell you what kinds of badges people are seeking most. Here you’ll find that [photo] is the most searched qualifier for [id badge], followed by [employee], [company], [custom] and [security].

Assuming conversion rates are the same for all these keywords, this information alone can help you decide how best to tailor your business to get the most profit possible. But beyond that, suppose you were just thinking about your product in terms of security badges. Those might have photos, and they typically are for employees of companies; but until now, you were just focused on the term [security].

Now, with your keyword research in hand, you see that you might want to adjust your content strategy to be optimized for some of these other qualifiers as well, giving more customers the information that is most relevant in making their purchasing decisions.

Competitive Keywords

A nice piece of data you can get from your keyword research is the competitive nature of any particular keyword. This is helpful when deciding which keywords you can expect to be successful at achieving top rankings for and in what amount of time.

If you don’t quite understand the competitive nature of the keywords you are targeting, there is a good chance you’ll wind up frustrated when you don’t get results as early as you had expected. That’s because your expectations weren’t rooted in the reality of the competitive landscape.

Competition ratings are just one factor in determining if a keyword is viable for your optimization campaign.

Truth be told, some keywords are very difficult to rank for because they have a lot of competition. But it’s not just the number of competitors, it’s also the strength of the competitors that matters as well.

The stronger, more authoritative and rooted your competition is for any given keyword phrase, the more difficulty you’ll have breaking through into top search engine positions. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done, it just means you may need more time and money to get it done.

When you find good keywords that are extremely competitive, sometimes it’s best to cede that ground for the time being and focus on something more attainable. The benefit of this strategy is that you can start to get top rankings and traffic more quickly, while building up your own authority in the eyes of the search engines. Some traffic now is better than no traffic for a long, long time.

Targeting the low-hanging fruit helps you build up your credibility and get the sales you need. As you grow, you become more competitive and can slowly begin to go after the keywords that are more and more difficult to achieve, but bring greater rewards once you are ranking for them.

This strategy also gives you the opportunity to test various on-page sales elements, terminology and designs to see which produces the greater return. Failed tests on this scale will produce less of a loss, and successful tests will give you more headway as you gain rankings for the more competitive terms.

User Questions

Another great thing about keyword research is finding out all sorts of questions that people are asking. This gives you plenty of fodder for creating site and social content that provides answers your customers need and finding ways to get your visitors to the content they want.

Filtering includes words such as how,when what, where and why can help you find questions that you can answer to drive traffic to your site.

Answering common searcher questions, in whatever forum, can really help you set yourself apart as an authority. Yes, this is the very same authority needed to get rankings on difficult and competitive keywords!

At the same time, providing answers to commonly asked questions can drive traffic for those searching for such answers.

While these may not be direct customers, you are creating a branding effect. Today’s information gatherer very well may be tomorrow’s customer. And who do you think they’ll go to when it’s time to buy? That’s right, the very site that provided them answers to the questions that have helped them make purchasing decisions.

These questions can also help you streamline your internal sales processes, decide what content is valuable, and what’s going to help you ward off unnecessary customers service phone calls. All of these can be pretty important time and money savers.

Keyword research is an important first step in any online or offline marketing campaign. It helps you build a website that engages customers and moves them through the conversion process armed with the information they need to make a smart purchase. The insight keyword research gives you can help you build a website that puts you more in touch with your audience than you would have otherwise been.

Image Credit

Getting shoppers in the door from search engines is the easy part. Getting them to buy from your online store is the difficult part.

Shopping cart dropout rates are a problem many online retailers have to overcome. Every day customers who appear to be ready to make a purchase abandon their carts before completing the online transaction. This happens for a number of reasons. Even the visitor may not be sure why, only that he didn’t want the products after all.

However, while cart abandonment may be par for the course with online shopping, there are things an e-commerce site can do to reduce the root causes of this action.

Make It Easy To View Items In The Cart

Your main navigation should always have a clear and obvious link that allows visitors to view items in their cart. You cannot rely on “view cart” buttons in your product pages alone.

Many visitors may be shopping around category pages without any direct links to their shopping cart. Adding a “view cart” link into your main navigation ensures visitors can easily begin the checkout process, regardless of where they are in the site.

