http://odeo.com/channels/101422-Drive-It-Convert-It-Web-and-Internet-Marketing Jboulter no Web and Internet marketing blog and podcast for the small and medium sized business. Among the issues discussed are Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO, SEM), Online Advertising, Email Campaigns, Podcast and Blog Marketing, and Conversion services such as Landing Page design and conversion tracking. Web and Internet marketing blog and podcast for the small and medium sized business. Among the issues discussed are Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO, SEM), Online Advertising, Email Campaigns, Podcast and Blog Marketing, and Conversion services such as Landing Page design and conversion tracking. Drive It - Convert It, is the Internet marketing podcast about driving more traffic to your site and converting that traffic once it's there. Drivers include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (which adds online advertising, vertica en 40 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:47:12 -0700 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:47:12 -0700 Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/2095008-Drive-It-Convert-It-12-podcast-Getting-Started-with-Local-Search tag:odeo.com,2006-10-06,2095008 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:47:12 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/24185463-Drive-It-Convert-It-12-podcast-Getting-Started-with-Local-Search Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts  Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google – add your local listing Yahoo – add your local listing MSN – add your local listing infoUSA – add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon’s Superpages.com advertising Local.com – vertical search engine TrueLocal.com – vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive I... Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts  Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google – add your local listing Yahoo – add your local listing MSN – add your local listing infoUSA – add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon’s Superpages.com advertising Local.com – vertical search engine TrueLocal.com – vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search – listen and find out. Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com. Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. We’ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC – Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment – Local Search. Local search – it’s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasn’t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which we’ll go over. And if you’re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see they’re ramping up their local search offerings. But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color. It’s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As she’s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand. Now I think she’s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work. During the next 20 or so minutes, I’m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Don’t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes – they’ll all be the Bastion Internet website. Local search – what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. I’m going to talk about that and give you a 10 step “getting started” plan. What is local search. To me local search means physical contact. If you have something to offer that can be enhanced by a physical meeting then you are involved in local search. If your target audience will want to get together with you at some point in the process, and they’re searching for your type of offering, that is local search. Why is it important. It’s important because people are doing it. They’re searching online for local products and services. Right now – as we speak. There are some fresh stats just out from a comScore Networks study. comScore provides consumer behavior insight to companies. They just completed a study on local search on the Internet. This past July, 2006, 109 million people in the United States did a local search on a search engine. That was 63% of the US internet users. Local search is up 43 percent year over year. Now for the really exciting number - 47 percent of local searchers followed through with a visit to a business they’d found while searching. Here’s the number that surprised me the most – Yahoo and Google were neck in neck with local search market share – Google had 29.8 percent of the market, Yahoo had 29.2 percent of the market. To me that’s pretty significant for a couple of reasons. First it means that Google has a lot less proportional influence in this category then they seem to in overall search. Second, it means that the 2 market leaders comprise about 60% of the market, a lot less then in more general search where it’s probably closer to 75% of the market. There’s also a lot more players making up the next 30 or so percentage points. Check out the link to the press release to get more info on that. So - we know what it is. We know how important it is. Now – how do we do it. Where do we focus. Here’s the 10 step program to get you started: Add your website to the major search engines’ local search areas. Update your infoUSA profile GeoTarget your Pay Per Click program Place tester ads on traditional yellow page style websites Place tester ads on vertical search engines Optimize your website coding Optimize your website content Create new website content Add a map to your site Get geographic centric links Let’s look at those in more detail 1 ) Add your website to the major search engines’ local search areas. Just before the show, I typed in the phrase “furniture store in los angeles”. The top result in Google, Yahoo, and MSN (aka Windows Live) were all the search engines own local search sites. Try it. Even if you can deliver your service anywhere in the country, if someone wants to deal with a local company – you want to show up. Now in Google, you can have many local addresses, - but they are going to ask you to confirm each one by sending you a confirmation code via snail mail to that address. I’ve got the links to Yahoo, Google and MSN’s local submission URLs in the show notes. It does time them time to get listed, so start this going today. 2) Update your infoUSA profile infoUSA is a large database and list management firm. When you get telemarketed, there’s a good chance the telemarketer bought their list from infoUSA. Oh well, they’ve probably got your information anyway, so go onto their site and make sure it’s the right information. infoUSA feeds a lot of directories and smaller search engines so you do want to be there. 3) Target Your Pay Per Click programs If you aren’t already doing this, geographically target some portion of your pay per click campaign. Even if you market in the entire country, if you can do something extra in some locations – because you have physical presence there – target those locations. You can do this in one of two ways – either bid regionally – a feature within the various pay per click engines, or include geographic keywords as part of your search phrase – like furniture store in Boston. If you choose to use the PPC feature, Google and Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at this than Yahoo’s search marketing. However, Yahoo’s new Panama release may change that. I did see a demo of their upcoming software but can’t remember if in enhanced the geotargeting functionality. I usually prefer to add the specific keywords to my phrases, but others definitely prefer using the search engines own geographic filters. With services like AOL and other anonymizers the IP address of the searcher does not always match their geography. And I think Users are getting more used to using geographic terms in their searches. If I had to choose one, I think that using the actual keywords is the way to go. 4) Place tester ads on a traditional yellow page style websites Go to yellowpages.com or Verizon’s Superpages.com, check out their ad prices and place some test ads. One thing I really need to mention and that is definitely the subject of a future Drive It – Convert It episode is that of Analytics. You do need to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from. The more sources of traffic you have, the more important it is to be able to analyze the success or lack of success of each one. This is a little easier when you’ve got limited sources of traffic drivers. As you diversify, analytics is a key. 5) Place tester ads on vertical search engines There are a number of search engines that are catering to Local search. I’m not sure whether they’ll having staying power versus the big engines. I do think it’s worthplacing some test ads on a few of these sites. Two that I would start with are local.com and truelocal.com 6) Optimize your website coding This gets back to showing up in the general engines but for the geographic long tail. Revisit your page titles, metatags, h1 headings and see if you can’t plug some geographic terms in there. Often it will just add to your ability to be found for these geographic qualifiers without diminishing your ranking for the more generic terms you’re currently focused on. If you need more information on how to do on-page coding – re-listen to podcast # 4. 7 ) Optimize your website content Take a look at your current content. Do you mention nearby cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, counties. Usually you can add a short paragraph that is very conversational in nature “whether your planting lawns in Southlake, landscaping in Colleyville, or gardening in West Plano our Dallas based warehouse can handle your fertilizer needs” you get the idea. Make sure your physical addresses are listed on your contact page. Consider putting your main address as part of your footer. Add your phone number to the header. If you’re solely doing business locally, that should be a must anyway. 8 ) Create new website content Create pages for 2 or 3 key geographic terms – let’s say you’re San Francisco Bay area based – so Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Dedicate a page to talk about each of these cities. List the attractions, the weather, the business climate the Now take your top 2 or 3 regular search phrase targets and integrate them into the city pages. It’s probably going to look a little strange, so be creative. Make up a new section for your site. Call it doing business in the Bay Area. Tell why your employees like the surrounding cities. Talk about the history of your area of business within the cities. Just make sure you have some good internal links near the top of the page which will transfer Users to the business end of your site. The idea is to rank with the search engines for these pages and then quickly have those users move on to the converting areas of your website. Make it quality, as always. And, make the pages different. Don’t just do a search and replace on the city name and leave the rest of the content unchanged. Duplicate content is likely to get ignored. If the technique works for you, it’ll be worth your time to expand it. Branch out to more cities, neighborhood, states, whatever makes sense in your geography. 9 ) Add a map to your site Make sure you’ve got a map on your site with an Alt tag describing it. Add some directions. Tell how to get to your location from neighboring cities. Sound like good content to me. 10 ) Get geographic centric links Finally, go get some links. Two tactics here - first, make sure the linking anchor text contains the geographic keyword qualifier. This applies especially to links from more generic directories or traditional website sources for you. Second, try to get links from directories or sites that cater to your geography. We often talk about links from good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods and same-industry neighborhoods. Now go get some links from your actual neighborhood. There are a lot of directories trying to cater to a particular region, search them out and you’ll probably find you can get some cost effective links. Hopefully, the links themselves will drive traffic to you, but the link juice you get that ups your search engine rankings can often be a big kicker. There we go – done! It should take you less than 60 days to work your way through those 10 steps. You’ll probably be through half of them in just a few weeks. So like politics is all search local – nah – but a lot of it is – so take advantage! That wraps up Getting Started with Local Search. But whether you’re local or national, it seems you can’t turn around without bumping into another Drive Traffic animal - Social Search. So join us for our next installment in the series - Getting Started with Social Search. So if you haven’t yet subscribed, you won’t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast. If you just don’t like the whole RSS thing, fill out the email form on the site, I’ve got the link in the show notes and all the podcast pages. We’ll get you added to our double-secret probation opt-in email distribution list. As always I welcome you to visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. We’ll get back to you. And for gosh sakes – link to me – because you can never be to thin, too rich or have too many quality inbound links. Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts  Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google – add your local listing Yahoo – add your local listing MSN – add your local listing infoUSA – add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon’s Superpages.com advertising Local.com – vertical search engine TrueLocal.com – vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search – listen and find out. Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com. Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. We’ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC – Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment – Local Search. Local search – it’s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasn’t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which we’ll go over. And if you’re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see they’re ramping up their local search offerings. But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color. It’s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As she’s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand. Now I think she’s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work. During the next 20 or so minutes, I’m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Don’t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes – they’ll all be the Bastion Internet website. Local search – what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. I’m going to talk about that and give you a 10 step “getting started” plan. What is local search. To me local search means physical contact. If you have something to offer that can be enhanced by a physical meeting then you are involved in local search. If your target audience will want to get together with you at some point in the process, and they’re searching for your type of offering, that is local search. Why is it important. It’s important because people are doing it. They’re searching online for local products and services. Right now – as we speak. There are some fresh stats just out from a comScore Networks study. comScore provides consumer behavior insight to companies. They just completed a study on local search on the Internet. This past July, 2006, 109 million people in the United States did a local search on a search engine. That was 63% of the US internet users. Local search is up 43 percent year over year. Now for the really exciting number - 47 percent of local searchers followed through with a visit to a business they’d found while searching. Here’s the number that surprised me the most – Yahoo and Google were neck in neck with local search market share – Google had 29.8 percent of the market, Yahoo had 29.2 percent of the market. To me that’s pretty significant for a couple of reasons. First it means that Google has a lot less proportional influence in this category then they seem to in overall search. Second, it means that the 2 market leaders comprise about 60% of the market, a lot less then in more general search where it’s probably closer to 75% of the market. There’s also a lot more players making up the next 30 or so percentage points. Check out the link to the press release to get more info on that. So - we know what it is. We know how important it is. Now – how do we do it. Where do we focus. Here’s the 10 step program to get you started: Add your website to the major search engines’ local search areas. Update your infoUSA profile GeoTarget your Pay Per Click program Place tester ads on traditional yellow page style websites Place tester ads on vertical search engines Optimize your website coding Optimize your website content Create new website content Add a map to your site Get geographic centric links Let’s look at those in more detail 1 ) Add your website to the major search engines’ local search areas. Just before the show, I typed in the phrase “furniture store in los angeles”. The top result in Google, Yahoo, and MSN (aka Windows Live) were all the search engines own local search sites. Try it. Even if you can deliver your service anywhere in the country, if someone wants to deal with a local company – you want to show up. Now in Google, you can have many local addresses, - but they are going to ask you to confirm each one by sending you a confirmation code via snail mail to that address. I’ve got the links to Yahoo, Google and MSN’s local submission URLs in the show notes. It does time them time to get listed, so start this going today. 2) Update your infoUSA profile infoUSA is a large database and list management firm. When you get telemarketed, there’s a good chance the telemarketer bought their list from infoUSA. Oh well, they’ve probably got your information anyway, so go onto their site and make sure it’s the right information. infoUSA feeds a lot of directories and smaller search engines so you do want to be there. 3) Target Your Pay Per Click programs If you aren’t already doing this, geographically target some portion of your pay per click campaign. Even if you market in the entire country, if you can do something extra in some locations – because you have physical presence there – target those locations. You can do this in one of two ways – either bid regionally – a feature within the various pay per click engines, or include geographic keywords as part of your search phrase – like furniture store in Boston. If you choose to use the PPC feature, Google and Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at this than Yahoo’s search marketing. However, Yahoo’s new Panama release may change that. I did see a demo of their upcoming software but can’t remember if in enhanced the geotargeting functionality. I usually prefer to add the specific keywords to my phrases, but others definitely prefer using the search engines own geographic filters. With services like AOL and other anonymizers the IP address of the searcher does not always match their geography. And I think Users are getting more used to using geographic terms in their searches. If I had to choose one, I think that using the actual keywords is the way to go. 4) Place tester ads on a traditional yellow page style websites Go to yellowpages.com or Verizon’s Superpages.com, check out their ad prices and place some test ads. One thing I really need to mention and that is definitely the subject of a future Drive It – Convert It episode is that of Analytics. You do need to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from. The more sources of traffic you have, the more important it is to be able to analyze the success or lack of success of each one. This is a little easier when you’ve got limited sources of traffic drivers. As you diversify, analytics is a key. 5) Place tester ads on vertical search engines There are a number of search engines that are catering to Local search. I’m not sure whether they’ll having staying power versus the big engines. I do think it’s worthplacing some test ads on a few of these sites. Two that I would start with are local.com and truelocal.com 6) Optimize your website coding This gets back to showing up in the general engines but for the geographic long tail. Revisit your page titles, metatags, h1 headings and see if you can’t plug some geographic terms in there. Often it will just add to your ability to be found for these geographic qualifiers without diminishing your ranking for the more generic terms you’re currently focused on. If you need more information on how to do on-page coding – re-listen to podcast # 4. 7 ) Optimize your website content Take a look at your current content. Do you mention nearby cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, counties. Usually you can add a short paragraph that is very conversational in nature “whether your planting lawns in Southlake, landscaping in Colleyville, or gardening in West Plano our Dallas based warehouse can handle your fertilizer needs” you get the idea. Make sure your physical addresses are listed on your contact page. Consider putting your main address as part of your footer. Add your phone number to the header. If you’re solely doing business locally, that should be a must anyway. 8 ) Create new website content Create pages for 2 or 3 key geographic terms – let’s say you’re San Francisco Bay area based – so Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Dedicate a page to talk about each of these cities. List the attractions, the weather, the business climate the Now take your top 2 or 3 regular search phrase targets and integrate them into the city pages. It’s probably going to look a little strange, so be creative. Make up a new section for your site. Call it doing business in the Bay Area. Tell why your employees like the surrounding cities. Talk about the history of your area of business within the cities. Just make sure you have some good internal links near the top of the page which will transfer Users to the business end of your site. The idea is to rank with the search engines for these pages and then quickly have those users move on to the converting areas of your website. Make it quality, as always. And, make the pages different. Don’t just do a search and replace on the city name and leave the rest of the content unchanged. Duplicate content is likely to get ignored. If the technique works for you, it’ll be worth your time to expand it. Branch out to more cities, neighborhood, states, whatever makes sense in your geography. 9 ) Add a map to your site Make sure you’ve got a map on your site with an Alt tag describing it. Add some directions. Tell how to get to your location from neighboring cities. Sound like good content to me. 10 ) Get geographic centric links Finally, go get some links. Two tactics here - first, make sure the linking anchor text contains the geographic keyword qualifier. This applies especially to links from more generic directories or traditional website sources for you. Second, try to get links from directories or sites that cater to your geography. We often talk about links from good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods and same-industry neighborhoods. Now go get some links from your actual neighborhood. There are a lot of directories trying to cater to a particular region, search them out and you’ll probably find you can get some cost effective links. Hopefully, the links themselves will drive traffic to you, but the link juice you get that ups your search engine rankings can often be a big kicker. There we go – done! It should take you less than 60 days to work your way through those 10 steps. You’ll probably be through half of them in just a few weeks. So like politics is all search local – nah – but a lot of it is – so take advantage! That wraps up Getting Started with Local Search. But whether you’re local or national, it seems you can’t turn around without bumping into another Drive Traffic animal - Social Search. So join us for our next installment in the series - Getting Started with Social Search. So if you haven’t yet subscribed, you won’t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast. If you just don’t like the whole RSS thing, fill out the email form on the site, I’ve got the link in the show notes and all the podcast pages. We’ll get you added to our double-secret probation opt-in email distribution list. As always I welcome you to visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. We’ll get back to you. And for gosh sakes – link to me – because you can never be to thin, too rich or have too many quality inbound links. tag:odeo.com,2006-10-06,24185463 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:47:12 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23298721-Drive-It-Convert-It-12-podcast-Getting-Started-with-Local-Search Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts?? Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google ??? add your local listing Yahoo ??? add your local listing MSN ??? add your local listing infoUSA ??? add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon???s Superpages.com advertising Local.com ??? vertical search engine TrueLocal.com ??? vertical search engine Hi and wel... Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts?? Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google ??? add your local listing Yahoo ??? add your local listing MSN ??? add your local listing infoUSA ??? add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon???s Superpages.com advertising Local.com ??? vertical search engine TrueLocal.com ??? vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search ??? listen and find out. Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com. Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. We???ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC ??? Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment ??? Local Search. Local search ??? it???s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasn???t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which we???ll go over. And if you???re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see they???re ramping up their local search offerings. But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color. It???s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As she???s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand. Now I think she???s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work. During the next 20 or so minutes, I???m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Don???t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes ??? they???ll all be the Bastion Internet website. Local search ??? what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. I???m going to talk about that and give you a 10 step ???getting started??? plan. What is local search. To me local search means physical contact. If you have something to offer that can be enhanced by a physical meeting then you are involved in local search. If your target audience will want to get together with you at some point in the process, and they???re searching for your type of offering, that is local search. Why is it important. It???s important because people are doing it. They???re searching online for local products and services. Right now ??? as we speak. There are some fresh stats just out from a comScore Networks study. comScore provides consumer behavior insight to companies. They just completed a study on local search on the Internet. This past July, 2006, 109 million people in the United States did a local search on a search engine. That was 63% of the US internet users. Local search is up 43 percent year over year. Now for the really exciting number - 47 percent of local searchers followed through with a visit to a business they???d found while searching. Here???s the number that surprised me the most ??? Yahoo and Google were neck in neck with local search market share ??? Google had 29.8 percent of the market, Yahoo had 29.2 percent of the market. To me that???s pretty significant for a couple of reasons. First it means that Google has a lot less proportional influence in this category then they seem to in overall search. Second, it means that the 2 market leaders comprise about 60% of the market, a lot less then in more general search where it???s probably closer to 75% of the market. There???s also a lot more players making up the next 30 or so percentage points. Check out the link to the press release to get more info on that. So - we know what it is. We know how important it is. Now ??? how do we do it. Where do we focus. Here???s the 10 step program to get you started: Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Update your infoUSA profile GeoTarget your Pay Per Click program Place tester ads on traditional yellow page style websites Place tester ads on vertical search engines Optimize your website coding Optimize your website content Create new website content Add a map to your site Get geographic centric links Let???s look at those in more detail 1 ) Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Just before the show, I typed in the phrase ???furniture store in los angeles???. The top result in Google, Yahoo, and MSN (aka Windows Live) were all the search engines own local search sites. Try it. Even if you can deliver your service anywhere in the country, if someone wants to deal with a local company ??? you want to show up. Now in Google, you can have many local addresses, - but they are going to ask you to confirm each one by sending you a confirmation code via snail mail to that address. I???ve got the links to Yahoo, Google and MSN???s local submission URLs in the show notes. It does time them time to get listed, so start this going today. 2) Update your infoUSA profile infoUSA is a large database and list management firm. When you get telemarketed, there???s a good chance the telemarketer bought their list from infoUSA. Oh well, they???ve probably got your information anyway, so go onto their site and make sure it???s the right information. infoUSA feeds a lot of directories and smaller search engines so you do want to be there. 3) Target Your Pay Per Click programs If you aren???t already doing this, geographically target some portion of your pay per click campaign. Even if you market in the entire country, if you can do something extra in some locations ??? because you have physical presence there ??? target those locations. You can do this in one of two ways ??? either bid regionally ??? a feature within the various pay per click engines, or include geographic keywords as part of your search phrase ??? like furniture store in Boston. If you choose to use the PPC feature, Google and Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at this than Yahoo???s search marketing. However, Yahoo???s new Panama release may change that. I did see a demo of their upcoming software but can???t remember if in enhanced the geotargeting functionality. I usually prefer to add the specific keywords to my phrases, but others definitely prefer using the search engines own geographic filters. With services like AOL and other anonymizers the IP address of the searcher does not always match their geography. And I think Users are getting more used to using geographic terms in their searches. If I had to choose one, I think that using the actual keywords is the way to go. 4) Place tester ads on a traditional yellow page style websites Go to yellowpages.com or Verizon???s Superpages.com, check out their ad prices and place some test ads. One thing I really need to mention and that is definitely the subject of a future Drive It ??? Convert It episode is that of Analytics. You do need to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from. The more sources of traffic you have, the more important it is to be able to analyze the success or lack of success of each one. This is a little easier when you???ve got limited sources of traffic drivers. As you diversify, analytics is a key. 5) Place tester ads on vertical search engines There are a number of search engines that are catering to Local search. I???m not sure whether they???ll having staying power versus the big engines. I do think it???s worthplacing some test ads on a few of these sites. Two that I would start with are local.com and truelocal.com 6) Optimize your website coding This gets back to showing up in the general engines but for the geographic long tail. Revisit your page titles, metatags, h1 headings and see if you can???t plug some geographic terms in there. Often it will just add to your ability to be found for these geographic qualifiers without diminishing your ranking for the more generic terms you???re currently focused on. If you need more information on how to do on-page coding ??? re-listen to podcast # 4. 7 ) Optimize your website content Take a look at your current content. Do you mention nearby cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, counties. Usually you can add a short paragraph that is very conversational in nature ???whether your planting lawns in Southlake, landscaping in Colleyville, or gardening in West Plano our Dallas based warehouse can handle your fertilizer needs??? you get the idea. Make sure your physical addresses are listed on your contact page. Consider putting your main address as part of your footer. Add your phone number to the header. If you???re solely doing business locally, that should be a must anyway. 8 ) Create new website content Create pages for 2 or 3 key geographic terms ??? let???s say you???re San Francisco Bay area based ??? so Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Dedicate a page to talk about each of these cities. List the attractions, the weather, the business climate the Now take your top 2 or 3 regular search phrase targets and integrate them into the city pages. It???s probably going to look a little strange, so be creative. Make up a new section for your site. Call it doing business in the Bay Area. Tell why your employees like the surrounding cities. Talk about the history of your area of business within the cities. Just make sure you have some good internal links near the top of the page which will transfer Users to the business end of your site. The idea is to rank with the search engines for these pages and then quickly have those users move on to the converting areas of your website. Make it quality, as always. And, make the pages different. Don???t just do a search and replace on the city name and leave the rest of the content unchanged. Duplicate content is likely to get ignored. If the technique works for you, it???ll be worth your time to expand it. Branch out to more cities, neighborhood, states, whatever makes sense in your geography. 9 ) Add a map to your site Make sure you???ve got a map on your site with an Alt tag describing it. Add some directions. Tell how to get to your location from neighboring cities. Sound like good content to me. 10 ) Get geographic centric links Finally, go get some links. Two tactics here - first, make sure the linking anchor text contains the geographic keyword qualifier. This applies especially to links from more generic directories or traditional website sources for you. Second, try to get links from directories or sites that cater to your geography. We often talk about links from good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods and same-industry neighborhoods. Now go get some links from your actual neighborhood. There are a lot of directories trying to cater to a particular region, search them out and you???ll probably find you can get some cost effective links. Hopefully, the links themselves will drive traffic to you, but the link juice you get that ups your search engine rankings can often be a big kicker. There we go ??? done! It should take you less than 60 days to work your way through those 10 steps. You???ll probably be through half of them in just a few weeks. So like politics is all search local ??? nah ??? but a lot of it is ??? so take advantage! That wraps up Getting Started with Local Search. But whether you???re local or national, it seems you can???t turn around without bumping into another Drive Traffic animal - Social Search. So join us for our next installment in the series - Getting Started with Social Search. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. If you just don???t like the whole RSS thing, fill out the email form on the site, I???ve got the link in the show notes and all the podcast pages. We???ll get you added to our double-secret probation opt-in email distribution list. As always I welcome you to visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. We???ll get back to you. And for gosh sakes ??? link to me ??? because you can never be to thin, too rich or have too many quality inbound links. Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts?? Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google ??? add your local listing Yahoo ??? add your local listing MSN ??? add your local listing infoUSA ??? add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon???s Superpages.com advertising Local.com ??? vertical search engine TrueLocal.com ??? vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search ??? listen and find out. Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com. Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. We???ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC ??? Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment ??? Local Search. Local search ??? it???s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasn???t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which we???ll go over. And if you???re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see they???re ramping up their local search offerings. But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color. It???s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As she???s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand. Now I think she???s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work. During the next 20 or so minutes, I???m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Don???t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes ??? they???ll all be the Bastion Internet website. Local search ??? what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. I???m going to talk about that and give you a 10 step ???getting started??? plan. What is local search. To me local search means physical contact. If you have something to offer that can be enhanced by a physical meeting then you are involved in local search. If your target audience will want to get together with you at some point in the process, and they???re searching for your type of offering, that is local search. Why is it important. It???s important because people are doing it. They???re searching online for local products and services. Right now ??? as we speak. There are some fresh stats just out from a comScore Networks study. comScore provides consumer behavior insight to companies. They just completed a study on local search on the Internet. This past July, 2006, 109 million people in the United States did a local search on a search engine. That was 63% of the US internet users. Local search is up 43 percent year over year. Now for the really exciting number - 47 percent of local searchers followed through with a visit to a business they???d found while searching. Here???s the number that surprised me the most ??? Yahoo and Google were neck in neck with local search market share ??? Google had 29.8 percent of the market, Yahoo had 29.2 percent of the market. To me that???s pretty significant for a couple of reasons. First it means that Google has a lot less proportional influence in this category then they seem to in overall search. Second, it means that the 2 market leaders comprise about 60% of the market, a lot less then in more general search where it???s probably closer to 75% of the market. There???s also a lot more players making up the next 30 or so percentage points. Check out the link to the press release to get more info on that. So - we know what it is. We know how important it is. Now ??? how do we do it. Where do we focus. Here???s the 10 step program to get you started: Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Update your infoUSA profile GeoTarget your Pay Per Click program Place tester ads on traditional yellow page style websites Place tester ads on vertical search engines Optimize your website coding Optimize your website content Create new website content Add a map to your site Get geographic centric links Let???s look at those in more detail 1 ) Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Just before the show, I typed in the phrase ???furniture store in los angeles???. The top result in Google, Yahoo, and MSN (aka Windows Live) were all the search engines own local search sites. Try it. Even if you can deliver your service anywhere in the country, if someone wants to deal with a local company ??? you want to show up. Now in Google, you can have many local addresses, - but they are going to ask you to confirm each one by sending you a confirmation code via snail mail to that address. I???ve got the links to Yahoo, Google and MSN???s local submission URLs in the show notes. It does time them time to get listed, so start this going today. 2) Update your infoUSA profile infoUSA is a large database and list management firm. When you get telemarketed, there???s a good chance the telemarketer bought their list from infoUSA. Oh well, they???ve probably got your information anyway, so go onto their site and make sure it???s the right information. infoUSA feeds a lot of directories and smaller search engines so you do want to be there. 3) Target Your Pay Per Click programs If you aren???t already doing this, geographically target some portion of your pay per click campaign. Even if you market in the entire country, if you can do something extra in some locations ??? because you have physical presence there ??? target those locations. You can do this in one of two ways ??? either bid regionally ??? a feature within the various pay per click engines, or include geographic keywords as part of your search phrase ??? like furniture store in Boston. If you choose to use the PPC feature, Google and Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at this than Yahoo???s search marketing. However, Yahoo???s new Panama release may change that. I did see a demo of their upcoming software but can???t remember if in enhanced the geotargeting functionality. I usually prefer to add the specific keywords to my phrases, but others definitely prefer using the search engines own geographic filters. With services like AOL and other anonymizers the IP address of the searcher does not always match their geography. And I think Users are getting more used to using geographic terms in their searches. If I had to choose one, I think that using the actual keywords is the way to go. 4) Place tester ads on a traditional yellow page style websites Go to yellowpages.com or Verizon???s Superpages.com, check out their ad prices and place some test ads. One thing I really need to mention and that is definitely the subject of a future Drive It ??? Convert It episode is that of Analytics. You do need to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from. The more sources of traffic you have, the more important it is to be able to analyze the success or lack of success of each one. This is a little easier when you???ve got limited sources of traffic drivers. As you diversify, analytics is a key. 5) Place tester ads on vertical search engines There are a number of search engines that are catering to Local search. I???m not sure whether they???ll having staying power versus the big engines. I do think it???s worthplacing some test ads on a few of these sites. Two that I would start with are local.com and truelocal.com 6) Optimize your website coding This gets back to showing up in the general engines but for the geographic long tail. Revisit your page titles, metatags, h1 headings and see if you can???t plug some geographic terms in there. Often it will just add to your ability to be found for these geographic qualifiers without diminishing your ranking for the more generic terms you???re currently focused on. If you need more information on how to do on-page coding ??? re-listen to podcast # 4. 7 ) Optimize your website content Take a look at your current content. Do you mention nearby cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, counties. Usually you can add a short paragraph that is very conversational in nature ???whether your planting lawns in Southlake, landscaping in Colleyville, or gardening in West Plano our Dallas based warehouse can handle your fertilizer needs??? you get the idea. Make sure your physical addresses are listed on your contact page. Consider putting your main address as part of your footer. Add your phone number to the header. If you???re solely doing business locally, that should be a must anyway. 8 ) Create new website content Create pages for 2 or 3 key geographic terms ??? let???s say you???re San Francisco Bay area based ??? so Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Dedicate a page to talk about each of these cities. List the attractions, the weather, the business climate the Now take your top 2 or 3 regular search phrase targets and integrate them into the city pages. It???s probably going to look a little strange, so be creative. Make up a new section for your site. Call it doing business in the Bay Area. Tell why your employees like the surrounding cities. Talk about the history of your area of business within the cities. Just make sure you have some good internal links near the top of the page which will transfer Users to the business end of your site. The idea is to rank with the search engines for these pages and then quickly have those users move on to the converting areas of your website. Make it quality, as always. And, make the pages different. Don???t just do a search and replace on the city name and leave the rest of the content unchanged. Duplicate content is likely to get ignored. If the technique works for you, it???ll be worth your time to expand it. Branch out to more cities, neighborhood, states, whatever makes sense in your geography. 9 ) Add a map to your site Make sure you???ve got a map on your site with an Alt tag describing it. Add some directions. Tell how to get to your location from neighboring cities. Sound like good content to me. 10 ) Get geographic centric links Finally, go get some links. Two tactics here - first, make sure the linking anchor text contains the geographic keyword qualifier. This applies especially to links from more generic directories or traditional website sources for you. Second, try to get links from directories or sites that cater to your geography. We often talk about links from good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods and same-industry neighborhoods. Now go get some links from your actual neighborhood. There are a lot of directories trying to cater to a particular region, search them out and you???ll probably find you can get some cost effective links. Hopefully, the links themselves will drive traffic to you, but the link juice you get that ups your search engine rankings can often be a big kicker. There we go ??? done! It should take you less than 60 days to work your way through those 10 steps. You???ll probably be through half of them in just a few weeks. So like politics is all search local ??? nah ??? but a lot of it is ??? so take advantage! That wraps up Getting Started with Local Search. But whether you???re local or national, it seems you can???t turn around without bumping into another Drive Traffic animal - Social Search. So join us for our next installment in the series - Getting Started with Social Search. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. If you just don???t like the whole RSS thing, fill out the email form on the site, I???ve got the link in the show notes and all the podcast pages. We???ll get you added to our double-secret probation opt-in email distribution list. As always I welcome you to visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. We???ll get back to you. And for gosh sakes ??? link to me ??? because you can never be to thin, too rich or have too many quality inbound links. tag:odeo.com,2006-10-06,23298721 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:47:12 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23347648-Drive-It-Convert-It-12-podcast-Getting-Started-with-Local-Search Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts?? Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google ??? add your local listing Yahoo ??? add your local listing MSN ??? add your local listing infoUSA ??? add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon???s Superpages.com advertising Local.com ??? vertical search engine TrueLocal.com ??? vertical search engine Hi and wel... Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts?? Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google ??? add your local listing Yahoo ??? add your local listing MSN ??? add your local listing infoUSA ??? add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon???s Superpages.com advertising Local.com ??? vertical search engine TrueLocal.com ??? vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search ??? listen and find out. Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com. Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. We???ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC ??? Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment ??? Local Search. Local search ??? it???s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasn???t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which we???ll go over. And if you???re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see they???re ramping up their local search offerings. But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color. It???s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As she???s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand. Now I think she???s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work. During the next 20 or so minutes, I???m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Don???t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes ??? they???ll all be the Bastion Internet website. Local search ??? what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. I???m going to talk about that and give you a 10 step ???getting started??? plan. What is local search. To me local search means physical contact. If you have something to offer that can be enhanced by a physical meeting then you are involved in local search. If your target audience will want to get together with you at some point in the process, and they???re searching for your type of offering, that is local search. Why is it important. It???s important because people are doing it. They???re searching online for local products and services. Right now ??? as we speak. There are some fresh stats just out from a comScore Networks study. comScore provides consumer behavior insight to companies. They just completed a study on local search on the Internet. This past July, 2006, 109 million people in the United States did a local search on a search engine. That was 63% of the US internet users. Local search is up 43 percent year over year. Now for the really exciting number - 47 percent of local searchers followed through with a visit to a business they???d found while searching. Here???s the number that surprised me the most ??? Yahoo and Google were neck in neck with local search market share ??? Google had 29.8 percent of the market, Yahoo had 29.2 percent of the market. To me that???s pretty significant for a couple of reasons. First it means that Google has a lot less proportional influence in this category then they seem to in overall search. Second, it means that the 2 market leaders comprise about 60% of the market, a lot less then in more general search where it???s probably closer to 75% of the market. There???s also a lot more players making up the next 30 or so percentage points. Check out the link to the press release to get more info on that. So - we know what it is. We know how important it is. Now ??? how do we do it. Where do we focus. Here???s the 10 step program to get you started: Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Update your infoUSA profile GeoTarget your Pay Per Click program Place tester ads on traditional yellow page style websites Place tester ads on vertical search engines Optimize your website coding Optimize your website content Create new website content Add a map to your site Get geographic centric links Let???s look at those in more detail 1 ) Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Just before the show, I typed in the phrase ???furniture store in los angeles???. The top result in Google, Yahoo, and MSN (aka Windows Live) were all the search engines own local search sites. Try it. Even if you can deliver your service anywhere in the country, if someone wants to deal with a local company ??? you want to show up. Now in Google, you can have many local addresses, - but they are going to ask you to confirm each one by sending you a confirmation code via snail mail to that address. I???ve got the links to Yahoo, Google and MSN???s local submission URLs in the show notes. It does time them time to get listed, so start this going today. 2) Update your infoUSA profile infoUSA is a large database and list management firm. When you get telemarketed, there???s a good chance the telemarketer bought their list from infoUSA. Oh well, they???ve probably got your information anyway, so go onto their site and make sure it???s the right information. infoUSA feeds a lot of directories and smaller search engines so you do want to be there. 3) Target Your Pay Per Click programs If you aren???t already doing this, geographically target some portion of your pay per click campaign. Even if you market in the entire country, if you can do something extra in some locations ??? because you have physical presence there ??? target those locations. You can do this in one of two ways ??? either bid regionally ??? a feature within the various pay per click engines, or include geographic keywords as part of your search phrase ??? like furniture store in Boston. If you choose to use the PPC feature, Google and Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at this than Yahoo???s search marketing. However, Yahoo???s new Panama release may change that. I did see a demo of their upcoming software but can???t remember if in enhanced the geotargeting functionality. I usually prefer to add the specific keywords to my phrases, but others definitely prefer using the search engines own geographic filters. With services like AOL and other anonymizers the IP address of the searcher does not always match their geography. And I think Users are getting more used to using geographic terms in their searches. If I had to choose one, I think that using the actual keywords is the way to go. 4) Place tester ads on a traditional yellow page style websites Go to yellowpages.com or Verizon???s Superpages.com, check out their ad prices and place some test ads. One thing I really need to mention and that is definitely the subject of a future Drive It ??? Convert It episode is that of Analytics. You do need to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from. The more sources of traffic you have, the more important it is to be able to analyze the success or lack of success of each one. This is a little easier when you???ve got limited sources of traffic drivers. As you diversify, analytics is a key. 5) Place tester ads on vertical search engines There are a number of search engines that are catering to Local search. I???m not sure whether they???ll having staying power versus the big engines. I do think it???s worthplacing some test ads on a few of these sites. Two that I would start with are local.com and truelocal.com 6) Optimize your website coding This gets back to showing up in the general engines but for the geographic long tail. Revisit your page titles, metatags, h1 headings and see if you can???t plug some geographic terms in there. Often it will just add to your ability to be found for these geographic qualifiers without diminishing your ranking for the more generic terms you???re currently focused on. If you need more information on how to do on-page coding ??? re-listen to podcast # 4. 7 ) Optimize your website content Take a look at your current content. Do you mention nearby cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, counties. Usually you can add a short paragraph that is very conversational in nature ???whether your planting lawns in Southlake, landscaping in Colleyville, or gardening in West Plano our Dallas based warehouse can handle your fertilizer needs??? you get the idea. Make sure your physical addresses are listed on your contact page. Consider putting your main address as part of your footer. Add your phone number to the header. If you???re solely doing business locally, that should be a must anyway. 8 ) Create new website content Create pages for 2 or 3 key geographic terms ??? let???s say you???re San Francisco Bay area based ??? so Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Dedicate a page to talk about each of these cities. List the attractions, the weather, the business climate the Now take your top 2 or 3 regular search phrase targets and integrate them into the city pages. It???s probably going to look a little strange, so be creative. Make up a new section for your site. Call it doing business in the Bay Area. Tell why your employees like the surrounding cities. Talk about the history of your area of business within the cities. Just make sure you have some good internal links near the top of the page which will transfer Users to the business end of your site. The idea is to rank with the search engines for these pages and then quickly have those users move on to the converting areas of your website. Make it quality, as always. And, make the pages different. Don???t just do a search and replace on the city name and leave the rest of the content unchanged. Duplicate content is likely to get ignored. If the technique works for you, it???ll be worth your time to expand it. Branch out to more cities, neighborhood, states, whatever makes sense in your geography. 9 ) Add a map to your site Make sure you???ve got a map on your site with an Alt tag describing it. Add some directions. Tell how to get to your location from neighboring cities. Sound like good content to me. 10 ) Get geographic centric links Finally, go get some links. Two tactics here - first, make sure the linking anchor text contains the geographic keyword qualifier. This applies especially to links from more generic directories or traditional website sources for you. Second, try to get links from directories or sites that cater to your geography. We often talk about links from good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods and same-industry neighborhoods. Now go get some links from your actual neighborhood. There are a lot of directories trying to cater to a particular region, search them out and you???ll probably find you can get some cost effective links. Hopefully, the links themselves will drive traffic to you, but the link juice you get that ups your search engine rankings can often be a big kicker. There we go ??? done! It should take you less than 60 days to work your way through those 10 steps. You???ll probably be through half of them in just a few weeks. So like politics is all search local ??? nah ??? but a lot of it is ??? so take advantage! That wraps up Getting Started with Local Search. But whether you???re local or national, it seems you can???t turn around without bumping into another Drive Traffic animal - Social Search. So join us for our next installment in the series - Getting Started with Social Search. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. If you just don???t like the whole RSS thing, fill out the email form on the site, I???ve got the link in the show notes and all the podcast pages. We???ll get you added to our double-secret probation opt-in email distribution list. As always I welcome you to visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. We???ll get back to you. And for gosh sakes ??? link to me ??? because you can never be to thin, too rich or have too many quality inbound links. Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion Show summary: Local search defined. The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users. A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search. Download and Subscription Links: Download the Podcast Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! Join our Email list to be informed about future podcasts?? Links to resources mentioned in this podcast: comScore’s Local Search press release Google ??? add your local listing Yahoo ??? add your local listing MSN ??? add your local listing infoUSA ??? add/verify your information Yellowpages.com advertising Verizon???s Superpages.com advertising Local.com ??? vertical search engine TrueLocal.com ??? vertical search engine Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search ??? listen and find out. Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com. Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. We???ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC ??? Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment ??? Local Search. Local search ??? it???s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasn???t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which we???ll go over. And if you???re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see they???re ramping up their local search offerings. But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color. It???s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As she???s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand. Now I think she???s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work. During the next 20 or so minutes, I???m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Don???t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes ??? they???ll all be the Bastion Internet website. Local search ??? what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. I???m going to talk about that and give you a 10 step ???getting started??? plan. What is local search. To me local search means physical contact. If you have something to offer that can be enhanced by a physical meeting then you are involved in local search. If your target audience will want to get together with you at some point in the process, and they???re searching for your type of offering, that is local search. Why is it important. It???s important because people are doing it. They???re searching online for local products and services. Right now ??? as we speak. There are some fresh stats just out from a comScore Networks study. comScore provides consumer behavior insight to companies. They just completed a study on local search on the Internet. This past July, 2006, 109 million people in the United States did a local search on a search engine. That was 63% of the US internet users. Local search is up 43 percent year over year. Now for the really exciting number - 47 percent of local searchers followed through with a visit to a business they???d found while searching. Here???s the number that surprised me the most ??? Yahoo and Google were neck in neck with local search market share ??? Google had 29.8 percent of the market, Yahoo had 29.2 percent of the market. To me that???s pretty significant for a couple of reasons. First it means that Google has a lot less proportional influence in this category then they seem to in overall search. Second, it means that the 2 market leaders comprise about 60% of the market, a lot less then in more general search where it???s probably closer to 75% of the market. There???s also a lot more players making up the next 30 or so percentage points. Check out the link to the press release to get more info on that. So - we know what it is. We know how important it is. Now ??? how do we do it. Where do we focus. Here???s the 10 step program to get you started: Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Update your infoUSA profile GeoTarget your Pay Per Click program Place tester ads on traditional yellow page style websites Place tester ads on vertical search engines Optimize your website coding Optimize your website content Create new website content Add a map to your site Get geographic centric links Let???s look at those in more detail 1 ) Add your website to the major search engines??? local search areas. Just before the show, I typed in the phrase ???furniture store in los angeles???. The top result in Google, Yahoo, and MSN (aka Windows Live) were all the search engines own local search sites. Try it. Even if you can deliver your service anywhere in the country, if someone wants to deal with a local company ??? you want to show up. Now in Google, you can have many local addresses, - but they are going to ask you to confirm each one by sending you a confirmation code via snail mail to that address. I???ve got the links to Yahoo, Google and MSN???s local submission URLs in the show notes. It does time them time to get listed, so start this going today. 2) Update your infoUSA profile infoUSA is a large database and list management firm. When you get telemarketed, there???s a good chance the telemarketer bought their list from infoUSA. Oh well, they???ve probably got your information anyway, so go onto their site and make sure it???s the right information. infoUSA feeds a lot of directories and smaller search engines so you do want to be there. 3) Target Your Pay Per Click programs If you aren???t already doing this, geographically target some portion of your pay per click campaign. Even if you market in the entire country, if you can do something extra in some locations ??? because you have physical presence there ??? target those locations. You can do this in one of two ways ??? either bid regionally ??? a feature within the various pay per click engines, or include geographic keywords as part of your search phrase ??? like furniture store in Boston. If you choose to use the PPC feature, Google and Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at this than Yahoo???s search marketing. However, Yahoo???s new Panama release may change that. I did see a demo of their upcoming software but can???t remember if in enhanced the geotargeting functionality. I usually prefer to add the specific keywords to my phrases, but others definitely prefer using the search engines own geographic filters. With services like AOL and other anonymizers the IP address of the searcher does not always match their geography. And I think Users are getting more used to using geographic terms in their searches. If I had to choose one, I think that using the actual keywords is the way to go. 4) Place tester ads on a traditional yellow page style websites Go to yellowpages.com or Verizon???s Superpages.com, check out their ad prices and place some test ads. One thing I really need to mention and that is definitely the subject of a future Drive It ??? Convert It episode is that of Analytics. You do need to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from. The more sources of traffic you have, the more important it is to be able to analyze the success or lack of success of each one. This is a little easier when you???ve got limited sources of traffic drivers. As you diversify, analytics is a key. 5) Place tester ads on vertical search engines There are a number of search engines that are catering to Local search. I???m not sure whether they???ll having staying power versus the big engines. I do think it???s worthplacing some test ads on a few of these sites. Two that I would start with are local.com and truelocal.com 6) Optimize your website coding This gets back to showing up in the general engines but for the geographic long tail. Revisit your page titles, metatags, h1 headings and see if you can???t plug some geographic terms in there. Often it will just add to your ability to be found for these geographic qualifiers without diminishing your ranking for the more generic terms you???re currently focused on. If you need more information on how to do on-page coding ??? re-listen to podcast # 4. 7 ) Optimize your website content Take a look at your current content. Do you mention nearby cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, counties. Usually you can add a short paragraph that is very conversational in nature ???whether your planting lawns in Southlake, landscaping in Colleyville, or gardening in West Plano our Dallas based warehouse can handle your fertilizer needs??? you get the idea. Make sure your physical addresses are listed on your contact page. Consider putting your main address as part of your footer. Add your phone number to the header. If you???re solely doing business locally, that should be a must anyway. 8 ) Create new website content Create pages for 2 or 3 key geographic terms ??? let???s say you???re San Francisco Bay area based ??? so Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Dedicate a page to talk about each of these cities. List the attractions, the weather, the business climate the Now take your top 2 or 3 regular search phrase targets and integrate them into the city pages. It???s probably going to look a little strange, so be creative. Make up a new section for your site. Call it doing business in the Bay Area. Tell why your employees like the surrounding cities. Talk about the history of your area of business within the cities. Just make sure you have some good internal links near the top of the page which will transfer Users to the business end of your site. The idea is to rank with the search engines for these pages and then quickly have those users move on to the converting areas of your website. Make it quality, as always. And, make the pages different. Don???t just do a search and replace on the city name and leave the rest of the content unchanged. Duplicate content is likely to get ignored. If the technique works for you, it???ll be worth your time to expand it. Branch out to more cities, neighborhood, states, whatever makes sense in your geography. 9 ) Add a map to your site Make sure you???ve got a map on your site with an Alt tag describing it. Add some directions. Tell how to get to your location from neighboring cities. Sound like good content to me. 10 ) Get geographic centric links Finally, go get some links. Two tactics here - first, make sure the linking anchor text contains the geographic keyword qualifier. This applies especially to links from more generic directories or traditional website sources for you. Second, try to get links from directories or sites that cater to your geography. We often talk about links from good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods and same-industry neighborhoods. Now go get some links from your actual neighborhood. There are a lot of directories trying to cater to a particular region, search them out and you???ll probably find you can get some cost effective links. Hopefully, the links themselves will drive traffic to you, but the link juice you get that ups your search engine rankings can often be a big kicker. There we go ??? done! It should take you less than 60 days to work your way through those 10 steps. You???ll probably be through half of them in just a few weeks. So like politics is all search local ??? nah ??? but a lot of it is ??? so take advantage! That wraps up Getting Started with Local Search. But whether you???re local or national, it seems you can???t turn around without bumping into another Drive Traffic animal - Social Search. So join us for our next installment in the series - Getting Started with Social Search. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. If you just don???t like the whole RSS thing, fill out the email form on the site, I???ve got the link in the show notes and all the podcast pages. We???ll get you added to our double-secret probation opt-in email distribution list. As always I welcome you to visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. We???ll get back to you. And for gosh sakes ??? link to me ??? because you can never be to thin, too rich or have too many quality inbound links. tag:odeo.com,2006-10-06,23347648 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:47:12 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/1791608-Drive-It-Convert-It-11-podcast-Internet-Marketing-Diversity tag:odeo.com,2006-08-29,1791608 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:37:49 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/24185465-Drive-It-Convert-It-11-podcast-Internet-Marketing-Diversity Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is epis... Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It - Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again. Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory. If you want the details of my vacation - send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there. We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event - I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series. Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences - I’ll give you the rundown. Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and that’s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses - you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody. The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions. Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that. There’s also a exhibition floor where there’s a good100 or so exhibitors ranging from SEO companies to dot.coms to analytics software firms. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a commercial. Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com for more info if you’d like. One of the things I look for when I go to these conferences is trends. Where things seem to be heading. In marketing if you’re always following other companies’ leads, you’ll likely always be following others – stands to reason – huh. So if you can get out in front of the trends, you stand a better chance of success. One of the most highly attended sessions was on Social Search. I think it was highly popular because it’s pretty new. We’re all trying to figure out how we want to play. How many resources do you put into something without having a good idea of the payoff. Now it’s always a little dangerous because new stuff is alluring. If you’re like me, you work so much with standard SEO and Search Engine Advertising that it can start to seem a little mundane at times. So when something new comes along, you want to jump all over it. And then you step back and look at the statistics and see what an overwhelming amount of traffic is still generated by those two 500 pound gorillas – Optimization and Pay Per click So it can be dangerous to go after the new, alluring marketing vehicles – I call them market vehicles one, because they drive traffic, two, because they are often self contained. Anyway, back to the danger of pursuing the new, mysterious strategies. But, it can be more dangerous not to pursue them. If you don’t diversify, and that even includes doing things that are new to you and not necessarily new to everyone else, you will absolutely suffer from that decision. Let’s run through some scenarios. You think SEO is the place to be. Well it can be until you get banned or shoved down in the rankings by an algorithm change or a spurt of competition. Have you noticed that Froogle and Google’s local results have started showing up high in the rankings of search engine results pages. How’s you’re Froogle ranking. Are those Froogle results knocking you down in the rankings an inch or two. If you rely on leads just from the natural search results, what happens when those results suddenly dry up. A lot of companies have been thrown into a panic for just that reason. Now a lot of times you can go way down in rankings and it’s just a temporary thing. You bounce back up after a week or two. But if that’s where all you’re business is coming from and it’s now gone, you’re under a ton of pressure to do something. You can’t just sit there and do nothing – which is often the right thing to do. So you’re sort of forced to take action just so it looks like you’re trying to do something. If you had some other traffic driving vehicles in place, the pressure’s off a little. You can wait it out a bit to see what’s real and what’s not in a rankings bump or shuffle. So you think you’re safe by driving leads through search engine advertising – pay per clicks. Hey, you pay, your ads show up, people click, you get customers. Well along comes Google and their quality score. Now it’s just not a matter of price bids. Click through rates and the relevance of landing pages are affecting the rank of your sponsored ad. Plus with all the Tivo’ing going on, just how much more competition is flowing in from companies looking for better places to spend their advertising dollar then television. How does that affect the cost per click. Here’s something to think about. Do you know what two of the highest downloaded Firefox extensions are – a script blocker and an ad blocker. Do you think that might have an affect on your Google and Yahoo pay per click business. History has definitively shown us that people like to block ads. Don’t think Google and Yahoo’s ads are immune to that. Getting a little sick of seeing AdSense on sites – yeah, me too. Where’s that Firefox extension. Maybe once I’ve turned it on it’ll block the ads on the Search Engine Results Pages, too. I think you’re getting my point. So if you haven’t already started getting systems in place to diversify efficiently, you need to. Another trend – longevity. Longevity goes hand in hand with trust. If you’ve been around awhile people tend to trust you a little more. Heard of the Google sandbox. There are pretty good indicators that length of time you’ve been doing something means something in this web site marketing world of ours. It’s pretty hard to go out a get a new link that’s 2 years old. You would have had to have done that two years ago. So the key to longevity is to get started now. It a few years you’ll have it. Meanwhile, why not drive some traffic and have some fun while were at it. I believe it was John Lennon said that 90% of success was just showing up. I’m not sure that I totally agree with the exact percentage, but the principle does apply. You’ve got to get in the game if you want to score and if you want to win. Most people sit on the couch and are content to watch. So, how do we all get into the game. Well, Drive It – Convert It! is shifting back to the “drive it” side. Over the next several podcasts I’m going to talk about getting into different games - we’ll call it the Getting Started series. What do I want you to get started with – to diversify into. Lots of things. We are going to talk social search and social networking. We are going to talk about podcasting. Blogging – yeah it’s been out awhile but you’re still not doing it, are you.We’ll revisit Vertical search engines like shopping search and local search. Pushed out any press releases lately, how about Ezines or newsletters. I’m calling it the Getting Started series but don’t let that fool you. I’ll be lacing it with something for everyone whether you’re a beginner or an old hand at it. I can’t wait for the podcast on Social Search and Social Networking. I am excited about it and dreading it all at the same time. I’m 42 years old, do I really need a My Space account. Do I really need to Digg stuff. Is it a goldmine or a big waste of time. We usually avoid what we fear or what we don’t understand. I know a lot of SEOs that hate getting links because they don’t want to have to actually communicate with another person. A lot of us have a fear of speaking – not looking forward to that first podcast – are you? Don’t understand all the tech stuff surrounding Shopping Search - don’t worry it’s probably just a fad anyway. Let’s face down some of those fears, that apprehension together. Let’s go back and revisit some of those online marketing vehicles that we took a look at a few years ago and turned our noses up at – darn shopping engines. Let’s get diversified. A little secret – it’s mostly just about repurposing content. So if you haven’t yet subscribed, you won’t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast. Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I’ll get back to you. See you then. Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It - Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again. Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory. If you want the details of my vacation - send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there. We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event - I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series. Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences - I’ll give you the rundown. Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and that’s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses - you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody. The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions. Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that. There’s also a exhibition floor where there’s a good100 or so exhibitors ranging from SEO companies to dot.coms to analytics software firms. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a commercial. Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com for more info if you’d like. One of the things I look for when I go to these conferences is trends. Where things seem to be heading. In marketing if you’re always following other companies’ leads, you’ll likely always be following others – stands to reason – huh. So if you can get out in front of the trends, you stand a better chance of success. One of the most highly attended sessions was on Social Search. I think it was highly popular because it’s pretty new. We’re all trying to figure out how we want to play. How many resources do you put into something without having a good idea of the payoff. Now it’s always a little dangerous because new stuff is alluring. If you’re like me, you work so much with standard SEO and Search Engine Advertising that it can start to seem a little mundane at times. So when something new comes along, you want to jump all over it. And then you step back and look at the statistics and see what an overwhelming amount of traffic is still generated by those two 500 pound gorillas – Optimization and Pay Per click So it can be dangerous to go after the new, alluring marketing vehicles – I call them market vehicles one, because they drive traffic, two, because they are often self contained. Anyway, back to the danger of pursuing the new, mysterious strategies. But, it can be more dangerous not to pursue them. If you don’t diversify, and that even includes doing things that are new to you and not necessarily new to everyone else, you will absolutely suffer from that decision. Let’s run through some scenarios. You think SEO is the place to be. Well it can be until you get banned or shoved down in the rankings by an algorithm change or a spurt of competition. Have you noticed that Froogle and Google’s local results have started showing up high in the rankings of search engine results pages. How’s you’re Froogle ranking. Are those Froogle results knocking you down in the rankings an inch or two. If you rely on leads just from the natural search results, what happens when those results suddenly dry up. A lot of companies have been thrown into a panic for just that reason. Now a lot of times you can go way down in rankings and it’s just a temporary thing. You bounce back up after a week or two. But if that’s where all you’re business is coming from and it’s now gone, you’re under a ton of pressure to do something. You can’t just sit there and do nothing – which is often the right thing to do. So you’re sort of forced to take action just so it looks like you’re trying to do something. If you had some other traffic driving vehicles in place, the pressure’s off a little. You can wait it out a bit to see what’s real and what’s not in a rankings bump or shuffle. So you think you’re safe by driving leads through search engine advertising – pay per clicks. Hey, you pay, your ads show up, people click, you get customers. Well along comes Google and their quality score. Now it’s just not a matter of price bids. Click through rates and the relevance of landing pages are affecting the rank of your sponsored ad. Plus with all the Tivo’ing going on, just how much more competition is flowing in from companies looking for better places to spend their advertising dollar then television. How does that affect the cost per click. Here’s something to think about. Do you know what two of the highest downloaded Firefox extensions are – a script blocker and an ad blocker. Do you think that might have an affect on your Google and Yahoo pay per click business. History has definitively shown us that people like to block ads. Don’t think Google and Yahoo’s ads are immune to that. Getting a little sick of seeing AdSense on sites – yeah, me too. Where’s that Firefox extension. Maybe once I’ve turned it on it’ll block the ads on the Search Engine Results Pages, too. I think you’re getting my point. So if you haven’t already started getting systems in place to diversify efficiently, you need to. Another trend – longevity. Longevity goes hand in hand with trust. If you’ve been around awhile people tend to trust you a little more. Heard of the Google sandbox. There are pretty good indicators that length of time you’ve been doing something means something in this web site marketing world of ours. It’s pretty hard to go out a get a new link that’s 2 years old. You would have had to have done that two years ago. So the key to longevity is to get started now. It a few years you’ll have it. Meanwhile, why not drive some traffic and have some fun while were at it. I believe it was John Lennon said that 90% of success was just showing up. I’m not sure that I totally agree with the exact percentage, but the principle does apply. You’ve got to get in the game if you want to score and if you want to win. Most people sit on the couch and are content to watch. So, how do we all get into the game. Well, Drive It – Convert It! is shifting back to the “drive it” side. Over the next several podcasts I’m going to talk about getting into different games - we’ll call it the Getting Started series. What do I want you to get started with – to diversify into. Lots of things. We are going to talk social search and social networking. We are going to talk about podcasting. Blogging – yeah it’s been out awhile but you’re still not doing it, are you.We’ll revisit Vertical search engines like shopping search and local search. Pushed out any press releases lately, how about Ezines or newsletters. I’m calling it the Getting Started series but don’t let that fool you. I’ll be lacing it with something for everyone whether you’re a beginner or an old hand at it. I can’t wait for the podcast on Social Search and Social Networking. I am excited about it and dreading it all at the same time. I’m 42 years old, do I really need a My Space account. Do I really need to Digg stuff. Is it a goldmine or a big waste of time. We usually avoid what we fear or what we don’t understand. I know a lot of SEOs that hate getting links because they don’t want to have to actually communicate with another person. A lot of us have a fear of speaking – not looking forward to that first podcast – are you? Don’t understand all the tech stuff surrounding Shopping Search - don’t worry it’s probably just a fad anyway. Let’s face down some of those fears, that apprehension together. Let’s go back and revisit some of those online marketing vehicles that we took a look at a few years ago and turned our noses up at – darn shopping engines. Let’s get diversified. A little secret – it’s mostly just about repurposing content. So if you haven’t yet subscribed, you won’t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast. Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I’ll get back to you. See you then. tag:odeo.com,2006-08-29,24185465 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:37:49 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23298724-Drive-It-Convert-It-11-podcast-Internet-Marketing-Diversity Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is epis... Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It - Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again. Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory. If you want the details of my vacation - send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there. We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event - I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series. Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences - I’ll give you the rundown. Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and that???s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses - you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody. The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions. Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that. There’s also a exhibition floor where there’s a good100 or so exhibitors ranging from SEO companies to dot.coms to analytics software firms. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a commercial. Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com for more info if you’d like. One of the things I look for when I go to these conferences is trends. Where things seem to be heading. In marketing if you???re always following other companies??? leads, you???ll likely always be following others ??? stands to reason ??? huh. So if you can get out in front of the trends, you stand a better chance of success. One of the most highly attended sessions was on Social Search. I think it was highly popular because it???s pretty new. We???re all trying to figure out how we want to play. How many resources do you put into something without having a good idea of the payoff. Now it???s always a little dangerous because new stuff is alluring. If you???re like me, you work so much with standard SEO and Search Engine Advertising that it can start to seem a little mundane at times. So when something new comes along, you want to jump all over it. And then you step back and look at the statistics and see what an overwhelming amount of traffic is still generated by those two 500 pound gorillas ??? Optimization and Pay Per click So it can be dangerous to go after the new, alluring marketing vehicles ??? I call them market vehicles one, because they drive traffic, two, because they are often self contained. Anyway, back to the danger of pursuing the new, mysterious strategies. But, it can be more dangerous not to pursue them. If you don???t diversify, and that even includes doing things that are new to you and not necessarily new to everyone else, you will absolutely suffer from that decision. Let???s run through some scenarios. You think SEO is the place to be. Well it can be until you get banned or shoved down in the rankings by an algorithm change or a spurt of competition. Have you noticed that Froogle and Google???s local results have started showing up high in the rankings of search engine results pages. How???s you???re Froogle ranking. Are those Froogle results knocking you down in the rankings an inch or two. If you rely on leads just from the natural search results, what happens when those results suddenly dry up. A lot of companies have been thrown into a panic for just that reason. Now a lot of times you can go way down in rankings and it???s just a temporary thing. You bounce back up after a week or two. But if that???s where all you???re business is coming from and it???s now gone, you???re under a ton of pressure to do something. You can???t just sit there and do nothing ??? which is often the right thing to do. So you???re sort of forced to take action just so it looks like you???re trying to do something. If you had some other traffic driving vehicles in place, the pressure???s off a little. You can wait it out a bit to see what???s real and what???s not in a rankings bump or shuffle. So you think you???re safe by driving leads through search engine advertising ??? pay per clicks. Hey, you pay, your ads show up, people click, you get customers. Well along comes Google and their quality score. Now it???s just not a matter of price bids. Click through rates and the relevance of landing pages are affecting the rank of your sponsored ad. Plus with all the Tivo???ing going on, just how much more competition is flowing in from companies looking for better places to spend their advertising dollar then television. How does that affect the cost per click. Here???s something to think about. Do you know what two of the highest downloaded Firefox extensions are ??? a script blocker and an ad blocker. Do you think that might have an affect on your Google and Yahoo pay per click business. History has definitively shown us that people like to block ads. Don???t think Google and Yahoo???s ads are immune to that. Getting a little sick of seeing AdSense on sites ??? yeah, me too. Where???s that Firefox extension. Maybe once I???ve turned it on it???ll block the ads on the Search Engine Results Pages, too. I think you???re getting my point. So if you haven???t already started getting systems in place to diversify efficiently, you need to. Another trend ??? longevity. Longevity goes hand in hand with trust. If you???ve been around awhile people tend to trust you a little more. Heard of the Google sandbox. There are pretty good indicators that length of time you???ve been doing something means something in this web site marketing world of ours. It???s pretty hard to go out a get a new link that???s 2 years old. You would have had to have done that two years ago. So the key to longevity is to get started now. It a few years you???ll have it. Meanwhile, why not drive some traffic and have some fun while were at it. I believe it was John Lennon said that 90% of success was just showing up. I???m not sure that I totally agree with the exact percentage, but the principle does apply. You???ve got to get in the game if you want to score and if you want to win. Most people sit on the couch and are content to watch. So, how do we all get into the game. Well, Drive It ??? Convert It! is shifting back to the ???drive it??? side. Over the next several podcasts I???m going to talk about getting into different games - we???ll call it the Getting Started series. What do I want you to get started with ??? to diversify into. Lots of things. We are going to talk social search and social networking. We are going to talk about podcasting. Blogging ??? yeah it???s been out awhile but you???re still not doing it, are you.We???ll revisit Vertical search engines like shopping search and local search. Pushed out any press releases lately, how about Ezines or newsletters. I???m calling it the Getting Started series but don???t let that fool you. I???ll be lacing it with something for everyone whether you???re a beginner or an old hand at it. I can???t wait for the podcast on Social Search and Social Networking. I am excited about it and dreading it all at the same time. I???m 42 years old, do I really need a My Space account. Do I really need to Digg stuff. Is it a goldmine or a big waste of time. We usually avoid what we fear or what we don???t understand. I know a lot of SEOs that hate getting links because they don???t want to have to actually communicate with another person. A lot of us have a fear of speaking ??? not looking forward to that first podcast ??? are you? Don???t understand all the tech stuff surrounding Shopping Search - don???t worry it???s probably just a fad anyway. Let???s face down some of those fears, that apprehension together. Let???s go back and revisit some of those online marketing vehicles that we took a look at a few years ago and turned our noses up at ??? darn shopping engines. Let???s get diversified. A little secret ??? it???s mostly just about repurposing content. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you. See you then. Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It - Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again. Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory. If you want the details of my vacation - send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there. We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event - I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series. Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences - I’ll give you the rundown. Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and that???s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses - you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody. The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions. Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that. There’s also a exhibition floor where there’s a good100 or so exhibitors ranging from SEO companies to dot.coms to analytics software firms. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a commercial. Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com for more info if you’d like. One of the things I look for when I go to these conferences is trends. Where things seem to be heading. In marketing if you???re always following other companies??? leads, you???ll likely always be following others ??? stands to reason ??? huh. So if you can get out in front of the trends, you stand a better chance of success. One of the most highly attended sessions was on Social Search. I think it was highly popular because it???s pretty new. We???re all trying to figure out how we want to play. How many resources do you put into something without having a good idea of the payoff. Now it???s always a little dangerous because new stuff is alluring. If you???re like me, you work so much with standard SEO and Search Engine Advertising that it can start to seem a little mundane at times. So when something new comes along, you want to jump all over it. And then you step back and look at the statistics and see what an overwhelming amount of traffic is still generated by those two 500 pound gorillas ??? Optimization and Pay Per click So it can be dangerous to go after the new, alluring marketing vehicles ??? I call them market vehicles one, because they drive traffic, two, because they are often self contained. Anyway, back to the danger of pursuing the new, mysterious strategies. But, it can be more dangerous not to pursue them. If you don???t diversify, and that even includes doing things that are new to you and not necessarily new to everyone else, you will absolutely suffer from that decision. Let???s run through some scenarios. You think SEO is the place to be. Well it can be until you get banned or shoved down in the rankings by an algorithm change or a spurt of competition. Have you noticed that Froogle and Google???s local results have started showing up high in the rankings of search engine results pages. How???s you???re Froogle ranking. Are those Froogle results knocking you down in the rankings an inch or two. If you rely on leads just from the natural search results, what happens when those results suddenly dry up. A lot of companies have been thrown into a panic for just that reason. Now a lot of times you can go way down in rankings and it???s just a temporary thing. You bounce back up after a week or two. But if that???s where all you???re business is coming from and it???s now gone, you???re under a ton of pressure to do something. You can???t just sit there and do nothing ??? which is often the right thing to do. So you???re sort of forced to take action just so it looks like you???re trying to do something. If you had some other traffic driving vehicles in place, the pressure???s off a little. You can wait it out a bit to see what???s real and what???s not in a rankings bump or shuffle. So you think you???re safe by driving leads through search engine advertising ??? pay per clicks. Hey, you pay, your ads show up, people click, you get customers. Well along comes Google and their quality score. Now it???s just not a matter of price bids. Click through rates and the relevance of landing pages are affecting the rank of your sponsored ad. Plus with all the Tivo???ing going on, just how much more competition is flowing in from companies looking for better places to spend their advertising dollar then television. How does that affect the cost per click. Here???s something to think about. Do you know what two of the highest downloaded Firefox extensions are ??? a script blocker and an ad blocker. Do you think that might have an affect on your Google and Yahoo pay per click business. History has definitively shown us that people like to block ads. Don???t think Google and Yahoo???s ads are immune to that. Getting a little sick of seeing AdSense on sites ??? yeah, me too. Where???s that Firefox extension. Maybe once I???ve turned it on it???ll block the ads on the Search Engine Results Pages, too. I think you???re getting my point. So if you haven???t already started getting systems in place to diversify efficiently, you need to. Another trend ??? longevity. Longevity goes hand in hand with trust. If you???ve been around awhile people tend to trust you a little more. Heard of the Google sandbox. There are pretty good indicators that length of time you???ve been doing something means something in this web site marketing world of ours. It???s pretty hard to go out a get a new link that???s 2 years old. You would have had to have done that two years ago. So the key to longevity is to get started now. It a few years you???ll have it. Meanwhile, why not drive some traffic and have some fun while were at it. I believe it was John Lennon said that 90% of success was just showing up. I???m not sure that I totally agree with the exact percentage, but the principle does apply. You???ve got to get in the game if you want to score and if you want to win. Most people sit on the couch and are content to watch. So, how do we all get into the game. Well, Drive It ??? Convert It! is shifting back to the ???drive it??? side. Over the next several podcasts I???m going to talk about getting into different games - we???ll call it the Getting Started series. What do I want you to get started with ??? to diversify into. Lots of things. We are going to talk social search and social networking. We are going to talk about podcasting. Blogging ??? yeah it???s been out awhile but you???re still not doing it, are you.We???ll revisit Vertical search engines like shopping search and local search. Pushed out any press releases lately, how about Ezines or newsletters. I???m calling it the Getting Started series but don???t let that fool you. I???ll be lacing it with something for everyone whether you???re a beginner or an old hand at it. I can???t wait for the podcast on Social Search and Social Networking. I am excited about it and dreading it all at the same time. I???m 42 years old, do I really need a My Space account. Do I really need to Digg stuff. Is it a goldmine or a big waste of time. We usually avoid what we fear or what we don???t understand. I know a lot of SEOs that hate getting links because they don???t want to have to actually communicate with another person. A lot of us have a fear of speaking ??? not looking forward to that first podcast ??? are you? Don???t understand all the tech stuff surrounding Shopping Search - don???t worry it???s probably just a fad anyway. Let???s face down some of those fears, that apprehension together. Let???s go back and revisit some of those online marketing vehicles that we took a look at a few years ago and turned our noses up at ??? darn shopping engines. Let???s get diversified. A little secret ??? it???s mostly just about repurposing content. