Social Web Tips

When optimizing your website, it is generally expected that your pages need to have certain keyword density to be ranked with the search engines. While it is a good idea to have at least one keyword on the page, you also need to remember that real people will be reading your pages, so you need to also write your text for the people.

What words to use?

Search engines try to view websites like people to better understand what the sites are about, how relevant they are to the search queries, what the intent is behind them and so forth. It means that you need to make the site relevant to your target audience, which will also help the search engines.

To use words naturally, you need to know your audience by:

• talking to them, if you have an office or meet your customers face to face
• visiting the websites they visit and read what they read
• use various keyword research tools, such as WordTracker, to determine which words and phrases are more popular
• read the news about the industry to gather the widely known or new phrases
• be an expert in the industry your website is about, so you’ll know not only your audience, but also competitors, products and so forth

In terms of making the website relevant to your customers, you need to know their needs, values and what words they use, when thinking and talking about your product

Where to place the keywords?

To create the website and pages that your visitors will understand, you also need to place the words where the visitors will see them, such as in the:

• page titles (the title tag)
• page headings (the h1 tag) and subheadings (h2-h6 tags)
• text body (paragraph tags, lists, data tables, etc)
• internal link text that you can control (from your other pages)
• URL (the file name, file path, even if was created by a content management system)

If a page has the keyword you are targetting in all of the above points, then the visitor will understand that the page is at least related to it or maybe even about the subject. So will the search engines, which will drive targeted traffic to your website.

How to place the keywords?

Once you know the words you need to use and where to place them, you can get to work:

• think about the customers, their needs and what they can get/do on the page
• write about the value that the people can get from the page/website and provide an easy way to do that
• write as if you are writing to a friend, because people love personality and don’t trust informal, corporate writing
• use the words your customers use naturally, thinking how it would most suit your readers
• use call to action with the verb, related to the topic, such as “Download SEO software”, not just “SEO software download”

You simply need to write for the people, about how easily they’ll get what they came for and how to get it. The search engines will follow.

You may wonder, “Why should I write for the people, not for the search engines, since they rank the websites?” That’s a good question. The thing is, that though the search engines index and rank websites, people choose which website to visit by checking the page title (tag) and the snippet they see underneat (taken from meta description or from the page), so you need to make the page human friendly.

Also, it is humans who pay your bills, and you need to make sure that visitors actually convert to customers and you can only do that with human and value focused approach. Remember: the search engines follow how humans view and value websites, not the other way around.

Use the words right

But simply having the words your visitors know and can relate to doesn’t end what you can do to help them find what they want on your website. You can also use:

• words to create the information scent for your visitors (so they follow the words that interest them)
• call to action to motivate people do certain things they want on your website, such as ‘get more tips by subscribing to the newsletter’
• points of resolution (actions that lead to the final conversion) to make the process of moving down the buying process easier

In essence, you need to use the words to inspire people action that interests them and where you can assist them. Of course, you need to have the udnerlying offers, technologies and content to make this possible, but this is another topic altogether.

Rounding up

Generally, the whole optimization thing is about making it easy for people to find what they want. If you provide what people want and make it easy to find it on your website, you’ve got a conversion or even a sale. Using words that your customers use is just one of the tactics to make this happen.

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What's the maximum you should bid on your pay-per-click keywords?
The answer depends, in the first instance at least, on your campaign objective.
What's that . . . (…)

As an expert, especially, if you do consulting, you, probably, spend a great deal time of using your knowledge for your clients and educating them around the industry. But how well do you apply your knowledge to your own work and business?

For example, for any client, you’d probably advise:

• knowing the industry (you do that already, hopefully)
• building something of value and providing value on every step of the journey
• participating in the industry by socializing with other experts
• building good relationships with clients
• keeping your site simple to use
• always having an obvious way to contact
• and so on

But do you actually apply these techniques for your own work or business? How much time do you spend:

• improving your own website
• actually providing value to your client, without checking in with your contract much
• overdelivering
• making your site usable
• socializing with the people from your industry
• building relationships with your clients
• actually promoting your website using all the methods you know and doing it the right way

For instance, while I always aim to find ways to provide value to the client, such as examining every situation and case and applying the principle there, I don’t obviously spend enough time on my site. I really should be writing and posting more.

Does a forgotten site mean you are a quack?

I’d say that if you are a pretty busy person, your website hasn’t been drastically improved for weeks, months or maybe years.

A very good example would be a website of Ammon Johns. It’s been only recently redesigned and while it only has masterpiece content, the amount of articles is very modest and probably hasn’t increased for weeks/months.

Sorry to out you, Ammon, but I think it shows how good an Internet marketer you are that you are always working for the people (I think that’s a good excuse I can use about my site, too :p). By the way, Ammon won’t be writing a blog. You can always find him at Cre8asite Forums, though.

To give credit to Ammon, though, his site does rank high for web marketing and web promotion. Not to mention local searches. I think that’s an outstanding achievement, since the work has been done elsewhere (or so it seems to me).

So, in essence, when it comes to SEO, I’d gather that

• posting often
• always tweaking the site
• tracking stats and links attentively
• promoting the site to stay visible
• reading other blogs

is always limited by the amount of time you spend on your customers. And the site can get really, really overgrown with vines and other ilk of the past design eras.

So, apart from the initial question,

• How regularly do you update your website?
• Do you watch your stats, how often?
• Do you always seek and find ways to make your site easy to use?
• How many hours per week do you spend on your own website?
• When do you plan to start working on your site?

Thank you for answering.

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Whenever you are looking to promote an affiliate product, the usual wisdom touted by many trainers is that you should be looking for products that pay the highest commission possible. (…)

In social marketing, having a powerful account to submit from helps to get the story to the front page, or to get noticed, at least. In fact, some link baiters build strong accounts specifically to get successful promotions for their clients.

