Why conversion rate optimisation is really important

The majority of websites do a really bad job of converting their visitors into customers. Typically they will only convert 1 or 2% of their visitors into customers. This is effectively turning away 99% of your visitors which is bad enough but when you consider that the people visiting your website are actually looking for your products and services then then it’s really bad. Why you really need to improve your conversion rate

1. With 98-99% of your visitors turning away you are losing money hand over fist – literally!
2. Adwords, PPC  is getting increasingly more competitive and more expensive each passing month. For too often companies will increase their advertising spend just to compensate and they just end up throwing money away needlessly. PPC is costing too many companies a fortune and the only people getting rich are the PPC agencies and Google so you should be looking at ways of reducing your adwords spend.

On the flipside of the majority of websites turn 99% of their visitors away and that’s bad – and when you consider that these same visitors are actually looking for your products and services then it’s really bad! That’s why conversion rate optimisation is really important.

So how do we do conversion rate optimisation?

Let’s start with your existing website and see how it well it converts as it stands. Now that we’ve got our base conversion rate we now want to duplicate the pagea couple of times but this time we’re we’re going to change the buy buttons with something more eye catching. We’ll also try different wording and this is known as the “call to action” or “sales command”. We’re now going to test the new pages using a technique called split testing. We use Google optimizer to serve up different versions of our test pages to each visitor in a loop so that we obtain different sets of results. Just like this;

Visitor 1 sees page A………Visitor 2 sees page B………Visitor 3 sees page C As you can see the changes we made have made a difference and page C performed the best giving the highest conversion rate. This is great stuff so we now want to use page C as the basis for a repeat of the test we just did. This time we’re going to introduce a catchy headline and change the colour of one of the buttons. See below; As you can see, the addition of the catchy headline has improved the conversion rate but the combination of the catchy headline and the different colour we used for the button has had a bigger increase. Great – we’re definitely on the right track. We can take this even further again by adding things like;

• bold text in the descriptions
• bigger product images
• persuasive text phrases in the product descriptions such as
  • take action now
  • when you order
  • when you make the purchase

In fact there are hundreds of things you can add to increase conversion rates. The main point to remember is that you can only make changes in small steps and you have to measure the results every time. There are no shortcuts and not even the best brains on the planet can predict what will produce the best conversions. If you would like us to evaluate your site and help you increase your conversions then contact us now.

Any new customers you win as a result of the work you put into converting them have been impressed by your hard work so you have to live up to their expectations and nurture the new relationship to it’s fullest. You can nurture this in several ways, by upselling, cross selling and gaining new customers by way of recommendation. So how is this achieved?

Welcome then enthusiatically and show them your word is your bond.

When you first obtain an order from your website, acknowledge and welcome your customer, thanking them for their order with a well written email. In the case of ecommerce websites this can be done to automatically send on receipt of their order. Don’t just give a simple thank you – provide them with helpful advice on the product, helpful tips on it’s use or provide positive experiences and testimonials from other customers who have bought the same product.

If you don’t sell products online and sell services then the same rules apply. Once they have ordered a service from you make a point of sending them tips on what to expect, positive experiences from other customers or explain the timescales when the service will start and finish.

In either case, any helpful, welcoming information you send makes them feel cherished and will ost often result in a word of moth recommendation or an email recommending your services and products.

Survey your customers on performance or quality of products and services.

Invite your new customers to complete a survey of how well your products or services performed. One or two questions work well. After you complete your survey make a point of communicating back the results – this shows you listened and made any improvements where neccessary. Additional sales from your existing customers may result.

Incentivise referrals

Offer your new customers an incentive for referring your products and services to other companies. Be it a discount off their next purchase or service offering. This works in both B2C and B2B. We often hear from clients in B2B where they have recommended a service abd received discounts or finders fees as a result.

Customer forums

Customer forums can be a great way to up sell new products and services. Build communties around products. Provide free updates or tips for use, applications etc.