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you. See you then. tag:odeo.com,2006-08-29,23298724 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:37:49 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23347649-Drive-It-Convert-It-11-podcast-Internet-Marketing-Diversity Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is epis... Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It - Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again. Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory. If you want the details of my vacation - send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there. We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event - I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series. Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences - I’ll give you the rundown. Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and that???s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses - you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody. The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions. Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that. There’s also a exhibition floor where there’s a good100 or so exhibitors ranging from SEO companies to dot.coms to analytics software firms. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a commercial. Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com for more info if you’d like. One of the things I look for when I go to these conferences is trends. Where things seem to be heading. In marketing if you???re always following other companies??? leads, you???ll likely always be following others ??? stands to reason ??? huh. So if you can get out in front of the trends, you stand a better chance of success. One of the most highly attended sessions was on Social Search. I think it was highly popular because it???s pretty new. We???re all trying to figure out how we want to play. How many resources do you put into something without having a good idea of the payoff. Now it???s always a little dangerous because new stuff is alluring. If you???re like me, you work so much with standard SEO and Search Engine Advertising that it can start to seem a little mundane at times. So when something new comes along, you want to jump all over it. And then you step back and look at the statistics and see what an overwhelming amount of traffic is still generated by those two 500 pound gorillas ??? Optimization and Pay Per click So it can be dangerous to go after the new, alluring marketing vehicles ??? I call them market vehicles one, because they drive traffic, two, because they are often self contained. Anyway, back to the danger of pursuing the new, mysterious strategies. But, it can be more dangerous not to pursue them. If you don???t diversify, and that even includes doing things that are new to you and not necessarily new to everyone else, you will absolutely suffer from that decision. Let???s run through some scenarios. You think SEO is the place to be. Well it can be until you get banned or shoved down in the rankings by an algorithm change or a spurt of competition. Have you noticed that Froogle and Google???s local results have started showing up high in the rankings of search engine results pages. How???s you???re Froogle ranking. Are those Froogle results knocking you down in the rankings an inch or two. If you rely on leads just from the natural search results, what happens when those results suddenly dry up. A lot of companies have been thrown into a panic for just that reason. Now a lot of times you can go way down in rankings and it???s just a temporary thing. You bounce back up after a week or two. But if that???s where all you???re business is coming from and it???s now gone, you???re under a ton of pressure to do something. You can???t just sit there and do nothing ??? which is often the right thing to do. So you???re sort of forced to take action just so it looks like you???re trying to do something. If you had some other traffic driving vehicles in place, the pressure???s off a little. You can wait it out a bit to see what???s real and what???s not in a rankings bump or shuffle. So you think you???re safe by driving leads through search engine advertising ??? pay per clicks. Hey, you pay, your ads show up, people click, you get customers. Well along comes Google and their quality score. Now it???s just not a matter of price bids. Click through rates and the relevance of landing pages are affecting the rank of your sponsored ad. Plus with all the Tivo???ing going on, just how much more competition is flowing in from companies looking for better places to spend their advertising dollar then television. How does that affect the cost per click. Here???s something to think about. Do you know what two of the highest downloaded Firefox extensions are ??? a script blocker and an ad blocker. Do you think that might have an affect on your Google and Yahoo pay per click business. History has definitively shown us that people like to block ads. Don???t think Google and Yahoo???s ads are immune to that. Getting a little sick of seeing AdSense on sites ??? yeah, me too. Where???s that Firefox extension. Maybe once I???ve turned it on it???ll block the ads on the Search Engine Results Pages, too. I think you???re getting my point. So if you haven???t already started getting systems in place to diversify efficiently, you need to. Another trend ??? longevity. Longevity goes hand in hand with trust. If you???ve been around awhile people tend to trust you a little more. Heard of the Google sandbox. There are pretty good indicators that length of time you???ve been doing something means something in this web site marketing world of ours. It???s pretty hard to go out a get a new link that???s 2 years old. You would have had to have done that two years ago. So the key to longevity is to get started now. It a few years you???ll have it. Meanwhile, why not drive some traffic and have some fun while were at it. I believe it was John Lennon said that 90% of success was just showing up. I???m not sure that I totally agree with the exact percentage, but the principle does apply. You???ve got to get in the game if you want to score and if you want to win. Most people sit on the couch and are content to watch. So, how do we all get into the game. Well, Drive It ??? Convert It! is shifting back to the ???drive it??? side. Over the next several podcasts I???m going to talk about getting into different games - we???ll call it the Getting Started series. What do I want you to get started with ??? to diversify into. Lots of things. We are going to talk social search and social networking. We are going to talk about podcasting. Blogging ??? yeah it???s been out awhile but you???re still not doing it, are you.We???ll revisit Vertical search engines like shopping search and local search. Pushed out any press releases lately, how about Ezines or newsletters. I???m calling it the Getting Started series but don???t let that fool you. I???ll be lacing it with something for everyone whether you???re a beginner or an old hand at it. I can???t wait for the podcast on Social Search and Social Networking. I am excited about it and dreading it all at the same time. I???m 42 years old, do I really need a My Space account. Do I really need to Digg stuff. Is it a goldmine or a big waste of time. We usually avoid what we fear or what we don???t understand. I know a lot of SEOs that hate getting links because they don???t want to have to actually communicate with another person. A lot of us have a fear of speaking ??? not looking forward to that first podcast ??? are you? Don???t understand all the tech stuff surrounding Shopping Search - don???t worry it???s probably just a fad anyway. Let???s face down some of those fears, that apprehension together. Let???s go back and revisit some of those online marketing vehicles that we took a look at a few years ago and turned our noses up at ??? darn shopping engines. Let???s get diversified. A little secret ??? it???s mostly just about repurposing content. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you. See you then. Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity. Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion Show summary: SES San Jose - A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose Diversification - Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click - think again. Upcoming podcasts - Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It - Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively. Download the Podcast here Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here Read a full transcript here … Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales. Drive it, convert it. Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It - Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again. Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory. If you want the details of my vacation - send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there. We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event - I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series. Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences - I’ll give you the rundown. Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and that???s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses - you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody. The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions. Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that. There’s also a exhibition floor where there’s a good100 or so exhibitors ranging from SEO companies to dot.coms to analytics software firms. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a commercial. Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com Go to SearchEngineStrategies.com for more info if you’d like. One of the things I look for when I go to these conferences is trends. Where things seem to be heading. In marketing if you???re always following other companies??? leads, you???ll likely always be following others ??? stands to reason ??? huh. So if you can get out in front of the trends, you stand a better chance of success. One of the most highly attended sessions was on Social Search. I think it was highly popular because it???s pretty new. We???re all trying to figure out how we want to play. How many resources do you put into something without having a good idea of the payoff. Now it???s always a little dangerous because new stuff is alluring. If you???re like me, you work so much with standard SEO and Search Engine Advertising that it can start to seem a little mundane at times. So when something new comes along, you want to jump all over it. And then you step back and look at the statistics and see what an overwhelming amount of traffic is still generated by those two 500 pound gorillas ??? Optimization and Pay Per click So it can be dangerous to go after the new, alluring marketing vehicles ??? I call them market vehicles one, because they drive traffic, two, because they are often self contained. Anyway, back to the danger of pursuing the new, mysterious strategies. But, it can be more dangerous not to pursue them. If you don???t diversify, and that even includes doing things that are new to you and not necessarily new to everyone else, you will absolutely suffer from that decision. Let???s run through some scenarios. You think SEO is the place to be. Well it can be until you get banned or shoved down in the rankings by an algorithm change or a spurt of competition. Have you noticed that Froogle and Google???s local results have started showing up high in the rankings of search engine results pages. How???s you???re Froogle ranking. Are those Froogle results knocking you down in the rankings an inch or two. If you rely on leads just from the natural search results, what happens when those results suddenly dry up. A lot of companies have been thrown into a panic for just that reason. Now a lot of times you can go way down in rankings and it???s just a temporary thing. You bounce back up after a week or two. But if that???s where all you???re business is coming from and it???s now gone, you???re under a ton of pressure to do something. You can???t just sit there and do nothing ??? which is often the right thing to do. So you???re sort of forced to take action just so it looks like you???re trying to do something. If you had some other traffic driving vehicles in place, the pressure???s off a little. You can wait it out a bit to see what???s real and what???s not in a rankings bump or shuffle. So you think you???re safe by driving leads through search engine advertising ??? pay per clicks. Hey, you pay, your ads show up, people click, you get customers. Well along comes Google and their quality score. Now it???s just not a matter of price bids. Click through rates and the relevance of landing pages are affecting the rank of your sponsored ad. Plus with all the Tivo???ing going on, just how much more competition is flowing in from companies looking for better places to spend their advertising dollar then television. How does that affect the cost per click. Here???s something to think about. Do you know what two of the highest downloaded Firefox extensions are ??? a script blocker and an ad blocker. Do you think that might have an affect on your Google and Yahoo pay per click business. History has definitively shown us that people like to block ads. Don???t think Google and Yahoo???s ads are immune to that. Getting a little sick of seeing AdSense on sites ??? yeah, me too. Where???s that Firefox extension. Maybe once I???ve turned it on it???ll block the ads on the Search Engine Results Pages, too. I think you???re getting my point. So if you haven???t already started getting systems in place to diversify efficiently, you need to. Another trend ??? longevity. Longevity goes hand in hand with trust. If you???ve been around awhile people tend to trust you a little more. Heard of the Google sandbox. There are pretty good indicators that length of time you???ve been doing something means something in this web site marketing world of ours. It???s pretty hard to go out a get a new link that???s 2 years old. You would have had to have done that two years ago. So the key to longevity is to get started now. It a few years you???ll have it. Meanwhile, why not drive some traffic and have some fun while were at it. I believe it was John Lennon said that 90% of success was just showing up. I???m not sure that I totally agree with the exact percentage, but the principle does apply. You???ve got to get in the game if you want to score and if you want to win. Most people sit on the couch and are content to watch. So, how do we all get into the game. Well, Drive It ??? Convert It! is shifting back to the ???drive it??? side. Over the next several podcasts I???m going to talk about getting into different games - we???ll call it the Getting Started series. What do I want you to get started with ??? to diversify into. Lots of things. We are going to talk social search and social networking. We are going to talk about podcasting. Blogging ??? yeah it???s been out awhile but you???re still not doing it, are you.We???ll revisit Vertical search engines like shopping search and local search. Pushed out any press releases lately, how about Ezines or newsletters. I???m calling it the Getting Started series but don???t let that fool you. I???ll be lacing it with something for everyone whether you???re a beginner or an old hand at it. I can???t wait for the podcast on Social Search and Social Networking. I am excited about it and dreading it all at the same time. I???m 42 years old, do I really need a My Space account. Do I really need to Digg stuff. Is it a goldmine or a big waste of time. We usually avoid what we fear or what we don???t understand. I know a lot of SEOs that hate getting links because they don???t want to have to actually communicate with another person. A lot of us have a fear of speaking ??? not looking forward to that first podcast ??? are you? Don???t understand all the tech stuff surrounding Shopping Search - don???t worry it???s probably just a fad anyway. Let???s face down some of those fears, that apprehension together. Let???s go back and revisit some of those online marketing vehicles that we took a look at a few years ago and turned our noses up at ??? darn shopping engines. Let???s get diversified. A little secret ??? it???s mostly just about repurposing content. So if you haven???t yet subscribed, you won???t want to miss out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast. Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you. See you then. tag:odeo.com,2006-08-29,23347649 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:37:49 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/1544597-Drive-It-Convert-It-10-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-4-Building-Trust-50-Tips-in-20-Minutes tag:odeo.com,2006-07-21,1544597 Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:25:37 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/24185467-Drive-It-Convert-It-10-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-4-Building-Trust-50-Tips-in-20-Minutes     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site’s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic – Part 4 – Building Trust – 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   T...     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site’s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic – Part 4 – Building Trust – 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more people trust you, the more credibly you come across, the more likely people will be to do business with you. Your website is no different.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   This podcast is a direct continuation of episode #9. I would definitely recommend you listen to it in order to get some background to the subject of trust on the web. However, if your like me and don’t mind diving right in without all the background – they I say keep listening and catch up later.   Today, I’m going to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. As you can imagine, I won’t be going into a lot of detail on each one. That’s okay though. The real objective is to get you thinking about your website and the trust and credibility it invokes. Each specific tip is just one more thing you can do to throw the odds in your favor.   Now I’ll be surprised if anyone agrees with all of my tips did. Trust is typically based on past experience. We’ve all had different experiences, so the factors that trigger our trust (or lack of it), will be different for each of us.   I compiled my list from my own experiences of 20 years in technology marketing and customer interaction - the last 10 of which have been in the Internet marketing space. I regularly talk to other industry experts, I research and read reports on the subject and have also done a fair bit of research in general psychology.   Even with that impressive background I’ll miss a few things. If you think you catch one I didn’t, or you vehemently disagree with one – drop an email to podcast@bastioninternet.com. I’d love to hear from you.   And remember, not all tips will apply to all sites.   I’ve separated the tips into 9 different categories. Nothing special about the number 9, just happened that that is how they seemed to split out.   So let’s start our clocks and let the tips fall where they may:   Category 1 – Stay current: If you look old and outdated your credibility suffers. This applies to design trends and content - so:   - Update your copyright year: nothing spells old and outdated like a 2003 copyright in 2006. Change it each year. - Update your content: Go through your site every 6 months and freshen up your words a little. It might help your search ranking, too. - Don’t use old-style technology and techniques: Get rid of anchor pages, animated .gifs, frames. They are all from a bygone era. - Don’t have a “reset button” on your forms: Oh my gosh, if I can reset a form on your page, I am so out of there. It just smells of a site that hasn’t been updated in years. - Don’t have anything that blinks: blinking bad, blinking bad, blinking bad. Not blinking good. - Avoid “click here”: The words “click here” used to be instructive, now they are just unimaginative and annoying. - Avoid being too trendy: Trendy is not current. It’s doing stuff for the sake of newness. - Be trendy: I know I just said not to be trendy, but go ahead a be a little trendy here and there. It shows you’re paying attention. Just don’t be too trendy.   Category 2 – Pay attention to detail: If you’re sloppy on your website, it’s assuming you’re sloppy in your business, too. Here come the tips:   - Use proper grammar: For people that notice bad grammar, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Writing for the web is more conversational then writing for your English teacher, but watch the sloppy stuff. Don’t just do it good – do it well. - Spell correctly: Just a sign of sloppiness and another brick in the wall of poor credibility. Spell check, baby, and then proof read. Homonyms can cost you business. - Check all links: Have you got broken links. Is that the best you can do. - Check navigation in other browsers and platforms: This is a little tougher, but at least check the most popular browsers for proper display and functionality of your website.   Category 3 – Be easy to read: People that play their cards close to their chests want to beat you in poker. People that don’t mind being easy to read are people you can usually trust - so:   - Have shipping rates and policies that are easy to find: Nothing like a nasty $20 shipping charge at the end of my $10 shopping cart purchase to set me off. I’d like to do a little research before I start a process, so please let me. - Have tax information easily found: One of the great benefits to buying off the Internet is there is often no tax. Don’t make me go all the way through the checkout process to find out if you charge tax in my state. - Don’t be tricky: If I think you’re trying to trick me in one place, I’ll think you’re trying to trick my every place. - Don’t host ads: This is going to be tough for some of you. Is your site a real site or is it just here to get me to click on a Google ad. Is it really worth the money. If you’ve got that much traffic that your Ad Sense is paying, you’ve got enough traffic to convert a lot of sales in your primary business. - Be consistent: I don’t mind dealing with “characters” but I don’t want to deal with schizophrenics. If you’re website is a little wacky, ok. Just be whacky in the same way throughout the site. If it looks like 5 different people designed 5 different parts, your not to be trusted. - “But” out: Minimize the use of the word “but” b – u – t . It’s like arguing or hedging your bet. It’s rarely describes something in the other persons best interest. Replace it with alternatives like “however” or “although”. You don’t want to be argumentative or manipulative do you.   Category 4 – Give respect: If you respect me, you’ll likely do right by me.? Show me respect by doing the following:   - Have the shortest forms possible. You respect my time and aren’t trying to pump me for personal information. - Minimize your use of .pdf’s. Few things spells disrespect more than enticing me to click on a link and my seeing Adobe Acrobat start to boot up. I hate it. Others hate it. - Let users know if they are clicking on a .pdf. So if you absolutely have to link to a .pdf, give a warning. - Don’t default to sound. It’s pretty obvious, however, I want to make sure I’ve included it. If you choose to have sound play, make it the non-default option. - Know your audience and their tastes. If you have a clear audience, design for them. Make them feel comfortable in your home. - Write to your audiences’ level. Do this or you’ll either sound pedantic or real real dumb.   Category 5 – Look like a duck: There’s an old saying; if something looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck – it’s probably a duck. Do things like other companies in your space and of your quality (or of the quality you’d like to be), do.   - List your physical address: real companies have one. - Avoid (dash) having (dash) multi (dash) hyphenated (dash) URLs: I know it sucks that so many people have squatted on all the good domain names, but the spammer sites tend to have multi-hyphened URLs – don’t be mis-categorized to be one of them. - Send order acknowledgements. Immediate order acknowledgements on eCommerce sites are standard for credible, well established Internet commerce sites. Be like them. - Have a customer login area. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere for now. Is this a little deceitful, maybe, but it’s quack has a nice ring to it. - Have a jobs page: Successful companies need employees, don’t you. - Take credit cards. Well established eCommerce sites take credit cards. If you’re just taking PayPal – maybe your too little, or too simple to do business with. - Don’t have an all Flash site: You want to dare to be different, well dare to have low market share, too. Few flash sites are like one another. Most solid companies don’t have them. That doesn’t mean that companies with Flash sites aren’t solid. It just means it’s not the norm. - Don’t look hokey or too slick: You want to stand out from the crowd, not stick out from the crowd. People don’t trust things that are too far away from the norm. - Have some boring, never read pages (like Our Philosophy, Mission Statement, About Us,). It gives a sense that you have a level of reliable (although boring), people helping to keep your business doing business. - Match your industry’s theme: Once again, you want to do it better than others in your industry, not different. Unless of course, your industry is on the low low end of the website quality spectrum.   Category 6 – Show commitment: Committed people see you through the tough times. Non committed people take the money and run.? How do we show we’re committed:   - Treat images. Pictures should have a border, they should be file-size optimized, preferably they’ll have captions, and maybe have a graphical treatment overlaid on them. It shows you don’t mind investing some extra time and money because you’re in this for the long run. - No out-of-the-box templates: Nothing says I’ll be gone in a week, then a nice purchased template. - Include “trust” logos. They can be a little trite, but they show you took the time. Verisign, Better Business Bureau. - Show that you do something other than have a website. Talk about events you’ve done, articles you’ve written, associations you’re a part of. Do a podcast, do a webcast. Write newsletters. You need to show you’re more than just a website. - Avoid stupid technology (frames, stretching tables, you name it). I have a high resolution monitor. If your content stretches to fit it, I end up looking at a 15 inch long sentence – it’s unreadable, so I don’t read it. If you still have a frame based site – you likely don’t have commitment to your website. You need to invest to change that. - Host your own shopping cart. Taking the easy way out smacks of a “proof of concept” website. Call me when you’ve proved your concept and plan to stick around. - Properly repurpose other media content you’re using. If you took your old sales letter and stuck it up there as your main converting page, you really haven’t invested much time or energy to be here. If you want me to look at some touched up PowerPoint, look for someone else. - Invest in design. People don’t always notice if things don’t have gradients, if they don’t line up, if pictures and images are low quality, they just get a feeling of walking into an old, shoddy store.   Category 7 – Been there, done that. If you’ve done it before, you’re likely to do it again. Show them you’ve been there and done that – here’s how:   - Include testimonials. Hey, customers have dealt with you and like you. That counts. - Have partial customer lists. Hey, you’ve got customers. I guess this isn’t a brand new business for you. - List some Frequently Asked Questions. Make sure they’re frequently asked questions: This isn’t some backhanded type of sales copy page. “How do you keep your prices so low”. This page shows you’ve had lots of customers asking intelligent questions and you want prospective customers to get those answers, too.   Category 8 – Watch their back. Hey if someone cares about watching my back, I’m going to trust them.? How do we show it:   - Have a privacy policy: Keep it simple. Keep it direct. - Make sure SSL certificates work: I guess it goes without saying that you should have one if you’re collecting sensitive information. Now make sure it’s not expired and that it works for both the www or non-www version of your site. - Don’t ask for Driver’s License, Social Security, and Credit Card numbers unless you have properly protected SSL certificate areas. Enough said on that one. - Include privacy taglines and information snippets wherever you ask for personal information. Put a little tagline and link beside sensitive areas. For example, on your contact form beside the email box, tell people you don’t sell or distribute email address and link to your privacy page.   Category 9 – Have confidence   - Use the word “believe” instead of “think”: I believe you’ll find this tip beneficial. Notice I didn’t say “I think you’ll find this tip beneficial”. Hear the difference. - Make the first interaction an easy one. I believe a User will want to come back to your site if you make the first interaction an easy one. That builds trust. - Write in a conversational style: I don’t need to hide behind formality. There are real people behind our website. Real people talk like real people.   Done!   For those of you who were counting – I just gave you 52 tips in 19 minutes.   So did my credibility take a hit because I didn’t do exactly what I said I would – 50 tips in 20 minutes - or do you trust me more because I believe in under promising and over delivering.   Hmmm…. you may want to think about that one. While you’re thinking about that – consider subscribing to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 11 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I’ll get back to you – trust me.     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site’s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic – Part 4 – Building Trust – 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more people trust you, the more credibly you come across, the more likely people will be to do business with you. Your website is no different.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   This podcast is a direct continuation of episode #9. I would definitely recommend you listen to it in order to get some background to the subject of trust on the web. However, if your like me and don’t mind diving right in without all the background – they I say keep listening and catch up later.   Today, I’m going to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. As you can imagine, I won’t be going into a lot of detail on each one. That’s okay though. The real objective is to get you thinking about your website and the trust and credibility it invokes. Each specific tip is just one more thing you can do to throw the odds in your favor.   Now I’ll be surprised if anyone agrees with all of my tips did. Trust is typically based on past experience. We’ve all had different experiences, so the factors that trigger our trust (or lack of it), will be different for each of us.   I compiled my list from my own experiences of 20 years in technology marketing and customer interaction - the last 10 of which have been in the Internet marketing space. I regularly talk to other industry experts, I research and read reports on the subject and have also done a fair bit of research in general psychology.   Even with that impressive background I’ll miss a few things. If you think you catch one I didn’t, or you vehemently disagree with one – drop an email to podcast@bastioninternet.com. I’d love to hear from you.   And remember, not all tips will apply to all sites.   I’ve separated the tips into 9 different categories. Nothing special about the number 9, just happened that that is how they seemed to split out.   So let’s start our clocks and let the tips fall where they may:   Category 1 – Stay current: If you look old and outdated your credibility suffers. This applies to design trends and content - so:   - Update your copyright year: nothing spells old and outdated like a 2003 copyright in 2006. Change it each year. - Update your content: Go through your site every 6 months and freshen up your words a little. It might help your search ranking, too. - Don’t use old-style technology and techniques: Get rid of anchor pages, animated .gifs, frames. They are all from a bygone era. - Don’t have a “reset button” on your forms: Oh my gosh, if I can reset a form on your page, I am so out of there. It just smells of a site that hasn’t been updated in years. - Don’t have anything that blinks: blinking bad, blinking bad, blinking bad. Not blinking good. - Avoid “click here”: The words “click here” used to be instructive, now they are just unimaginative and annoying. - Avoid being too trendy: Trendy is not current. It’s doing stuff for the sake of newness. - Be trendy: I know I just said not to be trendy, but go ahead a be a little trendy here and there. It shows you’re paying attention. Just don’t be too trendy.   Category 2 – Pay attention to detail: If you’re sloppy on your website, it’s assuming you’re sloppy in your business, too. Here come the tips:   - Use proper grammar: For people that notice bad grammar, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Writing for the web is more conversational then writing for your English teacher, but watch the sloppy stuff. Don’t just do it good – do it well. - Spell correctly: Just a sign of sloppiness and another brick in the wall of poor credibility. Spell check, baby, and then proof read. Homonyms can cost you business. - Check all links: Have you got broken links. Is that the best you can do. - Check navigation in other browsers and platforms: This is a little tougher, but at least check the most popular browsers for proper display and functionality of your website.   Category 3 – Be easy to read: People that play their cards close to their chests want to beat you in poker. People that don’t mind being easy to read are people you can usually trust - so:   - Have shipping rates and policies that are easy to find: Nothing like a nasty $20 shipping charge at the end of my $10 shopping cart purchase to set me off. I’d like to do a little research before I start a process, so please let me. - Have tax information easily found: One of the great benefits to buying off the Internet is there is often no tax. Don’t make me go all the way through the checkout process to find out if you charge tax in my state. - Don’t be tricky: If I think you’re trying to trick me in one place, I’ll think you’re trying to trick my every place. - Don’t host ads: This is going to be tough for some of you. Is your site a real site or is it just here to get me to click on a Google ad. Is it really worth the money. If you’ve got that much traffic that your Ad Sense is paying, you’ve got enough traffic to convert a lot of sales in your primary business. - Be consistent: I don’t mind dealing with “characters” but I don’t want to deal with schizophrenics. If you’re website is a little wacky, ok. Just be whacky in the same way throughout the site. If it looks like 5 different people designed 5 different parts, your not to be trusted. - “But” out: Minimize the use of the word “but” b – u – t . It’s like arguing or hedging your bet. It’s rarely describes something in the other persons best interest. Replace it with alternatives like “however” or “although”. You don’t want to be argumentative or manipulative do you.   Category 4 – Give respect: If you respect me, you’ll likely do right by me.? Show me respect by doing the following:   - Have the shortest forms possible. You respect my time and aren’t trying to pump me for personal information. - Minimize your use of .pdf’s. Few things spells disrespect more than enticing me to click on a link and my seeing Adobe Acrobat start to boot up. I hate it. Others hate it. - Let users know if they are clicking on a .pdf. So if you absolutely have to link to a .pdf, give a warning. - Don’t default to sound. It’s pretty obvious, however, I want to make sure I’ve included it. If you choose to have sound play, make it the non-default option. - Know your audience and their tastes. If you have a clear audience, design for them. Make them feel comfortable in your home. - Write to your audiences’ level. Do this or you’ll either sound pedantic or real real dumb.   Category 5 – Look like a duck: There’s an old saying; if something looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck – it’s probably a duck. Do things like other companies in your space and of your quality (or of the quality you’d like to be), do.   - List your physical address: real companies have one. - Avoid (dash) having (dash) multi (dash) hyphenated (dash) URLs: I know it sucks that so many people have squatted on all the good domain names, but the spammer sites tend to have multi-hyphened URLs – don’t be mis-categorized to be one of them. - Send order acknowledgements. Immediate order acknowledgements on eCommerce sites are standard for credible, well established Internet commerce sites. Be like them. - Have a customer login area. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere for now. Is this a little deceitful, maybe, but it’s quack has a nice ring to it. - Have a jobs page: Successful companies need employees, don’t you. - Take credit cards. Well established eCommerce sites take credit cards. If you’re just taking PayPal – maybe your too little, or too simple to do business with. - Don’t have an all Flash site: You want to dare to be different, well dare to have low market share, too. Few flash sites are like one another. Most solid companies don’t have them. That doesn’t mean that companies with Flash sites aren’t solid. It just means it’s not the norm. - Don’t look hokey or too slick: You want to stand out from the crowd, not stick out from the crowd. People don’t trust things that are too far away from the norm. - Have some boring, never read pages (like Our Philosophy, Mission Statement, About Us,). It gives a sense that you have a level of reliable (although boring), people helping to keep your business doing business. - Match your industry’s theme: Once again, you want to do it better than others in your industry, not different. Unless of course, your industry is on the low low end of the website quality spectrum.   Category 6 – Show commitment: Committed people see you through the tough times. Non committed people take the money and run.? How do we show we’re committed:   - Treat images. Pictures should have a border, they should be file-size optimized, preferably they’ll have captions, and maybe have a graphical treatment overlaid on them. It shows you don’t mind investing some extra time and money because you’re in this for the long run. - No out-of-the-box templates: Nothing says I’ll be gone in a week, then a nice purchased template. - Include “trust” logos. They can be a little trite, but they show you took the time. Verisign, Better Business Bureau. - Show that you do something other than have a website. Talk about events you’ve done, articles you’ve written, associations you’re a part of. Do a podcast, do a webcast. Write newsletters. You need to show you’re more than just a website. - Avoid stupid technology (frames, stretching tables, you name it). I have a high resolution monitor. If your content stretches to fit it, I end up looking at a 15 inch long sentence – it’s unreadable, so I don’t read it. If you still have a frame based site – you likely don’t have commitment to your website. You need to invest to change that. - Host your own shopping cart. Taking the easy way out smacks of a “proof of concept” website. Call me when you’ve proved your concept and plan to stick around. - Properly repurpose other media content you’re using. If you took your old sales letter and stuck it up there as your main converting page, you really haven’t invested much time or energy to be here. If you want me to look at some touched up PowerPoint, look for someone else. - Invest in design. People don’t always notice if things don’t have gradients, if they don’t line up, if pictures and images are low quality, they just get a feeling of walking into an old, shoddy store.   Category 7 – Been there, done that. If you’ve done it before, you’re likely to do it again. Show them you’ve been there and done that – here’s how:   - Include testimonials. Hey, customers have dealt with you and like you. That counts. - Have partial customer lists. Hey, you’ve got customers. I guess this isn’t a brand new business for you. - List some Frequently Asked Questions. Make sure they’re frequently asked questions: This isn’t some backhanded type of sales copy page. “How do you keep your prices so low”. This page shows you’ve had lots of customers asking intelligent questions and you want prospective customers to get those answers, too.   Category 8 – Watch their back. Hey if someone cares about watching my back, I’m going to trust them.? How do we show it:   - Have a privacy policy: Keep it simple. Keep it direct. - Make sure SSL certificates work: I guess it goes without saying that you should have one if you’re collecting sensitive information. Now make sure it’s not expired and that it works for both the www or non-www version of your site. - Don’t ask for Driver’s License, Social Security, and Credit Card numbers unless you have properly protected SSL certificate areas. Enough said on that one. - Include privacy taglines and information snippets wherever you ask for personal information. Put a little tagline and link beside sensitive areas. For example, on your contact form beside the email box, tell people you don’t sell or distribute email address and link to your privacy page.   Category 9 – Have confidence   - Use the word “believe” instead of “think”: I believe you’ll find this tip beneficial. Notice I didn’t say “I think you’ll find this tip beneficial”. Hear the difference. - Make the first interaction an easy one. I believe a User will want to come back to your site if you make the first interaction an easy one. That builds trust. - Write in a conversational style: I don’t need to hide behind formality. There are real people behind our website. Real people talk like real people.   Done!   For those of you who were counting – I just gave you 52 tips in 19 minutes.   So did my credibility take a hit because I didn’t do exactly what I said I would – 50 tips in 20 minutes - or do you trust me more because I believe in under promising and over delivering.   Hmmm…. you may want to think about that one. While you’re thinking about that – consider subscribing to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 11 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I’ll get back to you – trust me. tag:odeo.com,2006-07-21,24185467 Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:25:37 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23298727-Drive-It-Convert-It-10-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-4-Building-Trust-50-Tips-in-20-Minutes     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site???s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 4 ??? Building Trust ??? 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it...     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site???s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 4 ??? Building Trust ??? 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more people trust you, the more credibly you come across, the more likely people will be to do business with you. Your website is no different.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   This podcast is a direct continuation of episode #9. I would definitely recommend you listen to it in order to get some background to the subject of trust on the web. However, if your like me and don???t mind diving right in without all the background ??? they I say keep listening and catch up later.   Today, I???m going to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. As you can imagine, I won???t be going into a lot of detail on each one. That???s okay though. The real objective is to get you thinking about your website and the trust and credibility it invokes. Each specific tip is just one more thing you can do to throw the odds in your favor.   Now I???ll be surprised if anyone agrees with all of my tips did. Trust is typically based on past experience. We???ve all had different experiences, so the factors that trigger our trust (or lack of it), will be different for each of us.   I compiled my list from my own experiences of 20 years in technology marketing and customer interaction - the last 10 of which have been in the Internet marketing space. I regularly talk to other industry experts, I research and read reports on the subject and have also done a fair bit of research in general psychology.   Even with that impressive background I???ll miss a few things. If you think you catch one I didn???t, or you vehemently disagree with one ??? drop an email to podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???d love to hear from you.   And remember, not all tips will apply to all sites.   I???ve separated the tips into 9 different categories. Nothing special about the number 9, just happened that that is how they seemed to split out.   So let???s start our clocks and let the tips fall where they may:   Category 1 ??? Stay current: If you look old and outdated your credibility suffers. This applies to design trends and content - so:   - Update your copyright year: nothing spells old and outdated like a 2003 copyright in 2006. Change it each year. - Update your content: Go through your site every 6 months and freshen up your words a little. It might help your search ranking, too. - Don???t use old-style technology and techniques: Get rid of anchor pages, animated .gifs, frames. They are all from a bygone era. - Don???t have a ???reset button??? on your forms: Oh my gosh, if I can reset a form on your page, I am so out of there. It just smells of a site that hasn???t been updated in years. - Don???t have anything that blinks: blinking bad, blinking bad, blinking bad. Not blinking good. - Avoid ???click here???: The words ???click here??? used to be instructive, now they are just unimaginative and annoying. - Avoid being too trendy: Trendy is not current. It???s doing stuff for the sake of newness. - Be trendy: I know I just said not to be trendy, but go ahead a be a little trendy here and there. It shows you???re paying attention. Just don???t be too trendy.   Category 2 ??? Pay attention to detail: If you???re sloppy on your website, it???s assuming you???re sloppy in your business, too. Here come the tips:   - Use proper grammar: For people that notice bad grammar, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Writing for the web is more conversational then writing for your English teacher, but watch the sloppy stuff. Don???t just do it good ??? do it well. - Spell correctly: Just a sign of sloppiness and another brick in the wall of poor credibility. Spell check, baby, and then proof read. Homonyms can cost you business. - Check all links: Have you got broken links. Is that the best you can do. - Check navigation in other browsers and platforms: This is a little tougher, but at least check the most popular browsers for proper display and functionality of your website.   Category 3 ??? Be easy to read: People that play their cards close to their chests want to beat you in poker. People that don???t mind being easy to read are people you can usually trust - so:   - Have shipping rates and policies that are easy to find: Nothing like a nasty $20 shipping charge at the end of my $10 shopping cart purchase to set me off. I???d like to do a little research before I start a process, so please let me. - Have tax information easily found: One of the great benefits to buying off the Internet is there is often no tax. Don???t make me go all the way through the checkout process to find out if you charge tax in my state. - Don???t be tricky: If I think you???re trying to trick me in one place, I???ll think you???re trying to trick my every place. - Don???t host ads: This is going to be tough for some of you. Is your site a real site or is it just here to get me to click on a Google ad. Is it really worth the money. If you???ve got that much traffic that your Ad Sense is paying, you???ve got enough traffic to convert a lot of sales in your primary business. - Be consistent: I don???t mind dealing with ???characters??? but I don???t want to deal with schizophrenics. If you???re website is a little wacky, ok. Just be whacky in the same way throughout the site. If it looks like 5 different people designed 5 different parts, your not to be trusted. - ???But??? out: Minimize the use of the word ???but??? b ??? u ??? t . It???s like arguing or hedging your bet. It???s rarely describes something in the other persons best interest. Replace it with alternatives like ???however??? or ???although???. You don???t want to be argumentative or manipulative do you.   