Lately, as my Stumble Upon account grows, I begin to sense responsibility for stuff I thumbs up and review, because it is seen by the people from the Web industry.

As I thumbs up stories mostly related to Web building, I add those people to friends that share similar interests with me. If I start stumbling my client’s sites, related to widget building, construction or maybe network security, my social friends won’t be interested in it.

Worse, if the piece I stumble/digg is below average, I might lose the friends, authority and trust within social networks.

So it leads to important questions I have yet to give a final answer to:

• Do you use your power account to submit the linkbait pieces you created for your clients or you build a separate one?
• To do that, do you submit stories from the same industry to be natural?
• How far do you go into researching the topic of your client?
• Do you work on your piece as much as is needed to make it worthy for your friends on social networks?

Tell me what you think, please (Thanks!)

I’d also like to hear from:

• Lyndon Antcliff, who already has info on Stumbling
• Todd Malicoat
• Andy Hagans
• Aaron Wall
• Muhammad Saleem

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How many times have you started shopping, put a great deal of effort in entering all the required information, only to see the “You can’t buy now” message. Read where Amazon has failed and how you can improve your shopping cart (scroll to the bottom, if in a hurry).

The story

So, I wanted to buy a Seth Godin’s book, The Bootstrapper’s Bible: Volume 1 (Amazon fails to ship to me, so I’d eventually buy Seth’s other books for a paperback price, if he had them in a digital format, too). For such a price, lower than any e-book I know - and of much greater value, I thought this was worth having.

(Btw, if you haven’t read Seth’s free e-book “Unleashing the Ideavirus”, you must, ought to, have to and are absolutely obliged to read it. It is about why ideas rule the world and how you can make them spread for your benefit.

You can also find his other free e-books, including a free Bootstrapping Guide Manifesto (PDF, 1.2 Mb), in his lens. Thanks, Seth.)

But back to the story.

The button on the right, aptly named “Buy now with 1-Click®”, was convincing enough.

So, I clicked and a window appeared, asking for registering or logging in (Bad) (why not do it using the info I use in buying the book, anyway?).

The form had my email address entered and simply wanted my password (Good - they remembered me and my email address).

The next window wanted my payment method, name, credit card number and card expiration date. So far so good, but it wasn’t the entire “1-Click®” purchase, though.

After clicking continue, I was hoping to get my e-book. Not so fast. It wanted my new billing information, prompting for no country, but absolutely requiring me to select a state (from the US states) (Bad)

When I did, it needed a zipcode, matching a state. Fun. Luckily, I remembered a 95001 zip code for California (CA), so I went through this hurdle, too. What would happen to some foreigner not familiar with the zipcodes of the US states I don’t know (a lost sale, maybe?).

After clicking “Continue” for the 4th time (apart from clicking on the “Buy now” button), I got the following message:

All Amazon Digital transactions are completed with 1-Click® to provide you with a quick and easy purchase process.

Your e-Document purchase will be completed when you click “Continue” and your credit card will be charged. Your purchase will be available for you to download immediately.

Talking about the easy process after 4-5 clicks seems like an attempt to make fun of me. Don’t make fun of your customers (please, Amazon). (To be fair, the same message does appear when you do have the “1-Click®” option enabled, after clicking on it).

While the usefulness of the above passage is disputable (I’d say that in order to reduce the amount of clicks, this step must have been spotlessly eliminated), I had to click the “Continue” button for the 5th time of 1 promised by the luring button. (Bad, yet again)

And, being pumped up during the buying/ordering/hacking process and that passage, I get the following message:

We could not process your order because of geographical restrictions on the product which you were attempting to purchase. Please refer to the terms of use for this product to determine the geographical restrictions.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sorry, Amazon. Five clicks instead of one I can forgive (and Yoda speak I too can), but not letting me download an e-book, is out of place. You’ve just lost my loyalty and joined the ranks of “Will use as the last choice only” companies that I appear to have now. (Need I repeat myself?)

What’s wrong

Here’s what is wrong:

• asking me to register before purchasing is no good (asking me to log in to use my already entered information is good, but you have to really use the information)
• asking for my billing address, while having my credit card details, seems out of place, as I seem to have some info in my account (it appears the “1-Click” option needs to be turned on, but why not turn it on automatically, when the button is pressed, if the required information is present?)
• if you are selling internationally (digital products sell this way, mostly), allow the form to accept any information (avoid things that annoy international shoppers)
• restricting the purchase to the USA is the worst mistake you can make. In the spirit of Seth Godin (who inspires people to share stuff), a thought to limit distribution should not exist at all
• telling me to go back to check the terms of use for the product is one thing, but not giving me a direct link is a crime. Give me a link, don’t make me go back 6 pages back and try to find it.
• and the funniest thing is, there was not only a not obvious “terms of use for this product”, but there is no such a link at all on the long, detailed page.

How to do it right

So, if you want to be better than Amazon, remember this:

1. [if you do promise a way to buy in one click] do strive to make the process obvious (for people to use it) and reduce the number of clicks/characters entered ruthlessly (such as making fewer ordering steps and required forms to be filled)
2. make your button labels obvious and true (show links how to them, too)
3. if you want your visitors to register, try to use their ordering information and make this process as easy as possible
4. if the item has “geographical restrictions”, do everything to remove them and make sure the customer can get what he/she wants
5. if you still have them, make them obvious on the product page, not after 5 (or more, if you are a new customer) pages of entering information and clicking through
6. in forms, place form labels above the fields, not on the side
7. on the error page, provide clear ways to solve it (a link to a page with useful info will help a lot)

As you can see, this list is pretty general what people say you can do to improve your shopping cart, so putting things into practice should clearly help you reduce cart abandonment rate.

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