Simplify Changing & Updating Cart Items

When a visitor is viewing the items in her cart, there is often a desire to remove products, increase or reduce desired quantity, change color, size or other options. All of these options should be available right there in the cart, rather than forcing the shopper back to the product page.

Keep Advertising & Up-Selling To A Minimum

Your shopping cart is no place for an ad! But it’s not a bad place for small up-sell opportunities. If an item requires additional products to make it functionable, up-sells are important.

If there are just some additional accessories you want to sell, you can do so, provided it doesn’t interfere with the conversion process. Rule of thumb: When checking out, the fewer distractions the better.

Highlight Security Features

Shoppers are very concerned about the security of their personal information. Be sure to implement and highlight security features such as privacy policies, site security, BBB (and similar organization) memberships, as well as return/refund policies. All of these provide signals of trust that visitors calculate into the checkout decision-making process.

Optional Storing Of Personal Information

You should never keep shopper’s personal information (such as credit card numbers, addresses, etc.) unless specifically requested by the shopper or as part of an account he or she chooses to create.

It’s also important not to force shoppers to create an account just to make a purchase. Make this entirely optional and put that option at the end of your checkout process.

Answer Shipping & Other Questions Upfront

If visitors have questions about shipping, returns, warranty, orders or other questions, they’ll want these answers before they complete their purchase. Providing these answers, or at least provide a link to where the answers can be found, will prevent visitors from leaving the cart to search out that information on your site – and perhaps never return to the cart to finish the purchase.

Provide International Shipping Compatibility

If you ship internationally, you must make sure your information forms support international addresses and phone numbers. Many US websites use forms that collection information using the American standards. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for those with international addresses and numbers. Ensure your form has international compatibility if you want that business.

Provide An Order Progress Update

In some cases, the checkout process requires multiple steps. The fewer steps your checkout form has, the lower your abandonment rates will be. So, one step is always best. However, if you can’t get around it, be sure to include a progress indicator that gives visitors an idea of what step they are on and how many more to go.

Along those lines, it’s a good idea to keep visitors informed of progress of the completed order. Be sure to send out emails that let them know when items are shipping, along with how they can track the package.

No purchase is complete until it’s complete. Shoppers may be ready to buy, but sometimes even the smallest roadblock can derail them from the process. The last thing you want to do is to give them an opportunity to back out because they just don’t “feel right” about the purchase. A well-designed shopping cart page can help ensure these shoppers feel safe and have everything they need to feel good about their decision.

Image credit: elnur / 123RF Stock Photo

Just because your navigation is built into the site doesn’t mean it’s doing the best job of giving your visitors what they want.

Navigation can make or break your website’s overall performance when it comes to retaining visitors, keeping them engaged and driving them through the conversion funnel.

Strong site navigation makes it easy for visitors to quickly find the information that interests them, sans a potentially frustrating “hunt.” It also helps search engines index your important information efficiently and effectively.

Conversely, poor navigation does more harm than good. It confuses visitors and sends them scurrying for the exit. When they can’t find what they’re looking for, you don’t get the conversion you want, either.

How To Improve Your Website Navigation

• Keep it consistent. Consistent navigation – in both how and where it appears on your site – promotes ease of use and increases your visitors’ ability to find relevant information more quickly. If your navigation is constantly changing from page to page (except where absolutely necessary), visitors lose their on-site bearings and must reorient themselves constantly.
• Divide categories clearly. If your navigation contains multiple sections, categories or sub-categories, these categories must be clearly and visually defined. In other words, category headings must be separated visually from the sub-categories, even if the categories are links themselves.
• Make all navigation elements clickable links. When using multiple categorical divisions in your navigation, all heading elements should be clickable links. This is true even with drop-down menus where clicking a sub-category link may be the natural inclination of the visitor.
• Use accurate navigation titles. Visitors should have a general idea of what they should find on a page even before clicking any navigational link. This is true whether it’s a main navigation link or an internal text link. Use accurate text to describe the linked page so visitors know what they’re going to get. Cryptic or misleading navigation text confuses and annoys visitors, possibly to the point of site abandonment. Make sure all link verbiage, whether textual or in an image, accurately portrays the corresponding pages.
• Ensure every clickable image has ALT text. This is true of every image, but even more important for images that link to other pages. Be sure to include the ALT attribute with descriptive text. This ensures that everybody knows what the link is, regardless of how they are viewing your site.
• Ensure your search feature works. When using an in-site search feature, the search results page must always produce relevant results. It must compensate for misspellings, show related items and even produce results for products you don’t have while displaying similar products you offer. Never produce a search result as “no products found.”