Category 4 ??? Give respect: If you respect me, you???ll likely do right by me.? Show me respect by doing the following:   - Have the shortest forms possible. You respect my time and aren???t trying to pump me for personal information. - Minimize your use of .pdf???s. Few things spells disrespect more than enticing me to click on a link and my seeing Adobe Acrobat start to boot up. I hate it. Others hate it. - Let users know if they are clicking on a .pdf. So if you absolutely have to link to a .pdf, give a warning. - Don???t default to sound. It???s pretty obvious, however, I want to make sure I???ve included it. If you choose to have sound play, make it the non-default option. - Know your audience and their tastes. If you have a clear audience, design for them. Make them feel comfortable in your home. - Write to your audiences??? level. Do this or you???ll either sound pedantic or real real dumb.   Category 5 ??? Look like a duck: There???s an old saying; if something looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck ??? it???s probably a duck. Do things like other companies in your space and of your quality (or of the quality you???d like to be), do.   - List your physical address: real companies have one. - Avoid (dash) having (dash) multi (dash) hyphenated (dash) URLs: I know it sucks that so many people have squatted on all the good domain names, but the spammer sites tend to have multi-hyphened URLs ??? don???t be mis-categorized to be one of them. - Send order acknowledgements. Immediate order acknowledgements on eCommerce sites are standard for credible, well established Internet commerce sites. Be like them. - Have a customer login area. Even if it doesn???t go anywhere for now. Is this a little deceitful, maybe, but it???s quack has a nice ring to it. - Have a jobs page: Successful companies need employees, don???t you. - Take credit cards. Well established eCommerce sites take credit cards. If you???re just taking PayPal ??? maybe your too little, or too simple to do business with. - Don???t have an all Flash site: You want to dare to be different, well dare to have low market share, too. Few flash sites are like one another. Most solid companies don???t have them. That doesn???t mean that companies with Flash sites aren???t solid. It just means it???s not the norm. - Don???t look hokey or too slick: You want to stand out from the crowd, not stick out from the crowd. People don???t trust things that are too far away from the norm. - Have some boring, never read pages (like Our Philosophy, Mission Statement, About Us,). It gives a sense that you have a level of reliable (although boring), people helping to keep your business doing business. - Match your industry???s theme: Once again, you want to do it better than others in your industry, not different. Unless of course, your industry is on the low low end of the website quality spectrum.   Category 6 ??? Show commitment: Committed people see you through the tough times. Non committed people take the money and run.? How do we show we???re committed:   - Treat images. Pictures should have a border, they should be file-size optimized, preferably they???ll have captions, and maybe have a graphical treatment overlaid on them. It shows you don???t mind investing some extra time and money because you???re in this for the long run. - No out-of-the-box templates: Nothing says I???ll be gone in a week, then a nice purchased template. - Include ???trust??? logos. They can be a little trite, but they show you took the time. Verisign, Better Business Bureau. - Show that you do something other than have a website. Talk about events you???ve done, articles you???ve written, associations you???re a part of. Do a podcast, do a webcast. Write newsletters. You need to show you???re more than just a website. - Avoid stupid technology (frames, stretching tables, you name it). I have a high resolution monitor. If your content stretches to fit it, I end up looking at a 15 inch long sentence ??? it???s unreadable, so I don???t read it. If you still have a frame based site ??? you likely don???t have commitment to your website. You need to invest to change that. - Host your own shopping cart. Taking the easy way out smacks of a ???proof of concept??? website. Call me when you???ve proved your concept and plan to stick around. - Properly repurpose other media content you???re using. If you took your old sales letter and stuck it up there as your main converting page, you really haven???t invested much time or energy to be here. If you want me to look at some touched up PowerPoint, look for someone else. - Invest in design. People don???t always notice if things don???t have gradients, if they don???t line up, if pictures and images are low quality, they just get a feeling of walking into an old, shoddy store.   Category 7 ??? Been there, done that. If you???ve done it before, you???re likely to do it again. Show them you???ve been there and done that ??? here???s how:   - Include testimonials. Hey, customers have dealt with you and like you. That counts. - Have partial customer lists. Hey, you???ve got customers. I guess this isn???t a brand new business for you. - List some Frequently Asked Questions. Make sure they???re frequently asked questions: This isn???t some backhanded type of sales copy page. ???How do you keep your prices so low???. This page shows you???ve had lots of customers asking intelligent questions and you want prospective customers to get those answers, too.   Category 8 ??? Watch their back. Hey if someone cares about watching my back, I???m going to trust them.? How do we show it:   - Have a privacy policy: Keep it simple. Keep it direct. - Make sure SSL certificates work: I guess it goes without saying that you should have one if you???re collecting sensitive information. Now make sure it???s not expired and that it works for both the www or non-www version of your site. - Don???t ask for Driver???s License, Social Security, and Credit Card numbers unless you have properly protected SSL certificate areas. Enough said on that one. - Include privacy taglines and information snippets wherever you ask for personal information. Put a little tagline and link beside sensitive areas. For example, on your contact form beside the email box, tell people you don???t sell or distribute email address and link to your privacy page.   Category 9 ??? Have confidence   - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think???: I believe you???ll find this tip beneficial. Notice I didn???t say ???I think you???ll find this tip beneficial???. Hear the difference. - Make the first interaction an easy one. I believe a User will want to come back to your site if you make the first interaction an easy one. That builds trust. - Write in a conversational style: I don???t need to hide behind formality. There are real people behind our website. Real people talk like real people.   Done!   For those of you who were counting ??? I just gave you 52 tips in 19 minutes.   So did my credibility take a hit because I didn???t do exactly what I said I would ??? 50 tips in 20 minutes - or do you trust me more because I believe in under promising and over delivering.   Hmmm???. you may want to think about that one. While you???re thinking about that ??? consider subscribing to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 11 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you ??? trust me.     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site???s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 4 ??? Building Trust ??? 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more people trust you, the more credibly you come across, the more likely people will be to do business with you. Your website is no different.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   This podcast is a direct continuation of episode #9. I would definitely recommend you listen to it in order to get some background to the subject of trust on the web. However, if your like me and don???t mind diving right in without all the background ??? they I say keep listening and catch up later.   Today, I???m going to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. As you can imagine, I won???t be going into a lot of detail on each one. That???s okay though. The real objective is to get you thinking about your website and the trust and credibility it invokes. Each specific tip is just one more thing you can do to throw the odds in your favor.   Now I???ll be surprised if anyone agrees with all of my tips did. Trust is typically based on past experience. We???ve all had different experiences, so the factors that trigger our trust (or lack of it), will be different for each of us.   I compiled my list from my own experiences of 20 years in technology marketing and customer interaction - the last 10 of which have been in the Internet marketing space. I regularly talk to other industry experts, I research and read reports on the subject and have also done a fair bit of research in general psychology.   Even with that impressive background I???ll miss a few things. If you think you catch one I didn???t, or you vehemently disagree with one ??? drop an email to podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???d love to hear from you.   And remember, not all tips will apply to all sites.   I???ve separated the tips into 9 different categories. Nothing special about the number 9, just happened that that is how they seemed to split out.   So let???s start our clocks and let the tips fall where they may:   Category 1 ??? Stay current: If you look old and outdated your credibility suffers. This applies to design trends and content - so:   - Update your copyright year: nothing spells old and outdated like a 2003 copyright in 2006. Change it each year. - Update your content: Go through your site every 6 months and freshen up your words a little. It might help your search ranking, too. - Don???t use old-style technology and techniques: Get rid of anchor pages, animated .gifs, frames. They are all from a bygone era. - Don???t have a ???reset button??? on your forms: Oh my gosh, if I can reset a form on your page, I am so out of there. It just smells of a site that hasn???t been updated in years. - Don???t have anything that blinks: blinking bad, blinking bad, blinking bad. Not blinking good. - Avoid ???click here???: The words ???click here??? used to be instructive, now they are just unimaginative and annoying. - Avoid being too trendy: Trendy is not current. It???s doing stuff for the sake of newness. - Be trendy: I know I just said not to be trendy, but go ahead a be a little trendy here and there. It shows you???re paying attention. Just don???t be too trendy.   Category 2 ??? Pay attention to detail: If you???re sloppy on your website, it???s assuming you???re sloppy in your business, too. Here come the tips:   - Use proper grammar: For people that notice bad grammar, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Writing for the web is more conversational then writing for your English teacher, but watch the sloppy stuff. Don???t just do it good ??? do it well. - Spell correctly: Just a sign of sloppiness and another brick in the wall of poor credibility. Spell check, baby, and then proof read. Homonyms can cost you business. - Check all links: Have you got broken links. Is that the best you can do. - Check navigation in other browsers and platforms: This is a little tougher, but at least check the most popular browsers for proper display and functionality of your website.   Category 3 ??? Be easy to read: People that play their cards close to their chests want to beat you in poker. People that don???t mind being easy to read are people you can usually trust - so:   - Have shipping rates and policies that are easy to find: Nothing like a nasty $20 shipping charge at the end of my $10 shopping cart purchase to set me off. I???d like to do a little research before I start a process, so please let me. - Have tax information easily found: One of the great benefits to buying off the Internet is there is often no tax. Don???t make me go all the way through the checkout process to find out if you charge tax in my state. - Don???t be tricky: If I think you???re trying to trick me in one place, I???ll think you???re trying to trick my every place. - Don???t host ads: This is going to be tough for some of you. Is your site a real site or is it just here to get me to click on a Google ad. Is it really worth the money. If you???ve got that much traffic that your Ad Sense is paying, you???ve got enough traffic to convert a lot of sales in your primary business. - Be consistent: I don???t mind dealing with ???characters??? but I don???t want to deal with schizophrenics. If you???re website is a little wacky, ok. Just be whacky in the same way throughout the site. If it looks like 5 different people designed 5 different parts, your not to be trusted. - ???But??? out: Minimize the use of the word ???but??? b ??? u ??? t . It???s like arguing or hedging your bet. It???s rarely describes something in the other persons best interest. Replace it with alternatives like ???however??? or ???although???. You don???t want to be argumentative or manipulative do you.   Category 4 ??? Give respect: If you respect me, you???ll likely do right by me.? Show me respect by doing the following:   - Have the shortest forms possible. You respect my time and aren???t trying to pump me for personal information. - Minimize your use of .pdf???s. Few things spells disrespect more than enticing me to click on a link and my seeing Adobe Acrobat start to boot up. I hate it. Others hate it. - Let users know if they are clicking on a .pdf. So if you absolutely have to link to a .pdf, give a warning. - Don???t default to sound. It???s pretty obvious, however, I want to make sure I???ve included it. If you choose to have sound play, make it the non-default option. - Know your audience and their tastes. If you have a clear audience, design for them. Make them feel comfortable in your home. - Write to your audiences??? level. Do this or you???ll either sound pedantic or real real dumb.   Category 5 ??? Look like a duck: There???s an old saying; if something looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck ??? it???s probably a duck. Do things like other companies in your space and of your quality (or of the quality you???d like to be), do.   - List your physical address: real companies have one. - Avoid (dash) having (dash) multi (dash) hyphenated (dash) URLs: I know it sucks that so many people have squatted on all the good domain names, but the spammer sites tend to have multi-hyphened URLs ??? don???t be mis-categorized to be one of them. - Send order acknowledgements. Immediate order acknowledgements on eCommerce sites are standard for credible, well established Internet commerce sites. Be like them. - Have a customer login area. Even if it doesn???t go anywhere for now. Is this a little deceitful, maybe, but it???s quack has a nice ring to it. - Have a jobs page: Successful companies need employees, don???t you. - Take credit cards. Well established eCommerce sites take credit cards. If you???re just taking PayPal ??? maybe your too little, or too simple to do business with. - Don???t have an all Flash site: You want to dare to be different, well dare to have low market share, too. Few flash sites are like one another. Most solid companies don???t have them. That doesn???t mean that companies with Flash sites aren???t solid. It just means it???s not the norm. - Don???t look hokey or too slick: You want to stand out from the crowd, not stick out from the crowd. People don???t trust things that are too far away from the norm. - Have some boring, never read pages (like Our Philosophy, Mission Statement, About Us,). It gives a sense that you have a level of reliable (although boring), people helping to keep your business doing business. - Match your industry???s theme: Once again, you want to do it better than others in your industry, not different. Unless of course, your industry is on the low low end of the website quality spectrum.   Category 6 ??? Show commitment: Committed people see you through the tough times. Non committed people take the money and run.? How do we show we???re committed:   - Treat images. Pictures should have a border, they should be file-size optimized, preferably they???ll have captions, and maybe have a graphical treatment overlaid on them. It shows you don???t mind investing some extra time and money because you???re in this for the long run. - No out-of-the-box templates: Nothing says I???ll be gone in a week, then a nice purchased template. - Include ???trust??? logos. They can be a little trite, but they show you took the time. Verisign, Better Business Bureau. - Show that you do something other than have a website. Talk about events you???ve done, articles you???ve written, associations you???re a part of. Do a podcast, do a webcast. Write newsletters. You need to show you???re more than just a website. - Avoid stupid technology (frames, stretching tables, you name it). I have a high resolution monitor. If your content stretches to fit it, I end up looking at a 15 inch long sentence ??? it???s unreadable, so I don???t read it. If you still have a frame based site ??? you likely don???t have commitment to your website. You need to invest to change that. - Host your own shopping cart. Taking the easy way out smacks of a ???proof of concept??? website. Call me when you???ve proved your concept and plan to stick around. - Properly repurpose other media content you???re using. If you took your old sales letter and stuck it up there as your main converting page, you really haven???t invested much time or energy to be here. If you want me to look at some touched up PowerPoint, look for someone else. - Invest in design. People don???t always notice if things don???t have gradients, if they don???t line up, if pictures and images are low quality, they just get a feeling of walking into an old, shoddy store.   Category 7 ??? Been there, done that. If you???ve done it before, you???re likely to do it again. Show them you???ve been there and done that ??? here???s how:   - Include testimonials. Hey, customers have dealt with you and like you. That counts. - Have partial customer lists. Hey, you???ve got customers. I guess this isn???t a brand new business for you. - List some Frequently Asked Questions. Make sure they???re frequently asked questions: This isn???t some backhanded type of sales copy page. ???How do you keep your prices so low???. This page shows you???ve had lots of customers asking intelligent questions and you want prospective customers to get those answers, too.   Category 8 ??? Watch their back. Hey if someone cares about watching my back, I???m going to trust them.? How do we show it:   - Have a privacy policy: Keep it simple. Keep it direct. - Make sure SSL certificates work: I guess it goes without saying that you should have one if you???re collecting sensitive information. Now make sure it???s not expired and that it works for both the www or non-www version of your site. - Don???t ask for Driver???s License, Social Security, and Credit Card numbers unless you have properly protected SSL certificate areas. Enough said on that one. - Include privacy taglines and information snippets wherever you ask for personal information. Put a little tagline and link beside sensitive areas. For example, on your contact form beside the email box, tell people you don???t sell or distribute email address and link to your privacy page.   Category 9 ??? Have confidence   - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think???: I believe you???ll find this tip beneficial. Notice I didn???t say ???I think you???ll find this tip beneficial???. Hear the difference. - Make the first interaction an easy one. I believe a User will want to come back to your site if you make the first interaction an easy one. That builds trust. - Write in a conversational style: I don???t need to hide behind formality. There are real people behind our website. Real people talk like real people.   Done!   For those of you who were counting ??? I just gave you 52 tips in 19 minutes.   So did my credibility take a hit because I didn???t do exactly what I said I would ??? 50 tips in 20 minutes - or do you trust me more because I believe in under promising and over delivering.   Hmmm???. you may want to think about that one. While you???re thinking about that ??? consider subscribing to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 11 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you ??? trust me. tag:odeo.com,2006-07-21,23298727 Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:25:37 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23347650-Drive-It-Convert-It-10-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-4-Building-Trust-50-Tips-in-20-Minutes     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site???s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 4 ??? Building Trust ??? 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it...     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site???s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 4 ??? Building Trust ??? 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more people trust you, the more credibly you come across, the more likely people will be to do business with you. Your website is no different.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   This podcast is a direct continuation of episode #9. I would definitely recommend you listen to it in order to get some background to the subject of trust on the web. However, if your like me and don???t mind diving right in without all the background ??? they I say keep listening and catch up later.   Today, I???m going to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. As you can imagine, I won???t be going into a lot of detail on each one. That???s okay though. The real objective is to get you thinking about your website and the trust and credibility it invokes. Each specific tip is just one more thing you can do to throw the odds in your favor.   Now I???ll be surprised if anyone agrees with all of my tips did. Trust is typically based on past experience. We???ve all had different experiences, so the factors that trigger our trust (or lack of it), will be different for each of us.   I compiled my list from my own experiences of 20 years in technology marketing and customer interaction - the last 10 of which have been in the Internet marketing space. I regularly talk to other industry experts, I research and read reports on the subject and have also done a fair bit of research in general psychology.   Even with that impressive background I???ll miss a few things. If you think you catch one I didn???t, or you vehemently disagree with one ??? drop an email to podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???d love to hear from you.   And remember, not all tips will apply to all sites.   I???ve separated the tips into 9 different categories. Nothing special about the number 9, just happened that that is how they seemed to split out.   So let???s start our clocks and let the tips fall where they may:   Category 1 ??? Stay current: If you look old and outdated your credibility suffers. This applies to design trends and content - so:   - Update your copyright year: nothing spells old and outdated like a 2003 copyright in 2006. Change it each year. - Update your content: Go through your site every 6 months and freshen up your words a little. It might help your search ranking, too. - Don???t use old-style technology and techniques: Get rid of anchor pages, animated .gifs, frames. They are all from a bygone era. - Don???t have a ???reset button??? on your forms: Oh my gosh, if I can reset a form on your page, I am so out of there. It just smells of a site that hasn???t been updated in years. - Don???t have anything that blinks: blinking bad, blinking bad, blinking bad. Not blinking good. - Avoid ???click here???: The words ???click here??? used to be instructive, now they are just unimaginative and annoying. - Avoid being too trendy: Trendy is not current. It???s doing stuff for the sake of newness. - Be trendy: I know I just said not to be trendy, but go ahead a be a little trendy here and there. It shows you???re paying attention. Just don???t be too trendy.   Category 2 ??? Pay attention to detail: If you???re sloppy on your website, it???s assuming you???re sloppy in your business, too. Here come the tips:   - Use proper grammar: For people that notice bad grammar, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Writing for the web is more conversational then writing for your English teacher, but watch the sloppy stuff. Don???t just do it good ??? do it well. - Spell correctly: Just a sign of sloppiness and another brick in the wall of poor credibility. Spell check, baby, and then proof read. Homonyms can cost you business. - Check all links: Have you got broken links. Is that the best you can do. - Check navigation in other browsers and platforms: This is a little tougher, but at least check the most popular browsers for proper display and functionality of your website.   Category 3 ??? Be easy to read: People that play their cards close to their chests want to beat you in poker. People that don???t mind being easy to read are people you can usually trust - so:   - Have shipping rates and policies that are easy to find: Nothing like a nasty $20 shipping charge at the end of my $10 shopping cart purchase to set me off. I???d like to do a little research before I start a process, so please let me. - Have tax information easily found: One of the great benefits to buying off the Internet is there is often no tax. Don???t make me go all the way through the checkout process to find out if you charge tax in my state. - Don???t be tricky: If I think you???re trying to trick me in one place, I???ll think you???re trying to trick my every place. - Don???t host ads: This is going to be tough for some of you. Is your site a real site or is it just here to get me to click on a Google ad. Is it really worth the money. If you???ve got that much traffic that your Ad Sense is paying, you???ve got enough traffic to convert a lot of sales in your primary business. - Be consistent: I don???t mind dealing with ???characters??? but I don???t want to deal with schizophrenics. If you???re website is a little wacky, ok. Just be whacky in the same way throughout the site. If it looks like 5 different people designed 5 different parts, your not to be trusted. - ???But??? out: Minimize the use of the word ???but??? b ??? u ??? t . It???s like arguing or hedging your bet. It???s rarely describes something in the other persons best interest. Replace it with alternatives like ???however??? or ???although???. You don???t want to be argumentative or manipulative do you.   Category 4 ??? Give respect: If you respect me, you???ll likely do right by me.? Show me respect by doing the following:   - Have the shortest forms possible. You respect my time and aren???t trying to pump me for personal information. - Minimize your use of .pdf???s. Few things spells disrespect more than enticing me to click on a link and my seeing Adobe Acrobat start to boot up. I hate it. Others hate it. - Let users know if they are clicking on a .pdf. So if you absolutely have to link to a .pdf, give a warning. - Don???t default to sound. It???s pretty obvious, however, I want to make sure I???ve included it. If you choose to have sound play, make it the non-default option. - Know your audience and their tastes. If you have a clear audience, design for them. Make them feel comfortable in your home. - Write to your audiences??? level. Do this or you???ll either sound pedantic or real real dumb.   Category 5 ??? Look like a duck: There???s an old saying; if something looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck ??? it???s probably a duck. Do things like other companies in your space and of your quality (or of the quality you???d like to be), do.   - List your physical address: real companies have one. - Avoid (dash) having (dash) multi (dash) hyphenated (dash) URLs: I know it sucks that so many people have squatted on all the good domain names, but the spammer sites tend to have multi-hyphened URLs ??? don???t be mis-categorized to be one of them. - Send order acknowledgements. Immediate order acknowledgements on eCommerce sites are standard for credible, well established Internet commerce sites. Be like them. - Have a customer login area. Even if it doesn???t go anywhere for now. Is this a little deceitful, maybe, but it???s quack has a nice ring to it. - Have a jobs page: Successful companies need employees, don???t you. - Take credit cards. Well established eCommerce sites take credit cards. If you???re just taking PayPal ??? maybe your too little, or too simple to do business with. - Don???t have an all Flash site: You want to dare to be different, well dare to have low market share, too. Few flash sites are like one another. Most solid companies don???t have them. That doesn???t mean that companies with Flash sites aren???t solid. It just means it???s not the norm. - Don???t look hokey or too slick: You want to stand out from the crowd, not stick out from the crowd. People don???t trust things that are too far away from the norm. - Have some boring, never read pages (like Our Philosophy, Mission Statement, About Us,). It gives a sense that you have a level of reliable (although boring), people helping to keep your business doing business. - Match your industry???s theme: Once again, you want to do it better than others in your industry, not different. Unless of course, your industry is on the low low end of the website quality spectrum.   Category 6 ??? Show commitment: Committed people see you through the tough times. Non committed people take the money and run.? How do we show we???re committed:   - Treat images. Pictures should have a border, they should be file-size optimized, preferably they???ll have captions, and maybe have a graphical treatment overlaid on them. It shows you don???t mind investing some extra time and money because you???re in this for the long run. - No out-of-the-box templates: Nothing says I???ll be gone in a week, then a nice purchased template. - Include ???trust??? logos. They can be a little trite, but they show you took the time. Verisign, Better Business Bureau. - Show that you do something other than have a website. Talk about events you???ve done, articles you???ve written, associations you???re a part of. Do a podcast, do a webcast. Write newsletters. You need to show you???re more than just a website. - Avoid stupid technology (frames, stretching tables, you name it). I have a high resolution monitor. If your content stretches to fit it, I end up looking at a 15 inch long sentence ??? it???s unreadable, so I don???t read it. If you still have a frame based site ??? you likely don???t have commitment to your website. You need to invest to change that. - Host your own shopping cart. Taking the easy way out smacks of a ???proof of concept??? website. Call me when you???ve proved your concept and plan to stick around. - Properly repurpose other media content you???re using. If you took your old sales letter and stuck it up there as your main converting page, you really haven???t invested much time or energy to be here. If you want me to look at some touched up PowerPoint, look for someone else. - Invest in design. People don???t always notice if things don???t have gradients, if they don???t line up, if pictures and images are low quality, they just get a feeling of walking into an old, shoddy store.   Category 7 ??? Been there, done that. If you???ve done it before, you???re likely to do it again. Show them you???ve been there and done that ??? here???s how:   - Include testimonials. Hey, customers have dealt with you and like you. That counts. - Have partial customer lists. Hey, you???ve got customers. I guess this isn???t a brand new business for you. - List some Frequently Asked Questions. Make sure they???re frequently asked questions: This isn???t some backhanded type of sales copy page. ???How do you keep your prices so low???. This page shows you???ve had lots of customers asking intelligent questions and you want prospective customers to get those answers, too.   Category 8 ??? Watch their back. Hey if someone cares about watching my back, I???m going to trust them.? How do we show it:   - Have a privacy policy: Keep it simple. Keep it direct. - Make sure SSL certificates work: I guess it goes without saying that you should have one if you???re collecting sensitive information. Now make sure it???s not expired and that it works for both the www or non-www version of your site. - Don???t ask for Driver???s License, Social Security, and Credit Card numbers unless you have properly protected SSL certificate areas. Enough said on that one. - Include privacy taglines and information snippets wherever you ask for personal information. Put a little tagline and link beside sensitive areas. For example, on your contact form beside the email box, tell people you don???t sell or distribute email address and link to your privacy page.   Category 9 ??? Have confidence   - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think???: I believe you???ll find this tip beneficial. Notice I didn???t say ???I think you???ll find this tip beneficial???. Hear the difference. - Make the first interaction an easy one. I believe a User will want to come back to your site if you make the first interaction an easy one. That builds trust. - Write in a conversational style: I don???t need to hide behind formality. There are real people behind our website. Real people talk like real people.   Done!   For those of you who were counting ??? I just gave you 52 tips in 19 minutes.   So did my credibility take a hit because I didn???t do exactly what I said I would ??? 50 tips in 20 minutes - or do you trust me more because I believe in under promising and over delivering.   Hmmm???. you may want to think about that one. While you???re thinking about that ??? consider subscribing to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 11 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you ??? trust me.     Continuation of episode #9 - Techniques to build trust and credibility on your web site.   Trust and credibility translates into website conversions. Here are 50 tips to help you build your web site???s credibility rating.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   The 50 tips are separated into 9 categories   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 21st, 2006. This is episode #10: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 4 ??? Building Trust ??? 50 Tips in 20 Minutes.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more people trust you, the more credibly you come across, the more likely people will be to do business with you. Your website is no different.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   This podcast is a direct continuation of episode #9. I would definitely recommend you listen to it in order to get some background to the subject of trust on the web. However, if your like me and don???t mind diving right in without all the background ??? they I say keep listening and catch up later.   Today, I???m going to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. As you can imagine, I won???t be going into a lot of detail on each one. That???s okay though. The real objective is to get you thinking about your website and the trust and credibility it invokes. Each specific tip is just one more thing you can do to throw the odds in your favor.   Now I???ll be surprised if anyone agrees with all of my tips did. Trust is typically based on past experience. We???ve all had different experiences, so the factors that trigger our trust (or lack of it), will be different for each of us.   I compiled my list from my own experiences of 20 years in technology marketing and customer interaction - the last 10 of which have been in the Internet marketing space. I regularly talk to other industry experts, I research and read reports on the subject and have also done a fair bit of research in general psychology.   Even with that impressive background I???ll miss a few things. If you think you catch one I didn???t, or you vehemently disagree with one ??? drop an email to podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???d love to hear from you.   And remember, not all tips will apply to all sites.   I???ve separated the tips into 9 different categories. Nothing special about the number 9, just happened that that is how they seemed to split out.   So let???s start our clocks and let the tips fall where they may:   Category 1 ??? Stay current: If you look old and outdated your credibility suffers. This applies to design trends and content - so:   - Update your copyright year: nothing spells old and outdated like a 2003 copyright in 2006. Change it each year. - Update your content: Go through your site every 6 months and freshen up your words a little. It might help your search ranking, too. - Don???t use old-style technology and techniques: Get rid of anchor pages, animated .gifs, frames. They are all from a bygone era. - Don???t have a ???reset button??? on your forms: Oh my gosh, if I can reset a form on your page, I am so out of there. It just smells of a site that hasn???t been updated in years. - Don???t have anything that blinks: blinking bad, blinking bad, blinking bad. Not blinking good. - Avoid ???click here???: The words ???click here??? used to be instructive, now they are just unimaginative and annoying. - Avoid being too trendy: Trendy is not current. It???s doing stuff for the sake of newness. - Be trendy: I know I just said not to be trendy, but go ahead a be a little trendy here and there. It shows you???re paying attention. Just don???t be too trendy.   Category 2 ??? Pay attention to detail: If you???re sloppy on your website, it???s assuming you???re sloppy in your business, too. Here come the tips:   - Use proper grammar: For people that notice bad grammar, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Writing for the web is more conversational then writing for your English teacher, but watch the sloppy stuff. Don???t just do it good ??? do it well. - Spell correctly: Just a sign of sloppiness and another brick in the wall of poor credibility. Spell check, baby, and then proof read. Homonyms can cost you business. - Check all links: Have you got broken links. Is that the best you can do. - Check navigation in other browsers and platforms: This is a little tougher, but at least check the most popular browsers for proper display and functionality of your website.   Category 3 ??? Be easy to read: People that play their cards close to their chests want to beat you in poker. People that don???t mind being easy to read are people you can usually trust - so:   - Have shipping rates and policies that are easy to find: Nothing like a nasty $20 shipping charge at the end of my $10 shopping cart purchase to set me off. I???d like to do a little research before I start a process, so please let me. - Have tax information easily found: One of the great benefits to buying off the Internet is there is often no tax. Don???t make me go all the way through the checkout process to find out if you charge tax in my state. - Don???t be tricky: If I think you???re trying to trick me in one place, I???ll think you???re trying to trick my every place. - Don???t host ads: This is going to be tough for some of you. Is your site a real site or is it just here to get me to click on a Google ad. Is it really worth the money. If you???ve got that much traffic that your Ad Sense is paying, you???ve got enough traffic to convert a lot of sales in your primary business. - Be consistent: I don???t mind dealing with ???characters??? but I don???t want to deal with schizophrenics. If you???re website is a little wacky, ok. Just be whacky in the same way throughout the site. If it looks like 5 different people designed 5 different parts, your not to be trusted. - ???But??? out: Minimize the use of the word ???but??? b ??? u ??? t . It???s like arguing or hedging your bet. It???s rarely describes something in the other persons best interest. Replace it with alternatives like ???however??? or ???although???. You don???t want to be argumentative or manipulative do you.   Category 4 ??? Give respect: If you respect me, you???ll likely do right by me.? Show me respect by doing the following:   - Have the shortest forms possible. You respect my time and aren???t trying to pump me for personal information. - Minimize your use of .pdf???s. Few things spells disrespect more than enticing me to click on a link and my seeing Adobe Acrobat start to boot up. I hate it. Others hate it. - Let users know if they are clicking on a .pdf. So if you absolutely have to link to a .pdf, give a warning. - Don???t default to sound. It???s pretty obvious, however, I want to make sure I???ve included it. If you choose to have sound play, make it the non-default option. - Know your audience and their tastes. If you have a clear audience, design for them. Make them feel comfortable in your home. - Write to your audiences??? level. Do this or you???ll either sound pedantic or real real dumb.   Category 5 ??? Look like a duck: There???s an old saying; if something looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck ??? it???s probably a duck. Do things like other companies in your space and of your quality (or of the quality you???d like to be), do.   - List your physical address: real companies have one. - Avoid (dash) having (dash) multi (dash) hyphenated (dash) URLs: I know it sucks that so many people have squatted on all the good domain names, but the spammer sites tend to have multi-hyphened URLs ??? don???t be mis-categorized to be one of them. - Send order acknowledgements. Immediate order acknowledgements on eCommerce sites are standard for credible, well established Internet commerce sites. Be like them. - Have a customer login area. Even if it doesn???t go anywhere for now. Is this a little deceitful, maybe, but it???s quack has a nice ring to it. - Have a jobs page: Successful companies need employees, don???t you. - Take credit cards. Well established eCommerce sites take credit cards. If you???re just taking PayPal ??? maybe your too little, or too simple to do business with. - Don???t have an all Flash site: You want to dare to be different, well dare to have low market share, too. Few flash sites are like one another. Most solid companies don???t have them. That doesn???t mean that companies with Flash sites aren???t solid. It just means it???s not the norm. - Don???t look hokey or too slick: You want to stand out from the crowd, not stick out from the crowd. People don???t trust things that are too far away from the norm. - Have some boring, never read pages (like Our Philosophy, Mission Statement, About Us,). It gives a sense that you have a level of reliable (although boring), people helping to keep your business doing business. - Match your industry???s theme: Once again, you want to do it better than others in your industry, not different. Unless of course, your industry is on the low low end of the website quality spectrum.   Category 6 ??? Show commitment: Committed people see you through the tough times. Non committed people take the money and run.? How do we show we???re committed:   - Treat images. Pictures should have a border, they should be file-size optimized, preferably they???ll have captions, and maybe have a graphical treatment overlaid on them. It shows you don???t mind investing some extra time and money because you???re in this for the long run. - No out-of-the-box templates: Nothing says I???ll be gone in a week, then a nice purchased template. - Include ???trust??? logos. They can be a little trite, but they show you took the time. Verisign, Better Business Bureau. - Show that you do something other than have a website. Talk about events you???ve done, articles you???ve written, associations you???re a part of. Do a podcast, do a webcast. Write newsletters. You need to show you???re more than just a website. - Avoid stupid technology (frames, stretching tables, you name it). I have a high resolution monitor. If your content stretches to fit it, I end up looking at a 15 inch long sentence ??? it???s unreadable, so I don???t read it. If you still have a frame based site ??? you likely don???t have commitment to your website. You need to invest to change that. - Host your own shopping cart. Taking the easy way out smacks of a ???proof of concept??? website. Call me when you???ve proved your concept and plan to stick around. - Properly repurpose other media content you???re using. If you took your old sales letter and stuck it up there as your main converting page, you really haven???t invested much time or energy to be here. If you want me to look at some touched up PowerPoint, look for someone else. - Invest in design. People don???t always notice if things don???t have gradients, if they don???t line up, if pictures and images are low quality, they just get a feeling of walking into an old, shoddy store.   Category 7 ??? Been there, done that. If you???ve done it before, you???re likely to do it again. Show them you???ve been there and done that ??? here???s how:   - Include testimonials. Hey, customers have dealt with you and like you. That counts. - Have partial customer lists. Hey, you???ve got customers. I guess this isn???t a brand new business for you. - List some Frequently Asked Questions. Make sure they???re frequently asked questions: This isn???t some backhanded type of sales copy page. ???How do you keep your prices so low???. This page shows you???ve had lots of customers asking intelligent questions and you want prospective customers to get those answers, too.   Category 8 ??? Watch their back. Hey if someone cares about watching my back, I???m going to trust them.? How do we show it:   - Have a privacy policy: Keep it simple. Keep it direct. - Make sure SSL certificates work: I guess it goes without saying that you should have one if you???re collecting sensitive information. Now make sure it???s not expired and that it works for both the www or non-www version of your site. - Don???t ask for Driver???s License, Social Security, and Credit Card numbers unless you have properly protected SSL certificate areas. Enough said on that one. - Include privacy taglines and information snippets wherever you ask for personal information. Put a little tagline and link beside sensitive areas. For example, on your contact form beside the email box, tell people you don???t sell or distribute email address and link to your privacy page.   Category 9 ??? Have confidence   - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think???: I believe you???ll find this tip beneficial. Notice I didn???t say ???I think you???ll find this tip beneficial???. Hear the difference. - Make the first interaction an easy one. I believe a User will want to come back to your site if you make the first interaction an easy one. That builds trust. - Write in a conversational style: I don???t need to hide behind formality. There are real people behind our website. Real people talk like real people.   Done!   For those of you who were counting ??? I just gave you 52 tips in 19 minutes.   So did my credibility take a hit because I didn???t do exactly what I said I would ??? 50 tips in 20 minutes - or do you trust me more because I believe in under promising and over delivering.   Hmmm???. you may want to think about that one. While you???re thinking about that ??? consider subscribing to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 11 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. I???ll get back to you ??? trust me. tag:odeo.com,2006-07-21,23347650 Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:25:37 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/2305597-Drive-It-Convert-It-9-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-3-Higher-Credibility-Higher-Conversions-%C3%A2-Trust-Me tag:odeo.com,2006-07-14,2305597 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:41:32 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/1494267-Drive-It-Convert-It-9-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-3-Higher-Credibility-Higher-Conversions-Trust-Me tag:odeo.com,2006-07-14,1494267 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:41:32 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/24185469-Drive-It-Convert-It-9-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-3-Higher-Credibility-Higher-Conversions-%E2%80%93-Trust-Me Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site’s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts – today’s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic – Part 3 – Higher Credibility H... Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site’s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts – today’s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic – Part 3 – Higher Credibility Higher Conversions – Trust Me.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you’re perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   We’re up to part 3 of our series on Converting Web Traffic. If you haven’t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet (that’s episodes 7 and 8 ) – that’s okay, but I do recommend going back and downloading them. Also, if you didn’t catch the very first episodes of Drive It Convert It (episodes 1 and 2), I highly recommend you give those a listen, too.   Trust and credibility is a fairly extensive topic. So rather than trying to cram it all in – I’m going to cover it in two episodes – this one and episode 10 later this month.   Do you have kids? I have kids – one of my kids is 14 and one is 8. Both their schools recently organized meetings regarding My Space. It seems that with 40,000,000 or whatever number of users they have, My Space has attracted some people that have less than honest and ethical intentions. Of course it’s going to make the news when some 50 year old man tries to lure some 15 year old through the My Space service.   Now I don’t discount the dangers, however, I don’t see that much news coverage about the weird people that hang out at malls or arcades (do they still have arcades), or other places the younger generation can be found.   Now when I was a kid and then a teenager I developed something call street smarts. My parents gave me some initial guidelines (don’t take candy from strangers, don’t help that guy look for his lost puppy). Then I developed a sense- a sense for which streets to avoid riding my bike down. I learned to sense which friendly people were really friendly and which were just sort of creepy.   Now when I got a little older and needed to buy things like a car I started to learn how to tell if people were telling the truth or if they had something to hide. If they were hiding something it was usually either a matter of them being dishonest or were they just hiding the fact that they were inexperienced. They were trying to pass themselves off as knowing more than they did or being more capable then they actually were.   