One of the problems is that people tend want to skip
right to search engine optimization forgetting that users matter.
Many people want to rush into the marketing without realizing that the website
itself is part of the marketing process. This is a shame.

Investing in SEO and PPC marketing, without having performed
a thorough analysis of your website islargely an exercise in vain (and yes, even new websites often need a
usability analysis!) You don’t have to have a perfectly usable site in order to
rank well in search engines, but it is increasingly difficult to rank a site
without a strong usability focus, unless you’re in a very niche industry. And even
if you do rank well, without good usability you’re losing more customers than
you need or want to be losing.

Where
do you start in performing a usability review?

One of the hurdles many people have in performing a
usability review of their own site is that they don’t know where to start. Over
the past several months I’ve written a number of posts outlining various
usability and website architectural elements that should be a part of any
detailed review process. But going through each of those can take many hours.

Being able to do a quick-scan through a site can be a very
handy skill. It will help you uncover some glaring issues without having to
invest hours upon hours of time all at once. After you have performed your
quick scan and have fixed the bigger issues, you then have an opportunity to go
back and perform a more thorough analysis.

Here is what you need to know in order to do a quickie
usability review. I’ve also provided links to my previous posts that provide
you with a lot more detail and will help you perform a more thorough analysis
as time permits.

19 steps for
a quickie usability review

Website
navigation

Site wide navigation, including top, bottom and side
navigation, should be as user-friendly as possible, ensuring that your visitors
find what they expect when they click a navigation link. Check to make sure
your navigation shows a logical flow of topics, subtopics and subject matter
within the site and it enhances the user’s ability to find key information.

See: 20
Ways to NAVIGATE to Higher Conversions

Content

The content of your website is your #1 sales tool. Content
weighs heavily both in terms of how users interact with your website as well as
how visitors are able to determine what you offer and what each page of your
website is about. Always write for your visitors. Give them the information
they need in a way that spurs them to action.

See:9
(+1) Tips For Writing User-Friendly Content

Website
Design

How the site is developed, along with the underlying coding
structure, plays a significant role on whether your site meets the usability
requirements of your audience. Check to make sure the overall design looks
clean and doesn’t feel cluttered. Colors and fonts should be easy on the eyes
and should enhance rather than distract from the visitors experience.

See: 25
Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions

Home
Page

Your home page is the single most crucial page of your site.
It is essentially your store front. Your home page should identify your site
and direct your visitors to the most important information, the information
they are most likely coming to your site for. Keep it clean and focused and
drive your visitors quickly to the sections that are more apt for selling.

See: 7
Ways to Make Your Home Page a Home Run for Usability

About
Us Page

Visitors that find their way to your About Us page tend to
have a higher conversion rate than those that don’t. This is where the visitor
gets to know you and your company. Make sure the page contains information on
company history, biographies of managers and your mission statement.

See: 5
Easy Ways to Make Your About Us Page More About Your Customers

Contact
Us Page

The Contact Us page could be considered the absolutely most
important page on your site. Even if the rest of your site succeeds in the
goals, if visitors fail to find the information they need to contact you then
you will bring their shopping experience to a screeching halt. Always have
multiple contact options and be sure web forms are working properly. Having a
phone number listed is also extremely important.

See: 6
Ways to Get Your Visitors To Contact You From Your Contact Us Page

Product
Pages

Product pages maintain considerable strategic importance for
ecommerce websites. Your visitors enter your product pages not only with an
intention to buy something (the most desired end action) but to also learn,
research and compare what you have against a competitor. Your product pages
must provide enough information to help you visitors make the best decision
possible. Be sure that calls to action, such as “add to cart” are
readily available along with relevant pricing and shipping info.

See: 12
Product Page Conversion Strategies That Shant Be Ignored

Shopping
Cart

While shopping car abandonment cannot be completely
eliminated, it can be dramatically reduced. It is a failure of the shopping
cart page itself that leads visitors to abandon their items which they do, in
fact, wish to have. Make sure your shopping cart navigation buttons (update
cart, checkout, etc.) are easily found. If you have multiple steps in the check
out process, outline those steps and be sure to answer any questions regarding
security and shipping.

See: 8
Items Every Shopper Needs In Their Shopping Cart

Forms
and Errors

If your web forms don’t function properly or it’s difficult
to correct information input errors then you can lose a lot of visitors from
frustration alone. Be sure to make inputting data easy by labeling fields
properly, keep required information to a minimum and make sure errors are easy
to understand and correct.

