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Marketer. Designer. Entrepreneur.
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Making it Easier on “Joe Visitor”

November 13th, 2007

A fast loading page that is quick and easy to navigate works wonders when it comes to conversion rate and visitor engagement in the site. About a month ago we were in the preliminary stages of redesigning a website for the company spend about 10 hours a week with, Hawkeye Technology Inc,. They came up with the design but needed help writing sales copy, creating some images, and improving the overall layout and usability of the site. They sell two pieces of software, this is the landing page one. What are the first things you notice when you see this screen shot?

The five things I noticed were:

1) No Headline
2) 10 Options Down The Side
3) 8 Options Across the Top
4) Drab Colors
5) No Call to Action

So, I looked through the site and studied the content, looking for ways to simplify their page. The first thing I noticed was that they had a “pricing” and a “purchase” page, the prices were listed on the purchase page but you could place an order from the pricing page. Next, I found that three of the pages were really features of the program and could be easily included in the features page.

I realized that if “Joe Visitor” wanted to check out some features, read a few reviews, and download a demo or make a purchase he would have to click on as many as 10-12 links! In the end we were able to break it down to 6 total pages for each software.

1) Main Landing Page
2) Features
3) Reviews
4) Support
5) Demo
6) Order

Here is a screenshot of the new layout (which I will discuss in a bit when that is all finalized) with the new, condensed navigational links area.

Now, if Joe wants to see some features, read some reviews, and then download a demo it takes three clicks. Joe is happy, we are happy…life is good.

Customer / Brand Loyalty…

November 10th, 2007

I have been thinking a lot and noticing examples of customer and brand loyalty and the communities that are created surrounding certain products and companies.  Today, Utah State University (my school) played #19 ranked Boise State University in Logan, UT.  Utah State hadn’t won a game yet this year and so it was set to be an easy with from the Broncos.  However, did this persuade their fans to stay home and watch the blowout on the TV?  Nope, nearly 10,000 BSU fans showed up, combined with many Boise natives from Logan, they outnumbered Aggie fans 2-1…AT HOME!

In the picture above you can see the student section in the bottom left and the BSU fans in the top part.  As you can see, not only did they show up in droves, but they were all fully decked out in Bronco gear, more than once we saw 3 cars in a row with multiple BSU car-flags driving down 10th North in Logan.

BSU USU Game

This family booked a hotel room a week ago for the trip and ended up having to stay in Brigham City, 30 miles away because there wasn’t a single room left in Logan!  This is an hour an a half before the game started.  These guys are fans.  I was intrigued by this because I realized that this is the epitome of customer loyalty.  If you could just create a brand with this kind of loyalty and willingness to sacrifice and work to join and be a part of the community…you would really have something!

SEO – Backlinks from Directories

November 9th, 2007

As I was doing some SEO research for Hawkeye Technology recently, I found that the top two results for their target keyword string we are optimizing for had almost complete different types of backlinks. One had backlinks almost exclusively from press release sites from their various product launches. The other had links coming almost exclusively from directories, both paid and free.

I had heard from various SEOers that most directories weren’t worth the time it took to submit your site to them; espically free ones.  But, my research was saying that the the highest ranking site on Google for a competitive keyword string was backed by a bunch of directory links.  In decided to test the effectiveness of these links with my business, Second Nature Snowmaking. I submitted to a small handful of free directories and will be seeing how they effect the Google rankings.

Directories Submitted To:
http://www.livelinkdirectory.com (pr 3)
http://www.gulqro.com (pr 3)
http://www.domaining.in/ (pr 5)
http://www.TheCommercialDirectory.com (pr 2)
http://www.zalink.com (pr 1)
http://www.hotvsnot.com (pr 4)

I submitted to them on November 5th, the same day I had been approved and was listed on www.domaining.in/ (pr 5)  and now a backlink search on Google shows that directory as the second link.  I am yet to hear back from the other directories regarding the approval of my submission.

DESIGN PROJECT – Lori G Bird

November 7th, 2007

I was recently approached by Lori G Bird, a professional genealogist specializing in danish family history. Lori is a stay at home mom that was wanting to sell her genealogical skills as a service to add a small secondary income for her family. This is what we came up with.

The Design
I decided to keep it as simple as possible, we put all the info on one page, and simply had a “buy now” button at the bottom accompanied by a form on the following page that got all the information someone may need that came to the site. After testing we changed it to a simple form that asked them how she could help fill their needs; a sort of free consultation. Here is a screen shot of the final design:

Lori G Bird Website

The Plan
She had very little real competition for the search phrase “danish genealogy” which after some keyword research seemed to be the most popular keyword string. The site was optimized for “danish genealogy” and we purchased the domain name “danish-genealogy.com” to add in the efforts.

The Results
A month later, Lori is getting an average of 2 new clients a week at an Adwords cost of about $5-$6 a month. With little off-site SEO her site has a Google ranking of #20 for “danish-genealogy” (check it now). She has gained a total of 6 clients from a total visitor count of 121 giving the site a conversion rate of just over 5.0%. This could probably be improved but Lori is content with the$100-$200 a week she is making in her spare time. Visit www.danish-genealogy.com for more info.
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