Offer exclusive pricing on new product lines

Give your customers exclusive discounts on new product or service lines. Encourage extra incentives for referrals and allow affiliate rewards.

There are many ways to optimise after sales and we will post more innovative techniques here soon so check back often.

]]> http://www.breezemedia.co.uk/after-sales-optimisation-cross-selling-up-selling/feed/ 0 http://www.breezemedia.co.uk/seo-website-optimisation-faqs/ http://www.breezemedia.co.uk/seo-website-optimisation-faqs/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:08:26 +0000 admin http://www.breezemedia.co.uk/?p=1097 Is your head hurting with all the jargon? Are you confused by all the terminology? Hopefully our handy faqs, definitions and glossary will help you.What is SEO?

SEO is short for “Search Engine Optimisation” or “optimization” if you’re  from the USA. It’s the process of getting your website at the top of search engines for your chosen keywords or keyphrases. There are two types of SEO – on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

What is a keyword?

A key word is a single word used in a search to find a website, a brand, a product or a service etc. Typical keywords could be…laptops, shoes, apple, plumber. Single keywords are often described as trophy words or prime keywords and are generally high competition.

What is a keyphrase?

A key phrase is s series of keywords. For example…pentium laptops, black leather shoes, apple computers, on call plumbers. Keyphrases are often more descriptive and result in better results whenever you search.

What is on-page SEO?

On page SEO is the process of placing  keywords in the page titles, meta tags, anchor text links and body text of a web page..

What is off-page SEO?

Off page SEO is the process of obtaining and pointing links to your website. This is also known as link building using a mixture of one way links, reciprocal links or three way links.

What are page titles?

Page title are the visible short descriptions displayed in the top bar your your internet browserBrowsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer. The page title of this page says “Free SEO & Website Optimisation FAQs”.

What are meta tags?

Meta tags are blocks of text embedded in the code of a web page. They are hidden from view from the visitor and were used to help pages rank in search engines. They are not of high importance nowadays and only certain search engines value them. Google does not use them to rank web pages.

What are anchor text links.

Anchor text links are basically any form of link. However in SEO terms they are used to describe the subject of the page that it links to. For example click here is a link but a SEO company Edinburgh is a descriptive anchor text link.

What are one way links?

One way links are links from another website that point back to your website. These are also known as inbound links or backlinks.

What are reciprocal links?

Reciprocal links are where two websites link to each other by mutual agreement.

What are three way links?

Site A -> Site B -> Site C  or any permutation.

What is link building?

Link building is the process of obtaining links to your website. Linkbuilding cane be very boring, very interesting, very skillfull and or very easy depending on the method you use. Regardless, linkbuilding is the most successful way of promoting a website.  There are numerous methods of linkbuilding such as;

• Article link building
• Press releases
• Directory submission
• Content attraction
• Link baiting
• Direct requests
• Social Media
• Blog posts
• Blog Comments
• Forum signatures and posts

There are many more ways of linkbuilding that are very inventive and ingenius. SEO companies often devise very clever ways  of obtaining links which in turn can bring lots of traffic and obtain very good positions on search engines.

Article link building

This involves writing an article on the subject of your website, products, services etc. You place a link in the body of the article then submit it to an article website (commonly known as an article directory). If your article gets published then you obtain a new link back to your website.

Press Releases

Similar to article link building. This time you submit press releases about your company, products or services to a new website such as a newspaper, TV website or a website that specialises in news stories.  If your press release gets published then you obtain a new link back to your website.

Directory submissions

Submit your website to a web directory. Web directories are websites that list millions of websites based on category, geographical location etc. You submit your website by filling in their form. If accepted you have a link back to your website. Some directories are free and some require you to pay for a listing. Yahoo is a directory website that requires you to pay for a listing.

Content attraction

If your web pages have great content then you will attract natural links back to your website. For example if your website has great content and information on say stamp collecting, then if another website owner finds your website valuable they may link back to your website.

