There’s a debate over the significance of page load speed in Google’s search algorithms. However, there’s no debate over the significant impact it can have on conversions. With each passing second the visitor has to wait for the page to load, sales are being lost.
Search Engine Land Blog Post Archives
Discover How to Lose Wait Without Losing Conversions
Apr
24
2013
Why a Contact Us Page Is More Important Than You Think
Mar
22
2013
Decisions, decisions. Whether someone makes a purchase from your site isn’t just about product pages and shopping carts. If they have a question about a product, they need to be able to find a way to contact you easily. If they can’t, they just might decide to take their business elsewhere. And online, that’s quite simple to do with just a few clicks.
In my latest blog post on Search Engine Land, I detail why an optimized “Contact Us” page is critical to not only providing visitors with much-needed information, but can also help generate leads and ultimately sales. And in the end, isn’t that your goal? I hope you’ll find these tips useful for your site.
How to Convert More Customers with Your Product Pages
Jan
24
2013
One of my biggest pet peeves about shopping is the confusion that occurs when I’m looking at several similar products but am not sure which one is right for me. At a brick-and-mortar store, I can just hunt for a friendly, helpful salesperson (sometimes).
On a website, it’s not that easy. Your key salesperson is, of course, your content. However, there’s more to it than that. In my latest post on Search Engine Land, 11 Simple Conversion Strategies Many Product Pages Fail to Incorporate, I talk about all the subtle but critical techniques you can use to move the shopper through the buying process.
Hopefully, you’ll find these tips as helpful as that friendly salesperson (when you can find one).
4 Things Marketers Can Learn from Keyword Research
Dec
18
2012
Despite erudite analysts who claim that SEO and Elvis are dead, killing the impact of keywords on rankings is pretty tough to do. However, rankings are only part of the bigger keyword and SEO picture (which, of course, doesn’t include Elvis).
In my recent Search Engine Land column, The Keyword Researcher’s Guide To Creating Competitive & Compelling Content, I discuss four things you need to know that keyword research will help you better understand, including:
- Customer terminology
- Customer desires
- Competitive keywords
- User questions
If reading my inimitable words of wisdom gets you All Shook Up, please Don’t Be Cruel. Fast-paced web marketing often demands an It’s Now or Never mentality. In vying for keywords and customers, you should be Playing for Keeps. (Thanks, Elvis.)
Eight Ways to Improve Your Online Checkout
Nov
05
2012
Shopping cart abandonment is the bane of e-commerce sites. Fairly recent studies by Forrester and MarketingSherpa indicate shopping cart abandonment rates are higher than 50%. That can certainly add up to a great deal of lost revenue for you.
In my latest post on Search Engine Land, How To Make Your Online Checkout More User Friendly, I share eight critical things you can do to improve the shopping-cart experience on your site and, hopefully, encourage more of your site visitors to become loyal buyers. If you decide to try them, let me know how they work for you!
Improve Your Website Navigation for Visitors and Site Performance
Sep
25
2012
I’m not into hunting. That goes for the real world, as well as the online one. (My guns and crossbow are strictly for target practice and the impending zombie apocalypse). When I use a search engine, I want to find what I’m looking for the first time. When I go to a website, I expect the navigation to immediately point me in the right direction.
However, I often land on websites with navigation that’s less than intuitive at best and downright confusing at worst. If I can’t locate the information I’m seeking in a relatively short period of time, I leave. I am not going to hunt.
Why would anyone want to send their visitors away in frustration when it’s so simple to create clear, consistent navigation? To learn how to improve this critical piece on your site, check out my latest post on Search Engine Land, Six Easy Ways to Improve Your Site’s Navigation.
Make Sure Content Is Never an Afterthought
Aug
15
2012
I’ve been working the field of web marketing for more than 14 years, and it never ceases to amaze me when I come across a website with poor content. Yet, it happens all the time. Why? Because – even though online marketing authorities keep harping on the importance of content – many businesses still pour their entire budget into design. Of course, good programming is critical and costly, but, in the end, the content does the selling.
In my latest blog post for Search Engine Land, you’ll find 10 easy ways to create website content that’s engaging and actionable. And if you own one of those sites with bad content (you know who you are), go forth and fix it (or hire someone to fix it for you)!
Tips on Writing Content for All Readers
Jun
05
2012
A key pillar of content marketing strategy is to identify your target audience (persona) and create quality content that’s specifically tailored for that audience. However, it never hurts to hedge your bets. With just a little bit of effort, you can create content that appeals to everyone, no matter which reader category they fall into: non-readers, readers who digest every word, or the vast majority who scan content to find what they’re looking for.
Today Search Engine Land published my content and keywords column, Forget Reading! Web Content Is Meant To Be Skimmed. Hope you’ll read every last word! (Or, at least skim it and share it.) Thanks!
- "Our clients often tell us we're one in a million. Turns out we're really just one of a hundred thousand or so. But what they're really saying is that we get results that increase traffic, sales and ROI! Number one of a million? Yeah, that's where we put you when we velocitize your web marketing."