See: Converting
Visitors Through Errors and Form Fields

On
-Site Search

Implementing a search function improperly is often a greater
source of frustration than not having one altogether. My rule of thumb is if
you can’t deliver perfect results 80% of the time then you’re probably better
off not having an on-site search. Pay attention to the location of the search
bar, place it where it is typically expected, and test, test and test some more
to ensure that the results are as expected. Misspell products and search for
products you know you don’t carry just to make sure you can deliver relevant
results for products you do carry.

See: Searching
for Better On-Site Search Usability

Help
and FAQ Pages

Building up your Help and FAQ pages can greatly enhance your
visitor’s experience with your website, giving them much needed information and
possibly saving them a phone call. Keep these pages focused on providing
information that isn’t available anywhere else and make sure they are easy to
find and easy to read.

See: Four
Quick Ways to Improve Your HELP and FAQ Pages

Login
and My Account Pages

Sites that require users to log in to access certain
information and/or purchase products add an additional layer of potential
complication to the usability process. Think carefully before requiring
visitors to login. Do you really need that? If not, don’t force it. Be sure to
provide the benefits of creating an account and link to pages that outline your
security assurances.

See: 14 Usability Tips for Login and My Account Pages

Privacy
and Security Issues

Your website’s privacy information and security settings can
be significant hurdles when it comes to gaining trust with your visitors. Be
sure you provide links to these pages where best suited and applicable. Be sure
to provide as much information you can that gives assurances that their
information is safe.

See: 12
Privacy and Security Issues Your Customers Care About

Site
Maps

Site maps provide a dual purpose: They provide search engine
spiders easy access to all of your site pages and they provide site visitors
easy access to all of your site pages. The best advice is to make sure all your
site map files stay current and are easy to find.

See: 9
Tips for Creating a Site Map for Visitors and Spiders

Audience
Engagement

Customer engagement goes beyond just getting the customer’s
attention, you must keep their attention. This can be done by providing your
visitors near immediate gratification. Your content needs to get their
attention, tell them what they need to purchase and link out to other important
pages that can help them make the purchase decision.

See: 5
Engaging Ways to Engage Your Audience

Customer
Satisfaction

Above all things you need to make sure your website provides
strong customer satisfaction. You can do this by making sure information is
easy to find, eliminate broken links and keep pages and images relatively small
so they don’t take long to load.

See: 4
Easy Ways to Dissatisfy Your Visitors

Point
of Purchase

Since the “purchase” is the ultimate conversion, it is
imperative that you remove as many obstacles from the customer’s
research-to-buy cycle as possible. Make sure your products are available or
otherwise noted. Adding product reviews and up-sell opportunities can lend to
increased sales.

See: 11
Ways Fill Your Shopper’s Cart

Visitor
Trust

Your ability to convince your visitors that yours is a
trustworthy business is one of the key components to getting visitors to
convert into customers. Always providing prompt and complete responses to
visitor inquiries. It’s also valuable to provide multiple delivery options,
discounts and allow your customers to provide feedback.

See: 10
Ways to Help Your Visitors Trust You

General
Issues

The selling process–from initial interest to the very last
checkout page–must be able to grab shopper’s attention and proceed to drive
them through to the finalization of the sale. In other words, once you have
them, you don’t want to lose them. Keep your content organized and
clutter-free, make sure the site looks good across the most popular browsers
and make sure that you follow up after the sale.

See: 14
Website Usability Guidelines That Keep them Coming Back for More

Overall
Accessibility

As more and more users gain access to the web, it becomes
increasingly important to ensure that your website is accessible to all, not
just a few. Be sure your website is constructed in a way that it is accessible
to mobile phones, text based browsers and screen readers.

See: 6
Quick and Easy Accessibility Issues That Make Your Visitors Happy

The one thing to understand about usability is that nothing
is set in stone. You can go point by point of any usability guide and still get
it wrong. You can overcome that by testing.Whenever a change is made test the results. Make sure it has the
intended effect and you get the results you want. If it doesn’t help, change it
back and try something else. Over time you’ll incrementally improve overall
site usability and find conversion rates climbing as each successful change is
implemented.