I started to learn what poker players call “tells”.   Tells are mannerisms and movements that tells a person’s true intentions regardless of the words they are saying.   I actually encourage my kids to get involved in online interactions. So much of our world is heading that way that everybody needs to develop online street smarts. You should be starting that at a young age or whatever age you are now and continuing on.   Is that person commenting in your forum just trolling to disrupt or are they leaving a legitimate opinion. Is that email requesting information from a real prospect or is it a competitor. Is that My Space friend a potential confidant or a creepy old man.   Part of online smarts is being able to tell the character and credibility of someone based on their online presence. We all start to look for online “tells” that give us insight into the real character and capability of the online entity we’re dealing with.   Whether we realize it or not, as users of the web we all are developing online street smarts. We are constantly picking up “tells”. Tells in a website we’re looking at, tells in an email we got. More than often, we aren’t even aware of what’s happening. We think we have instinct. We learn to trust our gut. Really, were just learning from experience. There’s actually a neat book out called “Blink” which talks about some of this. It’s written by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote “The Tipping Point”, too. I’d highly recommend both.   If I’m a visitor to a website - what does the fact that the Copyright says 2003 tell me. Does a broken link reflect a person with bad character. I don’t know. What does that Flash element say about this company – do they respect my time. Is their contact form like a dimly lit street that I don’t want to risk walking down.   Now, as a web professional I’m more interested in making sure that my clients don’t get misclassified or mischaracterized by giving off the wrong signals. I don’t want their “tells” to tell visitors the wrong thing.   My clients are of course experienced, upstanding companies and they deserve a web visitor’s trust. They’re a credible resource for the products and services the sell. Now, some of them are sole proprietors just starting out, some are corporations that have been in business for years and have hundreds of employees.   If you’re my client, it’s my job to make sure you don’t dress funny, you don’t say stupid things that give the wrong impression. It’s my job to portray you in the best possible light. If this were like a job situation, your website is your resume, at a minimum. You need to nail it in order to get the interview. Then you need to nail the interview. Now I’m would never tell you to lie on your resume – that will catch up with you. I am going to tell you how to talk, how to walk, what to play up, what to play down so you get the interview, and the job – or in web vernacular – you convert.   We need to start by looking at how you’ll be judged – how you’ll be evaluated. I call these the four “c”s:   - Capability - Competence - Commitment - Character   Capability: If I’m going to deal with you I want to know you have the capability to deliver what you say you can. I’m going to look for experience, I’m going to look for expertise, do you have a track record.   Competence: I want to know that you are going deliver the right level of quality with minimal hassles to me. This doesn’t just apply to an end sale. It applies to the entire process I’m going to go through with you. Are you going to give me the information I need or the product I order in an efficient manner. Will your delivery be smooth. Are you going to protect my identity, my credit card information, my time.   Commitment: Are you committed to this. If I get involved with you are you going to be around next week when I make my buying decision. Are you going to be around next month when I have a question. Are you going to be around next year when I want to order again.   Character: What will you do if something goes wrong. Do you choose your partners wisely - so if you’re outsourcing part of your process are your partners likely to be trustworthy, too. Will you sell my email address to a spammer.   Now, instead of coming out and telling people that your capable, competent, committed and full of character it will be much more powerful if they just get that feeling from your site. Your tells will consciously and subconsciously tell your website visitor the right things.   The words, the information, the images on your site are going to explain what you do, how you do it and why it’s in their best interest to work with you.   The way you present those words, that information, those images will be your “tells”, they’ll imply capability, competence, commitment, and character.   So what says “we are capable”. Well, you need to show you have expertise. You need to show you have experience (lots of alliteration in this episode isn’t there). You can do this in a couple of ways. First you do it by including sections that show your expertise and experience. Some things that come to mind   Have content displaying knowledge of your subject – pretty straightforward. Normally I recommend this be done in layers. Most people skim a website, but they absolutely notice that there is more there should they want to read it all. You need to have the more on display and a click of a page-down away. So when people tell you to just put the high points in your site because that’s all people read – don’t do it. Extend your pages, link to white papers, downloads, whatever. I agree that people skim, but they will subconsciously know that there’s a whole lot more substance to you if they want to investigate a little further.   Customer testimonials and case studies. This shows a been there, done that, and done it well kind of attitude. People like to know they’re not your guinea pig.   The last one I’ll mention for now is functionality. Functionality on your site is going to reflect how capable you are. You don’t necessarily lose credibility if you have a 10 page site that is simple in design with static HTML content. However, you can get “capability” points by having a few areas of sophistication within the site. Whether its’ site-wide-search capability, database driven content areas, it helps to have something that’s a little beyond run of the mill website stuff.   Competence: What screams “We are competent!”, without screaming it. Once again it’s going to be two-pronged. First, your content describes your knowledge and can provide examples of industry competence.   However, a website that is well thought out and functions smoothly will properly shows your competence. Your ability to get your message across to the web visitor shows you are competent. Links that all work show you are competent. The tough part is that it’s way easier to show you’re incompetent. Often competence is more of a matter of avoiding the pitfalls.   Commitment: We are absolutely committed to this industry. Our website looks like we spent 150 bucks on it and we haven’t updated it in a year, but we are absolutely committed to this industry. We have no physical location but we are absolutely committed to this industry. Now I’m in the business, but if I see a site that looks like it was bought from a template company with a logo and a tagline plugged in that’s just not a good thing. Now, a template can be a fine starting point, but if you cut corners on design, whether your site has a simple design or one that’s really elegant it will show – and what the brain picks up is – no investment, no commitment. That’s just one of a dozen things that show a lack of commitment.   Character: Character is proven over time. However, indications of whether you have a good or bad character are being picked up from the instant you come into contact with someone. I believe you need to be at the top of your peer group without being over-the-top. What do I mean by that. You need to look a lot like everyone else in your space (not My Space – your space), only better. Your goal is to be the belle of the ball.   If your ball is a bunch of 6’s – be an 8. If your industry is full of 4’s – be a six. If your crowd is all 8’s – you better be a 10. If in your industry your competitors are all selling online and you aren’t – that can be a red flag. If none of your competitors sell online and you do – that can be a red flag. If everyone’s site is blue and your’s is orange – that could be a red flag. The trick is to stand out without sticking out. You stick out if you are different in an unusual or bewildering way. You stand out if you are similar but of a higher quality. Take the same track but raise the bar 2 levels.   Now that doesn’t mean you can’t be innovative or a leader in your space. But be careful how far ahead of the pack you get. People, right or wrong, get suspicious of companies that are too different. If you have the time and the right environment – you can explain why you are so much better. But if someone is meeting you for the first time through your site – be conservative at the site.   Now the exception to this is if your industry just sucks from an online perspective. In that case you may want to bump up the bar more than a couple of notches.   Well, we’ve laid down a good basis. Next up is some detailed tips and techniques to get your trust level and credibility way up.   In episode 10 I’m looking to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. Now usually I get this podcast out about every 2nd week. However, I’m due for a little vacation. But I don’t want to leave you hanging.   I’m going to do my best to get the next podcast out next week – trust me.   Here’s a little preview:   - Use gradients. - Treat images - Use proper grammar - Spell correctly - Check all links - Update your copyright year - Update your content - List your physical address - Avoid having a multi-hyphenated-url - No out-of-the-box templates - Include testimonials - Have partial customer lists - Send order acknowledgements - Have a privacy policy - Have shipping rates and policies easily found - Have tax information easily found - Make sure SSL certificates work - Have a customer login area - Have the shortest forms possible - Link to credible industry sources - Use the word “believe” instead of “think” - and a whole lot more   Well, we’ll slow it down get it organized and add some comments. Don’t worry it will all get clear soon.   So - Subscribe to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 10 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site’s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts – today’s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic – Part 3 – Higher Credibility Higher Conversions – Trust Me.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you’re perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   We’re up to part 3 of our series on Converting Web Traffic. If you haven’t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet (that’s episodes 7 and 8 ) – that’s okay, but I do recommend going back and downloading them. Also, if you didn’t catch the very first episodes of Drive It Convert It (episodes 1 and 2), I highly recommend you give those a listen, too.   Trust and credibility is a fairly extensive topic. So rather than trying to cram it all in – I’m going to cover it in two episodes – this one and episode 10 later this month.   Do you have kids? I have kids – one of my kids is 14 and one is 8. Both their schools recently organized meetings regarding My Space. It seems that with 40,000,000 or whatever number of users they have, My Space has attracted some people that have less than honest and ethical intentions. Of course it’s going to make the news when some 50 year old man tries to lure some 15 year old through the My Space service.   Now I don’t discount the dangers, however, I don’t see that much news coverage about the weird people that hang out at malls or arcades (do they still have arcades), or other places the younger generation can be found.   Now when I was a kid and then a teenager I developed something call street smarts. My parents gave me some initial guidelines (don’t take candy from strangers, don’t help that guy look for his lost puppy). Then I developed a sense- a sense for which streets to avoid riding my bike down. I learned to sense which friendly people were really friendly and which were just sort of creepy.   Now when I got a little older and needed to buy things like a car I started to learn how to tell if people were telling the truth or if they had something to hide. If they were hiding something it was usually either a matter of them being dishonest or were they just hiding the fact that they were inexperienced. They were trying to pass themselves off as knowing more than they did or being more capable then they actually were.   I started to learn what poker players call “tells”.   Tells are mannerisms and movements that tells a person’s true intentions regardless of the words they are saying.   I actually encourage my kids to get involved in online interactions. So much of our world is heading that way that everybody needs to develop online street smarts. You should be starting that at a young age or whatever age you are now and continuing on.   Is that person commenting in your forum just trolling to disrupt or are they leaving a legitimate opinion. Is that email requesting information from a real prospect or is it a competitor. Is that My Space friend a potential confidant or a creepy old man.   Part of online smarts is being able to tell the character and credibility of someone based on their online presence. We all start to look for online “tells” that give us insight into the real character and capability of the online entity we’re dealing with.   Whether we realize it or not, as users of the web we all are developing online street smarts. We are constantly picking up “tells”. Tells in a website we’re looking at, tells in an email we got. More than often, we aren’t even aware of what’s happening. We think we have instinct. We learn to trust our gut. Really, were just learning from experience. There’s actually a neat book out called “Blink” which talks about some of this. It’s written by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote “The Tipping Point”, too. I’d highly recommend both.   If I’m a visitor to a website - what does the fact that the Copyright says 2003 tell me. Does a broken link reflect a person with bad character. I don’t know. What does that Flash element say about this company – do they respect my time. Is their contact form like a dimly lit street that I don’t want to risk walking down.   Now, as a web professional I’m more interested in making sure that my clients don’t get misclassified or mischaracterized by giving off the wrong signals. I don’t want their “tells” to tell visitors the wrong thing.   My clients are of course experienced, upstanding companies and they deserve a web visitor’s trust. They’re a credible resource for the products and services the sell. Now, some of them are sole proprietors just starting out, some are corporations that have been in business for years and have hundreds of employees.   If you’re my client, it’s my job to make sure you don’t dress funny, you don’t say stupid things that give the wrong impression. It’s my job to portray you in the best possible light. If this were like a job situation, your website is your resume, at a minimum. You need to nail it in order to get the interview. Then you need to nail the interview. Now I’m would never tell you to lie on your resume – that will catch up with you. I am going to tell you how to talk, how to walk, what to play up, what to play down so you get the interview, and the job – or in web vernacular – you convert.   We need to start by looking at how you’ll be judged – how you’ll be evaluated. I call these the four “c”s:   - Capability - Competence - Commitment - Character   Capability: If I’m going to deal with you I want to know you have the capability to deliver what you say you can. I’m going to look for experience, I’m going to look for expertise, do you have a track record.   Competence: I want to know that you are going deliver the right level of quality with minimal hassles to me. This doesn’t just apply to an end sale. It applies to the entire process I’m going to go through with you. Are you going to give me the information I need or the product I order in an efficient manner. Will your delivery be smooth. Are you going to protect my identity, my credit card information, my time.   Commitment: Are you committed to this. If I get involved with you are you going to be around next week when I make my buying decision. Are you going to be around next month when I have a question. Are you going to be around next year when I want to order again.   Character: What will you do if something goes wrong. Do you choose your partners wisely - so if you’re outsourcing part of your process are your partners likely to be trustworthy, too. Will you sell my email address to a spammer.   Now, instead of coming out and telling people that your capable, competent, committed and full of character it will be much more powerful if they just get that feeling from your site. Your tells will consciously and subconsciously tell your website visitor the right things.   The words, the information, the images on your site are going to explain what you do, how you do it and why it’s in their best interest to work with you.   The way you present those words, that information, those images will be your “tells”, they’ll imply capability, competence, commitment, and character.   So what says “we are capable”. Well, you need to show you have expertise. You need to show you have experience (lots of alliteration in this episode isn’t there). You can do this in a couple of ways. First you do it by including sections that show your expertise and experience. Some things that come to mind   Have content displaying knowledge of your subject – pretty straightforward. Normally I recommend this be done in layers. Most people skim a website, but they absolutely notice that there is more there should they want to read it all. You need to have the more on display and a click of a page-down away. So when people tell you to just put the high points in your site because that’s all people read – don’t do it. Extend your pages, link to white papers, downloads, whatever. I agree that people skim, but they will subconsciously know that there’s a whole lot more substance to you if they want to investigate a little further.   Customer testimonials and case studies. This shows a been there, done that, and done it well kind of attitude. People like to know they’re not your guinea pig.   The last one I’ll mention for now is functionality. Functionality on your site is going to reflect how capable you are. You don’t necessarily lose credibility if you have a 10 page site that is simple in design with static HTML content. However, you can get “capability” points by having a few areas of sophistication within the site. Whether its’ site-wide-search capability, database driven content areas, it helps to have something that’s a little beyond run of the mill website stuff.   Competence: What screams “We are competent!”, without screaming it. Once again it’s going to be two-pronged. First, your content describes your knowledge and can provide examples of industry competence.   However, a website that is well thought out and functions smoothly will properly shows your competence. Your ability to get your message across to the web visitor shows you are competent. Links that all work show you are competent. The tough part is that it’s way easier to show you’re incompetent. Often competence is more of a matter of avoiding the pitfalls.   Commitment: We are absolutely committed to this industry. Our website looks like we spent 150 bucks on it and we haven’t updated it in a year, but we are absolutely committed to this industry. We have no physical location but we are absolutely committed to this industry. Now I’m in the business, but if I see a site that looks like it was bought from a template company with a logo and a tagline plugged in that’s just not a good thing. Now, a template can be a fine starting point, but if you cut corners on design, whether your site has a simple design or one that’s really elegant it will show – and what the brain picks up is – no investment, no commitment. That’s just one of a dozen things that show a lack of commitment.   Character: Character is proven over time. However, indications of whether you have a good or bad character are being picked up from the instant you come into contact with someone. I believe you need to be at the top of your peer group without being over-the-top. What do I mean by that. You need to look a lot like everyone else in your space (not My Space – your space), only better. Your goal is to be the belle of the ball.   If your ball is a bunch of 6’s – be an 8. If your industry is full of 4’s – be a six. If your crowd is all 8’s – you better be a 10. If in your industry your competitors are all selling online and you aren’t – that can be a red flag. If none of your competitors sell online and you do – that can be a red flag. If everyone’s site is blue and your’s is orange – that could be a red flag. The trick is to stand out without sticking out. You stick out if you are different in an unusual or bewildering way. You stand out if you are similar but of a higher quality. Take the same track but raise the bar 2 levels.   Now that doesn’t mean you can’t be innovative or a leader in your space. But be careful how far ahead of the pack you get. People, right or wrong, get suspicious of companies that are too different. If you have the time and the right environment – you can explain why you are so much better. But if someone is meeting you for the first time through your site – be conservative at the site.   Now the exception to this is if your industry just sucks from an online perspective. In that case you may want to bump up the bar more than a couple of notches.   Well, we’ve laid down a good basis. Next up is some detailed tips and techniques to get your trust level and credibility way up.   In episode 10 I’m looking to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. Now usually I get this podcast out about every 2nd week. However, I’m due for a little vacation. But I don’t want to leave you hanging.   I’m going to do my best to get the next podcast out next week – trust me.   Here’s a little preview:   - Use gradients. - Treat images - Use proper grammar - Spell correctly - Check all links - Update your copyright year - Update your content - List your physical address - Avoid having a multi-hyphenated-url - No out-of-the-box templates - Include testimonials - Have partial customer lists - Send order acknowledgements - Have a privacy policy - Have shipping rates and policies easily found - Have tax information easily found - Make sure SSL certificates work - Have a customer login area - Have the shortest forms possible - Link to credible industry sources - Use the word “believe” instead of “think” - and a whole lot more   Well, we’ll slow it down get it organized and add some comments. Don’t worry it will all get clear soon.   So - Subscribe to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 10 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. tag:odeo.com,2006-07-14,24185469 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:41:32 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23298737-Drive-It-Convert-It-9-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-3-Higher-Credibility-Higher-Conversions-Trust-Me Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site???s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts ??? today???s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 3 ??? Higher C... Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site???s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts ??? today???s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 3 ??? Higher Credibility Higher Conversions ??? Trust Me.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you???re perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   We???re up to part 3 of our series on Converting Web Traffic. If you haven???t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet (that???s episodes 7 and 8 ) ??? that???s okay, but I do recommend going back and downloading them. Also, if you didn???t catch the very first episodes of Drive It Convert It (episodes 1 and 2), I highly recommend you give those a listen, too.   Trust and credibility is a fairly extensive topic. So rather than trying to cram it all in ??? I???m going to cover it in two episodes ??? this one and episode 10 later this month.   Do you have kids? I have kids ??? one of my kids is 14 and one is 8. Both their schools recently organized meetings regarding My Space. It seems that with 40,000,000 or whatever number of users they have, My Space has attracted some people that have less than honest and ethical intentions. Of course it???s going to make the news when some 50 year old man tries to lure some 15 year old through the My Space service.   Now I don???t discount the dangers, however, I don???t see that much news coverage about the weird people that hang out at malls or arcades (do they still have arcades), or other places the younger generation can be found.   Now when I was a kid and then a teenager I developed something call street smarts. My parents gave me some initial guidelines (don???t take candy from strangers, don???t help that guy look for his lost puppy). Then I developed a sense- a sense for which streets to avoid riding my bike down. I learned to sense which friendly people were really friendly and which were just sort of creepy.   Now when I got a little older and needed to buy things like a car I started to learn how to tell if people were telling the truth or if they had something to hide. If they were hiding something it was usually either a matter of them being dishonest or were they just hiding the fact that they were inexperienced. They were trying to pass themselves off as knowing more than they did or being more capable then they actually were.   I started to learn what poker players call ???tells???.   Tells are mannerisms and movements that tells a person???s true intentions regardless of the words they are saying.   I actually encourage my kids to get involved in online interactions. So much of our world is heading that way that everybody needs to develop online street smarts. You should be starting that at a young age or whatever age you are now and continuing on.   Is that person commenting in your forum just trolling to disrupt or are they leaving a legitimate opinion. Is that email requesting information from a real prospect or is it a competitor. Is that My Space friend a potential confidant or a creepy old man.   Part of online smarts is being able to tell the character and credibility of someone based on their online presence. We all start to look for online ???tells??? that give us insight into the real character and capability of the online entity we???re dealing with.   Whether we realize it or not, as users of the web we all are developing online street smarts. We are constantly picking up ???tells???. Tells in a website we???re looking at, tells in an email we got. More than often, we aren???t even aware of what???s happening. We think we have instinct. We learn to trust our gut. Really, were just learning from experience. There???s actually a neat book out called ???Blink??? which talks about some of this. It???s written by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote ???The Tipping Point???, too. I???d highly recommend both.   If I???m a visitor to a website - what does the fact that the Copyright says 2003 tell me. Does a broken link reflect a person with bad character. I don???t know. What does that Flash element say about this company ??? do they respect my time. Is their contact form like a dimly lit street that I don???t want to risk walking down.   Now, as a web professional I???m more interested in making sure that my clients don???t get misclassified or mischaracterized by giving off the wrong signals. I don???t want their ???tells??? to tell visitors the wrong thing.   My clients are of course experienced, upstanding companies and they deserve a web visitor???s trust. They???re a credible resource for the products and services the sell. Now, some of them are sole proprietors just starting out, some are corporations that have been in business for years and have hundreds of employees.   If you???re my client, it???s my job to make sure you don???t dress funny, you don???t say stupid things that give the wrong impression. It???s my job to portray you in the best possible light. If this were like a job situation, your website is your resume, at a minimum. You need to nail it in order to get the interview. Then you need to nail the interview. Now I???m would never tell you to lie on your resume ??? that will catch up with you. I am going to tell you how to talk, how to walk, what to play up, what to play down so you get the interview, and the job ??? or in web vernacular ??? you convert.   We need to start by looking at how you???ll be judged ??? how you???ll be evaluated. I call these the four ???c???s:   - Capability - Competence - Commitment - Character   Capability: If I???m going to deal with you I want to know you have the capability to deliver what you say you can. I???m going to look for experience, I???m going to look for expertise, do you have a track record.   Competence: I want to know that you are going deliver the right level of quality with minimal hassles to me. This doesn???t just apply to an end sale. It applies to the entire process I???m going to go through with you. Are you going to give me the information I need or the product I order in an efficient manner. Will your delivery be smooth. Are you going to protect my identity, my credit card information, my time.   Commitment: Are you committed to this. If I get involved with you are you going to be around next week when I make my buying decision. Are you going to be around next month when I have a question. Are you going to be around next year when I want to order again.   Character: What will you do if something goes wrong. Do you choose your partners wisely - so if you???re outsourcing part of your process are your partners likely to be trustworthy, too. Will you sell my email address to a spammer.   Now, instead of coming out and telling people that your capable, competent, committed and full of character it will be much more powerful if they just get that feeling from your site. Your tells will consciously and subconsciously tell your website visitor the right things.   The words, the information, the images on your site are going to explain what you do, how you do it and why it???s in their best interest to work with you.   The way you present those words, that information, those images will be your ???tells???, they???ll imply capability, competence, commitment, and character.   So what says ???we are capable???. Well, you need to show you have expertise. You need to show you have experience (lots of alliteration in this episode isn???t there). You can do this in a couple of ways. First you do it by including sections that show your expertise and experience. Some things that come to mind   Have content displaying knowledge of your subject ??? pretty straightforward. Normally I recommend this be done in layers. Most people skim a website, but they absolutely notice that there is more there should they want to read it all. You need to have the more on display and a click of a page-down away. So when people tell you to just put the high points in your site because that???s all people read ??? don???t do it. Extend your pages, link to white papers, downloads, whatever. I agree that people skim, but they will subconsciously know that there???s a whole lot more substance to you if they want to investigate a little further.   Customer testimonials and case studies. This shows a been there, done that, and done it well kind of attitude. People like to know they???re not your guinea pig.   The last one I???ll mention for now is functionality. Functionality on your site is going to reflect how capable you are. You don???t necessarily lose credibility if you have a 10 page site that is simple in design with static HTML content. However, you can get ???capability??? points by having a few areas of sophistication within the site. Whether its??? site-wide-search capability, database driven content areas, it helps to have something that???s a little beyond run of the mill website stuff.   Competence: What screams ???We are competent!???, without screaming it. Once again it???s going to be two-pronged. First, your content describes your knowledge and can provide examples of industry competence.   However, a website that is well thought out and functions smoothly will properly shows your competence. Your ability to get your message across to the web visitor shows you are competent. Links that all work show you are competent. The tough part is that it???s way easier to show you???re incompetent. Often competence is more of a matter of avoiding the pitfalls.   Commitment: We are absolutely committed to this industry. Our website looks like we spent 150 bucks on it and we haven???t updated it in a year, but we are absolutely committed to this industry. We have no physical location but we are absolutely committed to this industry. Now I???m in the business, but if I see a site that looks like it was bought from a template company with a logo and a tagline plugged in that???s just not a good thing. Now, a template can be a fine starting point, but if you cut corners on design, whether your site has a simple design or one that???s really elegant it will show ??? and what the brain picks up is ??? no investment, no commitment. That???s just one of a dozen things that show a lack of commitment.   Character: Character is proven over time. However, indications of whether you have a good or bad character are being picked up from the instant you come into contact with someone. I believe you need to be at the top of your peer group without being over-the-top. What do I mean by that. You need to look a lot like everyone else in your space (not My Space ??? your space), only better. Your goal is to be the belle of the ball.   If your ball is a bunch of 6???s ??? be an 8. If your industry is full of 4???s ??? be a six. If your crowd is all 8???s ??? you better be a 10. If in your industry your competitors are all selling online and you aren???t ??? that can be a red flag. If none of your competitors sell online and you do ??? that can be a red flag. If everyone???s site is blue and your???s is orange ??? that could be a red flag. The trick is to stand out without sticking out. You stick out if you are different in an unusual or bewildering way. You stand out if you are similar but of a higher quality. Take the same track but raise the bar 2 levels.   Now that doesn???t mean you can???t be innovative or a leader in your space. But be careful how far ahead of the pack you get. People, right or wrong, get suspicious of companies that are too different. If you have the time and the right environment ??? you can explain why you are so much better. But if someone is meeting you for the first time through your site ??? be conservative at the site.   Now the exception to this is if your industry just sucks from an online perspective. In that case you may want to bump up the bar more than a couple of notches.   Well, we???ve laid down a good basis. Next up is some detailed tips and techniques to get your trust level and credibility way up.   In episode 10 I???m looking to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. Now usually I get this podcast out about every 2nd week. However, I???m due for a little vacation. But I don???t want to leave you hanging.   I???m going to do my best to get the next podcast out next week ??? trust me.   Here???s a little preview:   - Use gradients. - Treat images - Use proper grammar - Spell correctly - Check all links - Update your copyright year - Update your content - List your physical address - Avoid having a multi-hyphenated-url - No out-of-the-box templates - Include testimonials - Have partial customer lists - Send order acknowledgements - Have a privacy policy - Have shipping rates and policies easily found - Have tax information easily found - Make sure SSL certificates work - Have a customer login area - Have the shortest forms possible - Link to credible industry sources - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think??? - and a whole lot more   Well, we???ll slow it down get it organized and add some comments. Don???t worry it will all get clear soon.   So - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 10 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site???s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts ??? today???s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 3 ??? Higher Credibility Higher Conversions ??? Trust Me.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you???re perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   We???re up to part 3 of our series on Converting Web Traffic. If you haven???t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet (that???s episodes 7 and 8 ) ??? that???s okay, but I do recommend going back and downloading them. Also, if you didn???t catch the very first episodes of Drive It Convert It (episodes 1 and 2), I highly recommend you give those a listen, too.   Trust and credibility is a fairly extensive topic. So rather than trying to cram it all in ??? I???m going to cover it in two episodes ??? this one and episode 10 later this month.   Do you have kids? I have kids ??? one of my kids is 14 and one is 8. Both their schools recently organized meetings regarding My Space. It seems that with 40,000,000 or whatever number of users they have, My Space has attracted some people that have less than honest and ethical intentions. Of course it???s going to make the news when some 50 year old man tries to lure some 15 year old through the My Space service.   Now I don???t discount the dangers, however, I don???t see that much news coverage about the weird people that hang out at malls or arcades (do they still have arcades), or other places the younger generation can be found.   Now when I was a kid and then a teenager I developed something call street smarts. My parents gave me some initial guidelines (don???t take candy from strangers, don???t help that guy look for his lost puppy). Then I developed a sense- a sense for which streets to avoid riding my bike down. I learned to sense which friendly people were really friendly and which were just sort of creepy.   Now when I got a little older and needed to buy things like a car I started to learn how to tell if people were telling the truth or if they had something to hide. If they were hiding something it was usually either a matter of them being dishonest or were they just hiding the fact that they were inexperienced. They were trying to pass themselves off as knowing more than they did or being more capable then they actually were.   I started to learn what poker players call ???tells???.   Tells are mannerisms and movements that tells a person???s true intentions regardless of the words they are saying.   I actually encourage my kids to get involved in online interactions. So much of our world is heading that way that everybody needs to develop online street smarts. You should be starting that at a young age or whatever age you are now and continuing on.   Is that person commenting in your forum just trolling to disrupt or are they leaving a legitimate opinion. Is that email requesting information from a real prospect or is it a competitor. Is that My Space friend a potential confidant or a creepy old man.   Part of online smarts is being able to tell the character and credibility of someone based on their online presence. We all start to look for online ???tells??? that give us insight into the real character and capability of the online entity we???re dealing with.   Whether we realize it or not, as users of the web we all are developing online street smarts. We are constantly picking up ???tells???. Tells in a website we???re looking at, tells in an email we got. More than often, we aren???t even aware of what???s happening. We think we have instinct. We learn to trust our gut. Really, were just learning from experience. There???s actually a neat book out called ???Blink??? which talks about some of this. It???s written by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote ???The Tipping Point???, too. I???d highly recommend both.   If I???m a visitor to a website - what does the fact that the Copyright says 2003 tell me. Does a broken link reflect a person with bad character. I don???t know. What does that Flash element say about this company ??? do they respect my time. Is their contact form like a dimly lit street that I don???t want to risk walking down.   Now, as a web professional I???m more interested in making sure that my clients don???t get misclassified or mischaracterized by giving off the wrong signals. I don???t want their ???tells??? to tell visitors the wrong thing.   My clients are of course experienced, upstanding companies and they deserve a web visitor???s trust. They???re a credible resource for the products and services the sell. Now, some of them are sole proprietors just starting out, some are corporations that have been in business for years and have hundreds of employees.   If you???re my client, it???s my job to make sure you don???t dress funny, you don???t say stupid things that give the wrong impression. It???s my job to portray you in the best possible light. If this were like a job situation, your website is your resume, at a minimum. You need to nail it in order to get the interview. Then you need to nail the interview. Now I???m would never tell you to lie on your resume ??? that will catch up with you. I am going to tell you how to talk, how to walk, what to play up, what to play down so you get the interview, and the job ??? or in web vernacular ??? you convert.   We need to start by looking at how you???ll be judged ??? how you???ll be evaluated. I call these the four ???c???s:   - Capability - Competence - Commitment - Character   Capability: If I???m going to deal with you I want to know you have the capability to deliver what you say you can. I???m going to look for experience, I???m going to look for expertise, do you have a track record.   Competence: I want to know that you are going deliver the right level of quality with minimal hassles to me. This doesn???t just apply to an end sale. It applies to the entire process I???m going to go through with you. Are you going to give me the information I need or the product I order in an efficient manner. Will your delivery be smooth. Are you going to protect my identity, my credit card information, my time.   Commitment: Are you committed to this. If I get involved with you are you going to be around next week when I make my buying decision. Are you going to be around next month when I have a question. Are you going to be around next year when I want to order again.   Character: What will you do if something goes wrong. Do you choose your partners wisely - so if you???re outsourcing part of your process are your partners likely to be trustworthy, too. Will you sell my email address to a spammer.   Now, instead of coming out and telling people that your capable, competent, committed and full of character it will be much more powerful if they just get that feeling from your site. Your tells will consciously and subconsciously tell your website visitor the right things.   The words, the information, the images on your site are going to explain what you do, how you do it and why it???s in their best interest to work with you.   The way you present those words, that information, those images will be your ???tells???, they???ll imply capability, competence, commitment, and character.   So what says ???we are capable???. Well, you need to show you have expertise. You need to show you have experience (lots of alliteration in this episode isn???t there). You can do this in a couple of ways. First you do it by including sections that show your expertise and experience. Some things that come to mind   Have content displaying knowledge of your subject ??? pretty straightforward. Normally I recommend this be done in layers. Most people skim a website, but they absolutely notice that there is more there should they want to read it all. You need to have the more on display and a click of a page-down away. So when people tell you to just put the high points in your site because that???s all people read ??? don???t do it. Extend your pages, link to white papers, downloads, whatever. I agree that people skim, but they will subconsciously know that there???s a whole lot more substance to you if they want to investigate a little further.   Customer testimonials and case studies. This shows a been there, done that, and done it well kind of attitude. People like to know they???re not your guinea pig.   The last one I???ll mention for now is functionality. Functionality on your site is going to reflect how capable you are. You don???t necessarily lose credibility if you have a 10 page site that is simple in design with static HTML content. However, you can get ???capability??? points by having a few areas of sophistication within the site. Whether its??? site-wide-search capability, database driven content areas, it helps to have something that???s a little beyond run of the mill website stuff.   Competence: What screams ???We are competent!???, without screaming it. Once again it???s going to be two-pronged. First, your content describes your knowledge and can provide examples of industry competence.   However, a website that is well thought out and functions smoothly will properly shows your competence. Your ability to get your message across to the web visitor shows you are competent. Links that all work show you are competent. The tough part is that it???s way easier to show you???re incompetent. Often competence is more of a matter of avoiding the pitfalls.   Commitment: We are absolutely committed to this industry. Our website looks like we spent 150 bucks on it and we haven???t updated it in a year, but we are absolutely committed to this industry. We have no physical location but we are absolutely committed to this industry. Now I???m in the business, but if I see a site that looks like it was bought from a template company with a logo and a tagline plugged in that???s just not a good thing. Now, a template can be a fine starting point, but if you cut corners on design, whether your site has a simple design or one that???s really elegant it will show ??? and what the brain picks up is ??? no investment, no commitment. That???s just one of a dozen things that show a lack of commitment.   Character: Character is proven over time. However, indications of whether you have a good or bad character are being picked up from the instant you come into contact with someone. I believe you need to be at the top of your peer group without being over-the-top. What do I mean by that. You need to look a lot like everyone else in your space (not My Space ??? your space), only better. Your goal is to be the belle of the ball.   If your ball is a bunch of 6???s ??? be an 8. If your industry is full of 4???s ??? be a six. If your crowd is all 8???s ??? you better be a 10. If in your industry your competitors are all selling online and you aren???t ??? that can be a red flag. If none of your competitors sell online and you do ??? that can be a red flag. If everyone???s site is blue and your???s is orange ??? that could be a red flag. The trick is to stand out without sticking out. You stick out if you are different in an unusual or bewildering way. You stand out if you are similar but of a higher quality. Take the same track but raise the bar 2 levels.   Now that doesn???t mean you can???t be innovative or a leader in your space. But be careful how far ahead of the pack you get. People, right or wrong, get suspicious of companies that are too different. If you have the time and the right environment ??? you can explain why you are so much better. But if someone is meeting you for the first time through your site ??? be conservative at the site.   Now the exception to this is if your industry just sucks from an online perspective. In that case you may want to bump up the bar more than a couple of notches.   Well, we???ve laid down a good basis. Next up is some detailed tips and techniques to get your trust level and credibility way up.   In episode 10 I???m looking to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. Now usually I get this podcast out about every 2nd week. However, I???m due for a little vacation. But I don???t want to leave you hanging.   I???m going to do my best to get the next podcast out next week ??? trust me.   Here???s a little preview:   - Use gradients. - Treat images - Use proper grammar - Spell correctly - Check all links - Update your copyright year - Update your content - List your physical address - Avoid having a multi-hyphenated-url - No out-of-the-box templates - Include testimonials - Have partial customer lists - Send order acknowledgements - Have a privacy policy - Have shipping rates and policies easily found - Have tax information easily found - Make sure SSL certificates work - Have a customer login area - Have the shortest forms possible - Link to credible industry sources - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think??? - and a whole lot more   Well, we???ll slow it down get it organized and add some comments. Don???t worry it will all get clear soon.   So - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 10 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. tag:odeo.com,2006-07-14,23298737 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:41:32 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23347651-Drive-It-Convert-It-9-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-3-Higher-Credibility-Higher-Conversions-Trust-Me Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site???s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts ??? today???s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 3 ??? Higher C... Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site???s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts ??? today???s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 3 ??? Higher Credibility Higher Conversions ??? Trust Me.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you???re perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   We???re up to part 3 of our series on Converting Web Traffic. If you haven???t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet (that???s episodes 7 and 8 ) ??? that???s okay, but I do recommend going back and downloading them. Also, if you didn???t catch the very first episodes of Drive It Convert It (episodes 1 and 2), I highly recommend you give those a listen, too.   