The Orange Blog

Our original article, entitled “Is your website selling your company, or your competition?” explains the effect that a poorly formed web site could have on your competition. It’s now time to clarify exactly what steps you can and should take to ensure that you aren’t helping to sell your competition with your web site.

1. Keep your text READABLE.

It’s one thing to want to make sure that search engines know what you do, and to ensure that you appear highly in them for the keywords that are important to your company. It’s another thing altogether to make your site a collection of unreadable, poorly formatted keyword paragraphs. Many people don’t even realize the way their content comes across to site visitors, because they haven’t taken the time to read it themselves, or to solicit feedback from individuals who don’t know the company or the industry well already.

How to do it.

Ask friends and neighbors to read through your most important few pages or products, and to give you honest feedback. After reading each page, would they know more than they did when they started, or would they have a headache trying to make sense of what is written?

2. Keep your text FRIENDLY.

No one wants to be talked at, in person or on the internet. Does your text have a friendly demeanor, or is it boring? Does it inspire people to buy from you, call you, e-mail you, or does it inspire them to look to the next web site?

How to do it.

Don’t take yourself quite so seriously. Yes, you sell an important product or service, and yes, people need to know more about it. But friendly costs nothing, doesn’t hurt the quality of the message and makes people feel like they are doing business with a human, not a computer. Note that this doesn’t mean you should tell jokes about your products or showcase your items in a ridiculous way, it simply means adding a personal touch.

3. Keep your DESIGN friendly.

Is your web site solid black, or bright blue with yellow text? Is the text large enough, the menu noticeable and easy to navigate, and the color scheme one that makes people want to stay on the site? Do you have a bunch of meaningless flash animation, with dancing letters or loading screens?

How to do it.

Be very aware of how your site design is perceived by others. Does it make them feel happy or sad? Lethargic, annoyed, or intrigued? Try asking a select group of non-company related individuals to use five words to describe your site design, and see what comes up. Also remember that if you are selling products, white sells. There’s a reason Ebay, Amazon, Target and all of the other large, successful online retailers accent their web sites with white. It emphasizes the product rather than the web site, and it makes people want to buy. What colors are you using?

4. Keep your content FRESH.

Seeing a news headline that invites visitors to a conference in Cleveland scheduled for two years ago, or a Merry Christmas message in the middle of April is a dead giveaway that you don’t pay attention to your web site. What does that mean to the visitor? It means that you may not be paying attention to keeping your product cutting edge, either. People want to know they are getting a new product with solid innovation behind it. If your site shows signs that it’s old and outdated, people could easily assume your product is as well.

How to do it.

If your site allows it, put “end dates” on your time sensitive articles. Our customers use SE’s built in date function to allow articles to disappear before they get too old, so there’s never a concern about having a conference invitation that has long expired, or reference to a holiday that has long-since passed. If your site can’t do this, then keep a note on your calendar to remove these old items the day they become dated. Another note, if you don’t have a lot of news, make sure your articles don’t mention the date. Nothing says “never updated” like an article with a post date of 2006.

5. Make it EASY to reach you.

It always amazes me when I see a web site with tons of great information, a clean design and… absolutely no way to contact the company.

How to do it.

This one’s easy. Place your phone number prominently in the top-right hand corner of your site header (studies have shown that this is the first-looked to location for contact information), and have some sort of simple and obvious link or button that directs people to your contact us page. Speaking of, you do have a “Contact Us” form, don’t you?

A simple, clear and concise contact us form is much easier on the visitor than a simple e-mail link. Instead of having to open their e-mail program (or give up if they are on a public computer without access to their account), the visitor simply needs to enter a little information and press send. Having a well-built contact form also prevents spammers from getting your e-mail address and using it to their advantage (aka sending you spam). Just remember, the more fields to fill out, the less chance someone will do them. If your contact us form has 20 fields to fill out, expect your e-mail box to be lonely.

Taking it further.

Did you like this article? Need some clarification, or want to know how these principles apply to your business and web site? Send us an e-mail and tell us what’s on your mind.

It may be obvious that a good web site will sell your company much better than a poor one, but have you ever considered the effect that your own web site can have on your competition? If you have a poorly created, hard to navigate or just plain ugly web site, you may be doing more than just hurting yourself, you may be making your competition look better by comparison.