The selling process–from initial interest to the very last
checkout page–must be able to grab shopper’s attention and proceed to drive
them through to the finalization of the sale. But even after the sell, you must
deal with customer service issues in order to keep the sale finalized. Good
customer service will bring your purchasers back for another and another and
another. Here are fourteen general usability guidelines that will enhance your
shoppers overall experience on your site.

Images
vs. content

Images and content must work together to provide the user
with a satisfactory experience. Relying too heavily on images and other media
can be distracting, especially to those that really need to read more about
what you’re selling before they are comfortable making a purchase. On the other
hand, too much content on the wrong pages can also turn some shoppers away. A
proper balance must be struck.

Content
organization

Content must be purposeful and have a beginning, middle and
end. Each page should expose need, show the importance, provide the benefits
and, provide a call to action. Don’t forget to speak to each reader’s emotions.

Text
formatting

Site content should be readable and understandable without
the use of stylesheets. Don’t rely on visual gimmicks to get your point across
as many often won’t render properly in plain text browsers.

User
level

Content must speak at the reading level of your target
audience. Don’t neglect to write to both expert and novice users as applicable.
Not everyone coming to your site is fully knowledgeable in your topic. Meet
their needs verbally, without talking down to the more advanced users.

Cross-browser
rendering

Different browsers will display a site in slightly different
ways. Know your audience and what browsers they are using. Then make sure that
your site looks clean, clear and professional across multiple browsers.

Plugins

Site should avoid using plugins that are required in order
to experience the website. Most visitors won’t install these plugins and will
therefore move on to other sites. While these features can be nice additions,
be sure to provide a site that appeals to the lowest common denominator of your
web users.

Page
formatting

Keeping your site consistent from page to page makes the
conversion process easier on your visitors. Don’t surprise them with a
different format on other pages that forces them to rethink about how to go
about continuing with the shopping or checking out process.

Eliminate
distractions

Keep your site free from pop-ups and other distractions that
pull visitors away from the sales process. Reduce clutter such as ads or too
many up-sells. Sometimes it’s good to eliminate many navigation options,
provided it enhances the customer’s experience rather than confuses them.

Contact
information

Your contact info or links to contact information must be
clearly displayed and easy to find on every page. Don’t make your visitors to
have to hunt to find you. Sometimes displaying an 800 number on every page can
lend additional credibility and trust.

External
links

Don’t be afraid to link out to other sites, but be sure that
all external links have a purpose that serves to enhance the user experience.
Link out only when valuable to your visitors and in a way that won’t move them
away from the sale.

Customer
feedback

Allow your customers to provide you with feedback regarding
your site, products and services. Be sure a feedback option is easy to find.
Giving visitors the option to be anonymous can also be beneficial.

Order
fulfillment

Once an order has been placed, be sure to continue to
provide visitors with the reassurances they need. Let them know when they will
be contacted, when products will ship and provide information on order
cancellation and/or returns.

Follow-up
program

Once a sale is made and order completely fulfilled,
implement a strong follow-up program. This can encourage repeat business and
even company evangelism, if handled properly.

Customer
delight

Your site should aim to do more than merely satisfy customer
expectations but leave them delighted with the process and products. Meeting
expectations isn’t enough, enhance your site that it exceeds expectations and
makes your site stand out above your competition.

When competing for shoppers that go beyond the initial sale
and become long-term customers, every little thing helps. Ultimately it’s about
meeting the shopper’s needs, wants and desires. The more you can provide them
the information they need in the format they want the more likely you’ll be to
make the sale. The richer the customer experience is the more likely it is that
they’ll keep coming back time and time again.

In fact, while I’m sure there are just as many things that
can derail a visitor on a website, there is no need to implement more than a
few.We have found that any one of the four
things listed below will do the trick!

Not
able to find specific information

Visitors come to your site for a reason. Maybe they are
researching a topic, seeking to gain information, or are comparing differences
between your offerings and a competitor’s. In any case, your visitors are often
searching for something specific, and maybe they even want to take action once
they have the vital pieces of information they seek. Maybe that information is
product specifications, pricing info, or perhaps just a phone or email address.
Do what you can to hide this important information. Be sure to provide only
basic, general information about your topic, product or services and avoid any
decision clinching specifics.

If you feel you absolutely must provide more information,
make sure that it is buried in the midst of a lot of text or that any links to
this information is difficult to find. Nothing says we hate you like hiding
important details or contact information!

