getting seen on the internet isn't as difﬁcult asserif.punster.info/serifusers/click.pdf ·...

Getting Seen on the Internetisn't as difficult as

you may think

It all starts with a Click

A brief guide to Internet Marketingfrom Trisel Communications

IT ALL STARTS WITH A CLICK2

Are you taking advantage

of the attention

economy??

Modern web technology has shortened the attention span of most web surfers when visiting websites. Social Networking, Twitter, Facebook and attention-grabbing web marketing has turned most people into highly demanding surfers that want information quickly and concisely. This has had a huge impact on the way modern websites are designed, and how they interact with site visitors.

Long gone are the days when a website could be used for setting out our stall with volumes of information - a place where we could tell our story with little regard for the space we were occupying on the world wide web. In today's fast-paced world, no-one is interested in home pages, about us pages, or even contact us pages. These have all been consigned to the trash can of Internet history.

In this guide, you will learn what the "new world order" of web designers are doing to meet the challenges posed by the attention economy. You'll learn how to create websites that will give you that all-important return on investment that has become so essential in today's commercial world. We'll be dissecting those highly effective web pages that convert visitors into customers, and we'll be explaining all that new jargon.You will see how to redesign your website to make it more productive and profitable by grabbing the attention of your visitors with compelling pages that demand action.

Of course, not everyone will necessarily have a need to tap into the attention economy - there will always be those who simply want a website for a close group of friends , family or associates to share their experiences, or to simply impart information to a known group of people. For such people, this guide will probably be of little use. But, if you have a commercial website that needs to get results in terms of customer numbers (note I didn't say visitor numbers) then this is the place to start.

But first, some new terminology you will have to understand in order to succeed in the attention economy. Check them out on the right.

Message Matching

Call to Action (CTA)

Social Trust

Search Engine

Marketing (SEM)

All websites visits start with a click on a link. The message in that link MUST match the message of the webpage the link points to.

Calls to action are the lifeblood of modern web design. If you don't ask your visitors to do something, they will leave your site without doing anything

Nothing builds trust faster than the recommendation of others. Social trust should be built into every page

Unlike search engine optimisation (that aims to get your pages listed in generic searches) SEM is where you actively use search engines to promote your pages to the world.

IT ALL STARTS WITH A CLICK 3

Lets

begin

with the

Clicks


All website journeys

begin with a single click.

But, where that click takes a site visitor can mean the difference between success or failure for the website visited.

Whilst many people concentrate heavily on the generic results produced by search engines for their site visits, the fact is that these are not necessarily the best clicks you can have. The problem with generic searches is that they can send visitors to just about ANY page of your site, including a contact page, a terms and conditions page or a generic home page.

For this reason, when designing a modern website you have to incorporate LANDING PAGES that fulfil a specific function. Landing pages are those pages where you will want your clicks to point to. By doing this, you can prevent search engines from indexing all other pages in your site, and force them to only list your landing pages.

So why would you want to do this? Simple, Your landing pages can be individually optimised to bring you a qualified visitor. You do this by making sure the page title and description sets out a specific offer that will be of interest to people searching for your product or service. For example, which of these links would you be most inclined to click if you were interested in widgets?

Hertfordshire Widget Company - Home PageSuppliers of widgets and widget accessories

Huge Selection of Widgets in HertfordshireDownload our FREE widget guide now - everything you could want from a single reliable supplier

Most visitors would probably go for the second link because it contains a call to action that should be of great interest to a widget buyer. Now, what do you think would happen if that link went to a generic home page with no mention of the free guide? People would assume they clicked the wrong link and most likely leave the site. If, however, the link pointed to a LANDING page with a prominent call to action to download the guide, the response rate would be greater.

Sources of those essential clicks

Generic

Searches

email Links

Forums

Social

Media

Internet

Advertising


Example CTA

graphics

A website can have many different landing pages, each designed with a different call to action. Maybe an offer of a free quotation, a downloadable case study, or to take advantage of a special promotion by ordering online. Whatever the offer is, the links that go to that landing page must be carefully worded to match the page offer. This way you reduce the number of disappointed visitors, and get a much higher conversion rate.