Link baiting

Link baiting attracts links by way of writing spoof content, parodies and hoaxes. For example, a hoax article can cause great interest or an equally great stir and subsequently attract hundreds if not thousands of links back to your website. Linkbaiting is a somewhat contentious practice and can also attract bad publicity as well as good publicity. So it has to be considered very carefully.

Direct requests

Simply asking another website owner to link back to your website. This can either be one way, reciprocal or three way link requests.

Social Media

Social media websites such as facebook, twitter etc. Such sites are very popular with search engines and any links from thse can be valuable. Registered users on these sites write small articles, posts or bookmark your website providing a link back.

Blog posts

Write blog posts with a link back to your website.

Blog comments

Commenting on a blog posts – you can in some cases place a link within the post.

Forum signatures and posts

If you are registered on an internet forum you can place a link in the signature area of your account. Equally, if permitted you can place a link on a forum post.

Execair Charter  – based in London, Edinburgh and Palma came to us in the summer of 2009 looking to improve their Google rankings and take more enquiries from their website. We soon got down to work, analysing,  improving and optimising, and after 6 months we were ranking at the top of Google, outperforming their rivals and getting them lots of new enquiries. In fact we did such a good job that their main rival offered to buy them over and retaing our SEO Services in London & Edinburgh!

Cloud 9 International is an global private jet charter company, flying private individuals all over the globe. Founded by businessman Andy Mason and ex-footballer Graeme Souness, it  brokers private chartered flights for a wide variety of clients ranging from Hollywood actors like Kevin Costner to private groups jetting off on holiday, to sports events and concerts.

Over the coming months we will be working on several very exciting campaigns and who knows…we might even get to meet some celebrities in the process!

Successful SEO Services breeds success!

Our SEO Services and the successes they deliver for our clients are amongst our greatest achievements, and this is the second time in as many years where our client has been bought over by a rival firm. In 2008 one of our clients whom we’d been working with for 3 years, outranked and outperformed all their main competitors on the search engines. Their online success drew the attention of the much larger rival firm and a few months later the companies merged. Obviously, our services played a significant part in the process and we are delighted that the merged companies continue to go from strength to strength.

We have a proven track record of delivering top results for clients across many business sectors and we would be delighted if you would like to discuss a strategy for improving your online business. Contact us online or give us a call on:

London  – 020 8133 3219

or

Edinburgh – 0131 226 8159

Recently we picked up a few new clients who had been utilising the services of some “big SEO agencies” and “self proclaimed SEO experts”, however, let’s just say that these SEOs fell short on their promises of delivery.  Now, whilst we’re delighted to have picked up the new work, we were equally surprised (shocked even) at the quality of what was given to the client for to absorb.

Whenever we do something for a client, we do it throroughly and explain things simply. From building links, to ranking reports, to keyword research, right through to website analysis – it is all done with the greatest attention to detail, and it’s because of this that we regularly outperform our competitors. Recently however, we’ve been left speechless at some of the reports delivered to clients and the huge fees that accompanied them.

You see, the whole point of website analysis is not understood by a considerable number of SEO companies and in far too many cases analysis is packaged in such a way to bamboozle the client, justify huge fees and the SEO company does very little work. Clients are told that fees are justified by the time taken to report on what is happening or to delve deeper into the data to pinpoint where people are clicking and what phrases they are using.  Once that’s done the analysis report is sent  to the client (accompanied by the huge fee) and as Gordon Ramsay would say….done!

Actually, it’s not “done” in any sense of the word and let’s explain:

Take this example of website analysis our client was sent from their previous SEO company.

Analysis report for “Client www.mywebsite.com” by Big Ticket SEO Agency

Web traffic was up 7.4%….
Top key phrases “blue widgets”…
Bounce rate remained constant at 65%…
72% of visitors came from Google….
22% of traffic generated from PPC….

Blah…graphs

Blah…more graphs

Blah…pie charts

In all 12 pages of graphs, facts and figures.

