Features and tRends

(July 2008)

Navigating the Online World

Ways to Improve Your Web Site's Effectiveness

By Monica Cubbage

Consumer online spending is expected to rise to over 204 billion dollars in 2008 as reported by leading industry sources. Surging fuel costs and the bleak economy are more rapidly driving consumers to the Web for information, shopping and social networking. This movement is creating a marketing opportunity for those who make their company and product information accessible to the buying public online. Web presence is key for survival, and now there are a few simple tools in the digital era that can help to guide smart decision-making. These include creative web site development, compelling messaging to your target audiences, and web traffic that helps you plot a course through the vast World Wide Web, thereby increasing your company’s searchability. Tips on how to begin this are discussed below.

1. Link, Link, Link
Add links to other credible web sites and resources onto your site and ask them to do the same in exchange. By building a network of links you add to your site’s reach as well as gain traction with the potential buying customer.

2. Motivate with Compelling Content
Critically assess your web copy to ensure that both product and company information are written to address each individual key audience. Provide valuable and actionable information about your industry and the related trends that your potential customer can use to make a purchasing decision. Always remember to keep current. Grab the attention of the web site visitor immediately or you may not get a second chance. And, cut the jargon. As reported in a study conducted by Eyetools Inc., the average time spent on news driven web site homepages is only 14 seconds.

3. Streamline the Design
It sounds elementary but organizing the layout of your site improves searchability, usability and the overall success of the site including how long and how often your potential audience visits or even if they get past the first few seconds of clicking through. Use consistent and appealing logos, color schemes, and easy to read fonts that provide a view into the personality of your company or product. People expect a site to be easy to navigate. Ask for feedback, and then test your web site out prior to launch. And, correct navigational issues quickly when they are discovered before the customer migrates insteand to your competitors’ sites.

4. Keywords Really are Key
A keyword is a word or phrase with special significance used to determine useful results in internet searches. These targeted keywords should be a part of every page of your web site; even in file names, headings, tags, and URL’s. Search engines look for keywords in every nook and cranny of a site. Having these words throughout your site increases the chance your site will come up in a search as well as increase the ranking and positioning of the site among others.

These terms are those that your customers or prospects are already searching for when they log on to the web. Monitor what keywords your competitors are using on their sites to attempt to be the most easily searched product or company in your category. This is easy to do via Google and Yahoo! . Search for your top keywords and see who is using the same or different vocabulary.

Emulate the successful sites of others
Before embarking on creating or renovating your web site, study other well known and competitive sites to see what they do well as well considering the style, layout, and mechanics of sites you like.

There are a colossal number of excellent sites and many that do not work well or get the message across. Here are a few examples we like and the reasons why we do.

Dove.Com for easy to view and use layout and design. Dove has done a great job of organizing navigation tools, keeping the site clean, and use of easy to read fonts which all allow visitors to easily move around the site to find what they need.

Cork’d.Com really shows an understanding of the mindset of those who love sharing and discovering wine. This site is elegant in its simplicity, using only a few colors, simple text and clear definition of content via blocks that make the site clear and uncluttered.

Energy Star’s web site combines motivating content, a great FAQ section, and numerous links to environmental resources and breaking news related to the energy community and the consumer. Viewers can find valuable information in a straightforward manner and this pushes the site to the top of our best web sites list.

Traffic is the goal
The more viewers you get to your web site who really want to know about the business or products you have to offer the better. It’s not just a question of sheer volume. It is quality of the click–throughs you get and how many translate into actions such as requests for more information or sales. The Internet is a main resource for customer interaction and when a site is done well it can become one of the main tools in your marketing tool chest. After all, customer interaction is the first key to customers taking action.

Contact Kleber & Associates for more ways to increase the effectiveness of your web site at 770.518.1000 or visit www.kleberandassociates.com. For a copy of our latest white paper, Think Global, Act Local: What's Your Kleber IQ?, send a request to bizdevelopment@kleberandassociates.com.


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