Confusing
website

People are easily confused, which makes this an easy task to
accomplish. Don’t waste much energy thinking about things such as layout,
design or navigational consistency. When developing your content, speak in
broad vague terms and use as much industry technobabble as possible. Don’t
worry about website architecture either, that’s just a huge time-consuming task
that ultimately prevents your visitors from having to do any real work to get
the information they need. If you make it all too easy, then your visitors
won’t feel that your information is valuable.

Slow
website

If you happen to have a lightning fast server you might want
to find a new one. You’re probably paying too much for hosting anyway. But if
switching hosts is too much of a problem, and then see what you can do to slow
it down. You can do this quite easily by using poorly implemented code,
excessive code bloat or extremely large images. Add lots of flashy tools and
multimedia that must
be used such as flash based websites that have to download the full file first.

Since many metrics services look at time spent on a website
as an indicator of a site’s overall value, the more you slow things down the
better things look. Slow sites mean visitors must remain on the site longer
just to get the information they need. This can be a boon to advertising.

Broken
Links

Nothing tells your visitors that you care than handfuls of
broken links on your site. I suggest you change URLs frequently and that you don’t perform
monthly broken link checks. This is actually entertaining to your visitors
because broken links create something of a game. And who doesn’t love a good
game of hide and seek, right?

There you have it, four quick and easy ways to dissatisfy
your customers. The great thing about these is that you don’t have to think to
hard about any of them. In fact, they require hardly any thought at all. When I
think about how best to go about creating this kind of unusable environment two
words come to mind, random and haphazard. Not only are those both fun words, but
they make for a fun website.

Creating a website that conveys trust can be tricky. There
are rarely any answers that are always “right” for every visitor.
There are, however, several factors that have universal appeal to the weary
shopper.

Company
info

Provide your visitors information about your company and its
primary owners and operators. Treat your shoppers with a company history and
links to frequently asked questions, policies and physical location. The more
information you provide the better satisfied any concerned shopper will tend to
be.

Prompt
responses

Shoppers want to know that they can rely on a company to
meet their needs and concerns quickly once contacted. Be sure to respond
promptly and professionally to all customer inquiries. Don’t let email or phone
messages go unanswered for more than a couple of hours, especially if requests
are urgent.

Feedback
options

Create ways for visitors to provide user feedback regarding
your products or services and encourage them to do so. Be sure to follow up
with feedback and use it to better your services.

Transaction
security

Emphasize that online transactions will be handled securely
and that privacy is a top priority. Using secure logos and links to privacy
policies page is a must.

Offer
discounts

Sometimes discounts can be a negative, making you appear
desperate. However when implemented properly and professionally, percent-off
discounts and coupons can be effective and giving visitors an added desire to
move forward.

Delivery
options

Be sure to provide low cost and/or varied delivery options. Having
more options available allow visitors to select the delivery method they prefer
and trust the most, which will then lend additional trust to you.

Brand
and product quality

If you sell brand-name products, be sure to emphasis this as
your customers will be more likely to purchase a product brand they recognize.
If you don’t have brand name products, create a brand and emphasize that. An
unknown brand name product is still better than a no-name brand product.

Off-line
retailer comparison

Provide your visitors compelling reasons why they should
purchase products from you rather than an offline competitor. Highlight free
shipping, lower prices, easy access customer support, etc.

Return
policy

Adding a no-hassle return policy can clinch a sale. Be sure
to have return policy information easily available and spell out exactly what
is required to return a product and/or get a refund.

Minimal
/ clearly distinguishable ads

Don’t clutter up your space with ads. Keep your visitors
focused on purchasing your products. If you have ads in informational areas of
the site keep them to a minimum and make sure they don’t overpower your own
information.

In an anonymous world where customers cannot examine a
product or meet with company reps face to face, trust is much harder to come
by. Online businesses have many more hurdles than offline businesses when it
comes to establishing trust with their customer base. This means that as an
online business, you have to do more than just create a compelling reason to
convince people “why you” rather than a competitor. Establishing
trust is the key. Your shoppers need to believe without a doubt that, as a
business, you’re not just in it for yourself, but that you care and will take
care of the customer. Without having established any sort of trust there really
is no sale.

(cue tongue in cheek here…) Here we are, nearly twelve
months later and I can hardly believe that yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have
become a “name”. Ok, so maybe I’m not Jennifer Laycock. Or Rand
Fishkin. Or Jill Whalen. Or Aaron Wall. Or Andy Beal. Or Brian Clark. Or… OK,
you get the point. I have not become that
much of a household name, but still I bet many of you hadn’t heard of me 12
months ago!