It should also be remembered that generic search engine links are not the only source of important clicks. Email links can be effectively deployed to provide specific links to one or more of your landing pages. Social networking sites, Forums, blog posts as well pay-per-click ads can all be used to promote your specific landing pages. The key is MESSAGE MATCHING - the link must match the message of the landing page. If it doesn't, you'll most likely lose the visitor.

Your landing pages can also be designed to appeal specifically to the audience of where your click originates. The thing to remember is that all-important Call to Action (CTA). The source of your click should be the FIRST CTA, whilst your landing pages should offer a SECOND CTA. This keeps visitors moving in the right direction - to a goal or page objective that you've set as a means of getting what YOU want from your site visitor.

Of course, the most basic and widely used Call to Action was the old "Contact Us" page. However, this is not an effective CTA in the modern world because visitors don't have a REASON to fill up the contact form and submit it. This is where landing pages come into their own. They're designed to give visitors a REASON for contacting you through a simple-to-find, highly visible CTA embedded right in your landing page. The use of CTA graphics add significant prominence to your CTA message, but don't overdo it! Just one CTA graphic per page is all that is required.

Keep them moving

towards your objective


Logo - Use as Link to home page

1. Image MatchShow image of product in

Use

2. Message MatchThe header as a whole should reinforce the message/promise of the referring link. This confirms that the visitor made the correct click. This area can also contain a Call To Action

3. VideoVideos are proven to

increase conversions by as much as 80%

4. Visual CuesUse visual elements to help direct visitors to your call to action.

6. Action TriggerBe sure to make your Call To Action highly visible. If it involves data collection rather than placing an order, keep the form simple.

5. Page CopyKeep the message short

and direct. Use bullet points where appropriate.

7. Social SharingGive visitors the means of

sharing your page with others. 8. Social Proof

TestimonialsShow what others are saying about your product/service - build TRUST.

Links - To other site pages. These links should be of secondary importance to the page message.

NotesAlthough the diagram above shows two possible locations for the page's "Call To Action", in reality you would only have a SINGLE call to action on any page.

Where the Call To Action is data collection, ensure that the collection form and its submit button is within the landing page. After submitting, move the visitor to a thank you landing page that contains another Call To Action (one that will send them to a site page of your choice).

Where the call to action is to place an order, ensure that the link starts the order processing function of your site. (Check out the section of this guide that deals with order processing)

Anatomy of a Landing Page


• Ensure your landing pages are no more than two screenfuls - too much scrolling will lose the visitor

• Make sure that your call to action is ABOVE THE FOLD - in other words it should be visible on the first screen.

• If your call to action is likely to be in a borderline position - maybe about centre page - then use VISUAL CUES to direct people further down the page to where your CTA is.

• Make sure your CTA is highly visible on the page - use a good strong colour.

• Make sure to use a good illustration at the head of the page that reinforces your message (maybe a product image - preferably an image of the product in use)

• If you have a video of people using the product, or someone talking about your product/service, be sure to add it to the page.

• Keep your site navigation as subtle as possible so as not to distract visitors from your core message. Add additional text links to other site pages at the bottom of your page. Categorise your links and put them into columns.

• Make sure you use a graphic as your CTA button - text links can get lost.

• Keep text copy to the bare essentials - short, bulleted paragraphs are good for this - make sure they contain your page specific keyword phrases.

• Make it easy for visitors to share your page on social networks.

The general rules for

landing pages

A landing page is like the home page of a mini website within your main website. It should be the first page of a short journey through to the page objective.

If the objective is list building, it's important to make sure that your information gathering form is on the landing page. Don't ask for too much information, and try, where possible, to offer something in return for the information - maybe a download or a discount coupon.

Avoid captchas - people often get frustrated if they have difficulty in entering the code correctly. Instead, use a good form processing script that can filter out the more obvious spam merchants.

