|
/pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> |
10 Ways to Sabotage Your Website Traffic and Send Visitors Packing
If you're running a website or online business, your number one goal should be to build traffic. The following are ten ways to drive traffic away from your site. Make sure you aren't making these mistakes.
1. Links Open in the Same Window: If links to other sites don't open in a new window, then you are giving your traffic away. Don't expect site visitors to use the "Back" button or remember where they started. Once they're gone, they are most likely gone for good.
2. No Free Content: Sites that are pure sales pitches are missing the boat. You need to establish credibility with your site visitors and give them a reason to come back. Simply displaying the internet equivalent of an informercial gives your visitors little chance to get to know you-and many people will need to be exposed to your site a number of times before buying. Offer articles, links, statistics, and other useful information.
3. Poor Design: You don't have to be a professional web designer to have a quality site. You can purchase an inexpensive template to give your site a uniform and professional appearance.
4. Useless Newsletter: If you don't already have a newsletter, you should. This is an effective and inexpensive way to market your business. Your newsletter MUST provide information your subscribers want. The best newsletters give free tips and advice-and lots of it. You want your subscribers to enjoy receiving your content and to pass it on to a friend. Survey your readers and ask for feedback. Find out what they want and then figure out how to deliver.
5. Difficult to Subscribe: You should be asking your visitors to sign up for your newsletter or e-zine and make it easy for them to do so. Every single page in your site should provide the opportunity to subscribe. Archiving copies of your newsletter also allows visitors the chance to try before they buy. If your newsletter is good enough, subscribers will be in abundance.
6. Weak "About" Info: Too many websites either don't have an "About Us" page or have one with minimal information. Not only is this page a tool to establish credibility with your customers, it's a way the media can learn more about your business.
7. Lacking Contact Info: Similar to the "About Us" page, the "Contact Us" page needs to be as thorough as possible. If you don't include a mailing address or location information, site visitors may question your credibility. If you don't have a commercial location, you can rent a post office box. You may never even receive mail there, but at least you will be accessible.
8. Too Much Advertising: You want your site to sell, but you will drive potential customers away by advertising too heavily. Avoid becoming a banner farm and balance quality content with related advertising.
9. Using a Hit Counter: There is absolutely no reason to provide a hit counter on your site. Why advertise your site traffic to everyone when you can obtain the statistics through your hosting provider?
10. Broken Links: Not only do broken links hurt your website rankings when crawled by the search engines, but they frustrate visitors. If you provide a lot of links on your site it can be difficult to keep up with them. Make a point of testing your links on a regular basis and let your visitors help you by including an option on each page to "Report a Broken Link."
If your site is guilty of any of the above offenses, then it's time to act. Evaluate the web sites you visit and notice which sites look very professional and which sites need help. Virtually anyone can run a successful website by being resourceful and avoiding these mistakes.
Stephanie Chandler is the author of "The Business Startup Checklist and Planning Guide: Seize Your Entrepreneurial Dreams!" and the founder of http://www.BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of free resources for entrepreneurs. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive hot small business tips and resources by sending an email to newsletter@BusinessInfoGuide.com.
A Website Checklist
If you've just finished building your new website (or revamping your old one), how can you be sure it's "ready for prime time"? Or maybe your site's been around for awhile and you think it may be due for a makeover. Because Web technologies, techniques and standards change so rapidly, even a website that seems "cutting edge" when it's built can look obsolete a year later. Or maybe you started out with a barebones website and finally have the time and/or money to take it to the next level. If you'd to give your website the once over, here are ten aspects you should consider:
Power of Squeeze Pages for Realtors
Squeeze pages are a very hot topic in the internet marketing scene. What a squeeze page is is a page that is built to get someone to take an action. You have a newsletter but visitors to your site are not subscribing to it enough for your liking so what you do is on each page of your site you offer some kind of freebie, lets say on your buyers page you can offer to send the kind of listings that the person is looking for (if your MLS offers the service this may be very very easy to do) or maybe on a page for sellers you could offer a free download of a "Make more money be properly preparing your home to sell".