So here, for your reading pleasure, is a historical record
of one of the greatest,
all time, 12-month-long link baiting campaigns:

Step 1: Throw
the smackdown on an A-list SEOFebruary 21,
2007

I kicked things off with a bit of trash talk toward Rand
Fishkin of SEOmoz. Rand
had recently written a post that I disagreed with, providing the perfect
opportunity that I needed to launch my evil campaign. While I couched my
remarks with the obligatory words citing my respect and admiration for Rand, I didn’t hesitate to throw down the gauntlet. In my
post he said that Rand’s post was
“ignorant” and then called him out as being an “SEO elite out of
touch with the business of SEO”.

It’s not surprising that this got picked up by a few people
in the SEO community, especially those that knew I would be sharing the stage
with Rand at a conference in Portland the very next month. The foundation had
been laid and the expectation of a brawl was quickly growing.

Step 2:
Wipe
it up (a little)February 28,
2007

In an attempt to keep the issue alive without looking like
an @ss, I followed up on my post criticizing Rand
by criticizing myself. But in order to do so without actually apologizing or
appearing weak, I criticized myself from a third person perspective. Confused?
Yeah, me too. But still, it was nothing short of brilliant. It caused people
wonder (perhaps about my mental health and stability) and I’m sure it spread
fear into Rand knowing he’d be sharing a stage
with someone that was near to being committed.

Step 3: Play
dumbMarch 9, 2007

If you’re ever looking for someone completely and totally
skilled at playing dumb, I’ms your man. Honed through eleven years of marriage
and five kids, I have perfected the play dumb head tilt, voice grunt and the
“I don’t know what you’re talking about” facial expression.

On stage with Rand, you’d
never have guessed that I had insulted him just a month before. When asked by
Rebecca at the pre-party if I had planned on making fun of her boss again, I
was almost successful at convincing her that no such event ever happened. My
powers of persuasion are so grand that Rebecca had broken down in tears
apologizing for accusing him of such terrible things. (Rumor has it she ran
back to her room and jumped on the Internet to find proof.) Rebecca, of course,
denies these events to this day.

Step 5: Set a trap
(anonymously)September 25,
2007

Prepping for another mano y mano with Rand in Seattle (at the SEOmoz
seminar), My team and I created a resume for The Venture Bros. Brock Sampson. The resume
and cover letter were then forwarded to Rand
asking, nay demanding, that they consider him for a job. The stage was being
set for the ultimate link bait payoff to be revealed later.

Step 4: Throw out
some more smackdownSeptember 27,
2007

I then had a simplified version of Rand’s
SEO quiz created and
published online. This version, however, only asked one question: How often do
you agree with Rand? Test takers were then
scored depending on how they answered the question. This was fantastic
tongue-in-cheek humor that rocket throughout the SEO community. Brilliant!

Step 6: Spy and play niceOctober 1, 2007

In Seattle,
I played kissy-kissy with the whole SEOmoz team. Rebecca was so enamored with
me that she actually invited me back to her pad, er, office to check her out,
er, show him the inner workings of the SEOmoz team. I was also successful at
cornering Rand and chatted him up; Rand being
none-the-wiser to what would unfold later that evening.

Step 7:
Reveal the prizeOctober 1, 2007 -
evening

During the after-party, my team and I looked for the perfect
opportunity to reveal to Rand and company
their newest team member: a handcrafted action figure of Brock Sampson. Rebecca
cried and begged for a job “with the geniuses at Pole Position
Marketing” but I felt she was too needy and had to turn her down. She
cried some more. Rand, of course had similar
feelings and if Gillian wasn’t there to stop him he might have ridden back on
the plane sitting on my lap!

Step 8:
Wait (and wait and wait)October 2-November 6,
2007

Any good link baiter must learn to bide their time.
Especially when waiting an important part of the next phase of an evil baiting
plan. I expected the awesomeness of the Brock Sampson campaign to go
unrewarded. Sure, promises were made but we knew that sometimes people need a
little incentive to follow through. Well that played right into my hands.

Step 9: BlackmailNovember 7, 2007

Having expected a period of silence after Brock was
presented to Rand and team, I had taken some incriminating photos of Brock
Sampson long before his trip to Seattle.
Of course, since Rand and his team have yet to fulfill every
last detail of the ransom note,
it is yet to be
determined if those photos will be made public.
But I must tell you, they are not the stuff that small children should see!