Look familiar? If it does, and this is what your SEO company is charging you for every month then STOP!!! Take a step back and look at what you’ve actually been given and more importantly, what you’re going to do with it.

You see…what you’ve just paid for is not analysis at all – it’s a report – plain and simple. It may look impressive with all the graphs, percentages, bounce rates etc. It may tell you that you’ve had 10,000 visitors and your traffic has increased by 5%, but at the end of the day it’s just a report, and unless you know what to do with it you’d be as well throwing your money in the bin!

Analysis is a not a report

Analysis is about interrogating and evaluating website data, identifying failures and successes. It’s about asking questions and suggesting methods for improvement. Analysis is all about going forward and implemeting changes, washing, rinsing and repeating. Remember – analysis is not a report.

What is website analysis?

Website analysis in it’s simplest form is looking at the data from a previous month, determining where things have went right(or wrong) and making suggestions from experience, skill etc., in order to make improvements for future month(s).

There are many reporting tools that help in analysis such as Google’s Analytics, Heatmaps, List data, Server logs, split testing and PPC control panels. These tools provide a multitude of data to take forward into analysis.

An example website analysis would look like the following:

Data Report

Web traffic  up 7.4%….
Top key phrases “blue widgets”…
Bounce rate remained constant at 65%…
72% of visitors came from Google….
22% of traffic generated from PPC….

Findings from previous month

The changes made in sections x of the home pages and three landing pages had a mixed effect. Scroll lengths were improved enticing visitors to read more. Paragraphs were shortened which kept the visitor engaged. Interspersed in these were calls to action both in web copy and sidebar forms/imagery. There was a negative effect noticed in the split when the sign up form was changed from green to red.

Questions

Q. How many clicked on our special offer call to action?
Q. How many did not? Would it improve click throughs if the call to action text was changed to bold?
Q. How many arrived from

• Google
• Yahoo

Q. Does Yahoo perform better in sales than Google for the same phrase?
Q. How many visitors were from organic versus paid search and should more be spent on organic?
Q. How far did visitors scroll down the page?
Q. How do click clusters compare on visitor volume to page?
Q. Conversions are down on page x – is this seasonal influences?
Q. Which calls to action are failing/performing best?
Q. What improvements can be made to influence higher click through rates to deep pages .
Q. Did long copy pages outperform short copy pages on split tests?

Deliverables

1. Set splits up to measure impact of bold versus colour font variations in calls to action
2. Move forms up above fold
3. Change telephone number to text from image to display as skype anchor
4. Test questions in H1 tags over statements and measure effect
5. etc……

The above gives you some idea of what true website analysis really is and becomes useful to the client. This is much more useful because;

1. The client can see progress and ways forward
2. The client can make sense of the graphs and terminology
3. The client/SEO can learn from successes and failures
4. The SEO company demosntrates their expertise
5. The SEO company can improve the performance of the site

Conclusion

Your website analysis report should contain recommendations, questions, deliverables and explanations of previous actions in addition to statistics data.

If it contains only data, graphs and statistics etc., then we’d strongly recommend you question your SEO Company. Analytics packages can produce these reports in seconds so don’t be fooled if you’re charged large fees for this type of service.

Whilst it’s no secret that there will be a change in 2010, these changes will hardly be noticeable by users but the wave of over reaction prompted by some SEOs will certainly cause confusion amongst companies looking to source a reputable SEO Company.

The simple fact is that no one except Google knows what the update will do and you cannot prepare for it.

The only preparation you can do is to protect yourself against SEOs offering to optimise your site for the new update – these will be the same companies who blame the caffeine update when your rankings disappear after they make these contrived changes to your site.

Google’s Matt Cutts quite clearly tells us that the users won’t be able to tell the difference and even those who tested out the public test site hardly noticed any difference in results. See for yourself in Matt Cutt’s video below.

Beware the SEO soothsayers and self proclaimed experts!