Consider this scenario. You have a plain, not much to look at web site, which you have optimized with keywords to the point that the text is not very readable, nor very useful. As a result of this effort, you are one spot ahead of your competition on Google. A potential customer finds your web site first (remember, you have tons of fluff keywords, but little meaningful content), reads a little, and then presses the back button on their browser.

They then visit your competition, whose web site is by no means great, but has readable content, a friendly undertone and is much easier on the eyes than your site. Given the choice between a web site that came up first (yours), but has poor content, or a site that was seen AFTER yours (your competition), which has better content and looks a little nicer, which do you think customers will choose?

The answer may seem obvious, but let’s explore exactly why this is happening.

• First, people visit your web site. They see a poor quality, hard to decipher site and it sets the benchmark for their expectations.
• Next, they find your competition’s web site, which as we’ve already established is better than yours. Given their original benchmark (your web site), the competition’s web site will appear to be much better, even artificially so, based on that pre-existing benchmark.

Now let’s reverse this train of thought. A potential customer finds your web site, which let’s now say is pretty darn good. They browse around for a while, and bookmark it. For the sake of thoroughness, they peruse the other sites that come up near you on their search engine of choice. Instead of having a poor web site as a benchmark, they have your high quality one. It won’t take them long to stop searching elsewhere, and to settle on your company as the clear choice for their business.

In fact, as long as your content is decent, this same principle will work FOR you, rather than against you. Customers will browse other web sites, and find yours much better by comparison.

So the question is, does your web site help sell you, or are you paying to help sell your competition? Before you answer, have you ever actually stopped to see what people outside of your company, outside of your friends and family think of your companies’ web site? Have you compared your site to your competition, to see how you match up? If the answer to either one of these is no, then it’s time to get a second opinion.

Taking it further.

Did you like this article? Stand by, our newest article entitled “How to ensure that your web site sells you, and not your competition” is coming soon!

Want to learn more, or to see first hand how your site measures up? We have lots more advice that can ensure you are selling your company, and not the competition. Send us an e-mail and let us help you stay on track.

Just about everyone has heard of YouTube by now, but not everyone has thought about the site in terms of what it can mean for their business. Yes, dancing monkeys can be a nice distraction, but YouTube has much more potential than just watching people fall down or viewing highlights of former football stars. Here is a short list of ways that you can potentially utilize YouTube for your business:

1. To host video testimonials.

Video testimonials are a great way to get your product message across, and adding videos to YouTube is so easy that almost anyone can do it. Nearly any initial video format works (as does virtually any standard digital video camera), meaning that whether you design and edit your video clips on a Mac or a PC, they can be uploaded to YouTube and look great. Which brings us to our next point.

2. As a bandwidth-saver.

Instead of creating 10+mb video files that are hosted on your web site, Integration of YouTube videos within your site means that customers get to see more from your company, without increasing your hosting budget. Not only that, but you’ll even bring in the occasional YouTube browser who finds your video and visits your web site as a result. Learn about the SE Video Module.

3. As part of a viral campaign.

Some of the funnier/more relevant videos on YouTube easily surpass the 2 million view mark. Now, don’t expect that putting some kittens in a basket with your company logo will do the trick, but a well thought out viral campaign could provide you with an otherwise untouched marketbase for your products. A successful viral campaign will take off fast, which can again make the external hosting offered by YouTube an important feature.

4. To showcase your products.

Many companies have already started using YouTube for their business. If you are a reseller, there’s a good chance that at least a handful of the companies whose products you sell have videos on YouTube. Help your web site stand out from the pack by integrating these right into your product pages.

5. To show off your work.

Even if you don’t have access to any pre-made YouTube videos for your business (or if you don’t sell ready-made products), you can still show off your work with a video of your own. Say, for example that your company creates custom interiors for high end homes. Rather than simply showing a handful of pictures on the site, you can augment that picture gallery by creating a three minute walkthrough video that shows the detail work that has gone into your project.

6. To build and involve your customer base.

What better way is there to sell your services than by letting a customer tell his story? Now, I know that this sounds a lot like #1 above, but it is distinctly different. Traditionally, a testimonial is structured in some way, and typically does not actually involve the use of the product or service being discussed. If, on the other hand your company were to offer a contest that included a prize (or simply notoriety on your web site) for video of customers in action using your product, the resulting videos could send a powerful message to your site visitors. Think about which you would prefer, visiting a web site that showed a static product image (let’s say a kayak), with product information and specifications, or that same site with multiple videos of customers in action, riding the rapids on your product in Colorado?