Step
10: Snag
interview (and become household name)November 14,
2007

Having no choice but to concede, or else risk major
embarrassment, Rand puts together a
spectacular, world-class interview that rocketed me into semi-stardom status.

With a little creativity, a lot of patience and some
blackmail-ready photographs, one truly can work their way up the industry food
chain. Oh, and a note to the SEOmoz team: I suggest you read the fine print in
the blackmail letter. We’re still waiting for one final demand to be fulfilled.
We still have those photos. Don’t make us do it!

Search
functionality

If possible, create an extremely robust and accurate search
function for the website. A good search function should be able to provide
visitors the information they are seeking even if products are misspelled in
the search box or search products are not offered at all. Be careful, as
anything less than a perfect search function only serves to frustrate rather
than help visitors.

Navigation
paths

Create clear navigation paths from the moment a product is
added to the shopping cart. This path should allow them to continue shopping,
continue through the purchase process or get additional questions answered as
needed.

Calls
to action

Informational and product pages must consistently use clear
calls to action encouraging shoppers to buy now, save for later or post a
review. This not only gives your visitors options but compels them to continue
moving forward in the process.

Product
presentation

Present your products in a way that allows the visitors to
quickly glean the information they need. Use clean images, allowing multiple
views and image enlargements to give the visitor a complete view of the product
they are purchasing.

Product
availability

Listing product availability his a helpful signal that
shoppers can purchase this product now and expect to receive it quickly. At the
very least be sure to tell your visitors if the product is out of stock or will
be have any shipping delays due to availability.

Product
comparison guides

It is extremely helpful to allow shoppers to compare product
features and benefits side by side. If you don’t sell multiple products then
create a comparison between your product and your competitors. Be honest, if
your product lacks what a competitor’s has, document that appropriately.

Customer
product reviews

If possible allow your shoppers to post reviews on your
product pages. Don’t discriminate by removing unfavorable reviews, these can be
helpful and show that your reviews can be trusted and that you stand behind
your products despite the occasional negative comment.

Up-sell
/ cross-sell

Be sure you are using your up- and cross-sell opportunities
to the fullest potential. Provide a list of related products that typically go
along with any current items in a shopping cart or product being viewed. You
can also show similar products that have different features that might be more
to the shoppers liking.

Add-ons

If applicable, allow shoppers to purchase additional
services such as product engraving, customization, gift wrapping, etc. These
features can make a nice up-sell opportunity while giving the visitors that
customization offer that they need for special purchases.

Representative
contact

Some shoppers want the comfort of knowing that they can call
and get assistance with their order. They may even rather place their order
over the phone. Meet your visitor’s needs by providing an easy to find 1-800
contact number along with other contact information.

Billing
options

Provide your shoppers with multiple options on how to pay
for their purchase. Some shoppers are more comfortable with one form of payment
over another and allowing their preferred option can be all it takes to get
them to hit that “pay now” button.

It’s not your products but your shoppers that are most
valuable to you as a business. Most likely, the same products you sell can be
found elsewhere and at a cheaper cost. This means you need to make sure your
shoppers are treated accordingly. Ensuring that your site meets and exceeds
shoppers’ needs and expectations provides a comfortable and trustworthy
environment that will make shopping and buying easier. This, in turn, will
improve your conversions selling more products at a smaller expense.

None of these things lead directly to conversions but they
do lead to higher company awareness and the good old fashioned fuzzy-feelings
we get when we know that that we are valued as a customer. Most times we are
probably not even be aware of these things on a conscious level. But the effect
shows as we have a tendency to patron these companies more frequently than the
other alternatives.

Branding
is a viable marketing strategy

Businesses worldwide invest millions of dollars in branding
campaigns each year. In fact, let’s put aside pure branding campaigns. If you
think about it, providing good customer service is branding too. The quality of
customer service a company provides (good or bad), causes an image of that
company to be branded into the consumers mind. Over time, a little here and a
little there builds up into a solid perception of that company. Whether they
like it or not they have established a recognizable brand by doing little more
than going about their business.

When it comes to realizing the benefits of branding, most
companies will tell you that it is valuable. But increases in sales can rarely
be traced back to a single customer service or branding event. But that doesn’t
negate the value or stop companies from investing their money into these types
of campaigns. The lack of trackable ROI on a per-sale level doesn’t make
branding (or good customer service) an unnecessary expense. In fact I don’t
think any consumer would argue against the necessity of excellent customer
service.