It Doesn’t Work Until You Prove It

An easy, effective way to test your site’s navigation is to first browse a competitor’s website. As you do, take notes on what you like and don’t like. Jot down any problems you run across, as well as anything that stands out as being exceptional. Then go back to your own site and perform the same navigation and note-taking process.

Compare notes between the sites and see if there is anything you can do to make your navigation better. I’m sure you’ll find areas where your navigation is better, but most likely you’ll also uncover areas where your navigation is inferior.

Of course, an even better way to test is to use your analytics to see how visitors are navigating through your site. Make changes only as you can test them with A/B or multivariate tests to ensure you can implement changes that help rather than hurt your site’s overall performance. Use whatever tools you have at your disposal. Continue to test and tweak to ensure your visitors get the best experience possible and you’re getting the results you want.

Image credits: maya13 / 123RF Stock Photo, shutterstock.com

At some point in the website building process, they might think about the content that goes on the website. It’s the last thing they do before rolling the site out. It’s an afterthought.

Your website may be your #1 sales tool, but it’s the content of the site that makes that tool work. Pictures, programming, tools and other fun stuff can be important in making your site visibly and functionally appealing to your visitors, but it is the content that sells.

When you take time to create strong, user-focused content, visitors will find the information they need to make an informed decision about trying your products and services or supporting your cause.

Content: Beyond Reading To Engaging

Every visitor comes to your site with a host of unanswered questions:

• Will you meet my needs?
• What are your qualifications?
• Are you trustworthy?
• What are your policies?
• Do you have just the right product for me?
• What can I expect if I work with you or buy from you?

These are just a few questions your content should be able to answer. But your content isn’t there just to answer questions, it’s there to interact. To speak. To tell. To compel each visitor to move forward through the conversion funnel.

Implement these 10 tips to create content that engages your visitors:

1. Establish your voice. Your website should have a unique voice, distinguishable from any other site on the Web. Essentially, it needs to have a personality. Every page of your site should be written with the same personality, giving the visitor a certain level of comfort as they continue to read and revisit your site. Your site’s voice doesn’t need to be outlandish, but it should fit you and your industry well.
2. Use active words. Active words help visitors participate in your site rather than just passively read it. With active words, the reader becomes immersed in your content and feels as if they are a part of an unfolding story.
3. Eliminate typographical errors. Your website should be free of all typographical errors. While an occasional spelling or grammar error can be shrugged off, if your pages have more than a couple errors, your credibility can be called into question.
4. Make it skimmable & scannable. Many visitors like to skim your content to quickly find what interests them before they commit to reading more deeply. Write and format your content so that the main points can easily be gleaned without in-depth reading.
5. Focus on your customers. Make your content about your customers. Focus on their wants and needs and what they will receive rather than what you will do. Write more about them than yourself.
6. Speak to visitor personalities. Your content should use words that speak to different visitor personalities. Each personality has a different need, and addressing those specific needs makes each visitor feel as if your site was created just for them. This “camaraderie” will help them move through the conversion process.
7. Talk about benefits over features. Features of your product or services are an important sales tool; however, discussing the benefits your visitors will receive is far more convincing. Features are logical, but decisions are made with emotion. Benefits address visitors on the emotional level, giving them justification to making a purchase.
8. Eliminate spammy text. Make sure your content can be read aloud without sounding unnatural. Some try to add too many keywords to content for ranking purposes, but this diminishes the ability of the content to actually sell. Plus, in the wake of Google Panda and Penguin updates, your site may actually lose rankings because of this. Your content must be an effective sales tool. Keeping it free from junk SEO helps keep the focus on the customer.
9. Add calls to action. Every page of your site should contain at least one call to action within the content. Without a call to action, you are failing to help visitors take the next desired step in the conversion process. Use your content effectively by using calls to action to guide the visitor through your site and conversion funnel.
10. Link out to other sites. Depending on when and how often you do this, linking can be a negative. However, linking to other authoritative websites can be a great way to establish your credibility. Be sure your links are used to bolster your own authority or provide visitors with information you don’t have, but don’t interrupt the conversion process to do so.

