One of the key components when designing a website is to make the flow of information and “next steps” clear. We call this website optimization. You can have all the people in the world come to your website but if it’s not professional and well laid out, you’ll get very few sales.

The first step is to make sure your website is industry appropriate. Each industry has a culture that your site should fit well into. Finance is clean and crisp, web 2.0 is gradients and bright colors, entertainment is dark and graphical. Your business can lost credibility if your image doesn’t fit your market. Explore the competition, look at the “big guys” and then decide if your site is right. It’s never too late to change it.

Once you’re happy with the design, consider what you’re trying to get people to do. Do you want them to sign-up, call, join an email list, etc. Your presentation of information should be in a very logical order:

1.) Peak interest

2.) Give details

3.) Define the value

4.) Close the deal

If you’re not giving people this information in a clear manner, most will abandon your website. I can’t stand going to a website that looks like a mess. Text all over the place, banners, graphics, with no clear direction on what I should do. 9 times out of 10, I’ll just leave the website. Even though it may have been the perfect product/service at the perfect price, I don’t give it chance.

A well designed website with a quality presentation of information can increase sales substantially.

Chavvon Smith

Clients are constantly asking about search results and how to get their website listed at the top. There are two ways to get to the top of those search results.

1.) Pay to get there.

2.) Optimize your website so that the search engines think you should there

When you pay to get to the top of search results, it’s simple. Everything is based on a cost per click model. You do the math and figure out that you can pay X dollars for every potential prospect to visit your website. Hopefully enough of these customers eventually buy from you (yoggin.com helps with this stuff) and you make a nice profit.

The second method is termed “organic”. Each search engine has an algorithm where they have spiders that crawl the Internet all day long. They gather all the text, the images, the pictures, etc. from every website it can access. Based on all this information, the search engines determine site relevance for each keyword. The higher your relevance, the higher your site will be in search results. Two things that are crucial to relevance are your domain name and your page rank. If someone is looking for trademarks and one site has a domain name of www.trademarks.com and another has a domain name of www.joestmservice.com, the first will have much higher relevance. Page rank is based on the number and quality of sites that link to your site. Yoggin.com has a links directory that will help your page rank, join, it’s free. If you have other big sites in the same industry linking to your website, your page rank will be higher because your relevance is assumed to be higher. Once again, higher relevance, higher search results positioning. The spiders then look at your website text, the “alt” descriptions on your images, descriptions of links on your page, and lots more.

Developing organic search results takes time and persistence (yoggin.com helps with this too). Over time, you maximize your website and your rankings get higher and higher. It won’t happen over night.

Higher rankings in search results has a significant impact on sales. Work on getting high positioning and sales almost fall in the door.

Chavvon Smith

We often meet with clients that are exploring their Internet marketing options. One of the first questions we ask is what are their current marketing efforts and what are the results. 9 times of 10, they have no idea what results a specific campaign generated. If you run a marketing blitz of print magazines, flyers, and radio all simultaneously, all you know is that sales increased. Businesses are unsure if leads came from print, radio, word of mouth, or some other method. You can track your marketing efforts through any medium by using targeted websites and phone numbers. When you run a print ad or radio ad, you’re telling people how to get in touch with your business (at least you should be). Call 1800-XYZ, go to www.XYZ.com, visit booth ABC, etc. By setting up phone numbers and URLs for each ad, you can precisely track your results and determine what is and isn’t working for your business. Yoggin has 800 numbers and tracking tools that tell you exactly the expense and customer conversion you get from each of your campaigns.

Seperate campaign landing pages and phone numbers, track results, and analyze results. You can then decide where your marketing budget is best spent.

Chavvon Smith

All too often we work with clients that are completely ignoring their past customers. Past customers are usually the best source for new customers. By staying connected with past customers, you keep your service and offerings fresh on their mind. This is great for repeat business, referrals, and consulting in general. Send out an email or letter at least once a month to stay in touch. If you use the Yoggin solution, we automate all correspondence and our client’s customer’s are emailed on a weekly basis. We also introduce referral bonuses and other incentives to entice customers to refer friends, family, and associates. By building this relationship, clients are more likely to come back to your business.

Another good tip is to have a newsletter or mailer. You’re the expert, share your knowledge with your subscriber base. The information will be appreciated and it will build customer loyalty.

Chavvon Smith