Include All Your Contact Info!

It is surprising how many sites I run into that do not note their address. Today when looking for a product online, I had a choice of two companies — one had all their contact information and address — the other only had an e-mail address.

I chose to do business with the company that had all this info on their site. I feel more comfortable doing business with companies that provide all the info. Can you imagine having a customer service issue and only having an e-mail address to work with?

Some sites don’t necessitate that information be on every page (non-eCom sites), so at the very least a physical or mailing address should be on your contact page with all the other ways you can be contacted. By not doing so you give the impression of possibly being a fly-by-night. Why don’t you want people to know where you are?

Would you give out payment information to a site that had no indication of where there were located? Most onliners will not. And I didn’t today. That’s what prompted this post.

The analogy goes that with no address or phone, one can easily disappear without leaving any traceable contact information that a customer could use to get in touch with you. Why give customers a reason to look to your competitors for that warm fuzzy?

If you are a home based business and don’t want to expose that address to everyone, you can simply get a P.O. Box to use for your mailing address. Then, at the very least folks know where you are and know where to contact you if needed. When I went completely virtual and moved off the grid several years ago, I signed up for a P.O. Box for those very reasons.

Yes, having a physical address is more credible and convincing to some than a P.O. Box. In my case, being I have been established for going on 15 years now, I am not too concerned about that. Each business needs to make these decisions based on what is best for their business and what perception they want to provide.

It’s really a no-brainer and worth the small P.O. Box fees to add that extra level of credibility that is so hard to gain online in the first place. When it comes to your Web site, your location, address, phone, fax, e-mails are required to give your site visitors confidence. For eCom sites, you’ll risk loosing business without noting your location specifics.

Why give potential customers an excuse to look elsewhere?

How Many Web Pages Do I Need?

As many as you need to reach your goals! If you just want a business card/brochureware site where folks can contact you or ask questions, you need to rethink what you want to accomplish online as brochureware is nowhere.

But one has to be realistic and realize that a starter site is just that — a start. Any starter site, where the site owner would like to experience ROI, has to be created with plans to grow the site as needed and as market conditions dictate. In today’s environment that actually demands an insatiable desire for growth.

When it comes to search engine rankings, the more pages the better. And no, that does not mean babbly useless keyword stuffed verbiage in existence solely to increase the number of pages in your site to manipulate rankings. Only nique valuable information worth linking to will do!

When you have useful individual pages targeting just one topic or issue, you kill two birds with one stone. You create a concentrated topical page on that issue or topic for search crawlers to index and you give your site visitors information on the one topic they may be seeking at that point in time.

Take notes as customers ask questions or as you read industry news with items you can write about and add to your site. Nothing is off limits if it helps educate and inform your site visitors. By taking this approach you appear as an expert in your field, the “go to” guy or gal a site visitor can trust with their business.

Look at your site as an archive, library or gallery of everything that has to do with your product, service and market that you will grow perpetually. Web sites should be viewed as a work in progress that is never completed. There will always be something to add, change or integrate!

Getting found, instilling confidence and encouraging inquires is what you want to accomplish, right? Having a site that is constantly growing and being filled with the information your target market desires and is looking for will help you accomplish just that.

Is Your Site Like a Cheap Suit?

The saying “on it like a cheap suit” refers to the fact the cheap suits are all over the place from fabric to lack of quality.

I see “cheap suit” Web sites all the time. Sites whose owners think they look all dressed up and believe they are actually giving the impression of being a formal business. When in contrast these sites are clearly reflecting the site’s overall lack of believability and trustworthiness.

Now more than ever, looking like a cheap suit is much easier than it used to be. The bar has been raised from visuals to functionality with Web 2.0 and static HTML brochureware sites just don’t cut it any longer if you are truly serious about competing.

When you are out to impress — you simply don’t take the cheap suit approach. For example:

• Would you wear a cheap suit to that dream job interview? Probably not, the next applicant who spent the bucks to look spiffy will make you barely a memory.
• Would you wear a cheap suit to your wedding? Most likely not. If you did that it would be telling as to what the future would be like being married to you if you didn’t see the importance of wearing a nice suit for your own nuptials.
• Would you wear a cheap suit to court? Say you had to go to court for custody, traffic issues, DUI, whatever. Do you think a cheap suit would help persuade the judge that you take the issue as seriously as you should. Don’t think so.

Then why would you assume that a “cheap suit” Web site will produce? Cheap suits do not lend to the perception of one being a legitimate and credible business. Would you make your own suit to wear out on the town? No — you are not a tailor. Then, it would go without saying that you shouldn’t design your own Web site without the proper training, skills and experience.