How to Convince Your Visitors to Return Often
One visit does not make a sale. Be sure to make your Web site attractive to your visitors so that they want to come back. You don't win their trust right away. It may take 4-7 visits before they buy.
Transforming A Site From Good To Excellent
One of the challenges of moving a web site up from good to excellent is transforming it from just a bunch of web pages and graphics to an interactive experience. Another term for this is community - a place where people can come to communicate with others. The very best web sites have mastered this transformation, thus attracting return visitors again and again.
3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website
Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the internet it always pays dividends to look at the website itself and get the fundamentals right before looking to shout about it from the virtual mountain-tops.
Tapping Into The Visual Stimulus Of Your Web Site Visitors
"Oh, my eyes, my eyes! What an eye sore. Quick, click away! Click away!"
Turn Benefits Into Sales with Streaming Media
The "Wow" factor that accompanied the introduction of streaming media on the Web has long passed, and the technology now has to prove itself to marketers. Its' acceptance by advertisers, in conjunction with other rich media technologies, is on the upswing, but it's still not widely used to enhance commercial sites.
Your Website Hurts My Eyes: 7 Reasons to Tone Down Your Advertising
So you're on the computer, as usual. Your eyes are smarting. Your back hurts. You want to jump in the car and sail down the highway with all the windows down and your hair flapping in the wind. But before you call it quits for the day, you have to look up just one more thing. Maybe it's web marketing, maybe you want to buy some artwork to hang in your office. Off to Google you go.
Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds. It also gives extra credit to the size of the type and title of each page.
Your Graphics- Are They Really Working For You?
(Making Your Graphics Work For You)
Will You Site be a BIG SUCCESS. 7 Reasons Why It Might Not!
With so many new websites going up, it is hard sometimes to tell if your site will be a BIG SUCCESS or an unexpected flop? If you are unsure of whether or not your site will fly with visitors or crash and burn, this article is definitely for you. Now we all know the importance of great service, but if your website doesn't communicate this, then you could be headed for failure.
Reach Out To Billions
Have you heard of 'Babel Fish'?
How to Make the Online Sales Copy for Your Website More Conversational
It has been said that the best online sales copy is one that talks to your prospect as if you are in together in a conversation.
Title Tags - How to Make Them More Effective
The title tags of your web pages are more important than most web authors realize. Once you understand why the title is so important, you can easily write more effective title tags.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way... any novice can create a fully functional website in less than a week.
Every Website is a Human Being?s Attempt at Achieving a Goal or Obtaining Happiness
Have you ever thought about the real stories behind all the websites on the Internet? There are over 10 million sites out there and a human being with some hope or dream driving the process constructed each one. Too much of our modern world is presented to us in a barrage of superficial pictures that only show a very external glimpse of the true reality beneath the surface. Wouldn't you like to know about the people who live behind this wall of technology? Humanity is the force behind all the websites, and for that matter, all technology that we use without a second thought everyday. Behind every advance in technology is a human being who wanted to get something done, then did it.
Website Polls For You And Your Visitors
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor. Choose interesting topics, poll opinions on recent events related to your site, and people will participate to find out what other people on your site think. Second, if you write your surveys in a way that keeps them interesting and useful to yourself you can gather important information about your visitors in order to build a site better tailored to their interests.
Elements of Graphic Design for Your Website
We've all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make you cringe as soon as they load. But how do you keep your website from becoming, well, ugh. You could hire a professional web designer, and that's expensive, or maybe you already hired a professional, or someone who claims to be professional, and you don't like what they're doing with your site. It all comes down to the K.I.S.S. principle; keep it simple stupid. And you're probably asking well what does this really mean for web design.
Developing Your Winning Web Site Strategy
Your web site is the key to your success on the Internet. You can use your web site to build your brand, increase sales, generate more leads, slash costs, and much more. In fact, you probably have very specific goals that your web site is helping you to achieve for your company.
How to Design Website Which Google Likes
Are you going to design or redesign new website or thinking for it, then first read below given points, which google likes in a website, Google Information for Webmasters.