If the Florida Update is anything to go by then it’s safe to assume that Google have well and truly learned their lesson from it. However, and despite assurances from them since, some respected(?) SEOs still insist upon wreaking havoc by making wild predictions about what will happen every time Google announces an update. Take the wild predictions made by Bruce Clay in his infamous Ranking is dead in 2009 video last year.  Amongst these was the prediction that if the top 10 sites don’t have video on their pages then they could lose their rankings overnight. His predictions were wrong of course and he later went on to blame them on a “large beer” in this video, however the fact remains that countless SEOs sold his concepts to unsuspecting clients and videos started appearing on every site you could find.

Did those sites without video lose their rankings overnight? Of course not.

We read about this nonsense every day and the “experts” all predict that rankings will disappear everytime Google announces an update. Most of these predictions are based on articles that other “experts” have written which are then re spun in such a way that it causes panic/buzz and everyone has to do something about it – often with adverse results.

If it doesn’t come from Google then don’t believe everything these self proclaimed experts tell you.

There are no new ways to get on top of the search engines, there’s no secret sauce and there’s no inside information. All the soothsayers convinced us that rankings would turn upside down in 2009 but they didn’t.

Ranking in 2009 is very much alive and all those that continued ranking pages using tried and trusted methods (like ourselves) are the ones that outperformed everyone else.

The prime factor for ranking on Google before the Caffeine update was links, it still is links and probably will always be links for years to come.

SEO companies who don’t keep up to date with changes over at Google could receive a nasty shock come the start of the new year. 

Announced in August of this year, Caffeine has been available for public testing on Google’s sandbox website but it was replaced yesterday with a  notice informing the world that it will be going live soon.

Google claim the new version is faster, more accurate and produces more relevant results but many webmasters have who have witnessed rankings drops in the new Caffeine test site are concerened about drops in rankings.  Moreover, the timing of the news is already causing a stir among many site owners concerned about  potential loss of sales from rankings drops, especially just before the Christmas sales period.

Could this be a potential sales catastrophy?

Google certainly has a history of causing mass panic amongst online retailers when it makes these changes and you only need to look back at the catastrophy caused by the Florida Update in 2003 however, it’s safe to assume  there won’t be any repeat. Google’s Matt Cutts assures us in his blog that the roll out will not begin until January so online retailers can relax – for the present.

Winners and losers.

Whilst we all look forward to better more relevant results, there can be no doubt that there will be some winners and losers when the new version is rolled out.

If you’ve been monitoring your rankings between Caffeine vs Google then chances are that you have noticed some differences between the two sets of results.

Interesting times ahead!

We advise you to be extremely cautious of such companies, especially cold callers offering you “one months free trial on Google” or “£20 links”.

We have heard reports of companies who have had unauthorised transactions taken from their bank accounts as a result of these offers.

The sales tactics of these companies are high pressure, enticing you with incredible offers and they won’t take no for an answer.

This looks to be increasing in the run up to christmas and we advise companies to be extremely cautious if you do receive any cold calls of this nature.

The more people that know about this the better.

We’ve listed some of the things to be on the lookout for:

1. Do not trust any company cold calling you claiming to be

• from “Google sales”
• “authorised by Google”
• “Google asked us to call you”
• “We are caling on behalf of Google”
• “We saw your ad on Yell.com”

(No one is authorised by Google.)

2. Do not trust any company claiming to

• resell Google advertising space
• offer bulk discounts on Google AdWords  or links
• have an exclusive contract with Google

(Google do not have resellers, offer bulk discounts to resellers or have exclusive contracts.)

3. Do NOT under any circustances

• sign up for a “free 1 month’s free trial”
• give a deposit to “secure advertising space”
• sign up for £99 a month deals that guarantee number 1 positions
• sign up for £20 a link deals

(If you do sign up for any of these deals then you run the risk of payments being taken from your bank account or credit card.)