Many e-commerce and product-driven sites try to sideline their content in order to get the visitors to the product. However, products are not the only thing visitors want.

Information is what helps sell the products or services you offer. Eliminating content also limits an important part of the visitor’s quest for information that answers questions, provides justification and gives them a reason to continue. Use your content to draw visitors in, engage with them and compel them to action.

Image credit: imagehitevo / 123RF Stock Photo

Every visitor to your site is a story. Give that story a happy ending!

Every good story has a beginning, middle and end. It starts with the set-up, moves into the conflict and wraps up with the resolution, or climax.

In the story of online marketing, each visitor to your website follows the same pattern – a beginning (What brought them there?), a conflict (Will they find the information they are looking for?) and a climax (What will they decide to do?).

However, unlike a good story, which relies on conflict to create the action, you want smooth sailing when people land on your site.

In fact, when it comes to getting conversions, the less conflict the better.

One of the easiest ways to reduce conflict on your site and drive visitors to the conversion point is to build a strong navigational experience.

Implementing a well-designed site navigation helps visitors identify the content and information that most interests them and pushes them toward a positive resolution.

Every navigational step your visitors take will be either a step closer or a step further away from the conclusion you’re hoping for.

How To Reduce Navigational Conflict

The single most important way to minimize your navigational conflict is to ensure it’s usable. Sounds overly simplistic, I know, but that’s because it is. Sometimes what seems usable to you (or anyone who is too close to the website) isn’t necessarily usable to visitors who may not have experienced your site before. Any usability roadblocks will reduce the impact your navigation has on the visitor.

A convoluted, confusing or broken navigation will often lead to the quickest story resolution of them all – site abandonment. While that might play well on the best sellers list, it doesn’t help wrack up the big bucks for your site!

Site-wide navigation – including top, bottom and side navigation – must be as user-friendly as possible. This is a case where visitors want the story on your site to fit similar stories they’ve experienced on other sites.

Therefore, you have to give them what they expect and, countering everything we know about a good story, the resolution must be obvious.

Here are 12 ways to create a better navigational story that improves conversion rates:

• Implement a strong navigational structure. Navigation must provide intuitive and obvious links to other main sections and areas of the website. If you don’t help your visitors find the information they want, they can’t buy it!
• Keep your primary navigation obvious. The location of your site’s primary navigation should be near the top and/or left side of the page. Navigation isn’t expected in other places, so don’t force your visitors to hunt it down.
• Make finding information easy. Your navigation should be designed to help people find information. Don’t hide important categories behind layers of drop-down navigation. Display it clearly before any navigational links are used. You should also avoid using hard-to-navigate drop-down or fly-out menus. Make the sale as easy as possible by eliminating these frustrations.
• Be clear as to which page the visitor is viewing. Visitors should always be able to tell what page they are on and where that page falls in the directory tree. Breadcrumbs are the easiest way to display this information in a clean, easy-to-understand format.
• Let visitors know which pages they have viewed. While this may not be aesthetically pleasing (and therefore disregarded) in the site’s main navigation, it can easily be accomplished in a visually appealing way in your body copy and/or footer navigation. Letting visitors know where they have been prevents looping around to repeated content and instead drives the visitor to the next step in the conversion process.
• Clearly display your site name. Your top navigation must provide an immediate indication as to what site the visitor is on (just like a book). Don’t tease the visitor or make them search for your logo. Put it at the top left where they expect it to be.
• Add a link in your logo image. Even if you have a link to your home page in your primary navigation, your logo should also link back to your home page. Visitors routinely use this as a shortcut rather than hunting for the home button.
• Have an obvious link to your homepage. Even if you already have a link to your homepage in your logo, each page must contain an obvious home link or button. Keep it consistent from page to page so visitors know where to look.
• Display visible contact information. Your navigation should include access to a “contact us” page and/or display specific contact information (such as a phone number) at or near the top of the page. Contact links and information should be in a consistent location on every page throughout the site. If visitors don’t feel like you’re easy to reach, they will hesitate to purchase from you.
• Implement a site search feature. For large sites, an internal search box can assist your potential customers with finding relevant information quickly. Search boxes allow visitors to skip the navigation altogether and go directly to what they want. If used, the search box is best located on the top right of all site pages and must always return relevant results.
• Make it easy to log in. Sites with shopping carts, user accounts or member-only access must provide an easy-to-locate login link. This link should be accessible on every page of the site.
• Make it easy to log out. Once logged in, the user must be able to log out quickly and easily. Maintain a logout link or button in an obvious location on every page, allowing the visitor to keep their information secure.