Trust and credibility is a fairly extensive topic. So rather than trying to cram it all in ??? I???m going to cover it in two episodes ??? this one and episode 10 later this month.   Do you have kids? I have kids ??? one of my kids is 14 and one is 8. Both their schools recently organized meetings regarding My Space. It seems that with 40,000,000 or whatever number of users they have, My Space has attracted some people that have less than honest and ethical intentions. Of course it???s going to make the news when some 50 year old man tries to lure some 15 year old through the My Space service.   Now I don???t discount the dangers, however, I don???t see that much news coverage about the weird people that hang out at malls or arcades (do they still have arcades), or other places the younger generation can be found.   Now when I was a kid and then a teenager I developed something call street smarts. My parents gave me some initial guidelines (don???t take candy from strangers, don???t help that guy look for his lost puppy). Then I developed a sense- a sense for which streets to avoid riding my bike down. I learned to sense which friendly people were really friendly and which were just sort of creepy.   Now when I got a little older and needed to buy things like a car I started to learn how to tell if people were telling the truth or if they had something to hide. If they were hiding something it was usually either a matter of them being dishonest or were they just hiding the fact that they were inexperienced. They were trying to pass themselves off as knowing more than they did or being more capable then they actually were.   I started to learn what poker players call ???tells???.   Tells are mannerisms and movements that tells a person???s true intentions regardless of the words they are saying.   I actually encourage my kids to get involved in online interactions. So much of our world is heading that way that everybody needs to develop online street smarts. You should be starting that at a young age or whatever age you are now and continuing on.   Is that person commenting in your forum just trolling to disrupt or are they leaving a legitimate opinion. Is that email requesting information from a real prospect or is it a competitor. Is that My Space friend a potential confidant or a creepy old man.   Part of online smarts is being able to tell the character and credibility of someone based on their online presence. We all start to look for online ???tells??? that give us insight into the real character and capability of the online entity we???re dealing with.   Whether we realize it or not, as users of the web we all are developing online street smarts. We are constantly picking up ???tells???. Tells in a website we???re looking at, tells in an email we got. More than often, we aren???t even aware of what???s happening. We think we have instinct. We learn to trust our gut. Really, were just learning from experience. There???s actually a neat book out called ???Blink??? which talks about some of this. It???s written by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote ???The Tipping Point???, too. I???d highly recommend both.   If I???m a visitor to a website - what does the fact that the Copyright says 2003 tell me. Does a broken link reflect a person with bad character. I don???t know. What does that Flash element say about this company ??? do they respect my time. Is their contact form like a dimly lit street that I don???t want to risk walking down.   Now, as a web professional I???m more interested in making sure that my clients don???t get misclassified or mischaracterized by giving off the wrong signals. I don???t want their ???tells??? to tell visitors the wrong thing.   My clients are of course experienced, upstanding companies and they deserve a web visitor???s trust. They???re a credible resource for the products and services the sell. Now, some of them are sole proprietors just starting out, some are corporations that have been in business for years and have hundreds of employees.   If you???re my client, it???s my job to make sure you don???t dress funny, you don???t say stupid things that give the wrong impression. It???s my job to portray you in the best possible light. If this were like a job situation, your website is your resume, at a minimum. You need to nail it in order to get the interview. Then you need to nail the interview. Now I???m would never tell you to lie on your resume ??? that will catch up with you. I am going to tell you how to talk, how to walk, what to play up, what to play down so you get the interview, and the job ??? or in web vernacular ??? you convert.   We need to start by looking at how you???ll be judged ??? how you???ll be evaluated. I call these the four ???c???s:   - Capability - Competence - Commitment - Character   Capability: If I???m going to deal with you I want to know you have the capability to deliver what you say you can. I???m going to look for experience, I???m going to look for expertise, do you have a track record.   Competence: I want to know that you are going deliver the right level of quality with minimal hassles to me. This doesn???t just apply to an end sale. It applies to the entire process I???m going to go through with you. Are you going to give me the information I need or the product I order in an efficient manner. Will your delivery be smooth. Are you going to protect my identity, my credit card information, my time.   Commitment: Are you committed to this. If I get involved with you are you going to be around next week when I make my buying decision. Are you going to be around next month when I have a question. Are you going to be around next year when I want to order again.   Character: What will you do if something goes wrong. Do you choose your partners wisely - so if you???re outsourcing part of your process are your partners likely to be trustworthy, too. Will you sell my email address to a spammer.   Now, instead of coming out and telling people that your capable, competent, committed and full of character it will be much more powerful if they just get that feeling from your site. Your tells will consciously and subconsciously tell your website visitor the right things.   The words, the information, the images on your site are going to explain what you do, how you do it and why it???s in their best interest to work with you.   The way you present those words, that information, those images will be your ???tells???, they???ll imply capability, competence, commitment, and character.   So what says ???we are capable???. Well, you need to show you have expertise. You need to show you have experience (lots of alliteration in this episode isn???t there). You can do this in a couple of ways. First you do it by including sections that show your expertise and experience. Some things that come to mind   Have content displaying knowledge of your subject ??? pretty straightforward. Normally I recommend this be done in layers. Most people skim a website, but they absolutely notice that there is more there should they want to read it all. You need to have the more on display and a click of a page-down away. So when people tell you to just put the high points in your site because that???s all people read ??? don???t do it. Extend your pages, link to white papers, downloads, whatever. I agree that people skim, but they will subconsciously know that there???s a whole lot more substance to you if they want to investigate a little further.   Customer testimonials and case studies. This shows a been there, done that, and done it well kind of attitude. People like to know they???re not your guinea pig.   The last one I???ll mention for now is functionality. Functionality on your site is going to reflect how capable you are. You don???t necessarily lose credibility if you have a 10 page site that is simple in design with static HTML content. However, you can get ???capability??? points by having a few areas of sophistication within the site. Whether its??? site-wide-search capability, database driven content areas, it helps to have something that???s a little beyond run of the mill website stuff.   Competence: What screams ???We are competent!???, without screaming it. Once again it???s going to be two-pronged. First, your content describes your knowledge and can provide examples of industry competence.   However, a website that is well thought out and functions smoothly will properly shows your competence. Your ability to get your message across to the web visitor shows you are competent. Links that all work show you are competent. The tough part is that it???s way easier to show you???re incompetent. Often competence is more of a matter of avoiding the pitfalls.   Commitment: We are absolutely committed to this industry. Our website looks like we spent 150 bucks on it and we haven???t updated it in a year, but we are absolutely committed to this industry. We have no physical location but we are absolutely committed to this industry. Now I???m in the business, but if I see a site that looks like it was bought from a template company with a logo and a tagline plugged in that???s just not a good thing. Now, a template can be a fine starting point, but if you cut corners on design, whether your site has a simple design or one that???s really elegant it will show ??? and what the brain picks up is ??? no investment, no commitment. That???s just one of a dozen things that show a lack of commitment.   Character: Character is proven over time. However, indications of whether you have a good or bad character are being picked up from the instant you come into contact with someone. I believe you need to be at the top of your peer group without being over-the-top. What do I mean by that. You need to look a lot like everyone else in your space (not My Space ??? your space), only better. Your goal is to be the belle of the ball.   If your ball is a bunch of 6???s ??? be an 8. If your industry is full of 4???s ??? be a six. If your crowd is all 8???s ??? you better be a 10. If in your industry your competitors are all selling online and you aren???t ??? that can be a red flag. If none of your competitors sell online and you do ??? that can be a red flag. If everyone???s site is blue and your???s is orange ??? that could be a red flag. The trick is to stand out without sticking out. You stick out if you are different in an unusual or bewildering way. You stand out if you are similar but of a higher quality. Take the same track but raise the bar 2 levels.   Now that doesn???t mean you can???t be innovative or a leader in your space. But be careful how far ahead of the pack you get. People, right or wrong, get suspicious of companies that are too different. If you have the time and the right environment ??? you can explain why you are so much better. But if someone is meeting you for the first time through your site ??? be conservative at the site.   Now the exception to this is if your industry just sucks from an online perspective. In that case you may want to bump up the bar more than a couple of notches.   Well, we???ve laid down a good basis. Next up is some detailed tips and techniques to get your trust level and credibility way up.   In episode 10 I???m looking to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. Now usually I get this podcast out about every 2nd week. However, I???m due for a little vacation. But I don???t want to leave you hanging.   I???m going to do my best to get the next podcast out next week ??? trust me.   Here???s a little preview:   - Use gradients. - Treat images - Use proper grammar - Spell correctly - Check all links - Update your copyright year - Update your content - List your physical address - Avoid having a multi-hyphenated-url - No out-of-the-box templates - Include testimonials - Have partial customer lists - Send order acknowledgements - Have a privacy policy - Have shipping rates and policies easily found - Have tax information easily found - Make sure SSL certificates work - Have a customer login area - Have the shortest forms possible - Link to credible industry sources - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think??? - and a whole lot more   Well, we???ll slow it down get it organized and add some comments. Don???t worry it will all get clear soon.   So - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 10 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. Techniques to build trust and credibility on your site.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you are perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   Web site design and refinement plays a key role in building a site???s trust level and credibility, all which translate into a higher conversion rate.   Suggested Tags: web design, website design, web conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility   Topics include:   1) Web smarts ??? today???s street smarts 2) How web visitors judge us 3) Improving credibility and trust 4) Introduction to 50 tips in 20 minutes   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for July 14th, 2006. This is episode #9: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 3 ??? Higher Credibility Higher Conversions ??? Trust Me.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   The more credible your website, the more trustworthy and capable you will be perceived to be. The more trustworthy and capable you???re perceived to be the higher your website conversions.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to podcast@bastioninternet.com.   We???re up to part 3 of our series on Converting Web Traffic. If you haven???t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet (that???s episodes 7 and 8 ) ??? that???s okay, but I do recommend going back and downloading them. Also, if you didn???t catch the very first episodes of Drive It Convert It (episodes 1 and 2), I highly recommend you give those a listen, too.   Trust and credibility is a fairly extensive topic. So rather than trying to cram it all in ??? I???m going to cover it in two episodes ??? this one and episode 10 later this month.   Do you have kids? I have kids ??? one of my kids is 14 and one is 8. Both their schools recently organized meetings regarding My Space. It seems that with 40,000,000 or whatever number of users they have, My Space has attracted some people that have less than honest and ethical intentions. Of course it???s going to make the news when some 50 year old man tries to lure some 15 year old through the My Space service.   Now I don???t discount the dangers, however, I don???t see that much news coverage about the weird people that hang out at malls or arcades (do they still have arcades), or other places the younger generation can be found.   Now when I was a kid and then a teenager I developed something call street smarts. My parents gave me some initial guidelines (don???t take candy from strangers, don???t help that guy look for his lost puppy). Then I developed a sense- a sense for which streets to avoid riding my bike down. I learned to sense which friendly people were really friendly and which were just sort of creepy.   Now when I got a little older and needed to buy things like a car I started to learn how to tell if people were telling the truth or if they had something to hide. If they were hiding something it was usually either a matter of them being dishonest or were they just hiding the fact that they were inexperienced. They were trying to pass themselves off as knowing more than they did or being more capable then they actually were.   I started to learn what poker players call ???tells???.   Tells are mannerisms and movements that tells a person???s true intentions regardless of the words they are saying.   I actually encourage my kids to get involved in online interactions. So much of our world is heading that way that everybody needs to develop online street smarts. You should be starting that at a young age or whatever age you are now and continuing on.   Is that person commenting in your forum just trolling to disrupt or are they leaving a legitimate opinion. Is that email requesting information from a real prospect or is it a competitor. Is that My Space friend a potential confidant or a creepy old man.   Part of online smarts is being able to tell the character and credibility of someone based on their online presence. We all start to look for online ???tells??? that give us insight into the real character and capability of the online entity we???re dealing with.   Whether we realize it or not, as users of the web we all are developing online street smarts. We are constantly picking up ???tells???. Tells in a website we???re looking at, tells in an email we got. More than often, we aren???t even aware of what???s happening. We think we have instinct. We learn to trust our gut. Really, were just learning from experience. There???s actually a neat book out called ???Blink??? which talks about some of this. It???s written by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote ???The Tipping Point???, too. I???d highly recommend both.   If I???m a visitor to a website - what does the fact that the Copyright says 2003 tell me. Does a broken link reflect a person with bad character. I don???t know. What does that Flash element say about this company ??? do they respect my time. Is their contact form like a dimly lit street that I don???t want to risk walking down.   Now, as a web professional I???m more interested in making sure that my clients don???t get misclassified or mischaracterized by giving off the wrong signals. I don???t want their ???tells??? to tell visitors the wrong thing.   My clients are of course experienced, upstanding companies and they deserve a web visitor???s trust. They???re a credible resource for the products and services the sell. Now, some of them are sole proprietors just starting out, some are corporations that have been in business for years and have hundreds of employees.   If you???re my client, it???s my job to make sure you don???t dress funny, you don???t say stupid things that give the wrong impression. It???s my job to portray you in the best possible light. If this were like a job situation, your website is your resume, at a minimum. You need to nail it in order to get the interview. Then you need to nail the interview. Now I???m would never tell you to lie on your resume ??? that will catch up with you. I am going to tell you how to talk, how to walk, what to play up, what to play down so you get the interview, and the job ??? or in web vernacular ??? you convert.   We need to start by looking at how you???ll be judged ??? how you???ll be evaluated. I call these the four ???c???s:   - Capability - Competence - Commitment - Character   Capability: If I???m going to deal with you I want to know you have the capability to deliver what you say you can. I???m going to look for experience, I???m going to look for expertise, do you have a track record.   Competence: I want to know that you are going deliver the right level of quality with minimal hassles to me. This doesn???t just apply to an end sale. It applies to the entire process I???m going to go through with you. Are you going to give me the information I need or the product I order in an efficient manner. Will your delivery be smooth. Are you going to protect my identity, my credit card information, my time.   Commitment: Are you committed to this. If I get involved with you are you going to be around next week when I make my buying decision. Are you going to be around next month when I have a question. Are you going to be around next year when I want to order again.   Character: What will you do if something goes wrong. Do you choose your partners wisely - so if you???re outsourcing part of your process are your partners likely to be trustworthy, too. Will you sell my email address to a spammer.   Now, instead of coming out and telling people that your capable, competent, committed and full of character it will be much more powerful if they just get that feeling from your site. Your tells will consciously and subconsciously tell your website visitor the right things.   The words, the information, the images on your site are going to explain what you do, how you do it and why it???s in their best interest to work with you.   The way you present those words, that information, those images will be your ???tells???, they???ll imply capability, competence, commitment, and character.   So what says ???we are capable???. Well, you need to show you have expertise. You need to show you have experience (lots of alliteration in this episode isn???t there). You can do this in a couple of ways. First you do it by including sections that show your expertise and experience. Some things that come to mind   Have content displaying knowledge of your subject ??? pretty straightforward. Normally I recommend this be done in layers. Most people skim a website, but they absolutely notice that there is more there should they want to read it all. You need to have the more on display and a click of a page-down away. So when people tell you to just put the high points in your site because that???s all people read ??? don???t do it. Extend your pages, link to white papers, downloads, whatever. I agree that people skim, but they will subconsciously know that there???s a whole lot more substance to you if they want to investigate a little further.   Customer testimonials and case studies. This shows a been there, done that, and done it well kind of attitude. People like to know they???re not your guinea pig.   The last one I???ll mention for now is functionality. Functionality on your site is going to reflect how capable you are. You don???t necessarily lose credibility if you have a 10 page site that is simple in design with static HTML content. However, you can get ???capability??? points by having a few areas of sophistication within the site. Whether its??? site-wide-search capability, database driven content areas, it helps to have something that???s a little beyond run of the mill website stuff.   Competence: What screams ???We are competent!???, without screaming it. Once again it???s going to be two-pronged. First, your content describes your knowledge and can provide examples of industry competence.   However, a website that is well thought out and functions smoothly will properly shows your competence. Your ability to get your message across to the web visitor shows you are competent. Links that all work show you are competent. The tough part is that it???s way easier to show you???re incompetent. Often competence is more of a matter of avoiding the pitfalls.   Commitment: We are absolutely committed to this industry. Our website looks like we spent 150 bucks on it and we haven???t updated it in a year, but we are absolutely committed to this industry. We have no physical location but we are absolutely committed to this industry. Now I???m in the business, but if I see a site that looks like it was bought from a template company with a logo and a tagline plugged in that???s just not a good thing. Now, a template can be a fine starting point, but if you cut corners on design, whether your site has a simple design or one that???s really elegant it will show ??? and what the brain picks up is ??? no investment, no commitment. That???s just one of a dozen things that show a lack of commitment.   Character: Character is proven over time. However, indications of whether you have a good or bad character are being picked up from the instant you come into contact with someone. I believe you need to be at the top of your peer group without being over-the-top. What do I mean by that. You need to look a lot like everyone else in your space (not My Space ??? your space), only better. Your goal is to be the belle of the ball.   If your ball is a bunch of 6???s ??? be an 8. If your industry is full of 4???s ??? be a six. If your crowd is all 8???s ??? you better be a 10. If in your industry your competitors are all selling online and you aren???t ??? that can be a red flag. If none of your competitors sell online and you do ??? that can be a red flag. If everyone???s site is blue and your???s is orange ??? that could be a red flag. The trick is to stand out without sticking out. You stick out if you are different in an unusual or bewildering way. You stand out if you are similar but of a higher quality. Take the same track but raise the bar 2 levels.   Now that doesn???t mean you can???t be innovative or a leader in your space. But be careful how far ahead of the pack you get. People, right or wrong, get suspicious of companies that are too different. If you have the time and the right environment ??? you can explain why you are so much better. But if someone is meeting you for the first time through your site ??? be conservative at the site.   Now the exception to this is if your industry just sucks from an online perspective. In that case you may want to bump up the bar more than a couple of notches.   Well, we???ve laid down a good basis. Next up is some detailed tips and techniques to get your trust level and credibility way up.   In episode 10 I???m looking to give you 50 tips in 20 minutes. Now usually I get this podcast out about every 2nd week. However, I???m due for a little vacation. But I don???t want to leave you hanging.   I???m going to do my best to get the next podcast out next week ??? trust me.   Here???s a little preview:   - Use gradients. - Treat images - Use proper grammar - Spell correctly - Check all links - Update your copyright year - Update your content - List your physical address - Avoid having a multi-hyphenated-url - No out-of-the-box templates - Include testimonials - Have partial customer lists - Send order acknowledgements - Have a privacy policy - Have shipping rates and policies easily found - Have tax information easily found - Make sure SSL certificates work - Have a customer login area - Have the shortest forms possible - Link to credible industry sources - Use the word ???believe??? instead of ???think??? - and a whole lot more   Well, we???ll slow it down get it organized and add some comments. Don???t worry it will all get clear soon.   So - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 10 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. tag:odeo.com,2006-07-14,23347651 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:41:32 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/2305595-Drive-It-Convert-It-8-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-2-%C3%A2-Seven-Steps-to-Effective-Landing-Pages tag:odeo.com,2006-06-29,2305595 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:31:59 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/1420955-Drive-It-Convert-It-8-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-2-Seven-Steps-to-Effective-Landing-Pages tag:odeo.com,2006-06-29,1420955 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:31:59 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/24185472-Drive-It-Convert-It-8-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-2-%E2%80%93-Seven-Steps-to-Effective-Landing-Pages   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic – Part 2 – Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind ...   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic – Part 2 – Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   I got a little behind with my podcast – thanks for hanging in there. I’m seeing the subscription numbers go up and up and was starting to feel really guilty about the delay in getting this latest podcast out.   Things have been busy and it’s gearing up to vacation season. All in all I’ve been squeezed for time. I always hesitate to tell people how busy I am because I just get no sympathy. Because we’re all busy – aren’t we.   But don’t be too busy to email me your questions, comments, or suggestions – email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Web visitors get driven to sites all the time – and they leave those sites – just as fast. The good news is – the site they are likely leaving is your competitor. You have the opportunity to get lots of high quality traffic into your business – your website. Handle it the right way and you’ll be as busy or as care free as you want to be.   There is a lot to go through, today. Here’s some extra motivation for you to keep you hanging in today. In a little while, just when you think good landing pages might be too much effort, whether you do them yourself or hire someone like Bastion Internet to help you – I am going to give you some truly inspirational information. If you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to wait to get started. You will not be able to contain yourself.   Let’s get going.   Here’s what we’ll be covering today.   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in: lead in being an email or a Pay Per Click ad 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page   Landing pages offer a huge return – there is no question about it – here’s why:   First it’s a leveraged return on investment. Do I sound like a banker, or a financial planner, oh well, if I must I must.   If you’re getting a 5% conversion rate - 5 visitors out of every 100 - you can raise your overall success by 60% by just convincing 3 more out of the remaining 95 to go with you, too. I did the math, trust me – it’s right.   Next - the rich get richer. You’ve heard me say that before. Now you’ve got to get on the right side of the rich/poor line – the rich side – so you can start getting richer, because the alternative is to get poorer.   How does that work - as you raise your conversion rate, you further justify your spend on the advertising. This can justify a higher pay per click bid, a better quality email blast design, or any number of other advertising expenditures. Spending more on driving more quality traffic will just keep the whole ball rolling.   Finally, bad conversion rates don’t just waste your click money, you’ve lost a customer.   I just finished reading the July issue of Business 2.0? there’s an article on Gamal Aziz, I hope I got that pronunciation right, he’s with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His claim to fame in the article is that he works backwards when looking at profitability. He looks at the potential of each venue - the restaurants, the rooms, the casino, the showrooms, to determine if that section of the hotel is on track. If it’s not reaching its potential, it’s losing money – even if it’s profitable now.   So if the restaurant is pulling in a million dollars with a 10% profit margin, he decides what the revenue for that space could be. If that potential is two million with a 15% profit margin, then the venue is actually losing him $200,000. I did the math, twice - trust me it’s right.   Now that might appear to be a harsh attitude, but that attitude has him improving profits of the various venues anywhere from 40% to 700% and more. And that is in one of the most competitive industries around.   So if you’re getting 1000 clicks and your converting 30 (for a 3% conversion rate), how much money are you leaving on the table by not converting 40 or 50 or a hundred, if it’s within your capability to do it.   You’re not going to sell everyone, but you better take your best crack at the one’s who come through the door.   2) Know your product   Look at your product from the web surfers’ perspective.   Is it an impulse buy type of product. Do you need to hit fast and hard. I’ve often run into situations where I need something now - for example recently I need a piece of software. I went did a little research and bought it within the hour.   Other times I need a service or it’s a larger purchase – my buy cycle might be a month or more.   Ask yourself what is the furthest you can push your conversion. I suppose you could sell a nuclear reactor online, but I doubt it. Can your service even be sold online. Is someone likely to even contact you on their first visit to your site.   How complex is your product. Is the user likely to know a lot about it. Have they likely already looked at your competitors.   Also, will the visitor be expecting to see your product when then click through.   What do I mean by that… For example, if the PPC ad or Email says “Quality Business Cards - Cheap” and it sends you to a printshop website. That’s expected.   Some time back I was doing some research for a dating site client I had. I was checking out some competitive ads. One of them took me to a page about God and not being lonely if I knew and accepted a fuller role for Him in my life. Now I’ll bet clickers weren’t expecting that when they clicked on the ad.   It can be an effective way to market - but it will make a difference as to how you deliver your message if the target is not expecting your product at the other end of the click.   Speaking of which …   3) Know your target   It seems I harp on this every podcast episode. Know who’s visiting. You’re ad will appeal to them, that’s why they clicked through. They will have a certain profile. Ask yourself   How motivated to buy are they.   Are they likely to buy now; will they be naturally trusting; will they spend time digging to get answers; are they likely to be fickle and impatient.   How savvy are they likely to be from a web perspective.   Also, building on that last thing about the product - will they be expecting your solution   Same idea as before – are they likely to be expecting the solution you are offering. If you’re trying to sell energy efficient lighting to companies searching for insulation products, you may be right in understanding that they want to reduce their energy costs, but it’s going to take a different kind of message on your landing page for them to make the connection between lights and insulation. You run the risk of a quick back-button. But you may get the reward of hitting them unexpectedly. Not my first choice, but perhaps worthy of some testing and measurement. But I’m getting ahead of myself.   4) Build based on your lead-in   Your landing page design will vary based on what drove the Visitor there.   Let’s look at 3 alternative ways to drive traffic, PPC Ads, Emails, and SEO.   Consistency is very important. Your landing page needs to be consistent with you lead in. If Visitors are coming from a text ad, you’ll want to have the same headline. Beyond that, you’ve got flexibility.   Now you may have 30 different ads running, or you may have PPC ads that pick up the keyword phrase the searcher typed in and replicate in automatically in the ad. Ideally you’ll have multiple landing pages that exactly match the specific PPC ad that drove that traffic.   Email - an email offer landing page needs to look like the email. So if you want to use your website’s design as a backdrop for your landing page, make sure you format your email appropriately. The design of the landing page should look like the design of the email and the offer should be the headline.   SEO – search engine optimization. This is harder. If you’re driving traffic organically, through the natural listings on the search engine results pages – you need to be careful. If you change that page, it may affect your ranking. However, if the page is getting you traffic but not converting for you – it’s likely worth the risk. Just do it slowly – over time. If you’ve got some images on the page, you can replace them with more direct or motivating images.? You can likely improve the “call to action” on the page, too, without affecting the basic makeup of the page.   5) Set your landing page objective   What do you want your landing page to achieve. Is it going to be the place where the client will sign up. Is it a single step away from them buying now. Is it a bridge to deeper material found in the rest of your site.   Let’s look at this in more detail. If your landing page is a conversion page, design with that in mind. You’ve got to pull out all the stops to get the conversion then and there. You’ll want to have a form, a paypal link, a phone number, whatever your action step is. It should be bold and make no apologies. You either win or lose right there.   Or - is your landing page the step before the conversion page.   Hey, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve told you a little more, now click through to sign up or buy.   If you sell a more complex product or service where your skeptical target market is more likely to want more information before giving up their email address to you or their phone number – you’ll be using the landing page as part of a process. It’s a bridge to your catalog or products page or somewhere else. Let the visitor know about the journey you’ll be taking them on and motivate them to start it now.   We’re almost at that inspirational news thing – hang in there. It’s coming up … but first, you need to know how to …   6) Design a superior landing page   The planning is done - time to design.   Your immediate objective – don’t let them leave. Your second objective – motivate them to leave – your way – by converting.   So, don’t let them leave – first - reinforce to the Visitor - they are in the right place   They’ll know they are in the right place because you’re going to do the following:   - You will repeat the exact headline of your PPC ad or your Email Offering as your landing page headline.   - You will not deviate from the look and feel of the email that drove them there.   - And - your landing page will remain consistent with the ad.   So in our lighting products example if the PPC ad said – “Better light – less energy”, that’s our landing page headline.   If our offer in our email was for a “Free Energy Audit”, that’s our heading.   I am amazed at how many product specific searches take me to home pages or category pages when the company could have sent me to the page with the actual product. They’re making me now search within their site – incredible. If I’m looking for an iPod, land me on an iPod page. Don’t land me on an MP3 player page. Don’t land me on your Home page. At least land me on the iPod page and better yet, land me on a page built specifically for someone coming from the PPC ad or email.   Now, your Visitor didn’t immediately click the back button – they stayed - so deliver your message - one message.   Maybe it’s a benefit statement with a lifestyle image shot. Maybe it’s a rhetorical question that drives home the point of your product.   “Tired of making your utility company rich?”   or   “We lower your energy costs and give you better lighting. Find out how”, accompanied by a form to get an emailed version of a “ten tips to cutting your lighting bill”.   Next – motivate the visitor to take action – to convert – or to cross the bridge to conversion.   Although they just met you –they now know you can be trusted. You’re a consistent company. You haven’t bait and switched on them. You haven’t wasted their time. You reinforced the message of the ad that drove them to your site.   Increase the trust – if you have a form asking for an email have a short statement beside the field stating that you don’t share email addresses and linking to your privacy policy.   You can have an endorsement easily seen and recognized as an authority in your industry (a utility company logo for the lighting firm, BBB logo, whatever)   Now – you provide one clear choice for the Visitor – click this button; fill in this form, click, and submit. The more choices the less chance of a conversion. So if you wrap your landing page in your website design and all your main site navigation is at the top, you will distract from your main goal. You’re offering many more choices that all distract. You may decide you want those choices available. Just don’t do it out of default.   Make the action as easy as possible. If you want the Visitor to sign up for a newsletter, you need one field – their email address. That would be ideal. Now, I’ll let you get away with a few more, but do you really need that fax number. Do you really need their address. Do you really need them to tell you what they are most interested in. Probably not – at least not at this point in your relationship with them.   If your conversion is to have them delve deeper into your site, I recommend you have a separate “click track” – a few pages that will tour them around. Your conversion button might be “Start Here”   Keep in mind, with every click decision, one choice you provide is to have them leave. And you will loose them eventually. No one stays forever. The trick is to get them to leave on your terms.   So let’s sum up the main points on design:   - don’t let them leave: be consistent, let them know they are in the right place, reinforce with a benefit statement and image.   - Motivate action: their next step is crystal clear   - Make it easy: the action step is concise.   There are many other subtle design considerations. There are good resources out on the web that go into some detail, do a search, or easier yet - call us. We’ll see what we can do for you.   Some things to look at when designing –   Should you offer any type of fallback position - yes or no – I know it violates one of our rules, but maybe your targets markets vary and you don’t want to loose that visitor by giving them only one choice.   So you want to hedge your bet. “Buy Now or click here to learn more” – ouch, two choices, should you do it.   “Sign up for our newsletter, or click here to explore our site in more detail” – ouch, should you do it.   Realistically, depending on your product or service, it may be best to offer a couple of next step options. It will hurt your number one choice, though. Whether you make it up with a lot of number 2, I’ll leave that up to you – no pun intended there.   Make sure your landing page design is consistent with your website. If the Visitor is likely to check out more of your site and you paid heavy dollars for a beautiful landing page however the site was designed by your nephew in college, you may want to tone the landing page down or up the site quality. If the two don’t match it may become a trust issue. It throws up a flag to the Visitor.   Design above the fold. For those that don’t know, “the fold” is where a newspaper folds. You get more action on stuff above the fold. So in the web world we put our main impact points, images, whatever, above the point where the webpage needs to be scrolled to see. Now this is going to range based on the Visitors’ browser (how many toolbars they have at the top of their browser), and their screen resolution.   Next - make the copy and images readable. Use large fonts, and black on white works best. Short sentences. Tenth grade reading level – max.   Quick load - optimize your images, limit non-essential graphics.   Eliminate unnecessary elements. Just the facts, ma’am. Don’t distract from your main point. No matter what you paid for that cool graphic.   Finally,   7) Measure and test   Measure your results and test different alternatives. This can get very technical and we aren’t going to get into the ins and outs of it today. Just make sure you can measure the specific results of each landing page. Also, play around with alternatives and compare the results of each.   Even we professionals who do this every day are surprised at how little changes can make a significant difference and quite often - we have no idea why. We only know it worked because we tried it and measured it.   Okay, time for the inspiring piece of news that will make you want to rush out there and get better designed landing pages.   Most landing pages suck – they absolutely suck – they really, truly, absolutely suck. Go to your search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, whatever. Search on some terms and click on the sponsored ads. Now don’t go overboard, these advertisers are footing the bill for your research, but check it out.   See how atrocious the majority of the landing pages are. You’re going to see Home pages, category pages, pages with no direction, pages with so much text you’ll hit the Back button before you even realize your hand is moving.   So you know what this means. Even if you do only an ok job with your landing pages, you’ll likely kill your competitors. If you do a superior job either in-house or by hiring a firm like ours, you’ll be in a position to absolutely clean up.   Pilots have a saying. A good landing is one you can walk away from. Forget that. A good landing page is one that is smooth, powerful, and motivates your passenger to continue the journey.   And we will continue this journey next time.   Until then - Subscribe to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 9 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here …     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic – Part 2 – Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   I got a little behind with my podcast – thanks for hanging in there. I’m seeing the subscription numbers go up and up and was starting to feel really guilty about the delay in getting this latest podcast out.   Things have been busy and it’s gearing up to vacation season. All in all I’ve been squeezed for time. I always hesitate to tell people how busy I am because I just get no sympathy. Because we’re all busy – aren’t we.   But don’t be too busy to email me your questions, comments, or suggestions – email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Web visitors get driven to sites all the time – and they leave those sites – just as fast. The good news is – the site they are likely leaving is your competitor. You have the opportunity to get lots of high quality traffic into your business – your website. Handle it the right way and you’ll be as busy or as care free as you want to be.   There is a lot to go through, today. Here’s some extra motivation for you to keep you hanging in today. In a little while, just when you think good landing pages might be too much effort, whether you do them yourself or hire someone like Bastion Internet to help you – I am going to give you some truly inspirational information. If you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to wait to get started. You will not be able to contain yourself.   Let’s get going.   Here’s what we’ll be covering today.   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in: lead in being an email or a Pay Per Click ad 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page   Landing pages offer a huge return – there is no question about it – here’s why:   First it’s a leveraged return on investment. Do I sound like a banker, or a financial planner, oh well, if I must I must.   If you’re getting a 5% conversion rate - 5 visitors out of every 100 - you can raise your overall success by 60% by just convincing 3 more out of the remaining 95 to go with you, too. I did the math, trust me – it’s right.   Next - the rich get richer. You’ve heard me say that before. Now you’ve got to get on the right side of the rich/poor line – the rich side – so you can start getting richer, because the alternative is to get poorer.   How does that work - as you raise your conversion rate, you further justify your spend on the advertising. This can justify a higher pay per click bid, a better quality email blast design, or any number of other advertising expenditures. Spending more on driving more quality traffic will just keep the whole ball rolling.   Finally, bad conversion rates don’t just waste your click money, you’ve lost a customer.   I just finished reading the July issue of Business 2.0? there’s an article on Gamal Aziz, I hope I got that pronunciation right, he’s with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His claim to fame in the article is that he works backwards when looking at profitability. He looks at the potential of each venue - the restaurants, the rooms, the casino, the showrooms, to determine if that section of the hotel is on track. If it’s not reaching its potential, it’s losing money – even if it’s profitable now.   So if the restaurant is pulling in a million dollars with a 10% profit margin, he decides what the revenue for that space could be. If that potential is two million with a 15% profit margin, then the venue is actually losing him $200,000. I did the math, twice - trust me it’s right.   Now that might appear to be a harsh attitude, but that attitude has him improving profits of the various venues anywhere from 40% to 700% and more. And that is in one of the most competitive industries around.   So if you’re getting 1000 clicks and your converting 30 (for a 3% conversion rate), how much money are you leaving on the table by not converting 40 or 50 or a hundred, if it’s within your capability to do it.   You’re not going to sell everyone, but you better take your best crack at the one’s who come through the door.   2) Know your product   Look at your product from the web surfers’ perspective.   Is it an impulse buy type of product. Do you need to hit fast and hard. I’ve often run into situations where I need something now - for example recently I need a piece of software. I went did a little research and bought it within the hour.   Other times I need a service or it’s a larger purchase – my buy cycle might be a month or more.   Ask yourself what is the furthest you can push your conversion. I suppose you could sell a nuclear reactor online, but I doubt it. Can your service even be sold online. Is someone likely to even contact you on their first visit to your site.   How complex is your product. Is the user likely to know a lot about it. Have they likely already looked at your competitors.   Also, will the visitor be expecting to see your product when then click through.   What do I mean by that… For example, if the PPC ad or Email says “Quality Business Cards - Cheap” and it sends you to a printshop website. That’s expected.   Some time back I was doing some research for a dating site client I had. I was checking out some competitive ads. One of them took me to a page about God and not being lonely if I knew and accepted a fuller role for Him in my life. Now I’ll bet clickers weren’t expecting that when they clicked on the ad.   It can be an effective way to market - but it will make a difference as to how you deliver your message if the target is not expecting your product at the other end of the click.   Speaking of which …   3) Know your target   It seems I harp on this every podcast episode. Know who’s visiting. You’re ad will appeal to them, that’s why they clicked through. They will have a certain profile. Ask yourself   How motivated to buy are they.   Are they likely to buy now; will they be naturally trusting; will they spend time digging to get answers; are they likely to be fickle and impatient.   How savvy are they likely to be from a web perspective.   Also, building on that last thing about the product - will they be expecting your solution   Same idea as before – are they likely to be expecting the solution you are offering. If you’re trying to sell energy efficient lighting to companies searching for insulation products, you may be right in understanding that they want to reduce their energy costs, but it’s going to take a different kind of message on your landing page for them to make the connection between lights and insulation. You run the risk of a quick back-button. But you may get the reward of hitting them unexpectedly. Not my first choice, but perhaps worthy of some testing and measurement. But I’m getting ahead of myself.   