The Baha’i World Center has launched a new website dedicated to the life of Baha’u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith. I am grateful for having had the honor of playing a tiny role in this project — mainly by assisting the very capable web team of the Baha’i International Community with the website’s search engine optimization — and humbled by the beautiful work the whole team has put together.
What is unique about this site is that it presents in a very artistic yet search engine friendly way a rich photographic journey through the life of the most current messenger of God, and offers to the viewers a wealth of images of artifacts and writings of Baha’u'llah.
Great job to Brian Kurzius and the whole team, and my deep gratitude for having been allowed to play a small part in this exciting project.
eMarketer posted results from a survey conducted by MarketingSherpa among attendees of the ad:tech asking them what online marketing approaches worked for them the best and the worst. The top three among the most successful online marketing tools were:
- Pay-per-click marketing
- Email lists compiled by the web site
- Search engine optimization
This is consistent with the results of a client of mine, Studio Lotus, who saw their organic search engine traffic increase 68% from September 2006 to January 2007, based on a successful, well-planned web redesign. A small but very targeted Google AdWords campaign seems to be producing good results for them, and where I see a lot of untapped potential is fully utilizing the contact list accumulated through the web site’s contact form. It is heartening to see that best practices indeed produce good results.
eMarketer projects online spending in the holiday months will grow 29.3% over last year, totaling $16.7 billion.
This estimate, combined with data from a recent report commissioned by The Macerich Company, a major regional shopping mall developer in the USA, indicates that online retailers should prepare for the anticipated increase in web traffic earlier than usual. The report shows that US consumers are ready to shop early in order to avoid the long lines in the last days before Christmas. Specifically, 40 percent of the respondents said they would begin their “serious” holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. Almost 30 percent will shop on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving.
This translates into two important tasks for e-retailers:
- Now is the time to invest in a dual search engine marketing strategy, combining organic search engine optimization, and measured, targeted pay-per-click campaigns
- Along the push to increase search engine traffic, e-commerce web sites should invest in developing a set of key performance indicators to measure the success of their web site operations. Conversion rate should be among the most important metrics for success. Other indicators in the web analytics portfolio of an e-tailer should be shopping card abandonment rate as well as ratios of return to new customers.
A helpful set of ideas on how to prepare your e-commerce site for the holiday season is generously offered by 37signals, usability consultancy.
For more on how WebSage can help you with developing a comprehensive search engine strategy and web analytics methodology, contact us for a free estimate.
A website usually has multiple groups of users whose information needs would depend on how close they are in their progression to the ultimate goal, whether that is making an online purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Andrew Chak, author of “Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Web Sites”, describes four main categories of users:
- Browsers
- Evaluators
- Transactors
- Customers
Each one of those groups would have different needs and depending on how well through usability and persuasion the site answers those needs, it would bring the users through to the next stage of the user lifecycle evolution.
An optimized website would enjoy the additional benefit of having each particular page targetting the different user groups rank higher in the main search engines. Such a website would enable the users, regadless of their stage in the pursuation evolution, to land directly to the most appropriate page.
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eMarketer and Internet Retailer published articles on the findings of a survey conducted by CyberSource which focuses on the impact multiple forms of online payment has on the conversion rate of e-commerce sites.
The survey found that shopping cart abandonment rates decline along with increases in the number of offered payment methods. Shopping cart abandonment for survey respondents offering only one payment method was 40%. The rate dropped to 34% for retailers offering two payment methods, 29% for those with three and 28% for those with four or more.
The most popular payment methods, according to the survey, are the general purpose credit cards like Visa and MasterCard, followed by gift certificates. 53% of the surveyed e-retailers offer only one or two methods of payment.
Offer credit card alternatives
Offering an alternative to credit card payment like PayPal or Bill Me Later improves the chances for successful e-commerce experience for those online shoppers who are not willing yet to share their credit card details with the e-merchant.
This week, JupiterResearch shared the following facts with anybody on their Internet Planet conference list:
(Source: Jupiter Research/ERI Executive Survey, 10/03)
If you are the owner or web manager of one of those web sites about to be relaunched, consider yourself lucky because you are at the right point of time to initiate not a mere visual redesign but to improve your web site from a total business objective point of view. Now is the time to ask oneself what is the purpose of the site, how is the site found, how is the site navigated, and how one reaches the site’s action pages, whether a contact form for service request or online purchase or newsletter subscription.
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In a study announced on March 8, 2004, OneStat.com reports that almost 55% of all internet users who visit a web site view 1 -2 pages per visit and 16.56% view 2 - 3 pages per visit.
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Summary: Web site optimization should not be for the big guys (and girls) only! You can do user experience testing and organic search engine optimization with relatively modest budget. Not doing any of those, simply because you are afraid of their perceived complexity, is the sure way of losing in a competitive market place for both small and medium size business and non-profit organizations and associations.
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