If the page objective is to get an online order, put a very clear offer on your landing page and a prominent "Get Started" link. This should go to a product ordering and information page. There you can include an order form and additional product information and images. Where the product may require you to provide a specification or other important information, consider placing this information into tabs or pop-up lightboxes so people don't have to leave the order page.

Once the page objective has been met, always provide a confirmation to the site visitor by taking them to a landing page-specific success page.

Always follow up the visitors action with an email thanking them for their subscription/order or whatever, and make sure you keep the contact information for future promotions.


The importance of measurability

Correctly prepared landing pages in your site can give you valuable feedback about the effectiveness of your website as a sales and marketing tool. Because each landing page has its own action/order form, you will know how many people who visit a particular landing page actually convert. Furthermore, by placing analytics code in your landing pages, you will be able to identify the source of all those clicks that sent visitors to each of your landing pages in the first place. So, if you've embarked on a pay-per-click campaign, you'll know exactly how much bang you got for your buck.

Here's an example: If you get 100 clicks from your campaign to your landing page, and 30 of those visitors respond positively to your call to action, you will know that your conversion rate is 30%. If your clicks cost you 50 cents each, you will know that your conversions are costing you $1.66 each. Now you can decide if that result is good or bad.

By having several different landing pages - each one linked to a particular campaign, it's relatively simple to see which of your campaigns is most cost effective. and which of your landing pages gives you the best result. This is basic marketing - without it you'll be working in the dark.

In the next section, we'll be discussing how to organize your site as a whole to fully exploit the power of landing pages.

Example CTA's from

real websites


Site

organization

for

effective

marketing


Want to know a

secret?

Most web design projects start from completely the wrong place !!!

The starting point for most commercial website projects is the creation of a home page. This is completely wrong. The correct way is to start with the marketing objective of the site, and then to create product or service specific landing pages which will convert visitors into customers by walking them through one or two ancillary pages to an action objective.

So, what is the function of a home page? Put simply, it's just another landing page that has a clear objective of getting visitors into one or more of your other landing pages from where they can take some other positive action.

Home pages are much the same as the front cover of a magazine or newspaper. These types of publication use the front cover to promote what's inside the publication. Furthermore, those features are often the subject of advertising campaigns that aim to get people to buy those publications. You see, it's just like a landing page in a website. People see an ad for a particular feature, offer, or freebie being offered in the publication, and they go to the newsstand to buy a copy. By having a teaser on the front cover for the feature, offer or freebie, people know they've got the right publication and buy.

The home page of a website should achieve much the same objective. It must contain several CTA's that point to features, offers or promotions contained in your website. People don't want to land on a home page to be confronted with the life story of the company, or a cluttered navigation system that forces them into a major research project in order to find what they're looking for. Home pages are a jumping off point for those who may know your URL, or for those that find your site by accident and end up on your home page. If your site is designed correctly, most visitors will enter your site on a carefully designed landing page.


When embarking on a website project for a commercial organisation (unless its a pure public relations or information site) you must start with the site objectives and create landing pages that will help achieve those objectives.

If the company is selling a single product or service, the task is very much easier because the landing page that gets designed can also be the site's home page. But, if like many commercial organisations, there are numerous products or services, it may be necessary to create many different landing and ancillary pages. In these circumstances, the pages (or groups of pages) have to be strung together into some form of navigable website. This is where the home page comes in; and the correct order of things is to create the home page LAST. In fact, its a little like the executive summary of a business report, or the contents page of a book - it can't be effectively created until the main report or book is completed - the same is true for website home pages.

So, the focus of a good home page should be those calls to action that take people into your website to do something. Forget about fancy navigation systems that blink, move or present a multitude of sub options. These only serve to move the visitor's focus away from your site's core commercial objective. If you look at most successful websites where the focus is on sales and marketing, you'll often find that site navigation is very subtle - almost blending into the page background so as not distract the visitor's attention.