4) Build based on your lead-in   Your landing page design will vary based on what drove the Visitor there.   Let’s look at 3 alternative ways to drive traffic, PPC Ads, Emails, and SEO.   Consistency is very important. Your landing page needs to be consistent with you lead in. If Visitors are coming from a text ad, you’ll want to have the same headline. Beyond that, you’ve got flexibility.   Now you may have 30 different ads running, or you may have PPC ads that pick up the keyword phrase the searcher typed in and replicate in automatically in the ad. Ideally you’ll have multiple landing pages that exactly match the specific PPC ad that drove that traffic.   Email - an email offer landing page needs to look like the email. So if you want to use your website’s design as a backdrop for your landing page, make sure you format your email appropriately. The design of the landing page should look like the design of the email and the offer should be the headline.   SEO – search engine optimization. This is harder. If you’re driving traffic organically, through the natural listings on the search engine results pages – you need to be careful. If you change that page, it may affect your ranking. However, if the page is getting you traffic but not converting for you – it’s likely worth the risk. Just do it slowly – over time. If you’ve got some images on the page, you can replace them with more direct or motivating images.? You can likely improve the “call to action” on the page, too, without affecting the basic makeup of the page.   5) Set your landing page objective   What do you want your landing page to achieve. Is it going to be the place where the client will sign up. Is it a single step away from them buying now. Is it a bridge to deeper material found in the rest of your site.   Let’s look at this in more detail. If your landing page is a conversion page, design with that in mind. You’ve got to pull out all the stops to get the conversion then and there. You’ll want to have a form, a paypal link, a phone number, whatever your action step is. It should be bold and make no apologies. You either win or lose right there.   Or - is your landing page the step before the conversion page.   Hey, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve told you a little more, now click through to sign up or buy.   If you sell a more complex product or service where your skeptical target market is more likely to want more information before giving up their email address to you or their phone number – you’ll be using the landing page as part of a process. It’s a bridge to your catalog or products page or somewhere else. Let the visitor know about the journey you’ll be taking them on and motivate them to start it now.   We’re almost at that inspirational news thing – hang in there. It’s coming up … but first, you need to know how to …   6) Design a superior landing page   The planning is done - time to design.   Your immediate objective – don’t let them leave. Your second objective – motivate them to leave – your way – by converting.   So, don’t let them leave – first - reinforce to the Visitor - they are in the right place   They’ll know they are in the right place because you’re going to do the following:   - You will repeat the exact headline of your PPC ad or your Email Offering as your landing page headline.   - You will not deviate from the look and feel of the email that drove them there.   - And - your landing page will remain consistent with the ad.   So in our lighting products example if the PPC ad said – “Better light – less energy”, that’s our landing page headline.   If our offer in our email was for a “Free Energy Audit”, that’s our heading.   I am amazed at how many product specific searches take me to home pages or category pages when the company could have sent me to the page with the actual product. They’re making me now search within their site – incredible. If I’m looking for an iPod, land me on an iPod page. Don’t land me on an MP3 player page. Don’t land me on your Home page. At least land me on the iPod page and better yet, land me on a page built specifically for someone coming from the PPC ad or email.   Now, your Visitor didn’t immediately click the back button – they stayed - so deliver your message - one message.   Maybe it’s a benefit statement with a lifestyle image shot. Maybe it’s a rhetorical question that drives home the point of your product.   “Tired of making your utility company rich?”   or   “We lower your energy costs and give you better lighting. Find out how”, accompanied by a form to get an emailed version of a “ten tips to cutting your lighting bill”.   Next – motivate the visitor to take action – to convert – or to cross the bridge to conversion.   Although they just met you –they now know you can be trusted. You’re a consistent company. You haven’t bait and switched on them. You haven’t wasted their time. You reinforced the message of the ad that drove them to your site.   Increase the trust – if you have a form asking for an email have a short statement beside the field stating that you don’t share email addresses and linking to your privacy policy.   You can have an endorsement easily seen and recognized as an authority in your industry (a utility company logo for the lighting firm, BBB logo, whatever)   Now – you provide one clear choice for the Visitor – click this button; fill in this form, click, and submit. The more choices the less chance of a conversion. So if you wrap your landing page in your website design and all your main site navigation is at the top, you will distract from your main goal. You’re offering many more choices that all distract. You may decide you want those choices available. Just don’t do it out of default.   Make the action as easy as possible. If you want the Visitor to sign up for a newsletter, you need one field – their email address. That would be ideal. Now, I’ll let you get away with a few more, but do you really need that fax number. Do you really need their address. Do you really need them to tell you what they are most interested in. Probably not – at least not at this point in your relationship with them.   If your conversion is to have them delve deeper into your site, I recommend you have a separate “click track” – a few pages that will tour them around. Your conversion button might be “Start Here”   Keep in mind, with every click decision, one choice you provide is to have them leave. And you will loose them eventually. No one stays forever. The trick is to get them to leave on your terms.   So let’s sum up the main points on design:   - don’t let them leave: be consistent, let them know they are in the right place, reinforce with a benefit statement and image.   - Motivate action: their next step is crystal clear   - Make it easy: the action step is concise.   There are many other subtle design considerations. There are good resources out on the web that go into some detail, do a search, or easier yet - call us. We’ll see what we can do for you.   Some things to look at when designing –   Should you offer any type of fallback position - yes or no – I know it violates one of our rules, but maybe your targets markets vary and you don’t want to loose that visitor by giving them only one choice.   So you want to hedge your bet. “Buy Now or click here to learn more” – ouch, two choices, should you do it.   “Sign up for our newsletter, or click here to explore our site in more detail” – ouch, should you do it.   Realistically, depending on your product or service, it may be best to offer a couple of next step options. It will hurt your number one choice, though. Whether you make it up with a lot of number 2, I’ll leave that up to you – no pun intended there.   Make sure your landing page design is consistent with your website. If the Visitor is likely to check out more of your site and you paid heavy dollars for a beautiful landing page however the site was designed by your nephew in college, you may want to tone the landing page down or up the site quality. If the two don’t match it may become a trust issue. It throws up a flag to the Visitor.   Design above the fold. For those that don’t know, “the fold” is where a newspaper folds. You get more action on stuff above the fold. So in the web world we put our main impact points, images, whatever, above the point where the webpage needs to be scrolled to see. Now this is going to range based on the Visitors’ browser (how many toolbars they have at the top of their browser), and their screen resolution.   Next - make the copy and images readable. Use large fonts, and black on white works best. Short sentences. Tenth grade reading level – max.   Quick load - optimize your images, limit non-essential graphics.   Eliminate unnecessary elements. Just the facts, ma’am. Don’t distract from your main point. No matter what you paid for that cool graphic.   Finally,   7) Measure and test   Measure your results and test different alternatives. This can get very technical and we aren’t going to get into the ins and outs of it today. Just make sure you can measure the specific results of each landing page. Also, play around with alternatives and compare the results of each.   Even we professionals who do this every day are surprised at how little changes can make a significant difference and quite often - we have no idea why. We only know it worked because we tried it and measured it.   Okay, time for the inspiring piece of news that will make you want to rush out there and get better designed landing pages.   Most landing pages suck – they absolutely suck – they really, truly, absolutely suck. Go to your search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, whatever. Search on some terms and click on the sponsored ads. Now don’t go overboard, these advertisers are footing the bill for your research, but check it out.   See how atrocious the majority of the landing pages are. You’re going to see Home pages, category pages, pages with no direction, pages with so much text you’ll hit the Back button before you even realize your hand is moving.   So you know what this means. Even if you do only an ok job with your landing pages, you’ll likely kill your competitors. If you do a superior job either in-house or by hiring a firm like ours, you’ll be in a position to absolutely clean up.   Pilots have a saying. A good landing is one you can walk away from. Forget that. A good landing page is one that is smooth, powerful, and motivates your passenger to continue the journey.   And we will continue this journey next time.   Until then - Subscribe to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 9 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. tag:odeo.com,2006-06-29,24185472 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:31:59 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23298745-Drive-It-Convert-It-8-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-2-Seven-Steps-to-Effective-Landing-Pages   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 2 ??? Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics b...   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 2 ??? Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   I got a little behind with my podcast ??? thanks for hanging in there. I???m seeing the subscription numbers go up and up and was starting to feel really guilty about the delay in getting this latest podcast out.   Things have been busy and it???s gearing up to vacation season. All in all I???ve been squeezed for time. I always hesitate to tell people how busy I am because I just get no sympathy. Because we???re all busy ??? aren???t we.   But don???t be too busy to email me your questions, comments, or suggestions ??? email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Web visitors get driven to sites all the time ??? and they leave those sites ??? just as fast. The good news is ??? the site they are likely leaving is your competitor. You have the opportunity to get lots of high quality traffic into your business ??? your website. Handle it the right way and you???ll be as busy or as care free as you want to be.   There is a lot to go through, today. Here???s some extra motivation for you to keep you hanging in today. In a little while, just when you think good landing pages might be too much effort, whether you do them yourself or hire someone like Bastion Internet to help you ??? I am going to give you some truly inspirational information. If you???re anything like me, you won???t be able to wait to get started. You will not be able to contain yourself.   Let???s get going.   Here???s what we???ll be covering today.   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in: lead in being an email or a Pay Per Click ad 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page   Landing pages offer a huge return ??? there is no question about it ??? here???s why:   First it???s a leveraged return on investment. Do I sound like a banker, or a financial planner, oh well, if I must I must.   If you???re getting a 5% conversion rate - 5 visitors out of every 100 - you can raise your overall success by 60% by just convincing 3 more out of the remaining 95 to go with you, too. I did the math, trust me ??? it???s right.   Next - the rich get richer. You???ve heard me say that before. Now you???ve got to get on the right side of the rich/poor line ??? the rich side ??? so you can start getting richer, because the alternative is to get poorer.   How does that work - as you raise your conversion rate, you further justify your spend on the advertising. This can justify a higher pay per click bid, a better quality email blast design, or any number of other advertising expenditures. Spending more on driving more quality traffic will just keep the whole ball rolling.   Finally, bad conversion rates don???t just waste your click money, you???ve lost a customer.   I just finished reading the July issue of Business 2.0? there???s an article on Gamal Aziz, I hope I got that pronunciation right, he???s with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His claim to fame in the article is that he works backwards when looking at profitability. He looks at the potential of each venue - the restaurants, the rooms, the casino, the showrooms, to determine if that section of the hotel is on track. If it???s not reaching its potential, it???s losing money ??? even if it???s profitable now.   So if the restaurant is pulling in a million dollars with a 10% profit margin, he decides what the revenue for that space could be. If that potential is two million with a 15% profit margin, then the venue is actually losing him $200,000. I did the math, twice - trust me it???s right.   Now that might appear to be a harsh attitude, but that attitude has him improving profits of the various venues anywhere from 40% to 700% and more. And that is in one of the most competitive industries around.   So if you???re getting 1000 clicks and your converting 30 (for a 3% conversion rate), how much money are you leaving on the table by not converting 40 or 50 or a hundred, if it???s within your capability to do it.   You???re not going to sell everyone, but you better take your best crack at the one???s who come through the door.   2) Know your product   Look at your product from the web surfers??? perspective.   Is it an impulse buy type of product. Do you need to hit fast and hard. I???ve often run into situations where I need something now - for example recently I need a piece of software. I went did a little research and bought it within the hour.   Other times I need a service or it???s a larger purchase ??? my buy cycle might be a month or more.   Ask yourself what is the furthest you can push your conversion. I suppose you could sell a nuclear reactor online, but I doubt it. Can your service even be sold online. Is someone likely to even contact you on their first visit to your site.   How complex is your product. Is the user likely to know a lot about it. Have they likely already looked at your competitors.   Also, will the visitor be expecting to see your product when then click through.   What do I mean by that??? For example, if the PPC ad or Email says ???Quality Business Cards - Cheap??? and it sends you to a printshop website. That???s expected.   Some time back I was doing some research for a dating site client I had. I was checking out some competitive ads. One of them took me to a page about God and not being lonely if I knew and accepted a fuller role for Him in my life. Now I???ll bet clickers weren???t expecting that when they clicked on the ad.   It can be an effective way to market - but it will make a difference as to how you deliver your message if the target is not expecting your product at the other end of the click.   Speaking of which ???   3) Know your target   It seems I harp on this every podcast episode. Know who???s visiting. You???re ad will appeal to them, that???s why they clicked through. They will have a certain profile. Ask yourself   How motivated to buy are they.   Are they likely to buy now; will they be naturally trusting; will they spend time digging to get answers; are they likely to be fickle and impatient.   How savvy are they likely to be from a web perspective.   Also, building on that last thing about the product - will they be expecting your solution   Same idea as before ??? are they likely to be expecting the solution you are offering. If you???re trying to sell energy efficient lighting to companies searching for insulation products, you may be right in understanding that they want to reduce their energy costs, but it???s going to take a different kind of message on your landing page for them to make the connection between lights and insulation. You run the risk of a quick back-button. But you may get the reward of hitting them unexpectedly. Not my first choice, but perhaps worthy of some testing and measurement. But I???m getting ahead of myself.   4) Build based on your lead-in   Your landing page design will vary based on what drove the Visitor there.   Let???s look at 3 alternative ways to drive traffic, PPC Ads, Emails, and SEO.   Consistency is very important. Your landing page needs to be consistent with you lead in. If Visitors are coming from a text ad, you???ll want to have the same headline. Beyond that, you???ve got flexibility.   Now you may have 30 different ads running, or you may have PPC ads that pick up the keyword phrase the searcher typed in and replicate in automatically in the ad. Ideally you???ll have multiple landing pages that exactly match the specific PPC ad that drove that traffic.   Email - an email offer landing page needs to look like the email. So if you want to use your website???s design as a backdrop for your landing page, make sure you format your email appropriately. The design of the landing page should look like the design of the email and the offer should be the headline.   SEO ??? search engine optimization. This is harder. If you???re driving traffic organically, through the natural listings on the search engine results pages ??? you need to be careful. If you change that page, it may affect your ranking. However, if the page is getting you traffic but not converting for you ??? it???s likely worth the risk. Just do it slowly ??? over time. If you???ve got some images on the page, you can replace them with more direct or motivating images.? You can likely improve the ???call to action??? on the page, too, without affecting the basic makeup of the page.   5) Set your landing page objective   What do you want your landing page to achieve. Is it going to be the place where the client will sign up. Is it a single step away from them buying now. Is it a bridge to deeper material found in the rest of your site.   Let???s look at this in more detail. If your landing page is a conversion page, design with that in mind. You???ve got to pull out all the stops to get the conversion then and there. You???ll want to have a form, a paypal link, a phone number, whatever your action step is. It should be bold and make no apologies. You either win or lose right there.   Or - is your landing page the step before the conversion page.   Hey, you???ve come to the right place. I???ve told you a little more, now click through to sign up or buy.   If you sell a more complex product or service where your skeptical target market is more likely to want more information before giving up their email address to you or their phone number ??? you???ll be using the landing page as part of a process. It???s a bridge to your catalog or products page or somewhere else. Let the visitor know about the journey you???ll be taking them on and motivate them to start it now.   We???re almost at that inspirational news thing ??? hang in there. It???s coming up ??? but first, you need to know how to ???   6) Design a superior landing page   The planning is done - time to design.   Your immediate objective ??? don???t let them leave. Your second objective ??? motivate them to leave ??? your way ??? by converting.   So, don???t let them leave ??? first - reinforce to the Visitor - they are in the right place   They???ll know they are in the right place because you???re going to do the following:   - You will repeat the exact headline of your PPC ad or your Email Offering as your landing page headline.   - You will not deviate from the look and feel of the email that drove them there.   - And - your landing page will remain consistent with the ad.   So in our lighting products example if the PPC ad said ??? ???Better light ??? less energy???, that???s our landing page headline.   If our offer in our email was for a ???Free Energy Audit???, that???s our heading.   I am amazed at how many product specific searches take me to home pages or category pages when the company could have sent me to the page with the actual product. They???re making me now search within their site ??? incredible. If I???m looking for an iPod, land me on an iPod page. Don???t land me on an MP3 player page. Don???t land me on your Home page. At least land me on the iPod page and better yet, land me on a page built specifically for someone coming from the PPC ad or email.   Now, your Visitor didn???t immediately click the back button ??? they stayed - so deliver your message - one message.   Maybe it???s a benefit statement with a lifestyle image shot. Maybe it???s a rhetorical question that drives home the point of your product.   ???Tired of making your utility company rich????   or   ???We lower your energy costs and give you better lighting. Find out how???, accompanied by a form to get an emailed version of a ???ten tips to cutting your lighting bill???.   Next ??? motivate the visitor to take action ??? to convert ??? or to cross the bridge to conversion.   Although they just met you ???they now know you can be trusted. You???re a consistent company. You haven???t bait and switched on them. You haven???t wasted their time. You reinforced the message of the ad that drove them to your site.   Increase the trust ??? if you have a form asking for an email have a short statement beside the field stating that you don???t share email addresses and linking to your privacy policy.   You can have an endorsement easily seen and recognized as an authority in your industry (a utility company logo for the lighting firm, BBB logo, whatever)   Now ??? you provide one clear choice for the Visitor ??? click this button; fill in this form, click, and submit. The more choices the less chance of a conversion. So if you wrap your landing page in your website design and all your main site navigation is at the top, you will distract from your main goal. You???re offering many more choices that all distract. You may decide you want those choices available. Just don???t do it out of default.   Make the action as easy as possible. If you want the Visitor to sign up for a newsletter, you need one field ??? their email address. That would be ideal. Now, I???ll let you get away with a few more, but do you really need that fax number. Do you really need their address. Do you really need them to tell you what they are most interested in. Probably not ??? at least not at this point in your relationship with them.   If your conversion is to have them delve deeper into your site, I recommend you have a separate ???click track??? ??? a few pages that will tour them around. Your conversion button might be ???Start Here???   Keep in mind, with every click decision, one choice you provide is to have them leave. And you will loose them eventually. No one stays forever. The trick is to get them to leave on your terms.   So let???s sum up the main points on design:   - don???t let them leave: be consistent, let them know they are in the right place, reinforce with a benefit statement and image.   - Motivate action: their next step is crystal clear   - Make it easy: the action step is concise.   There are many other subtle design considerations. There are good resources out on the web that go into some detail, do a search, or easier yet - call us. We???ll see what we can do for you.   Some things to look at when designing ???   Should you offer any type of fallback position - yes or no ??? I know it violates one of our rules, but maybe your targets markets vary and you don???t want to loose that visitor by giving them only one choice.   So you want to hedge your bet. ???Buy Now or click here to learn more??? ??? ouch, two choices, should you do it.   ???Sign up for our newsletter, or click here to explore our site in more detail??? ??? ouch, should you do it.   Realistically, depending on your product or service, it may be best to offer a couple of next step options. It will hurt your number one choice, though. Whether you make it up with a lot of number 2, I???ll leave that up to you ??? no pun intended there.   Make sure your landing page design is consistent with your website. If the Visitor is likely to check out more of your site and you paid heavy dollars for a beautiful landing page however the site was designed by your nephew in college, you may want to tone the landing page down or up the site quality. If the two don???t match it may become a trust issue. It throws up a flag to the Visitor.   Design above the fold. For those that don???t know, ???the fold??? is where a newspaper folds. You get more action on stuff above the fold. So in the web world we put our main impact points, images, whatever, above the point where the webpage needs to be scrolled to see. Now this is going to range based on the Visitors??? browser (how many toolbars they have at the top of their browser), and their screen resolution.   Next - make the copy and images readable. Use large fonts, and black on white works best. Short sentences. Tenth grade reading level ??? max.   Quick load - optimize your images, limit non-essential graphics.   Eliminate unnecessary elements. Just the facts, ma???am. Don???t distract from your main point. No matter what you paid for that cool graphic.   Finally,   7) Measure and test   Measure your results and test different alternatives. This can get very technical and we aren???t going to get into the ins and outs of it today. Just make sure you can measure the specific results of each landing page. Also, play around with alternatives and compare the results of each.   Even we professionals who do this every day are surprised at how little changes can make a significant difference and quite often - we have no idea why. We only know it worked because we tried it and measured it.   Okay, time for the inspiring piece of news that will make you want to rush out there and get better designed landing pages.   Most landing pages suck ??? they absolutely suck ??? they really, truly, absolutely suck. Go to your search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, whatever. Search on some terms and click on the sponsored ads. Now don???t go overboard, these advertisers are footing the bill for your research, but check it out.   See how atrocious the majority of the landing pages are. You???re going to see Home pages, category pages, pages with no direction, pages with so much text you???ll hit the Back button before you even realize your hand is moving.   So you know what this means. Even if you do only an ok job with your landing pages, you???ll likely kill your competitors. If you do a superior job either in-house or by hiring a firm like ours, you???ll be in a position to absolutely clean up.   Pilots have a saying. A good landing is one you can walk away from. Forget that. A good landing page is one that is smooth, powerful, and motivates your passenger to continue the journey.   And we will continue this journey next time.   Until then - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 9 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 2 ??? Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   I got a little behind with my podcast ??? thanks for hanging in there. I???m seeing the subscription numbers go up and up and was starting to feel really guilty about the delay in getting this latest podcast out.   Things have been busy and it???s gearing up to vacation season. All in all I???ve been squeezed for time. I always hesitate to tell people how busy I am because I just get no sympathy. Because we???re all busy ??? aren???t we.   But don???t be too busy to email me your questions, comments, or suggestions ??? email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Web visitors get driven to sites all the time ??? and they leave those sites ??? just as fast. The good news is ??? the site they are likely leaving is your competitor. You have the opportunity to get lots of high quality traffic into your business ??? your website. Handle it the right way and you???ll be as busy or as care free as you want to be.   There is a lot to go through, today. Here???s some extra motivation for you to keep you hanging in today. In a little while, just when you think good landing pages might be too much effort, whether you do them yourself or hire someone like Bastion Internet to help you ??? I am going to give you some truly inspirational information. If you???re anything like me, you won???t be able to wait to get started. You will not be able to contain yourself.   Let???s get going.   Here???s what we???ll be covering today.   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in: lead in being an email or a Pay Per Click ad 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page   Landing pages offer a huge return ??? there is no question about it ??? here???s why:   First it???s a leveraged return on investment. Do I sound like a banker, or a financial planner, oh well, if I must I must.   If you???re getting a 5% conversion rate - 5 visitors out of every 100 - you can raise your overall success by 60% by just convincing 3 more out of the remaining 95 to go with you, too. I did the math, trust me ??? it???s right.   Next - the rich get richer. You???ve heard me say that before. Now you???ve got to get on the right side of the rich/poor line ??? the rich side ??? so you can start getting richer, because the alternative is to get poorer.   How does that work - as you raise your conversion rate, you further justify your spend on the advertising. This can justify a higher pay per click bid, a better quality email blast design, or any number of other advertising expenditures. Spending more on driving more quality traffic will just keep the whole ball rolling.   Finally, bad conversion rates don???t just waste your click money, you???ve lost a customer.   I just finished reading the July issue of Business 2.0? there???s an article on Gamal Aziz, I hope I got that pronunciation right, he???s with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His claim to fame in the article is that he works backwards when looking at profitability. He looks at the potential of each venue - the restaurants, the rooms, the casino, the showrooms, to determine if that section of the hotel is on track. If it???s not reaching its potential, it???s losing money ??? even if it???s profitable now.   So if the restaurant is pulling in a million dollars with a 10% profit margin, he decides what the revenue for that space could be. If that potential is two million with a 15% profit margin, then the venue is actually losing him $200,000. I did the math, twice - trust me it???s right.   Now that might appear to be a harsh attitude, but that attitude has him improving profits of the various venues anywhere from 40% to 700% and more. And that is in one of the most competitive industries around.   So if you???re getting 1000 clicks and your converting 30 (for a 3% conversion rate), how much money are you leaving on the table by not converting 40 or 50 or a hundred, if it???s within your capability to do it.   You???re not going to sell everyone, but you better take your best crack at the one???s who come through the door.   2) Know your product   Look at your product from the web surfers??? perspective.   Is it an impulse buy type of product. Do you need to hit fast and hard. I???ve often run into situations where I need something now - for example recently I need a piece of software. I went did a little research and bought it within the hour.   Other times I need a service or it???s a larger purchase ??? my buy cycle might be a month or more.   Ask yourself what is the furthest you can push your conversion. I suppose you could sell a nuclear reactor online, but I doubt it. Can your service even be sold online. Is someone likely to even contact you on their first visit to your site.   How complex is your product. Is the user likely to know a lot about it. Have they likely already looked at your competitors.   Also, will the visitor be expecting to see your product when then click through.   What do I mean by that??? For example, if the PPC ad or Email says ???Quality Business Cards - Cheap??? and it sends you to a printshop website. That???s expected.   Some time back I was doing some research for a dating site client I had. I was checking out some competitive ads. One of them took me to a page about God and not being lonely if I knew and accepted a fuller role for Him in my life. Now I???ll bet clickers weren???t expecting that when they clicked on the ad.   It can be an effective way to market - but it will make a difference as to how you deliver your message if the target is not expecting your product at the other end of the click.   Speaking of which ???   3) Know your target   It seems I harp on this every podcast episode. Know who???s visiting. You???re ad will appeal to them, that???s why they clicked through. They will have a certain profile. Ask yourself   How motivated to buy are they.   Are they likely to buy now; will they be naturally trusting; will they spend time digging to get answers; are they likely to be fickle and impatient.   How savvy are they likely to be from a web perspective.   Also, building on that last thing about the product - will they be expecting your solution   Same idea as before ??? are they likely to be expecting the solution you are offering. If you???re trying to sell energy efficient lighting to companies searching for insulation products, you may be right in understanding that they want to reduce their energy costs, but it???s going to take a different kind of message on your landing page for them to make the connection between lights and insulation. You run the risk of a quick back-button. But you may get the reward of hitting them unexpectedly. Not my first choice, but perhaps worthy of some testing and measurement. But I???m getting ahead of myself.   4) Build based on your lead-in   Your landing page design will vary based on what drove the Visitor there.   Let???s look at 3 alternative ways to drive traffic, PPC Ads, Emails, and SEO.   Consistency is very important. Your landing page needs to be consistent with you lead in. If Visitors are coming from a text ad, you???ll want to have the same headline. Beyond that, you???ve got flexibility.   Now you may have 30 different ads running, or you may have PPC ads that pick up the keyword phrase the searcher typed in and replicate in automatically in the ad. Ideally you???ll have multiple landing pages that exactly match the specific PPC ad that drove that traffic.   Email - an email offer landing page needs to look like the email. So if you want to use your website???s design as a backdrop for your landing page, make sure you format your email appropriately. The design of the landing page should look like the design of the email and the offer should be the headline.   SEO ??? search engine optimization. This is harder. If you???re driving traffic organically, through the natural listings on the search engine results pages ??? you need to be careful. If you change that page, it may affect your ranking. However, if the page is getting you traffic but not converting for you ??? it???s likely worth the risk. Just do it slowly ??? over time. If you???ve got some images on the page, you can replace them with more direct or motivating images.? You can likely improve the ???call to action??? on the page, too, without affecting the basic makeup of the page.   5) Set your landing page objective   What do you want your landing page to achieve. Is it going to be the place where the client will sign up. Is it a single step away from them buying now. Is it a bridge to deeper material found in the rest of your site.   Let???s look at this in more detail. If your landing page is a conversion page, design with that in mind. You???ve got to pull out all the stops to get the conversion then and there. You???ll want to have a form, a paypal link, a phone number, whatever your action step is. It should be bold and make no apologies. You either win or lose right there.   Or - is your landing page the step before the conversion page.   Hey, you???ve come to the right place. I???ve told you a little more, now click through to sign up or buy.   If you sell a more complex product or service where your skeptical target market is more likely to want more information before giving up their email address to you or their phone number ??? you???ll be using the landing page as part of a process. It???s a bridge to your catalog or products page or somewhere else. Let the visitor know about the journey you???ll be taking them on and motivate them to start it now.   We???re almost at that inspirational news thing ??? hang in there. It???s coming up ??? but first, you need to know how to ???   6) Design a superior landing page   The planning is done - time to design.   Your immediate objective ??? don???t let them leave. Your second objective ??? motivate them to leave ??? your way ??? by converting.   So, don???t let them leave ??? first - reinforce to the Visitor - they are in the right place   They???ll know they are in the right place because you???re going to do the following:   - You will repeat the exact headline of your PPC ad or your Email Offering as your landing page headline.   - You will not deviate from the look and feel of the email that drove them there.   - And - your landing page will remain consistent with the ad.   So in our lighting products example if the PPC ad said ??? ???Better light ??? less energy???, that???s our landing page headline.   If our offer in our email was for a ???Free Energy Audit???, that???s our heading.   I am amazed at how many product specific searches take me to home pages or category pages when the company could have sent me to the page with the actual product. They???re making me now search within their site ??? incredible. If I???m looking for an iPod, land me on an iPod page. Don???t land me on an MP3 player page. Don???t land me on your Home page. At least land me on the iPod page and better yet, land me on a page built specifically for someone coming from the PPC ad or email.   Now, your Visitor didn???t immediately click the back button ??? they stayed - so deliver your message - one message.   Maybe it???s a benefit statement with a lifestyle image shot. Maybe it???s a rhetorical question that drives home the point of your product.   ???Tired of making your utility company rich????   or   ???We lower your energy costs and give you better lighting. Find out how???, accompanied by a form to get an emailed version of a ???ten tips to cutting your lighting bill???.   Next ??? motivate the visitor to take action ??? to convert ??? or to cross the bridge to conversion.   Although they just met you ???they now know you can be trusted. You???re a consistent company. You haven???t bait and switched on them. You haven???t wasted their time. You reinforced the message of the ad that drove them to your site.   Increase the trust ??? if you have a form asking for an email have a short statement beside the field stating that you don???t share email addresses and linking to your privacy policy.   You can have an endorsement easily seen and recognized as an authority in your industry (a utility company logo for the lighting firm, BBB logo, whatever)   Now ??? you provide one clear choice for the Visitor ??? click this button; fill in this form, click, and submit. The more choices the less chance of a conversion. So if you wrap your landing page in your website design and all your main site navigation is at the top, you will distract from your main goal. You???re offering many more choices that all distract. You may decide you want those choices available. Just don???t do it out of default.   Make the action as easy as possible. If you want the Visitor to sign up for a newsletter, you need one field ??? their email address. That would be ideal. Now, I???ll let you get away with a few more, but do you really need that fax number. Do you really need their address. Do you really need them to tell you what they are most interested in. Probably not ??? at least not at this point in your relationship with them.   If your conversion is to have them delve deeper into your site, I recommend you have a separate ???click track??? ??? a few pages that will tour them around. Your conversion button might be ???Start Here???   Keep in mind, with every click decision, one choice you provide is to have them leave. And you will loose them eventually. No one stays forever. The trick is to get them to leave on your terms.   So let???s sum up the main points on design:   - don???t let them leave: be consistent, let them know they are in the right place, reinforce with a benefit statement and image.   - Motivate action: their next step is crystal clear   - Make it easy: the action step is concise.   There are many other subtle design considerations. There are good resources out on the web that go into some detail, do a search, or easier yet - call us. We???ll see what we can do for you.   Some things to look at when designing ???   Should you offer any type of fallback position - yes or no ??? I know it violates one of our rules, but maybe your targets markets vary and you don???t want to loose that visitor by giving them only one choice.   So you want to hedge your bet. ???Buy Now or click here to learn more??? ??? ouch, two choices, should you do it.   ???Sign up for our newsletter, or click here to explore our site in more detail??? ??? ouch, should you do it.   Realistically, depending on your product or service, it may be best to offer a couple of next step options. It will hurt your number one choice, though. Whether you make it up with a lot of number 2, I???ll leave that up to you ??? no pun intended there.   Make sure your landing page design is consistent with your website. If the Visitor is likely to check out more of your site and you paid heavy dollars for a beautiful landing page however the site was designed by your nephew in college, you may want to tone the landing page down or up the site quality. If the two don???t match it may become a trust issue. It throws up a flag to the Visitor.   Design above the fold. For those that don???t know, ???the fold??? is where a newspaper folds. You get more action on stuff above the fold. So in the web world we put our main impact points, images, whatever, above the point where the webpage needs to be scrolled to see. Now this is going to range based on the Visitors??? browser (how many toolbars they have at the top of their browser), and their screen resolution.   Next - make the copy and images readable. Use large fonts, and black on white works best. Short sentences. Tenth grade reading level ??? max.   Quick load - optimize your images, limit non-essential graphics.   Eliminate unnecessary elements. Just the facts, ma???am. Don???t distract from your main point. No matter what you paid for that cool graphic.   Finally,   7) Measure and test   Measure your results and test different alternatives. This can get very technical and we aren???t going to get into the ins and outs of it today. Just make sure you can measure the specific results of each landing page. Also, play around with alternatives and compare the results of each.   Even we professionals who do this every day are surprised at how little changes can make a significant difference and quite often - we have no idea why. We only know it worked because we tried it and measured it.   Okay, time for the inspiring piece of news that will make you want to rush out there and get better designed landing pages.   Most landing pages suck ??? they absolutely suck ??? they really, truly, absolutely suck. Go to your search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, whatever. Search on some terms and click on the sponsored ads. Now don???t go overboard, these advertisers are footing the bill for your research, but check it out.   See how atrocious the majority of the landing pages are. You???re going to see Home pages, category pages, pages with no direction, pages with so much text you???ll hit the Back button before you even realize your hand is moving.   So you know what this means. Even if you do only an ok job with your landing pages, you???ll likely kill your competitors. If you do a superior job either in-house or by hiring a firm like ours, you???ll be in a position to absolutely clean up.   Pilots have a saying. A good landing is one you can walk away from. Forget that. A good landing page is one that is smooth, powerful, and motivates your passenger to continue the journey.   And we will continue this journey next time.   Until then - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 9 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. tag:odeo.com,2006-06-29,23298745 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:31:59 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/23347652-Drive-It-Convert-It-8-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-2-Seven-Steps-to-Effective-Landing-Pages   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 2 ??? Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics b...   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 2 ??? Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   I got a little behind with my podcast ??? thanks for hanging in there. I???m seeing the subscription numbers go up and up and was starting to feel really guilty about the delay in getting this latest podcast out.   Things have been busy and it???s gearing up to vacation season. All in all I???ve been squeezed for time. I always hesitate to tell people how busy I am because I just get no sympathy. Because we???re all busy ??? aren???t we.   But don???t be too busy to email me your questions, comments, or suggestions ??? email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Web visitors get driven to sites all the time ??? and they leave those sites ??? just as fast. The good news is ??? the site they are likely leaving is your competitor. You have the opportunity to get lots of high quality traffic into your business ??? your website. Handle it the right way and you???ll be as busy or as care free as you want to be.   There is a lot to go through, today. Here???s some extra motivation for you to keep you hanging in today. In a little while, just when you think good landing pages might be too much effort, whether you do them yourself or hire someone like Bastion Internet to help you ??? I am going to give you some truly inspirational information. If you???re anything like me, you won???t be able to wait to get started. You will not be able to contain yourself.   Let???s get going.   Here???s what we???ll be covering today.   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in: lead in being an email or a Pay Per Click ad 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page   Landing pages offer a huge return ??? there is no question about it ??? here???s why:   First it???s a leveraged return on investment. Do I sound like a banker, or a financial planner, oh well, if I must I must.   If you???re getting a 5% conversion rate - 5 visitors out of every 100 - you can raise your overall success by 60% by just convincing 3 more out of the remaining 95 to go with you, too. I did the math, trust me ??? it???s right.   Next - the rich get richer. You???ve heard me say that before. Now you???ve got to get on the right side of the rich/poor line ??? the rich side ??? so you can start getting richer, because the alternative is to get poorer.   How does that work - as you raise your conversion rate, you further justify your spend on the advertising. This can justify a higher pay per click bid, a better quality email blast design, or any number of other advertising expenditures. Spending more on driving more quality traffic will just keep the whole ball rolling.   Finally, bad conversion rates don???t just waste your click money, you???ve lost a customer.   I just finished reading the July issue of Business 2.0? there???s an article on Gamal Aziz, I hope I got that pronunciation right, he???s with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His claim to fame in the article is that he works backwards when looking at profitability. He looks at the potential of each venue - the restaurants, the rooms, the casino, the showrooms, to determine if that section of the hotel is on track. If it???s not reaching its potential, it???s losing money ??? even if it???s profitable now.   So if the restaurant is pulling in a million dollars with a 10% profit margin, he decides what the revenue for that space could be. If that potential is two million with a 15% profit margin, then the venue is actually losing him $200,000. I did the math, twice - trust me it???s right.   Now that might appear to be a harsh attitude, but that attitude has him improving profits of the various venues anywhere from 40% to 700% and more. And that is in one of the most competitive industries around.   So if you???re getting 1000 clicks and your converting 30 (for a 3% conversion rate), how much money are you leaving on the table by not converting 40 or 50 or a hundred, if it???s within your capability to do it.   You???re not going to sell everyone, but you better take your best crack at the one???s who come through the door.   2) Know your product   Look at your product from the web surfers??? perspective.   Is it an impulse buy type of product. Do you need to hit fast and hard. I???ve often run into situations where I need something now - for example recently I need a piece of software. I went did a little research and bought it within the hour.   