iTraffic-ctrl.com

Lately it seems as though all of my friends assume that because of my profession, I can help them find whatever they need on the internet. However, I must say that I was a tad bit unprepared when my friend told me that he needed to find a breast pump. Once he explained what it was for (to help feed his newborn son) and why he needed it so quickly (his wife’s maternity leave was almost up), I set off on my breast pump hunt. Low and behold, I discovered an exceptional (from an SEO standpoint) website in the process.

The site that I finally settled on purchasing from was BreastPumpsDirect.com. And to tell the truth I was quite surprised by what I found. This site is actually a pretty good example of an E-commerce store.

Below, I’ve listed some of the more defining features of the site. If you’re in the process of building an online store or just refining your existing one, you may want to consider adding these features to your design. I use these features in all of my personal sites, and it’s nice to see others trying the same approach. It helps to reinforce my ideas.

Intuitive Navigation - The navigation is straightforward and intuitive. There are primary links in both text and image format. This pleases both visitors and search engines.

Useful Content - Aside from being link bait, the “Breast Pump Resources” section of this site can work wonders for conversion rates and traffic.

Blog - There was even a “Mommy Blog.” This feature was not yet active but we all know the power of blogs and this is undoubtedly a great addition to an online store.

Consumer Reviews - The beauty of a reviews section, is that it a can be a disguised method of product promotion. I always say that honesty is the best policy, but who says that means you have to post every submitted review. Ask friends who have used the product (regardless of where it was purchased) to write reviews. It is important to note that having a couple of negative reviews in the mix is not necessarily a bad thing.

Authoritative Appearance - Make the store look more like an authoritative source and less like a shopping cart. This will convey trust, which will improve conversions, answer customer questions, and make your site more link worthy.

Brochure/Informational websites

The majority of professional websites serve as brochures, and if built properly, they will function as an effective, lead generating, sales tool. The main difference (besides the obvious shopping cart software) between brochure type sites and e-commerce sites is that you want visitors to spend time reading you content as opposed to leading them to a check out.

• Unless you are an experienced writer, I suggest finding someone who knows how to write for the web to create your text. I also recommend finding a writer who has experience with mass communications and marketing.
• Remember the golden triangle of web design. Studies have proven that people view websites in a predictable pattern, and so we should place our important material where it is most likely to get noticed. Click here for more details.
• Navigation is the backbone of your design. Take extra time when designing this part of your website. Excessive amounts of buttons and drop down menus are not good. Make sure that the buttons use an easy to read font and they stand out of the page.
• Use a consistent header style from page to page. Visitors from search engines usually do not land on the home page, so it is important to carry your theme effectively from page to page.
• Use minimal amounts of flash and special effects. It will interfere with your important (text) content and cause your pages to load slowly. Moderation is important. (Most people skip flash intros anyway)
• Keywords are important for search engine spiders, but always remember to write for people first and foremost.
• Keep your design free of clutter and excessive advertising (such as adwords).
• Put Calls To Action on Every page – never leave the customer guessing.
• Color selection is important for more than aesthetic reasons. Studies have proven that certain colors elicit specific feelings, so it is wise to research the colors that you intend to use. (Example: Dark blue is a trusting and soothing color.)
• People look at text next to faces. Keep this in mind when designing your page layout
• Keep the “Contact Us” web forms short and simple. People are impatient and will not fill out excessively long forms just to inquire about a product or service. Gather only the information that is necessary for you to make a sales call or send a follow up email.

These tips are the result of many hours spent tweaking my designs and monitoring traffic and conversion rates. I have verified their validity and I recommend taking them into consideration when refining your own website.

In several of my previous posts, I have written about various link building techniques. Some of these techniques are more risky (Coop-Advertising) than others (Writing Articles), but they have all worked for me. Every link builder has methods that they prefer based on what they are good at. Some individuals are really tech savvy and figure out ways to out smart the search engines while others are proficient writers and prefer to use articles.

The following is a list of my favorite methods (old and new school) for getting link juice. These are proven to be effective and whether you are a writer, hacker, or salesman you should find at least one that you are comfortable with.

• Friends and family offer a great opportunity for easy and often time’s valuable links. Think of how many friends and family members that you know of who happen to have blogs, websites, and personal networking pages. Simply send out a mass email asking them for a link to your site. This technique has a very high success rate because friends and family are obligated to help you out.
• After you have exhausted your friendly resources, it is time to move on to hired guns. Search sites such as Technorati to find bloggers in your industry and use flattery to build a relationship and persuade them to link to you from one of their posts or articles.
• Find errors (broken links, etc) in other websites and report them to the owner. Often not, if the error is significant enough, they will usually give you a link in exchange for your help.
• Use Yahoo and MSN backlink search results (site:www.domain.com) to locate valuable link partners, then just make them an offer they can’t refuse. The trick to this is to study each website that you want a link from and use your judgment to determine whether to use either flattery or bribery to get what you want.
• Post comments on blogs even if it is using no follow tags. Testing has shown that certain search engines (i.e. Yahoo!) still count links that have the nofollow tag. Also, this technique will generate some extra traffic from avid bloggers.
• If you are a web designer/host, you should link your websites together. However, there are some rules for this. Only link sites that are in the same industry and keep all of your sites on different C-class IP addresses. This is also a good time to verify that your server is SEO friendly. For a list of SEO friendly server features visit SEO Certified Servers.
• Make a resource (directory, tool, etc..) that requires reciprocal linking to a site of your choice, and offer login access in exchange for links.
• Reciprocal linking is still viable with search engines like MSN and Yahoo! but only in moderation (i.e. less than 40% of your links). Go ahead and trade links with some high ranking relevant websites. The recent “Big Daddy” update with Google shows that Google now likes who you link to as much as who links to you.
• When designing a small-medium sized website create a unique sub domain for each of your products and services and link them to each other. Search Engines recognize sub domains as different websites. This is an effective way to get instant links to your new site.
• Write an article with easy to follow bullet points and a catchy title, and submit it to Digg, Reddit, NewsVine, etc. The title will catch the traffic and readers love lists of tips.

There’s always a lot of talk about link building and what truly works, and as the web evolves, so do the techniques that we use to build links. What works today probably will not work as well tomorrow. Creativity is the only way to stay ahead in this game.

Have you considered that the arrangement of your web pages is about much more than cosmetics? Studies have proven that we tend to view web pages in a predictable pattern. In fact researchers have even used eye tracking technology to determine the path that our eyes typically follow when we look at a new web page.

This path is often referred to as the “Golden Triangle”. According to this concept, when we land on a page our eyes initially focus on the header (usually the location of the logo) before scanning left to right in the body (avoiding navigation and banners), and then back to the top of the page where they linger before moving further down the page.

I suggest reading the detailed report (here) of this research and applying it to your web design. After all, you only have a fraction of a second to convince a web surfer to stay on your site.

Often time’s designers go overboard with their graphics in an effort to make their sites look like they’re on the cutting edge. Of course, these special effects may elicit an ooh and ah, but they do little for improving your online traffic and conversion rates. In fact, they may even hurt your rankings and conversion rates. Pages that load slowly due to heavy amounts of graphics will deter visitors (especially those with slower internet connections) and prevent the search engine spiders from fully indexing your pages.

Consider this before spending too much time and effort on your visual effects. Your time may be better spent on content (text) development and SEO.

If you are curious about whether or not your graphics are affecting your load speed, click here to test your pages.