So what’s all this have to do with social media?

Social
media is
branding

Over time Target may see an increase in brand awareness and
overall sales due to their clever TV commercials that do little more than show
people dancing around a red target symbol, but I doubt they can trace any sales
increase to a single commercial spot. I’m sure Wal-Mart can’t track a single
purchase to the addition of the elderly employee standing at the entrance
greeting customers. But when we walk through those doors, we feel that Wal-Mart
cares just a little bit more about me, the customer. So goes social media.

When we engage in social media and online social networking,
we similarly don’t see any immediate, trackable results. But, like branding and
customer service, we don’t need to in order to understand that it’s valuable.
When companies engage in social media they can’t think of it as a traditional
marketing expense with a return on investment that can be shown on paper.
Results won’t be seen immediately and usually only after a very long period of
time, and you’ll not likely be able to pinpoint a single new sale or customer
on a particular branding campaign.

But social media is still important. It provides a way for
companies to get out there and get noticed. It’s an opportunity to go where the
consumers are and create a presence. Like a TV ad, you don’t have to wait for
consumers to find you, you go where they are. But instead of forcing yourself
on them while they are watching their favorite TV show, social media let’s you
actually hang out with them. You’re not the ad on the wall, you’re the guy
holding the drink telling stories that your audience finds fascinating.

Social
media is better than branding and customer service

Because of the direct interaction social media affords the
client with their customers, it truly is better than any branding campaign,
including one-on-one customer service.Customer service means that the target consumer has to become a customer
first (or at least be very close to becoming a customer) before you can make a
good impression.

Social media, however allows you to brand yourself long
before anyone becomes your customer. And it can often be the catalyst that
brings them over. And why wouldn’t they? You’ve already become a part of the
group. In fact, if you’ve done your social marketing right, you’ve already
become their friend. This is interactive branding at work.

So don’t be afraid to participate in social media just
because you don’t see the ROI. You’re not likely to, at least not immediately
and not in a way you can pinpoint one event causing another. But over time, you
can build your social reputation. This leads to credibility. And over time that
credibility and awareness will very likely lead to an increase in your customer
base.

In fact, while I’m sure there are just as many things that
can derail a visitor on a website, there is no need to implement more than a
few.We have found that any one of the four
things listed below will do the trick!

Not
able to find specific information

Visitors come to your site for a reason. Maybe they are
researching a topic, seeking to gain information, or are comparing differences
between your offerings and a competitor’s. In any case, your visitors are often
searching for something specific, and maybe they even want to take action once
they have the vital pieces of information they seek. Maybe that information is
product specifications, pricing info, or perhaps just a phone or email address.
Do what you can to hide this important information. Be sure to provide only
basic, general information about your topic, product or services and avoid any
decision clinching specifics.

If you feel you absolutely must provide more information,
make sure that it is buried in the midst of a lot of text or that any links to
this information is difficult to find. Nothing says we hate you like hiding
important details or contact information!

Confusing
website

People are easily confused, which makes this an easy task to
accomplish. Don’t waste much energy thinking about things such as layout,
design or navigational consistency. When developing your content, speak in
broad vague terms and use as much industry technobabble as possible. Don’t
worry about website architecture either, that’s just a huge time-consuming task
that ultimately prevents your visitors from having to do any real work to get
the information they need. If you make it all too easy, then your visitors
won’t feel that your information is valuable.

Slow
website

If you happen to have a lightning fast server you might want
to find a new one. You’re probably paying too much for hosting anyway. But if
switching hosts is too much of a problem, and then see what you can do to slow
it down. You can do this quite easily by using poorly implemented code,
excessive code bloat or extremely large images. Add lots of flashy tools and
multimedia that must
be used such as flash based websites that have to download the full file first.

Since many metrics services look at time spent on a website
as an indicator of a site’s overall value, the more you slow things down the
better things look. Slow sites mean visitors must remain on the site longer
just to get the information they need. This can be a boon to advertising.

Broken
Links

Nothing tells your visitors that you care than handfuls of
broken links on your site. I suggest you change URLs frequently and that you don’t perform
monthly broken link checks. This is actually entertaining to your visitors
because broken links create something of a game. And who doesn’t love a good
game of hide and seek, right?