Other times I need a service or it???s a larger purchase ??? my buy cycle might be a month or more.   Ask yourself what is the furthest you can push your conversion. I suppose you could sell a nuclear reactor online, but I doubt it. Can your service even be sold online. Is someone likely to even contact you on their first visit to your site.   How complex is your product. Is the user likely to know a lot about it. Have they likely already looked at your competitors.   Also, will the visitor be expecting to see your product when then click through.   What do I mean by that??? For example, if the PPC ad or Email says ???Quality Business Cards - Cheap??? and it sends you to a printshop website. That???s expected.   Some time back I was doing some research for a dating site client I had. I was checking out some competitive ads. One of them took me to a page about God and not being lonely if I knew and accepted a fuller role for Him in my life. Now I???ll bet clickers weren???t expecting that when they clicked on the ad.   It can be an effective way to market - but it will make a difference as to how you deliver your message if the target is not expecting your product at the other end of the click.   Speaking of which ???   3) Know your target   It seems I harp on this every podcast episode. Know who???s visiting. You???re ad will appeal to them, that???s why they clicked through. They will have a certain profile. Ask yourself   How motivated to buy are they.   Are they likely to buy now; will they be naturally trusting; will they spend time digging to get answers; are they likely to be fickle and impatient.   How savvy are they likely to be from a web perspective.   Also, building on that last thing about the product - will they be expecting your solution   Same idea as before ??? are they likely to be expecting the solution you are offering. If you???re trying to sell energy efficient lighting to companies searching for insulation products, you may be right in understanding that they want to reduce their energy costs, but it???s going to take a different kind of message on your landing page for them to make the connection between lights and insulation. You run the risk of a quick back-button. But you may get the reward of hitting them unexpectedly. Not my first choice, but perhaps worthy of some testing and measurement. But I???m getting ahead of myself.   4) Build based on your lead-in   Your landing page design will vary based on what drove the Visitor there.   Let???s look at 3 alternative ways to drive traffic, PPC Ads, Emails, and SEO.   Consistency is very important. Your landing page needs to be consistent with you lead in. If Visitors are coming from a text ad, you???ll want to have the same headline. Beyond that, you???ve got flexibility.   Now you may have 30 different ads running, or you may have PPC ads that pick up the keyword phrase the searcher typed in and replicate in automatically in the ad. Ideally you???ll have multiple landing pages that exactly match the specific PPC ad that drove that traffic.   Email - an email offer landing page needs to look like the email. So if you want to use your website???s design as a backdrop for your landing page, make sure you format your email appropriately. The design of the landing page should look like the design of the email and the offer should be the headline.   SEO ??? search engine optimization. This is harder. If you???re driving traffic organically, through the natural listings on the search engine results pages ??? you need to be careful. If you change that page, it may affect your ranking. However, if the page is getting you traffic but not converting for you ??? it???s likely worth the risk. Just do it slowly ??? over time. If you???ve got some images on the page, you can replace them with more direct or motivating images.? You can likely improve the ???call to action??? on the page, too, without affecting the basic makeup of the page.   5) Set your landing page objective   What do you want your landing page to achieve. Is it going to be the place where the client will sign up. Is it a single step away from them buying now. Is it a bridge to deeper material found in the rest of your site.   Let???s look at this in more detail. If your landing page is a conversion page, design with that in mind. You???ve got to pull out all the stops to get the conversion then and there. You???ll want to have a form, a paypal link, a phone number, whatever your action step is. It should be bold and make no apologies. You either win or lose right there.   Or - is your landing page the step before the conversion page.   Hey, you???ve come to the right place. I???ve told you a little more, now click through to sign up or buy.   If you sell a more complex product or service where your skeptical target market is more likely to want more information before giving up their email address to you or their phone number ??? you???ll be using the landing page as part of a process. It???s a bridge to your catalog or products page or somewhere else. Let the visitor know about the journey you???ll be taking them on and motivate them to start it now.   We???re almost at that inspirational news thing ??? hang in there. It???s coming up ??? but first, you need to know how to ???   6) Design a superior landing page   The planning is done - time to design.   Your immediate objective ??? don???t let them leave. Your second objective ??? motivate them to leave ??? your way ??? by converting.   So, don???t let them leave ??? first - reinforce to the Visitor - they are in the right place   They???ll know they are in the right place because you???re going to do the following:   - You will repeat the exact headline of your PPC ad or your Email Offering as your landing page headline.   - You will not deviate from the look and feel of the email that drove them there.   - And - your landing page will remain consistent with the ad.   So in our lighting products example if the PPC ad said ??? ???Better light ??? less energy???, that???s our landing page headline.   If our offer in our email was for a ???Free Energy Audit???, that???s our heading.   I am amazed at how many product specific searches take me to home pages or category pages when the company could have sent me to the page with the actual product. They???re making me now search within their site ??? incredible. If I???m looking for an iPod, land me on an iPod page. Don???t land me on an MP3 player page. Don???t land me on your Home page. At least land me on the iPod page and better yet, land me on a page built specifically for someone coming from the PPC ad or email.   Now, your Visitor didn???t immediately click the back button ??? they stayed - so deliver your message - one message.   Maybe it???s a benefit statement with a lifestyle image shot. Maybe it???s a rhetorical question that drives home the point of your product.   ???Tired of making your utility company rich????   or   ???We lower your energy costs and give you better lighting. Find out how???, accompanied by a form to get an emailed version of a ???ten tips to cutting your lighting bill???.   Next ??? motivate the visitor to take action ??? to convert ??? or to cross the bridge to conversion.   Although they just met you ???they now know you can be trusted. You???re a consistent company. You haven???t bait and switched on them. You haven???t wasted their time. You reinforced the message of the ad that drove them to your site.   Increase the trust ??? if you have a form asking for an email have a short statement beside the field stating that you don???t share email addresses and linking to your privacy policy.   You can have an endorsement easily seen and recognized as an authority in your industry (a utility company logo for the lighting firm, BBB logo, whatever)   Now ??? you provide one clear choice for the Visitor ??? click this button; fill in this form, click, and submit. The more choices the less chance of a conversion. So if you wrap your landing page in your website design and all your main site navigation is at the top, you will distract from your main goal. You???re offering many more choices that all distract. You may decide you want those choices available. Just don???t do it out of default.   Make the action as easy as possible. If you want the Visitor to sign up for a newsletter, you need one field ??? their email address. That would be ideal. Now, I???ll let you get away with a few more, but do you really need that fax number. Do you really need their address. Do you really need them to tell you what they are most interested in. Probably not ??? at least not at this point in your relationship with them.   If your conversion is to have them delve deeper into your site, I recommend you have a separate ???click track??? ??? a few pages that will tour them around. Your conversion button might be ???Start Here???   Keep in mind, with every click decision, one choice you provide is to have them leave. And you will loose them eventually. No one stays forever. The trick is to get them to leave on your terms.   So let???s sum up the main points on design:   - don???t let them leave: be consistent, let them know they are in the right place, reinforce with a benefit statement and image.   - Motivate action: their next step is crystal clear   - Make it easy: the action step is concise.   There are many other subtle design considerations. There are good resources out on the web that go into some detail, do a search, or easier yet - call us. We???ll see what we can do for you.   Some things to look at when designing ???   Should you offer any type of fallback position - yes or no ??? I know it violates one of our rules, but maybe your targets markets vary and you don???t want to loose that visitor by giving them only one choice.   So you want to hedge your bet. ???Buy Now or click here to learn more??? ??? ouch, two choices, should you do it.   ???Sign up for our newsletter, or click here to explore our site in more detail??? ??? ouch, should you do it.   Realistically, depending on your product or service, it may be best to offer a couple of next step options. It will hurt your number one choice, though. Whether you make it up with a lot of number 2, I???ll leave that up to you ??? no pun intended there.   Make sure your landing page design is consistent with your website. If the Visitor is likely to check out more of your site and you paid heavy dollars for a beautiful landing page however the site was designed by your nephew in college, you may want to tone the landing page down or up the site quality. If the two don???t match it may become a trust issue. It throws up a flag to the Visitor.   Design above the fold. For those that don???t know, ???the fold??? is where a newspaper folds. You get more action on stuff above the fold. So in the web world we put our main impact points, images, whatever, above the point where the webpage needs to be scrolled to see. Now this is going to range based on the Visitors??? browser (how many toolbars they have at the top of their browser), and their screen resolution.   Next - make the copy and images readable. Use large fonts, and black on white works best. Short sentences. Tenth grade reading level ??? max.   Quick load - optimize your images, limit non-essential graphics.   Eliminate unnecessary elements. Just the facts, ma???am. Don???t distract from your main point. No matter what you paid for that cool graphic.   Finally,   7) Measure and test   Measure your results and test different alternatives. This can get very technical and we aren???t going to get into the ins and outs of it today. Just make sure you can measure the specific results of each landing page. Also, play around with alternatives and compare the results of each.   Even we professionals who do this every day are surprised at how little changes can make a significant difference and quite often - we have no idea why. We only know it worked because we tried it and measured it.   Okay, time for the inspiring piece of news that will make you want to rush out there and get better designed landing pages.   Most landing pages suck ??? they absolutely suck ??? they really, truly, absolutely suck. Go to your search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, whatever. Search on some terms and click on the sponsored ads. Now don???t go overboard, these advertisers are footing the bill for your research, but check it out.   See how atrocious the majority of the landing pages are. You???re going to see Home pages, category pages, pages with no direction, pages with so much text you???ll hit the Back button before you even realize your hand is moving.   So you know what this means. Even if you do only an ok job with your landing pages, you???ll likely kill your competitors. If you do a superior job either in-house or by hiring a firm like ours, you???ll be in a position to absolutely clean up.   Pilots have a saying. A good landing is one you can walk away from. Forget that. A good landing page is one that is smooth, powerful, and motivates your passenger to continue the journey.   And we will continue this journey next time.   Until then - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 9 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Discussion on the importance of improving web conversion rates through more effective landing page strategies and design.   Suggested Tags: landing page design ppc email campaign conversion online sales ecommerce internet web marketing advertising website web design webdesign   Show Summary - Seven Steps to Effective Landing Pages:   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read a full transcript here ???     Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 29th, 2006. This is episode #8: Converting Web Traffic ??? Part 2 ??? Seven steps to effective landing pages.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I???m John Boulter. I???m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That???s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   I got a little behind with my podcast ??? thanks for hanging in there. I???m seeing the subscription numbers go up and up and was starting to feel really guilty about the delay in getting this latest podcast out.   Things have been busy and it???s gearing up to vacation season. All in all I???ve been squeezed for time. I always hesitate to tell people how busy I am because I just get no sympathy. Because we???re all busy ??? aren???t we.   But don???t be too busy to email me your questions, comments, or suggestions ??? email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Web visitors get driven to sites all the time ??? and they leave those sites ??? just as fast. The good news is ??? the site they are likely leaving is your competitor. You have the opportunity to get lots of high quality traffic into your business ??? your website. Handle it the right way and you???ll be as busy or as care free as you want to be.   There is a lot to go through, today. Here???s some extra motivation for you to keep you hanging in today. In a little while, just when you think good landing pages might be too much effort, whether you do them yourself or hire someone like Bastion Internet to help you ??? I am going to give you some truly inspirational information. If you???re anything like me, you won???t be able to wait to get started. You will not be able to contain yourself.   Let???s get going.   Here???s what we???ll be covering today.   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page 2) Know your product 3) Know your target 4) Build based on your lead-in: lead in being an email or a Pay Per Click ad 5) Set you landing page objective 6) Design a superior landing page 7) Measure and test   1) Recognize the true value of a better landing page   Landing pages offer a huge return ??? there is no question about it ??? here???s why:   First it???s a leveraged return on investment. Do I sound like a banker, or a financial planner, oh well, if I must I must.   If you???re getting a 5% conversion rate - 5 visitors out of every 100 - you can raise your overall success by 60% by just convincing 3 more out of the remaining 95 to go with you, too. I did the math, trust me ??? it???s right.   Next - the rich get richer. You???ve heard me say that before. Now you???ve got to get on the right side of the rich/poor line ??? the rich side ??? so you can start getting richer, because the alternative is to get poorer.   How does that work - as you raise your conversion rate, you further justify your spend on the advertising. This can justify a higher pay per click bid, a better quality email blast design, or any number of other advertising expenditures. Spending more on driving more quality traffic will just keep the whole ball rolling.   Finally, bad conversion rates don???t just waste your click money, you???ve lost a customer.   I just finished reading the July issue of Business 2.0? there???s an article on Gamal Aziz, I hope I got that pronunciation right, he???s with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His claim to fame in the article is that he works backwards when looking at profitability. He looks at the potential of each venue - the restaurants, the rooms, the casino, the showrooms, to determine if that section of the hotel is on track. If it???s not reaching its potential, it???s losing money ??? even if it???s profitable now.   So if the restaurant is pulling in a million dollars with a 10% profit margin, he decides what the revenue for that space could be. If that potential is two million with a 15% profit margin, then the venue is actually losing him $200,000. I did the math, twice - trust me it???s right.   Now that might appear to be a harsh attitude, but that attitude has him improving profits of the various venues anywhere from 40% to 700% and more. And that is in one of the most competitive industries around.   So if you???re getting 1000 clicks and your converting 30 (for a 3% conversion rate), how much money are you leaving on the table by not converting 40 or 50 or a hundred, if it???s within your capability to do it.   You???re not going to sell everyone, but you better take your best crack at the one???s who come through the door.   2) Know your product   Look at your product from the web surfers??? perspective.   Is it an impulse buy type of product. Do you need to hit fast and hard. I???ve often run into situations where I need something now - for example recently I need a piece of software. I went did a little research and bought it within the hour.   Other times I need a service or it???s a larger purchase ??? my buy cycle might be a month or more.   Ask yourself what is the furthest you can push your conversion. I suppose you could sell a nuclear reactor online, but I doubt it. Can your service even be sold online. Is someone likely to even contact you on their first visit to your site.   How complex is your product. Is the user likely to know a lot about it. Have they likely already looked at your competitors.   Also, will the visitor be expecting to see your product when then click through.   What do I mean by that??? For example, if the PPC ad or Email says ???Quality Business Cards - Cheap??? and it sends you to a printshop website. That???s expected.   Some time back I was doing some research for a dating site client I had. I was checking out some competitive ads. One of them took me to a page about God and not being lonely if I knew and accepted a fuller role for Him in my life. Now I???ll bet clickers weren???t expecting that when they clicked on the ad.   It can be an effective way to market - but it will make a difference as to how you deliver your message if the target is not expecting your product at the other end of the click.   Speaking of which ???   3) Know your target   It seems I harp on this every podcast episode. Know who???s visiting. You???re ad will appeal to them, that???s why they clicked through. They will have a certain profile. Ask yourself   How motivated to buy are they.   Are they likely to buy now; will they be naturally trusting; will they spend time digging to get answers; are they likely to be fickle and impatient.   How savvy are they likely to be from a web perspective.   Also, building on that last thing about the product - will they be expecting your solution   Same idea as before ??? are they likely to be expecting the solution you are offering. If you???re trying to sell energy efficient lighting to companies searching for insulation products, you may be right in understanding that they want to reduce their energy costs, but it???s going to take a different kind of message on your landing page for them to make the connection between lights and insulation. You run the risk of a quick back-button. But you may get the reward of hitting them unexpectedly. Not my first choice, but perhaps worthy of some testing and measurement. But I???m getting ahead of myself.   4) Build based on your lead-in   Your landing page design will vary based on what drove the Visitor there.   Let???s look at 3 alternative ways to drive traffic, PPC Ads, Emails, and SEO.   Consistency is very important. Your landing page needs to be consistent with you lead in. If Visitors are coming from a text ad, you???ll want to have the same headline. Beyond that, you???ve got flexibility.   Now you may have 30 different ads running, or you may have PPC ads that pick up the keyword phrase the searcher typed in and replicate in automatically in the ad. Ideally you???ll have multiple landing pages that exactly match the specific PPC ad that drove that traffic.   Email - an email offer landing page needs to look like the email. So if you want to use your website???s design as a backdrop for your landing page, make sure you format your email appropriately. The design of the landing page should look like the design of the email and the offer should be the headline.   SEO ??? search engine optimization. This is harder. If you???re driving traffic organically, through the natural listings on the search engine results pages ??? you need to be careful. If you change that page, it may affect your ranking. However, if the page is getting you traffic but not converting for you ??? it???s likely worth the risk. Just do it slowly ??? over time. If you???ve got some images on the page, you can replace them with more direct or motivating images.? You can likely improve the ???call to action??? on the page, too, without affecting the basic makeup of the page.   5) Set your landing page objective   What do you want your landing page to achieve. Is it going to be the place where the client will sign up. Is it a single step away from them buying now. Is it a bridge to deeper material found in the rest of your site.   Let???s look at this in more detail. If your landing page is a conversion page, design with that in mind. You???ve got to pull out all the stops to get the conversion then and there. You???ll want to have a form, a paypal link, a phone number, whatever your action step is. It should be bold and make no apologies. You either win or lose right there.   Or - is your landing page the step before the conversion page.   Hey, you???ve come to the right place. I???ve told you a little more, now click through to sign up or buy.   If you sell a more complex product or service where your skeptical target market is more likely to want more information before giving up their email address to you or their phone number ??? you???ll be using the landing page as part of a process. It???s a bridge to your catalog or products page or somewhere else. Let the visitor know about the journey you???ll be taking them on and motivate them to start it now.   We???re almost at that inspirational news thing ??? hang in there. It???s coming up ??? but first, you need to know how to ???   6) Design a superior landing page   The planning is done - time to design.   Your immediate objective ??? don???t let them leave. Your second objective ??? motivate them to leave ??? your way ??? by converting.   So, don???t let them leave ??? first - reinforce to the Visitor - they are in the right place   They???ll know they are in the right place because you???re going to do the following:   - You will repeat the exact headline of your PPC ad or your Email Offering as your landing page headline.   - You will not deviate from the look and feel of the email that drove them there.   - And - your landing page will remain consistent with the ad.   So in our lighting products example if the PPC ad said ??? ???Better light ??? less energy???, that???s our landing page headline.   If our offer in our email was for a ???Free Energy Audit???, that???s our heading.   I am amazed at how many product specific searches take me to home pages or category pages when the company could have sent me to the page with the actual product. They???re making me now search within their site ??? incredible. If I???m looking for an iPod, land me on an iPod page. Don???t land me on an MP3 player page. Don???t land me on your Home page. At least land me on the iPod page and better yet, land me on a page built specifically for someone coming from the PPC ad or email.   Now, your Visitor didn???t immediately click the back button ??? they stayed - so deliver your message - one message.   Maybe it???s a benefit statement with a lifestyle image shot. Maybe it???s a rhetorical question that drives home the point of your product.   ???Tired of making your utility company rich????   or   ???We lower your energy costs and give you better lighting. Find out how???, accompanied by a form to get an emailed version of a ???ten tips to cutting your lighting bill???.   Next ??? motivate the visitor to take action ??? to convert ??? or to cross the bridge to conversion.   Although they just met you ???they now know you can be trusted. You???re a consistent company. You haven???t bait and switched on them. You haven???t wasted their time. You reinforced the message of the ad that drove them to your site.   Increase the trust ??? if you have a form asking for an email have a short statement beside the field stating that you don???t share email addresses and linking to your privacy policy.   You can have an endorsement easily seen and recognized as an authority in your industry (a utility company logo for the lighting firm, BBB logo, whatever)   Now ??? you provide one clear choice for the Visitor ??? click this button; fill in this form, click, and submit. The more choices the less chance of a conversion. So if you wrap your landing page in your website design and all your main site navigation is at the top, you will distract from your main goal. You???re offering many more choices that all distract. You may decide you want those choices available. Just don???t do it out of default.   Make the action as easy as possible. If you want the Visitor to sign up for a newsletter, you need one field ??? their email address. That would be ideal. Now, I???ll let you get away with a few more, but do you really need that fax number. Do you really need their address. Do you really need them to tell you what they are most interested in. Probably not ??? at least not at this point in your relationship with them.   If your conversion is to have them delve deeper into your site, I recommend you have a separate ???click track??? ??? a few pages that will tour them around. Your conversion button might be ???Start Here???   Keep in mind, with every click decision, one choice you provide is to have them leave. And you will loose them eventually. No one stays forever. The trick is to get them to leave on your terms.   So let???s sum up the main points on design:   - don???t let them leave: be consistent, let them know they are in the right place, reinforce with a benefit statement and image.   - Motivate action: their next step is crystal clear   - Make it easy: the action step is concise.   There are many other subtle design considerations. There are good resources out on the web that go into some detail, do a search, or easier yet - call us. We???ll see what we can do for you.   Some things to look at when designing ???   Should you offer any type of fallback position - yes or no ??? I know it violates one of our rules, but maybe your targets markets vary and you don???t want to loose that visitor by giving them only one choice.   So you want to hedge your bet. ???Buy Now or click here to learn more??? ??? ouch, two choices, should you do it.   ???Sign up for our newsletter, or click here to explore our site in more detail??? ??? ouch, should you do it.   Realistically, depending on your product or service, it may be best to offer a couple of next step options. It will hurt your number one choice, though. Whether you make it up with a lot of number 2, I???ll leave that up to you ??? no pun intended there.   Make sure your landing page design is consistent with your website. If the Visitor is likely to check out more of your site and you paid heavy dollars for a beautiful landing page however the site was designed by your nephew in college, you may want to tone the landing page down or up the site quality. If the two don???t match it may become a trust issue. It throws up a flag to the Visitor.   Design above the fold. For those that don???t know, ???the fold??? is where a newspaper folds. You get more action on stuff above the fold. So in the web world we put our main impact points, images, whatever, above the point where the webpage needs to be scrolled to see. Now this is going to range based on the Visitors??? browser (how many toolbars they have at the top of their browser), and their screen resolution.   Next - make the copy and images readable. Use large fonts, and black on white works best. Short sentences. Tenth grade reading level ??? max.   Quick load - optimize your images, limit non-essential graphics.   Eliminate unnecessary elements. Just the facts, ma???am. Don???t distract from your main point. No matter what you paid for that cool graphic.   Finally,   7) Measure and test   Measure your results and test different alternatives. This can get very technical and we aren???t going to get into the ins and outs of it today. Just make sure you can measure the specific results of each landing page. Also, play around with alternatives and compare the results of each.   Even we professionals who do this every day are surprised at how little changes can make a significant difference and quite often - we have no idea why. We only know it worked because we tried it and measured it.   Okay, time for the inspiring piece of news that will make you want to rush out there and get better designed landing pages.   Most landing pages suck ??? they absolutely suck ??? they really, truly, absolutely suck. Go to your search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, whatever. Search on some terms and click on the sponsored ads. Now don???t go overboard, these advertisers are footing the bill for your research, but check it out.   See how atrocious the majority of the landing pages are. You???re going to see Home pages, category pages, pages with no direction, pages with so much text you???ll hit the Back button before you even realize your hand is moving.   So you know what this means. Even if you do only an ok job with your landing pages, you???ll likely kill your competitors. If you do a superior job either in-house or by hiring a firm like ours, you???ll be in a position to absolutely clean up.   Pilots have a saying. A good landing is one you can walk away from. Forget that. A good landing page is one that is smooth, powerful, and motivates your passenger to continue the journey.   And we will continue this journey next time.   Until then - Subscribe to Drive It ??? Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 9 when it comes out.   You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there. I???m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet???s Drive It ??? Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com. tag:odeo.com,2006-06-29,23347652 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:31:59 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/1323016-Drive-It-Convert-It-7-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-1-Ten-Tips-to-Higher-Website-Conversions tag:odeo.com,2006-06-10,1323016 Sat, 10 Jun 2006 04:24:28 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/2305593-Drive-It-Convert-It-7-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-1-%C3%A2-Ten-Tips-to-Higher-Website-Conversions tag:odeo.com,2006-06-10,2305593 Sat, 10 Jun 2006 04:24:28 -0700 no Drive It - Convert It | Web and Internet Marketing http://odeo.com/episodes/24185477-Drive-It-Convert-It-7-podcast-Converting-Web-Traffic-Part-1-%E2%80%93-Ten-Tips-to-Higher-Website-Conversions   Website promotion is great - turning visitors into customers - even better. An overview of web conversion strategies and tactics.   Suggested Tags: conversion web ecommerce internet online web marketing promotion seo search engine optimization advertising website design webdesign   Show Summary:   Ten tips to improve website conversions.   1) Define your target 2) Define your objective 3) Define the offer and call to action 4) Define a conversion 5) Match ads to offers to landing pages 6) Vary your approach 7) Test, test, test Audit your conversion process 9) Have a good overall design 10) Build a tracking methodology   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read the full transcript here … …   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 9th, 2006. This is episode #7: Converting Web Traffic – Part 1 – Ten Tips to Higher Website Conversions.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where ...   Website promotion is great - turning visitors into customers - even better. An overview of web conversion strategies and tactics.   Suggested Tags: conversion web ecommerce internet online web marketing promotion seo search engine optimization advertising website design webdesign   Show Summary:   Ten tips to improve website conversions.   1) Define your target 2) Define your objective 3) Define the offer and call to action 4) Define a conversion 5) Match ads to offers to landing pages 6) Vary your approach 7) Test, test, test Audit your conversion process 9) Have a good overall design 10) Build a tracking methodology   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read the full transcript here … …   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 9th, 2006. This is episode #7: Converting Web Traffic – Part 1 – Ten Tips to Higher Website Conversions.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   To paraphrase an old anecdote – “The good news is - we won. The bad news is - we won.” That’s often how I feel when I talk to clients whose main goal was to get more web traffic to their site. In a minute I’m going to explain what I mean by that.   Before I do, I know we’ve got lots of new listeners out there – welcome. However, looking at the podcast stats, the new listeners typically go back and download all the past shows – so they probably don’t feel like new listeners. So for everyone’s sake, I’ll just say, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions – email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Last episode we finished up a 4 part series on Search Engine Optimization. I was left feeling good about the “drive it” part of Drive It – Convert It!, but neglectful of the “convert it” side of the coin. We’re about to change that.   There often seems to be a cycle to website development and strategy. Now it differs somewhat if you only do business over the Internet versus using the Internet to expand your physical business. I see this cycle for companies that conduct business through traditional methods and use the Internet to support and expand their reach.   First, a company develops their website. It will often simply reflect that company’s physical strategy and way of doing business. So - in case a sales prospect forgets what the salesman said after they leave an appointment, they can go to the website and read about it. Or in case the salesman forgets what to say – he can go study it at his own website.   The next phase is for companies to try to leverage the site. Up until now they’ve likely used the site in that sales support role. The website supports the activities of a field sales force, other advertising, other marketing, and such. Now the strategy becomes one of website promotion. Companies realize what a valuable asset a website can be and they see the huge potential of selling to brand new prospects through it. They just need to get them to the site.   So they embark on any number of traffic driving and website promotion strategies. They advertise via the search engines, the do search engine optimization to increase their rankings. The do email campaigns. Maybe they even start a podcast – who knows. Now the traffic comes. User visits rise, but sales don’t.   So the good news is – they won the battle to get traffic. The bad news – they now have traffic, but it’s not converting into leads and sales.   So –what now.   Well, here are 10 things that I take a look at when trying to improve conversions for clients. This is going to be an overview. In future weeks, I’ll pick some of these items and expand on them. In fact, the first two have already been the subject of past podcasts – in episodes 1 and 2.   Here they are:   - Define your target - Define your objective - Define the offer and call to action - Define a conversion - Match ads to offers to landing pages - Vary your approach - Test, test, test - Audit your conversion process - Have a good overall design - Build a tracking methodology   So, let’s dive in.   1) Define your target   I discussed this at length in episode number 2, a few months back. You need to know who you are targeting if you are going to convert them. What do they look like. What do they smell like. What do they talk like, read like. Then you need to make sure your site – or the particular part of your website you’re driving them to, is appropriate to them. New prospects are much different then visitors to your site that have already had some contact with your company.   Write your target market profile down and refer to it constantly as you develop and refine your site. Always ask yourself the question – does this appeal to that audience.   2) Define your objective   I discussed this at length in the first episode of Drive It – Convert It!. Your site should have a definite objective. It may be to educate, to motivate, to sell, to support … You can have more than one objective, motivate new prospects to call you, motivate old customers to place new orders … However, you should have a primary objective and focus for your site. Once again, write it down and refer to it constantly through the process.   3) Define the offer and a call to action   Make sure that you have a clear and definite offer. Latch onto one or maybe two of your most attractive introductory products or services and focus on them. What is compelling about them. What benefit will the visitor have in taking you up on the offer.   Now the offer may be to sign up for a newsletter, or get a free report or white paper concerning that offer. You don’t necessarily have to make your whole year’s revenue target off of this first interaction. The idea is to get the client comfortable in dealing with you.   Hand in hand to this is the call to action. Users should easily see how to take advantage of your offer. They should be one or two clicks away from having completed their first transaction with you. It may just be to sign up for more information or to send an email. Or it may be to get a free sample or quote. Or it may be to pull the trigger on a significant transaction complete with their credit card number.   4) Define your conversion   What determines a conversion for you? Is it a phone call, an email, a credit card swipe… Make sure you are clear on what constitutes a conversion for you. That is the way you evaluate your conversion success. Your website isn’t your company. Typically before the client buys, they’re going to have interaction with something, or someone, other than your website. They may email someone, call someone, go into your physical location… If you don’t get the sale because of a rude receptionist or less than informed salesperson, you don’t want to change your website because of it. Your site may be very successful at converting the user into a phone-calling prospect. You’ve got to know that so if your revenue targets aren’t hitting, you’re able to focus on the right issues.   5. Match ads to offers to landing pages   If you have misleading ads, you might get a lot of traffic, but you won’t get many conversions. Now misleading ads might very well be accidental or just simply too general. They may not be misleading to you, just to the people who stumble across them.   This comes about due to different meanings of words, too broad of a key phrase match, or sloppiness when writing the ad.   So it’s important to have content in your ads that helps define the offer. Then, the page linked to from the ad – the landing page - needs to reinforce that offer.   I’m definitely going to devote an entire future podcast to this item. It’s huge.   6. Vary your approach   When you are driving traffic to your site through online advertising, create a number of combinations of ads, landing pages, offers, etc. You’ll find that some work better than others and that each may be effective for a different type of visitor.   You can use visual links - like images - to keep highly visually people on that kind of a track and more detailed links like text, to keep analytical people who enjoy more information than less, on that kind of track.   It makes for more work on your website.? But what’s a new client worth to you over the life of that client.   7. Test, test, test   As a follow on to item 6, you need to test. Your gut feelings are often wrong. Sad but true. You are not your potential customer. You can’t help but know more than the website visitor about your subject. You’ll overlook industry buzzwords that you use, product concepts… You’ll just naturally assume web visitors know more than they do. And, you will naturally think you know how your client thinks. There’s a cause and effect trap here. You see, your current customers were attracted to you for a reason. You are already doing the things that attract those type of people and companies. The people and companies that visit you for the first time via your website aren’t necessarily like your current client base.? Thus, what worked in the past or with other audiences, probably won’t work with this audience, in the present.? A lot will, but a lot won’t.   I recommend you come up with at least a couple of approaches, that’s combinations of ads, offers, landing pages, and regular site pages - and test them out.   This is harder to do if you are driving traffic through the natural part of the search engines because you don’t control what page your visitor will be landing on.   We’ll definitely get more into this in future episodes, too.   8. Audit your conversion process   You need to have your grandmother go through the entire conversion process. Ideally, you’ll have your other grandmother do the same thing using a different computer, different browser, bandwidth speed, etcetera, etcetera. Firewalls, anti-spyware setting, SSL certificate peculiarities, browser settings – they’ll all cause your site to act differently. The more anomalies you can eliminate the higher your conversion rates will be.   I often picture 100 people landing on my site. Every time the site acts in a peculiar way to them, some will leave. Now some things I can’t help. If I want some Flash to make the content more compelling and the user doesn’t have the flash plug-in, I’ll lose them. The objective is to make my losses my choice. I made a decision to use a technique to motivate some users knowing that it will hurt my chances with others. If I have an SSL certificate that only works for the www version of my site, and yet my site can still be accessed without the www, then that is just careless of me. I should not lose users because of a certificate mismatch.   9) Have a good overall design   Hey, if your design is ugly. You won’t convert as well. Bad haircut – fewer dates. It’s a fact.   Even if you spend some cash or resources on a beautiful landing page, if the rest of the site is bad – you are wasting a lot of opportunity.   I think the amount of money companies are willing to invest in the look and functionality of their site should be on the rise. So much time, effort and money is and will be spent on driving traffic to your site, that to save a few thousand dollars on the design elements just doesn’t make sense.? You will continue to see a higher and higher quality of site.? You’ll need to be prepared to match that.? Better yet – lead the way.   10. Build a tracking methodology   Decisions are only as good as the quality of the data supporting them. You need good data on conversions. There are lots of ways to skin this cat and you can phase it in, too.   At a minimum, make sure you’re asking your clients how they found out about you. Ideally, you should put in some tracking code to know where your conversions originated from.   Ultimately its going to be vital to know what your conversion rate is and what the profitability of a conversion translates into in order to establish an overall return on investment rate.   If you’re just starting out, the fact that your ROI – return on investment - is positive will be pretty clear. You may just not know how much. However, as you spend more and in different ways, you’ll need to be able to break that down into some detail. Does Yahoo deliver better than Google. Does natural searching deliver better than paid. Does email deliver at all. You get the idea.   I love this stuff. There’s so much information available to you.? That information is also available to your target prospects and your competitors.? You have to step it up in the business world. There’s more to know but so much more opportunity to go with it.   If you love to learn, stick with me. If you don’t – just hire us. Either way, I hope you’re enjoying listening.   If you have some specific situations you’d like me to comment on, either during the show or offline, let me know – drop me an email.   I want you to be comfortable dealing with Bastion Internet.   Until then…   Subscribe to Drive It – Convert It!, and automatically download episode number 8 when it comes out. You can follow the subscription links on our site. Or, if you use iTunes, do a search for drive it convert it and pick us up there.   I’m John Boulter, for Bastion Internet’s Drive It – Convert It! podcast.   Visit us at bastioninternet.com or Email us at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Website promotion is great - turning visitors into customers - even better. An overview of web conversion strategies and tactics.   Suggested Tags: conversion web ecommerce internet online web marketing promotion seo search engine optimization advertising website design webdesign   Show Summary:   Ten tips to improve website conversions.   1) Define your target 2) Define your objective 3) Define the offer and call to action 4) Define a conversion 5) Match ads to offers to landing pages 6) Vary your approach 7) Test, test, test Audit your conversion process 9) Have a good overall design 10) Build a tracking methodology   Download the Podcast here:   Subscribe to Drive It - Convert It! here:   Read the full transcript here … …   Hi and welcome to Drive It - Convert It!, for June 9th, 2006. This is episode #7: Converting Web Traffic – Part 1 – Ten Tips to Higher Website Conversions.   Drive It - Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified and leads and sales.   Drive it, convert it.   I’m John Boulter. I’m the president of Bastion Internet and podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. That’s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast.   To paraphrase an old anecdote – “The good news is - we won. The bad news is - we won.” That’s often how I feel when I talk to clients whose main goal was to get more web traffic to their site. In a minute I’m going to explain what I mean by that.   Before I do, I know we’ve got lots of new listeners out there – welcome. However, looking at the podcast stats, the new listeners typically go back and download all the past shows – so they probably don’t feel like new listeners. So for everyone’s sake, I’ll just say, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions – email the show at podcast@bastioninternet.com.   Last episode we finished up a 4 part series on Search Engine Optimization. I was left feeling good about the “drive it” part of Drive It – Convert It!, but neglectful of the “convert it” side of the coin. We’re about to change that.   There often seems to be a cycle to website development and strategy. Now it differs somewhat if you only do business over the Internet versus using the Internet to expand your physical business. I see this cycle for companies that conduct business through traditional methods and use the Internet to support and expand their reach.   First, a company develops their website. It will often simply reflect that company’s physical strategy and way of doing business. So - in case a sales prospect forgets what the salesman said after they leave an appointment, they can go to the website and read about it. Or in case the salesman forgets what to say – he can go study it at his own website.   The next phase is for companies to try to leverage the site. Up until now they’ve likely used the site in that sales support role. The website supports the activities of a field sales force, other advertising, other marketing, and such. Now the strategy becomes one of website promotion. Companies realize what a valuable asset a website can be and they see the huge potential of selling to brand new prospects through it. They just need to get them to the site.   So they embark on any number of traffic driving and website promotion strategies. They advertise via the search engines, the do search engine optimization to increase their rankings. The do email campaigns. Maybe they even start a podcast – who knows. Now the traffic comes. User visits rise, but sales don’t.   So the good news is – they won the battle to get traffic. The bad news – they now have traffic, but it’s not converting into leads and sales.   So –what now.   Well, here are 10 things that I take a look at when trying to improve conversions for clients. This is going to be an overview. In future weeks, I’ll pick some of these items and expand on them. In fact, the first two have already been the subject of past podcasts – in episodes 1 and 2.   Here they are:   - Define your target - Define your objective - Define the offer and call to action - Define a conversion - Match ads to offers to landing pages - Vary your approach - Test, test, test - Audit your conversion process - Have a good overall design - Build a tracking methodology   So, let’s dive in.   1) Define your target   I discussed this at length in episode number 2, a few months back. You need to know who you are targeting if you are going to convert them. What do they look like. What do they smell like. What do they talk like, read like. Then you need to make sure your site – or the particular part of your website you