Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Income levels and levels of confidence in ecommerce

Online Shopping Data

Source: Pew Internet

How customer buys

Customer groups gather information in certain ways leading to the point at which they buy a product.

An effective marketing campaign concentrates on how potential customers search for information, so the marketing information is available when and where customers are looking for it.

For example, golfers can be divided into three groups of buyers: pioneers, early followers and late followers.

Pioneers like to be the first to buy and experiment with a new product. They enjoy the intrigue of being on the cutting edge of golf innovation. They look for information on new products in golf magazines, watch what various pros are using, and even search the Internet for tips on new equipment.

A manufacturer of golf equipment usually starts out by giving their clubs to a few pros try to and by running publicity stories using the pros for endorsements.

Increasingly those manufactures are also taking their clubs to driving ranges for customers to try and using the internet as a way of finding their pioneering buyers.

There is not much point in advertising a brand new golf product to the general public. Most golfers won’t use the product until the pioneers at their favorite course have endorsed it.

The most effective marketing tactics coordinate marketing communication and promotions with the actual process the target customers goes through when deciding to buy a product.

You want to be sure to place your marketing messages in the places where customers look for information on your type of product or services.

The importance of your website content

Your website copy makes or breaks your rankings. Rankings are all about relevancy. Where do search engine look for keywords when evaluating websites? The word on each page.

If you display keywords to visitors, then your pages are indeed relevant for these terms.

Unfortunately, many companies incorporate their existing marketing material into their sites. This copy won’t contain all of the relevant keywords you now know that your target audiences is looking for in search engines.

You will also need to study your competitors’ pages that rank well to see how many total words they are using and how many times that keyword is mentioned.

Americans spend 33 hours a week online

Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week), according to IDC. This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours).

The importance of Meta Data

Meta Data or meta tags, provides information about the content of a website. It’s an HTML tag that doesn’t impact page layout but contains data attributes.

In the early days of SEO, simply placing keywords in these tags influenced page rankings significantly. Today, numerous search engine marketers proclaim “Meta tags are dead!”

When search engines pull a title and description for your website listing, a majority will display the meta data you provide.

Without meta data, search engine will grab the first text lines from the page.

Use meta data as a way to control your website listings and prevent search engines from randomly selecting irrelevant copy from your site. The three meta tags to use:

  • Title
  • Description
  • Keywords

Write custom copy for the meta data of each web page you want to rank well in the search engines. You can also review your competitors’ HTML code for ideas.

45 percent of US employers monitor employee computer usage and keystrokes

In 2001 19% of US employers told ePolicy institute they were monitoring time logged on and keystrokes. In 2005, it was 36%. In 2007 that number had grown to 45%.

Business in Christ new website

We are given the opportunity to redesign Business in Christ new website.

Business in Christ new website

The new website will be launched towards the end of May 2008.

Business in Christ is about uniting business leaders to give their best in serving and supporting great commission work through indigenous Christian efforts in the nations.

Business in Christ continues to develop the added value services as they are focused on supplying needed technology, communications and infrastructure support for great commission work in the nations through partnerships with individuals and organizations dedicated to GO and spread the good news and love of Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross.

Business in Christ logo

Improving your website ranking through link popularity campaign

Link popularity generally refers to the number and quality of content-relevant websites that link to yours.

Search engines place a heavy evaluation emphasis on inbound links because it is assumed that if other sites link to yours, you offer VALUABLE content to web users. An inbound link therefore appears as an online testimonial to search engine spiders. Popular sites score major ranking points.

There are 4 simple steps that you can do to utilize link popularity campaign to gain a better web ranking for your website.

1. Find high-ranked sites. Avoid web rings that only link from one site to another site. Don’t place links to your site in guestbooks, classified ads or forums either.

2. Request an inbound link. The most efficient way of asking for a site link is to email the webmaster or marketing director. Customize each email to get a response and avoid being mislabeled as a spammer.

3. Hyperlink KEYWORDS in your description. Include one of your KEYWORD PHRASES in your description which should also be hyperlinked to your website. This will be more effective than hyperlink your company’s name. For example: Sky Soft consulting is a web consulting firm in Seattle providing custom website development and website application development. (Notice that I hyperlink the keywords such as web consulting, website development and website application).

4. Use relevant landing pages. Divide your inbound links among secondary theme pages; don’t send them all to the home page. Because each site page should be optimized for a different but related group of keywords, each page needs its own inbound links – individual site pages, not entire sites, compete for rankings

Creating a landing page that will convert visitors into buyers

An Effective landing page, often referred to as a destination URL or target URL, impacts your bottom line.

Landing pages aren’t necessarily part of your main website. However, how your landing page is designed impacts your conversion rates.

Here are some suggestions to reduce distraction while leading customers to the checkout line.

Position critical information above the fold
Product information, incentives and the order button should all be seen on your landing page without scrolling. This section of a web page is also referred to as “above the fold.” VERIFY that KEY SELLING information is VISIBLE on multiple computer screen resolutions. Your webmaster may have designed your site for 1024X768 screen resolution, without considering other sizes – your audience members who use an 800X600 screen resolution will see a smaller portion of the web page.

Reduce navigational choices
One of the reasons why home pages don’t work well as landing pages is that they have too many navigational choices. Landing pages should have fewer links on the page.

Use action words
Have you ever been ready to buy something online, and once you are on the product page thought. “where is the buy button?” Put ACTION WORDS like “buy” or “order” and add “today,” “here,” or “now” to these words contributes to the sense of urgency you want to foster.

35 percent of search engine users do not use vertical search

Vertical search is not prevalently utilized by users of the big-three search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN). 35% of search engine users do not use vertical search, and 25% do not recall if they have clicked a result after having used vertical search (60% combined), according to iProspect.

A result presented after an “image search” is clicked by 26% of users (the most frequently clicked vertical search category). The second most commonly clicked vertical search category is “news search” at 17%, followed by “video search” at just 10%.

Note: Vertical search, part of a larger subgrouping known as “specialized” search, is a relatively new tier in the Internet search industry consisting of search engines that focus on specific businesses. Most of the time, people are looking for something very specific related to their businesses. That’s where vertical search sites come in. Vertical search engines deliver to businesses what the big sites can’t without the use of complex keyword combinations: relevant and essential content versus an exhaustive return of information.