When you implement a well-structured and developed navigation system on your site, your compelling website story helps lead visitors in the direction they want to go.

The strong visual cues I’ve mentioned indicate the depth of content you have available. This alone can be an immediate first-impression indicator of trust, an important factor in acquiring new business.

Even more important – when a site’s navigation is intelligent, focused and intuitive, there is less on-site conflict. This means visitors have to think less and are able to find what they want with minimal guesswork or backtracking. And, that may be exactly what brings visitors closer and closer to the happy ending (the conversion!) you want most for your website story.

Image credit: pixelbliss / 123RF Stock Photo

The argument goes something like this: “People don’t read, they just look at the pretty pretty pictures.” This is both true and false. Many people don’t read content, but they are just a fraction of your audience. Another fraction skims the content, and still another fraction will read every word on the page.

So, which audience are you going to disenfranchise with (or without) your content?

Reading online isn't like reading a book. We have to write differently for the online audience.

Fortunately, you don’t have to disenfranchise any. You can create content that is meant to be read, ignored or even half read/half ignored (a.k.a., skimmed).

When you create content designed to be skimmed, you’ll find that you are, essentially, providing content for each type of audience. It can be read, ignored or quickly reviewed by the reader looking for the nuggets of information that are most important to them.

Let’s look at these three types of readers and how skimmable content is good for them each.

Content? I Won’t Read Your Stinking Content!

Non-readers don’t have much use for lengthy text. Small bits of content are fine (such as short product descriptions, photo captions or twitterbites), but they really don’t need or want the whole multi-paragraph-learn-all-about-how-great-our-stuff-is sales spiel.

Non-readers generally navigate by looking at pictures and links until they find what they are looking for. Essentially, these are cover-art shoppers. Your pictures speak more for them than your words. In fact, for non-readers, words tend to get in the way.

But that doesn’t mean you should eliminate all content from your website. As long as the content is non-obtrusive and doesn’t hinder the non-reader’s search and navigation experience, they can blow right past it and get right to what they came for.

It’s Elementary, My Dear Reader

Then there are the readers who are likely to read almost every word on the page. These types are information gluttons. They want to know about the product, need to be sold on its virtues and must be convinced they are making the right decision about their purchase. And, your content is the way all that gets done.

To a reader, all information is generally good information. The more they know about the product, your company and anything else that increases your credibility will help them feel secure in doing business with you instead of a competitor.

Text is an important part of the reader’s decision-making process. From the homepage to categories and sub-categories to the actual product page, the reader is intensely interested in what you have to say, as it will be the determining factor in whether you get a conversion or not.

Skimming Is What I Do, Darlin’

Skimmers don’t really read the content on each page, but they do scan through it in order to find quick visual cues that will help them get the information they want. When they see something that appeals to them, they’ll stop and read more thoroughly or click a link to get to the content that does interest them.

Content written for skimmers helps all visitors get a sense of what you’re saying without requiring them to read every word. In fact, skimmable content is better for both the reader and non-reader because skimmed content is easier to read and/or ignore. Essentially, it enhances the page for readers and doesn’t get in the way of non-readers.

