SEO Success Your Websites First Impression
SEO Success Your Websites First Impression
Yes, we want traffic; but we want that traffic to stick around, too. Your web statistics will show where a viewer enters your website, where they exit and how long they stay. So you will be able to easily determine the success of how well-like your website it. Web stats is a future SEO Success topic.
Two things are of paramount importance in your web design:
1) The first impression you make, and
2) The navigation style you use.
Let's explore first impressions of a website in this lesson.
We've all heard the expression, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." With the breadth and depth of the Internet, this statement couldn't be more important. Factors that impact how well your website is received include:
* Placement and usage of graphics. It's important to use your logo early, preferably at the top of your website. No matter if you are Coca-Cola or Joe's Diner, your goal should be to create branding of your business for the people who have found you. When the viewers think of local diners, Joe's Diner should come to mind. Good branding will cause the viewer to bookmark your page. This is a good thing.
* Use of other graphics. If you use too many graphics you risk your page looking like a cartoonish site that has no content of value. Too few graphics makes the content hard to read without enough breaks and visual stimulations for balance and white space.
* Answer the "why me?" question right away with a heading that grabs the viewer's attention. Please, please, please do not put "Welcome to our website" as your first heading. This is not the receptionist's desk of your building. This is your first chance and only chance to make that good impression. "Joe's Diner - Voted #1 in Reno for 5 years running" would be a good heading. Market, market, market. Now is not the time to be polite and humble.
* Offer your product or service in a way that solves a problem. After all, this is what you do, right? If not, then why are you in business? Of course you solve a problem or add to someone's well-being or feed an ego. You know what you offer. But avoid listing the features of your product or service and focus on the benefits. "Joe's Diner offers the best breakfast in town at the best price. You'll never leave Joe's dissatisfied." Joe knows his food and he knows his customer. Satisfaction guaranteed. Do we know what Joe sells? Not in detail, but we know we're going to be satisfied with his food and not hungry when we leave. That's a benefit.
* Keep important information "above the fold." That is, at the top of the page before you have to scroll down to read further. Catch the viewer's attention early and they will scroll. If not, they will stroll - away from your site.
So the challenge is to attract the eye, sell yourself and your business, and answer the "Why me?" early. Keep it simple; keep it direct. That's the formula.
Copyright (c)2007 TAO Consultants, Inc. All rights reserved.
_____________________________
Chesa Keane has been designing and developing web sites with an eye toward search engine optimization and traffic generation since 1995. TAO Consultants offers online web and SEO courses to help you make the most of your web business and investment at the www.computergoddess.com website.
SEO Success Your Websites First Impression - To learn more about this author, visit Chesa Keane's Website.
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After focusing on keywords for positioning and for content, we will need to look at traffic generation soon. But first, let's consider what a visitor sees when they do arrive at your site. Does your site convey authority on its topic? Does it get to the point of what you do and what you offer right away? Is the navigation logical and easy to understand?
Yes, we want traffic; but we want that traffic to stick around, too. Your web statistics will show where a viewer enters your website, where they exit and how long they stay. So you will be able to easily determine the success of how well-like your website it. Web stats is a future SEO Success topic.
Two things are of paramount importance in your web design:
1) The first impression you make, and
2) The navigation style you use.
Let's explore first impressions of a website in this lesson.
We've all heard the expression, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." With the breadth and depth of the Internet, this statement couldn't be more important. Factors that impact how well your website is received include:
* Placement and usage of graphics. It's important to use your logo early, preferably at the top of your website. No matter if you are Coca-Cola or Joe's Diner, your goal should be to create branding of your business for the people who have found you. When the viewers think of local diners, Joe's Diner should come to mind. Good branding will cause the viewer to bookmark your page. This is a good thing.
* Use of other graphics. If you use too many graphics you risk your page looking like a cartoonish site that has no content of value. Too few graphics makes the content hard to read without enough breaks and visual stimulations for balance and white space.
* Answer the "why me?" question right away with a heading that grabs the viewer's attention. Please, please, please do not put "Welcome to our website" as your first heading. This is not the receptionist's desk of your building. This is your first chance and only chance to make that good impression. "Joe's Diner - Voted #1 in Reno for 5 years running" would be a good heading. Market, market, market. Now is not the time to be polite and humble.
* Offer your product or service in a way that solves a problem. After all, this is what you do, right? If not, then why are you in business? Of course you solve a problem or add to someone's well-being or feed an ego. You know what you offer. But avoid listing the features of your product or service and focus on the benefits. "Joe's Diner offers the best breakfast in town at the best price. You'll never leave Joe's dissatisfied." Joe knows his food and he knows his customer. Satisfaction guaranteed. Do we know what Joe sells? Not in detail, but we know we're going to be satisfied with his food and not hungry when we leave. That's a benefit.
* Keep important information "above the fold." That is, at the top of the page before you have to scroll down to read further. Catch the viewer's attention early and they will scroll. If not, they will stroll - away from your site.
So the challenge is to attract the eye, sell yourself and your business, and answer the "Why me?" early. Keep it simple; keep it direct. That's the formula.
Copyright (c)2007 TAO Consultants, Inc. All rights reserved.
_____________________________
Chesa Keane has been designing and developing web sites with an eye toward search engine optimization and traffic generation since 1995. TAO Consultants offers online web and SEO courses to help you make the most of your web business and investment at the www.computergoddess.com website.
SEO Success Your Websites First Impression - To learn more about this author, visit Chesa Keane's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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