7. Two words: Video tutorials.

It can be tough visualizing how to build, install or repair some products based solely on a product manual, but often these challenges can be avoided with a simple video clip. Especially if your product is unique, a YouTube video could be an essential asset in reducing customer technical support calls and returns. These video links can even be e-mailed to customers directly, simplifying the process of replying to repetitive technical support issues.

Taking it further.

Did you like this article? Stand by, our newest YouTube article entitled “Advertising: How utilizing video testimonials can bring in more business” is coming soon!

As many of you may already know, we here at DynamiX are huge proponents of Google Analytics. That’s not to say the system isn’t without its flaws, but it offers more great features in a clearer format than just about any other web analytics platform out there, and best of all it doesn’t cost a penny to use. Today we’re going to cover some of the basics of the system, what it is and how it can help you to grow your business.

First, let’s cover what Google Analytics is.

Google Analytics is a website statistics program, created by Google that allows you to track (with roughly a one day delay) customer visits to your web site. Specifically, the system keeps track of what keywords visitors use to find your web site in search engines, as well as what sites they used to find you (say you have an account with Atlanta local directory Kudzu.com, Google analytics would track who found your web site by clicking on your web address from the Kudzu.com web site). In addition (and one of our favorite mini-features), the dashboard features a small pie graph including the percentage of traffic that was direct (from typing your link directly in a web browser) from search engines and from referring web sites. If you are looking to expand your presence on search engines, this pie graph is an effective way to see how your search engine presence is growing.

Okay, so how does Google Analytics help me and my business?

The analytics system is great for discovering what your customers are typing into Google to find you, and what web sites are most valuable to you from an advertising perspective. Say you have two different web sites that you are paying to advertise your company. The first costs $200 a month, and the second just $10. If you see in Google analytics that the site you are paying $10 a month for in advertising is bringing you more traffic than the $200/month site, it may be a red flag for you to re-evaluate where your advertising dollars are best spent. The keyword aspect of Google is maybe the most important, as it can give you insight into how your visitors think and how they are finding your web site in search engines. It is often difficult for a company to think like a customer who may not have a lot of experience in the product you are selling, and these keywords will help you to refine and expand your web site text. Getting the most out of Google Analytics can be hard work and will take some hours of frustration to fully get the hang of, but over time that hard work will pay off with more web site traffic and more business.

Customer locations, targeting zones and tracking advertising campaigns.

A neat feature of Google Analytics is the ability to visually represent where your customers are visiting your web site from. For instance, if you are a national (or international) company that sells products online, you can track what states or countries are bringing in the most business, and adjust your advertising budgets accordingly. This works just as well for local businesses, too. The map system can track all the way to the city level in any given state, meaning that an automotive repair shop in Marietta, Georgia could track how many visitors come to the web site from Kennesaw or Acworth.

Discovering popular products or services.

Tracking is a great way to discover trends in the marketplace you may not otherwise have captured. Say, for instance you have a web site that utilizes our SE Content Management System, and you have a section that features your custom projects. With analytics installed, you can see that one of your custom projects may be bringing in three times more traffic than your other project pages, and bringing you twice the customer e-mails. By knowing this, you can expand this project to include more information and pictures, thereby increasing the amount and quality of information your potential customer receives when visiting your web site, as well as the chance that you will get an e-mail or phone call from this potential customer. Conversely, if you see a section of your site that receives little or no attention from site visitors, it may be a sign that you should dedicate your efforts elsewhere.

Tracking Adwords or other advertising efforts.

Google Analytics has built in integration between adwords, meaning that as customers come in, you’ll know how and where they found you through the Adwords system. In addition, utilizing the Goal Conversions section you can track how many customers who enter the site by various means end up e-mailing you, what page they e-mailed from (if you have a contact form on multiple pages), how long they browsed your web site before e-mailing you, and much more.

Taking it further.

Did you like this article? Stand by, our newest Analytics article entitled “An expanded look: Setting up Goal Conversions with Google Analytics” is coming soon!