Since skimmable content is easier on the eyes and makes important nuggets of information eye-catching, the non-reader will find it nearly irresistible. This allows them to “inadvertently” take in important information that gives them a better impression of your product.

For the reader, skimmable content is even easier to read, making important points obvious and ensuring that the reader factors their importance into the decision-making process.

For all readers, skimmable content helps visitors see what’s important and even highlights key navigational elements that otherwise might have been missed or overlooked if not implemented in a skimmer-friendly way.

All Content Should Be Skimmable Content

It’s not too difficult to take good content and make it more skimmable (aka better). Here are some important points for making content skimmable:

• Place your content where it will be noticed but is not obtrusive. You might have to break it up a bit. The longer the content is, the more careful you have to be about where and how you place the content on the page. This is especially true when dealing with product category pages.
• Start each paragraph with your most important and compelling verbiage. Many skimmers look only at the first line of each paragraph. Make it count.
• Use paragraph/section headings that draw interest but are also quick to read at a glance. If it’s too long, it gets lost in the word-salad.
• Use bulleted lists when possible, as this breaks up the monotony of the content and creates easy-to-digest chunks.
• Bold or italicize key concepts throughout. Don’t go overboard, but use this to draw they eye to anything you think really needs to stand out.
• Add images to your content. Even though images don’t get read, the do draw the eye and make the content more likely to be seen, skimmed and read.

Writing for skimmers is really about good writing practices and formatting your content in a visually appealing way. Just as good content is a valuable part of the SEO process, skimmable content is a valuable part of the sales process.

Good website marketing isn’t about building a site for any one type of visitor, it’s about building a site that speaks to as many different visitor types as possible without alienating any. You must have the right pieces in the right places in the right way. Skimmable content allows you to target all types of readers and give them even more than they want. That way, everyone has a positive experience.

Image credit: frenta / 123RF Stock Photo.

One of the great things about online marketing over the past decade is that it allowed small businesses to compete against the big guys on more of a level playing field than the offline world allows. Over the past few years, though, the playing field has been tilting like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. As more big corporations jump into online marketing and invest tens, hundreds, and even thousands of thousands of dollars each year, it becomes increasingly difficult for small businesses to gain headway.

That’s not to say there are no opportunities for small businesses to succeed online; quite the opposite, actually. All this means is that small businesses that don’t have the capital to invest need to be more creative in how they invest in online marketing.

It’s not how big you are, but how smart you can be with your money

It’s not always about achieving number one rankings. In fact, as a marketer, I’m getting more and more annoyed with small businesses who come and ask if I can get them #1 for their keyword. Is it possible? Sure. Is it possible with their budget? Not a chance. You won’t get far on $500/month up against companies that invest $10,000 per month.

But a small business does not have to invest $10,000 per month in order to do well online. And success is also relative. Most small businesses are not set up to handle the same kind of success as large businesses. You have to grow into that. But every small business owner investing in online marketing needs to keep their expectations in line with what can be done and what kind of success they can handle. Budget doesn’t always make or break success, but it does play a role in it. The key is to find the areas where your budget will see the most return.

Think big, move swiftly

As a small business owner, you’ll also need to determine how your own time is best spent. Is it beneficial for you to do most of the marketing work yourself, or to hire someone to do it for you? Personally, I like to pay people to do things so I have more time to run my business. But not everybody has that luxury. But part of thinking like a big business is being willing to not do everything yourself and put it in the hands of those who can really bring you success.

Sometimes the best thing a small business owner can do is to think like a big business. You won’t be able to do everything a big business does, but you can take lessons from what they do and determine how best to scale them to your situation. The one advantage a small business has over a large business is adaptability. Think big, move fast, and invest in areas where your larger competition is overspending and underperforming.

You don’t have to be a big business to win in the online marketing game. But you do need to get out of the mom and pop rut. Be willing to take risks, but do so wisely and well-informed. And like big businesses, be willing to fail a little here and there if it teaches you how to succeed bigger later. You don’t have to spend like a big business, but you won’t go far so long as you keep thinking like a small business.

Stoney deGeyter is CEO of Pole Position Marketing. The Small Is Beautiful column appears on Thursdays at Search Engine Land.