If you think about this for a moment, a modern marketing website is a bit like a sat-nav - it takes you by the hand and guides you to your destination. Unfortunately, most websites are designed to work like an old fashioned street atlas. You have to search for your destination in some form of street index, locate the page, find the coordinates, and then plan your route from where you are to where you want to be. This is probably one of the reasons why you see many websites sporting sophisticated navigation structures that end up taking pride of place on the site's pages. The problem is they do little to help visitors locate what they're really looking for. Instead, the attention economy expects every website to act like a sat-nav - so why disappoint them?

Example CTA's from

real websites


Design for order

Processing

Match your order processing to your call to action

When it comes to designing sites with a SALES objective, you have a number of different ways of getting that all important sale. In some sites, you may have a shopping cart system - in others, it may be a simple, single product order form. Your choice really depends on the type of business you're in. For example, if you have a supermarket site that allows for home shopping, clearly your landing (or home page) must allow for one of two CTA's to be selected. The first will be to "Start Shopping", the other will be to "Open an Account". Beyond this landing page, the site should be designed like a shopping list where visitors can quickly select products, enter quantities, and eventually check out. This works because people are EXPECTED to purchase multiple items and there is little need to have whole pages dedicated to product descriptions. But, would this type of arrangement work in a site dealing with high value consumer goods, such as stereos, cameras or computers? The chances are it won't, so in these cases you're better designing a site where each product-related landing page has it's own order form. By designing this way, you simplify the buying decision. The visitor can go from landing page, to product details and options, and finally to an editable, but pre-filled order form.

In such a site you could also have one of those pop-ups that tells visitors "Customers who purchased this item also purchased that item". This is an ideal added-value tool that is most effectively used for adding related items to the order - maybe a memory upgrade option on a tablet PC. or a carrying case for a laptop. The pop-up itself should contain a simple "add to my order" button, or a less prominent "Not now thank you" button.

Example CTA's from

real websites


If you have any doubts about the effectiveness of this type of site arrangement, just take a look at some of the more effective sales-orientated websites out there. Take a look at apple.com - there you will see a navigation bar that is very much product orientated. Clicking a link will take you to a product page where you can click for information on variant's of the product. When you get to the product page, right at the top you will see a Buy button in a strong contrasting colour. It's a feature you will see on all of Apple's product pages.

Now look for the "Contact" and other ancillary links ! Yes, they are there, but way down at the bottom of the page. You see, Apple want to use their site primarily for selling products, so they make it easy for visitors to do this.

Now look at serif.com - it's much the same arrangement. The front page is full of CTA's which when clicked start visitors on that important buying journey. When a product page is selected you will see very prominent "Buy" buttons that make it simple for visitors to buy the product. There's a whole host of other information on the pages, but the "Buy" CTA is prominent and will start visitors on the ordering process. And where do Serif put their "Contact Us" and other ancillary links? You've guessed it - right at the bottom of their pages.

The interesting thing about both of these sites is that ANY of their product pages can be designated as a landing page. So, when it comes to using links to promote specific products, visitors can be directed to a product specific landing page without it looking as if they've arrived at an obscure INSIDE page of the website. Furthermore, the page visitors arrive at contains those all-important CTA's that makes buying the product so simple - AND, those CTA's are predominantly at the TOP of each page.

There are, of course, countless other examples of sites that use effective landing pages, and what most of those sites have in common are minimalist home pages. Instead of lengthy introductions to the company or their products and services, they are predominantly loaded with attention-grabbing CTA's that get visitors to essential information quickly - They're designed to start visitors on a relatively short journey to a sale.

Apple's iMac

Landing Page

Note the call to action right at the top of the page. Also note that the navigation system is geared to product groups and everything is above the fold.

Serif's WebPlus

Landing Page

The same rules have been applied on the Serif Website. Product info and calls to action are all above the fold. Clicking virtually anywhere on this page is going to start visitors on a "sales" journey


optimising landing pages

For a landing page to be correctly seen by search engines, it's important to understand that web pages are indexed individually - not as complete websites. It's this individualisation that sends people to the correct page in your site rather than to a more generic site home page.