Impressions are everything when you are trying to convince someone to spend money with you over the possibly hundreds or thousands of other similar businesses online. Wear a cheap suit and don’t be surprised if customers seek out those competitors who realize the importance of presenting a polished and professional image. That alone gives them the warm fuzzy they need to then consider trusting you with their hard earned dollars.

The good news is you can always learn the skills necessary to do some things yourself; especially with WordPress now being used as a Content Management System. The question then becomes if your business will survive until you make that important shift to upgrade to the Web 2.0 playground and WordPress to bring our site into the now form the what used to be good enough.

Probably not… If I were you, I’d get all over that like a cheap suit!

Keywords Smewords

Don’t get me wrong — keywords are at the heart of any Web site’s marketing strategy. And, keywords (actually keyword phrases) should be discussed during the development process — not afterward. Keywords are fundamental to your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts but only when researched and integrated properly.

Now with that said, surprisingly I find that many are under an incorrect perception when it comes to how keywords come into play and their rankings. Many are still surmise that one-word keywords (car, boat, property, homes) are what they need to “add to their site.” Specifically to the over-rated “Meta Keyword tag” which the search engines minimally rely on (if at all) in lieu of actual content on your site. And that all they need to do is “add them to their site” and they’ll be found on top on Google.

The reality is that one-word keywords are very difficult to get ranked for. So, that’s why you need to investigate the most relevant 2-3 word keywords that you want to concentrate on specific to you. For example, if you are a Realtor in Memphis, TN, instead of “homes for sale”, you would instead concentrate on phrases that are more descriptive of what you do — specifically. Such as: memphis tenessee homes for sale, memphis real estate, memphis tennessee realtors.

Do a search for “homes for sale” on Google and you’ll get 80,800,000 returns and the sponsored ads are filled to the brim with folks all bidding to get found. One realistically should not plan on pulling in the top 10 for such a generic phrase. However if you get more focused and search for “memphis tenessee homes for sale” Google pulls 406,000 returns — big difference!

Yes, there may be searchers that look for “homes for sale” that do not know to narrow their search geographically to get the best results. But we can’t compensate for that as successfully as we can by concentrating on the most used phrases searchers use to find what you do — specifically. Then we have to carefully and diligently ensure those important researched phrases are represented properly throughout your Web site’s content.

How do you determine what keyword phrases to concentrate on? Check out my article on Bullseye Marketing to get started. The article includes tips, my worksheet and services to help you determine what terms searchers are actually using to find folks like you.

Then once you gather your list, look how you can add those phrases to new and established content. Only concentrate on one or two phrases for each page and you’ll find over time that your rankings for what searchers are actually looking for — for what you do specifically — will improve. And, you might be surprised to find that those who find you based on more focused and less targeted phrases actually turn out to be more qualified leads.

Working on your keywords should be viewed as a long term, consistent effort to realize any tangible goals. Set an appointment with yourself one every month to go over all the data available to you, including your Web site statistics. Then, add new content accordingly as you discover additional phrases to use to your advantage.

You know what they say — knowledge is power; but only if you use it — and that applies ten fold to SEO.

Top 10 eStore Mistakes

10. Not having a plan or doing the due diligence necessary to determine if the new eStore can be competitive against the established sites already doing the same. Without niche — you’re nothing special. Selling the same stuff 100,000 sites are already selling, without offering anything unique or of greater value (service, freebies, member points, niche focus) is futile.

9. The store’s design is home brewed which lends to a lack of credibility. This type of “look” is many times due to the store owner cutting corners or modifying settings to their preference. Many don’t realize that white space is good, size 10-12 font size is adequate and that their preferred color scheme may cheapen their presentation.

8. One line generic product descriptions (and not thinking SEO) that do not include the basic information customers desire to know to make a purchase. Size, colors, and other specifics — and the more details the better — are critical to getting onliners to click the “Add to Cart.” button. Add to that typos and misspellings in content reflects a lack of attention to detail.

7. Not having any location contact information on your site. Why would people order from someone that they cannot contact or determine even where they are located? Doing so offers huge confidence perception value. Full physical or mailing address, phone, fax and customer service email should be clearly displayed or easily found with a click or two.

6. No privacy page stating what you will do with customer information. Being clear and reassuring that you will protect and not disseminate store customer’s information goes a long way toward building confidence to do business with you.

5. Poor quality graphics give the impression that quality is not of concern to the site owner. From logos to product graphics, low quality does not lend to offering a credible presentation. Many don’t know how to use their digital cameras or don’t want to pay a professional. You can’t have it both ways. The product photos are the primary and in many cases the primary selling tool. Blurry or pixelated product photos do not encourage sales or confidence in the eStore as being one that is concerned about quality.

4. Not having an eStore application that sends email order confirmations and shipping confirmations to customers. These two emails are essential to building confidence and ongoing relationships with your customers. Many customers have systems that do this for them — all they have to do is enter the shipping information and out the email goes. Because they choose to not make the extra effort to use this feature — customer confidence and future opportunity is minimized.