There you have it, four quick and easy ways to dissatisfy
your customers. The great thing about these is that you don’t have to think to
hard about any of them. In fact, they require hardly any thought at all. When I
think about how best to go about creating this kind of unusable environment two
words come to mind, random and haphazard. Not only are those both fun words, but
they make for a fun website.

Small sites typically don’t need a site map so long as all
pages are linked in the main navigation. Once you get into main and
sub-navigation menu’s then site maps are helpful in allowing search engines and
visitors to quickly find anything they are looking for within just a couple of
clicks. A single site map can be used for both purposes or multiple site maps
can be created. Here we’ll address creating site maps for spiders and humans
separately.

Site Map
For Spiders

.xml
file

An .xml document should be added to your site’s root
directory containing links to all site pages. This .xml file should then be
referenced should be compiled and placed into a proper .xml document which
should be uploaded into the root directory.

Robots.txt
file

With your .xml site map file in place you must then make it
accessible to search spiders. Reference the site map in your robots.txt file by
adding a line for sitemap: URL (example: sitemap: http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/sitemap.xml)

Keep
current

Be sure that your .xml file is updated and uploaded
frequently, or at least as often as pages are added or removed from your site.
Large sites should implement an automated site map update monthly or even
weekly or daily.

Site Map
For Visitors

Navigation
links

A site map designed for human visitors is just like any
other website page. Link to the site map page should be included in the primary
navigation or the site’s global footer. Visitors should be able to find this
link without too much searching.

Additional
page links

Site map should also be linked from various pages within the
site such as Help pages and your custom 404-redirect page. This helps point
visitors to the site map as a quick and easy means to find what they need.

Overview

It’s helpful to provide a short overview paragraph at the
top of your site map page. This can be a nice introduction should someone land
on this page directly from a search engine or elsewhere.

Heading
and layout

The layout of the site map should present a clear visual
hierarchal structure or your website. Both headings and sub-headings should be
used above properly grouped links.

Text
links & descriptions

Site map should primarily use textual links and page should
not be cluttered with images or other distractions. It is also a good idea to
provide an additional short description (provided there is room) for each link
that allows the visitor to better understand where each link will take them.

Keep
current

Be sure that your site map is updated and uploaded
frequently, or at least as often as pages are added or removed from your site.

As I said above, not every site needs a site map. But those
that do should be sure that the site map(s) they create are actually benefiting
them. And the best way to do that is to make sure your site maps provide
maximum usability for visitors and search engine spiders.

To do that you have to first know who your audience is, know
what they seek and then also know their purpose for being on your site. Knowing
all this then lets you work toward meeting the needs of your target audience.
But it also means taking things a step further and building a relationship with
them. The ability to build a relationship with your visitors can be crucial to
driving them through the persuasion process. Relationship building starts the
moment the visitor hits the website.

Getting
attention

Every page of your site is a landing page. From the moment
visitors land on that first page you need to grab their attention. This doesn’t
require any gimmicks, but it does require the ability to organize your
information in a compelling and visually friendly way.

Reassurance

Each page of your site must continue to assure your visitors
that they are where they need to be to get the information they came looking
for. Placement and words used in page headings, contextual links, bullet
points, etc. can all be used to reassure your visitors that you have the
information they need without much more than a quick glance.

What’s
in it for them?

If your visitors can’t immediately figure out “What’s
in it for me?” then you will quickly lose their interest. Your visitors
need to quickly find resolutions to the questions, product information, benefits
and ultimately the question of why they should buy from you. If this
information cannot be addressed on each page, provide obvious links to the
pages that do.

SEO vs.
usability

On-page SEO should enhance, rather than distract from, the
visitor’s engagement on the site. If your copy is poorly developed because
you’re trying too hard to insert keywords into the text, then your visitors
will be pulled away from, rather than engaged in, the message. Good SEO
considers users, not just search engines.

Textual
links

Textual links should be used as frequently as necessary to
provide a customer-engaged navigation path. Contextual links, as opposed to
standard navigation elements, allow visitors to click through finding the information
that most interests them without forcing them to think about where they want to
go next. Provide the path and they will follow.

When you don’t engage your visitors by providing them the
information they want in a way that speaks to their wants and needs, then
you’re mostly just speaking at users rather than to customers.You
want your visitors to have a personal experience as they interact with your
website. Make them feel as if you developed the site just for them.