Don’t Underestimate The Power of 404 — Minneapolis, MN
When someone visits your site and takes a wrong turn, where do they end up? — On a page with indecipherable HTML mumbo jumbo? Instead of frustrating visitors with an Error 404 Page that makes them feel lost within your site, give them a clear path to get back to where the action is.
By designing your own 404 page, you can include the essential links to get visitors redirected to where you intended them to go. You can also avoid the inconsistent design that you would get without a custom page, making the user feel as though they are still within your site, even though they have wandered off the beaten path.
The same goes for search engines. If a person can get lost within your site, so can the search engine bots that scour your site for keywords to improve site visibility. Listing key navigation links on this page will help the user and/or bot get out of nowhere land and back to the pages that count.
Although it is a seemingly simple thing, a custom 404 Error Page has a big impact. It is often overlooked, because in essence its purpose is not to be viewed, but it can help you in more ways than one. It eliminates confusion, helps to maintain brand standards, and is a good SEO practice. Graybow.Olson’s new site implements a great example of an effective and creative 404 page — click here to take a look.
Uncovering the Content Gold Mine
One question that stalks the mind of every online entrepreneur is ‘How does one create web content that sells?’ — In order for your website to generate profit, it is very important that you first optimize your web content. This will allow you to gain more traffic through search engines, which will lead to a higher conversion rate. Beyond merely optimizing the text on your web pages, you must make it appealing to the consumer. It is true that today we are bombarded with more online advertisements than ever before. Never has advertising been more annoying and more mass-produced. How do you increase brand visibility and overall profit without oversaturating the consumer? — Here’s how:
A.) Proper Design & Functionality:
B.) Maintaining Relevance: In order to increase search visibility online, you must first appear relevant to the search algorithms. Web content optimization allows your company to be more visible on the web by leveraging keywords, content, and links that correlate to the products that your company is selling.
C.) Developing Trust: One of the best ways to hook potential clients is by providing compelling case studies and testimonials. Positive outcomes and demonstrated knowledge of the product or service you are offering will help you to gain the trust of the prospect. Blogs are also important as they build a pattern of communication with the client while also providing food for the search engines.
D.) Encouraging Action: It is also essential to make it easy for the customer to contact you and/or buy your product. This can be done by incorporating calls to action strategically throughout your website. The whole goal of the site is to gain leads, so the simpler it is for the customer to make contact/sign up/buy your product, the more chances there are of turning that prospect into a client.
Better content equals higher profits. By applying the information above, your company will have a much greater chance at increasing traffic, and converting that traffic into revenue.
When operating an online business it is pivotal for every company to lower their homepage’s bounce-rates. “A Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.” Without question, one of the most important steps your company must take is to reduce the percentage that people “bounce” from your site. It takes a colossal effort in order to implement an advertising campaign, but it is equally important to convert search results into cash. In order to boost sales, your company needs to attract and capture your clients. Here are the 3 most important aspects to consider when attempting to decrease your homepage’s bounce-rates.
1) Be Relevant:
2) Increase the Action:
3) Improve Usability:
Increasing conversion is not an overnight process. There are multiple steps that one must follow in order to turn search results into profit. Once you have tackled the task of directing people to your website, you must provoke further action. Through intelligent marketing, you too may heavily decrease your bounce rates.
Looking to improve your companies bounce rates? Need marked improvement in online lead generation? Visit our Let’s Talk Page, or give us a call – 651-329-3259.
Catapulting Profits with Facebook
In the past few years there has been a technological and innovative explosion. Social media platforms such as Facebook have come to dominate the globe, and affect the decisions and lives of countless people. The question that should be on the mind of every entrepreneur is whether or not this social media platform can drive revenue for his or her business. Although the answer to this question can be yes, it depends entirely on how your company goes about invading this new territory.
Social media platforms allow your company to engage the consumer in ways not always possible through ordinary marketing. Your company will increase revenue as a result of:
One of the most important steps in order to implement an effective Facebook campaign is to integrate your company’s off-network site with your F.B. page. You should make it very easy to connect your F.B. page with your website and vise versa. “That means like buttons above the fold on each product. That means allowing people to connect with Facebook to post reviews—which they can then push out to their friends (Gobry).” This diverts traffic from Facebook to your website, creating greater chances for conversion.
It is important that you begin infiltrating this media platform right away. “Every 20 minutes on Facebook (Huckabee)”:
1) 7.6 million pages were liked
2) 1.5 million wall posts were made
3) 1.9 million friend requests accepted
4) 1 million links were shared
5) 10.2 million comments made
To learn more about how your company can benefit from social media platforms such as facebook, visit our Let’s Talk page, or call 651.329.3259.
Bibliography
“Facebook–Money.” Facebook Money on Flickr. Web. 11 Jul 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/famousin24hrs/5359670846/#/photos/famousin24hrs/5359670846/lightbox/>.
Gobry, Pascal-Emmanuel. “Here’s How To Make More E-Commerce Money With Facebook.” Business Insider 3 February 2011: 1. Web. 11 Jul 2011.
Huckabee, Huck. “Facebook Statistics.” Business and Facebook. Businessinternetmarketing.com, 06 January 2011. Web. 11 Jul 2011.