4. Don’t always trust the company if they claim to be “Google Qualified” on it’s website.

Any company can put a “Google Qualified” advert on their website. If a company is genuinely Google qualified then clicking on the logo will go to Google’s verification page.

NOTE: Google “Qualified” does not neccessary mean a reputable company. The Google qualification logo is widely abused.

Note also that Google is a private commercial company and their accreditation is a purely commercial award (you have to pay to obtain it). It is not a professional qualification such as that given to a doctor, engineer or accountant and it is not recognised by any professional Institution.

If you are intending to employ the services of an AdWords services company then we advise that you meet with them or have them meet with you on a face to face basis. Ask for references and check the company out in any way you can. Any reputable company will be upfront about their processes, charges, expectations etc.

Thousands of Scots are experiencing odd results when entering searches in their native Gaelic language.

“Google Gaelic” – the Scottish language version of the search engine is delivering results in English on certain search queries made in the Gaelic language and this, it appears, is causing confusion amongst thousands of searchers.

The ‘bug’ occurs when a user enters the Gaelic word “Seo”  into the search field. 

Seo means “this, or here” in Gaelic and is commonly appended to the end of sentences, however  it appears to be fooling the Google language filter. Results are being returned in the English on Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.

Screenshot below shows Google’s language filter returning search results in English as opposed to Gaelic.

See filter in action here 

Scots internet guru Angus MacHochs said “It’s very confusing. Lots of times when I searched for stuff in my native native tongue all I got was results on “SEO Companies” promising “number 1 positions on Google”. You’d think with all Google’s millions they would get simple stuff like this right”.

A  group of Scots  intend to use Euro rules to protect the ancient Scottish word from the inferior version currently being used on internet search engines.

SEO Scotland written on Scottish road sign

If successful it will be known as Scottish or Scotch SEO and it will have to be produced by Scottish SEO Companies.

The word “Seo” has been used in the ancient Scottish language since AD410 but the recent adaptation by internet geeks is causing confusion claim the group. As a result they are now seeking to have internet search engines redesign their algorithims and replace it with the original Scottish word.

Spokesperson Hamish MacHochs had this to say “Not a single day goes by without our inboxes being flooded with emails from internet marketing companies selling us “SEO” and promising number 1 positions on Google. You have no idea how confusing this can be.

He added “It’s even got to the stage where these computer geeks are taking pictures of our road signs and putting them on the internet!”

SEO Origins

The word “SEO” has long been synonomous with Scotland. Video website YouTube displays numerous clips of the popular 70s Gaelic BBC TV programme “Can Seo” where the word can be witnessed in teachings.

Experts agree.

Experts also back the group’s campaign for ownership of the word.

In Europe, the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) scheme grants certain products such as scotch mist, tartan, haggis and the thistle with “Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)” status.

Scottish Euro Studies expert, Professor Carmel Waiver explained ” A PGI identifies a product as originating in a particular area or country”

“Take the Arbroath Smokie for example. You can only call it an Arbroath Smokie if you smoke it within a five mile radius of the small Scottish fishing town of Arbroath. Similarly Gorogonzola cheese can only be labelled as Gorgonzola if it is grown in the small Italian town near Milan”.

He added “Since the word “SEO” originates from the Scottish Gaelic language then by default,  internet “SEO” services should only be performed by an SEO Company within a certain radius of Scotland”.

Experts believe the search engines themselves set the precendent. The Google search engine provides language specific search versions such as google.fr (French) and google.de(German). Therefore a Gaelic version of Google could very well be on the cards.

The benefits for the Scottish economy could be huge, boosting tourism, haggis and whisky sales as SEO companies from accross the globe flock to relocate in Scotland to offer their services.

The bid could also spark claims from similar groups such as those seeking to enforce pronounciation of the word Niche as “neesh” rather than the incorrect “Americanised” pronounciation of the word as “nitch”.

At time of writing it was rumoured that an Australian group was seeking recognition as the inventor of the Deep Fried Mars Bar.