3. Not having the most commonly asked for or required information that a customer would seek in lieu of filling out a contact form that asks for everything but their shoe size just to get basic information. Operational and product FAQs should be provided with every question a customer has or may ask in the future.

2. Not establishing and then implementing and being involved in an aggressive marketing campaign to get the new store “out there.” With the sandbox waiting period of 90 days or more and established competition already ranked, new eStore owners have to be rabidly committed to participating in their own and others Blogs, discussion forms, social media site, creating newsletters and the like if they want to stand any chance for visibility. Ignoring PPC advertising as being too complicated and expensive is a genuine concern, but PPCs should be tried or at the very least looked into to determine if they can be cost effective in targeting your market.

1. And, the #1  eStore Mistake is… Assuming you can minimize the importance or implementation of these issues and still be profitable. Won’t happen…

Web Site Cost Overview

With the economy as it is, I’ve been increasingly receiving requests in regard to Web site costs as folks look to the online environment to subsidize their income. Some have ideas they had on the backburner for some time while others are falling the prey of “slap up a site, sell anything, make bushels of money” hype.

What is clear is that perceptions about what a Web site should cost as well as what is involved in running a successful online venture, are not based in any reality that I can determine. Most think a quality, effective presentation that has everything they desire should only cost a couple hundred bucks — and that should include marketing expenses! And…. it should just work!

All the DIY hype about things being so easy a monkey could do it has apparently become what most choose to believe. Many are simply not willing to make the necessary investment to give their enterprise a running start (in time, effort and cost). Even if you did (or could do) everything yourself, a couple hundred bucks is barely enough to get you on the map.

Since I am being asked this type of question almost on a daily basis, I thought I would take the time to give you the top 3 issues that are involved in having a quality, professional presentation. What you need to think about and the general cost concerns that are involve.

1. Web Hosting: Hosting that includes all the features and functionality you will need to succeed and to grow into cannot be found on low-end or free hosting services. Hosting server costs can range from $9.95/month and up depending on the functionality you have on your site. Free hosting programs simply will not cut it for a serious business effort. In some cases you can save on the setup fee by choosing an annual pay option.
2. Design: Forget about setting up the simple HTML “Website” that up to a couple years ago was standard and customary. Go with WordPress and you’ll have the ability to utilize all the social media networking and marketing tools that are available as well as save money being able to easily make changes to your site yourself. You can purchase very professional CMS WordPress themes for $40-100. This not only offers you cost savings from having to reinvent the wheel, but shortens the overall project’s production time as well.

   More times than not, most business owners do not have the coding skills or the experience to manipulate these established designs and maintain their professional look and feel. No, knowing how to use FrontPage or Dreamweaver won’t cut it. You need to know the code! To hire a developer to customize the template and add all the scripting and functionality in the background that you desire, fees will range from $200-500 for simple graphic additions and navigation customization.

   In the case of WordPress, prices will again depend on functionality required to be integrated into the design and number of plugins or widgets involved. If you want a designer to start from a blank slate and reinvent the wheel for you, plan on at least $1,000 to 3,000 for a basic (5-10 page) well developed optimized site or $800 for a custom professional WordPress theme.

3. Marketing: New sites are put into search engine holding areas until they pay their dues. It could take several months or more before a new site hits the live index and that most likely will be many pages far away from the top page. This is where marketing comes in.

   Both on and off-line have to be addressed immediately to ensure visibility for your new site. Without a marketing budget you simply will not accomplish any realistic goals. The Web is NOT a “build it and they will come” environment. Count on the fact folks won’t be able to find you without aggressive marketing efforts. By using WordPress and having a Blog, you build your site with quality frequently updated content that search engines love — all it takes is your time! A simple Pay Per Click program, depending on the competitiveness of a market, could easily be “a couple hundred” all by itself — per month.

   Then most importantly, you have to budget your time to market. Now with all the social media networking and marketing opportunities that require your time to participate, any online business would be remiss to not take advantage of all that is offered in this regard.

As I’ve noted in other posts, having a successful Web site is having a successful business. And to do so it takes your time, cost and planning. Forget about the hype in regard to easy or quick money. Doesn’t exist. Ignore the cheap and free junk that you see online or in your inbox. And don’t fall for those silly commercials claiming that you can make thousands a month by simply logging on to a Web site. That stuff is from folks whose only goal is to sell you something based on unrealistic expectations — taking advantage of what you don’t know so they can make money!

Now you do know.

What many new site owners overlook while they go into “sticker shock” over the reality of what doing things properly entails, is that when executed properly, the initial costs of your Web site’s development and marketing, will be made back multiple fold. That’s called ROI.

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