Taking the example of Apple and Serif again, both of the product pages illustrated on the previous page have very specific page descriptions and titles. These are carefully worded to ensure that when the titles and descriptions are displayed in search engine results there can be no doubt in the visitor's mind what the linked page is all about. This ensures more relevant "Clicks" - you see, the aim is to get high conversion numbers rather than high visitor numbers.

The use of good descriptions and titles is even more important if you are deploying "pay per click" advertising. This is why it's fairly pointless deploying so-called "SEO Tricks" to fool people into visiting your pages. In the real commercial world you only want to pay for visitors who are actually interested in your product or service - the tire kickers you inevitably get from "trickery" simply waste your advertising dollar.

As you can see from the examples on the right, the titles and description tell visitors EXACTLY what the page is about.

Apple - iMac - The ultimate all-in-one desktop computer.The new iMac features quad-core processors, advanced HD graphics, and Thunderbolt I/O. Itʼs the all-in-one computer that sets a higher standard.

Website Design Software – WebPlus X5 from SerifWebPlus X5 is the easy, all-in-one website designer. Create your own website without any HTML knowledge or experience required!

Apple's iMac

Landing Page - as

presented by search

engines

Serif's WebPlus

Landing Page - as

presented by search

engines


Don't forget the

source of those

clicks

When looking at SEO, most website developers assume that the only way to get increased traffic is to get on page one of those search engines. - Nothing could be further from the truth.

With literally hundreds of millions of web pages out there, its a virtually impossible task to guarantee a page one listing unless you have a very unique set of keyword phrases. Relying on generic search results alone is not only foolhardy, but also extremely time consuming.

Commercial organisations view SEO as a way of getting their Landing Pages indexed for online marketing such as ad-words. They appreciate that a good lead is worth exactly what you pay for it.

Paying for a lead is not unusual as long as you have a website that's designed specifically to convert leads into customers. What would you rather have? 100 visitors who do nothing on your website, or one paying customer that makes you $10.00 profit at a cost of 25¢? It's not rocket science!

And it's not only premium search engine results that can grab your potential customers. There are literally thousands of small websites out there that voluntarily include a Google Ads Banner on their pages where your link can appear. Whilst those people get a few cent's income from the link (if they're lucky), you can get a customer that not only takes up your promotional offer, but could conceivably keep coming back for more.

The strange anomaly about this situation is that the more people that visit your web pages from paid advertising, the more important your pages look to search engines and so pushes your pages further up the generic listings that most SEO experts will have you believe are so important.

Then there is email marketing. Create a well designed landing page that gets you email addresses, and you'll automatically get a good mailing list to which you can direct future promotional offers. The same is true for social networking marketing. This "viral" form of marketing can be an excellent way to promote your web pages to whole groups of people with similar interests.

In a nutshell, SEO is only the tool that search engines use to place your site in front of a relevant market. The rest is down to you!!!

Whilst the source of your "clicks" may be predominantly "Generic", this isn't the only way to get visitors to your website pages. In fact, it can be a bit hit or miss. Instead, think in terms of "pay per click" or banner advertising.

Start thinking like a professional marketeer - You wouldn't expect your local newspaper to give you free advertising, and you certainly wouldn't expect free ads on your local TV station. So, don't expect search engines to give your web pages pride of place on generic searches. Start thinking in terms of how much you are prepared to PAY for convertible vistors to your website.

However, don't even contemplate "pay per click" unless your web pages have been optimised for this form of marketing. To do so would be a total waste of your advertising buck. Remember, "pay per click" not only gives you premium position in search engine results, but can also place your ad on the pages of all those "suckers" that offer "ad-words" advertising banners on their web pages for little or no money. Think about it - millions of websites that happily include ad-words advertising for no other reason than their belief that it somehow gives "coolness" to their own website.

You should also give serious consideration to using email marketing as a vehicle for Landing page promotion. If you have at least one Landing Page that collects email addresses, you have everything you need to promote your other Landing Pages to a known group of subscribers who have elected to receive your promotional emails.

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