Holy rushing! Things are running late and starting on time and the silly blogger girl is running around like a crazy person in heels and knee socks trying to cover both. Oy.
Okay, we’re here and settled now. And already starting. Jennifer Evans Laycock is moderating speakers Kayden Kelly (coolest name ever), Matthew Bailey, and Andrew Goodman. Hey, hey.
If you can’t find it, it doesn’t exist.
If people are looking for a way to contact you and they can’t find it, they’re gone. Your call to action has to be the biggest, boldest part of the page. Everything should be built around that. Otherwise, you’re going to lose your audience.
Know that color can play against you. The color red can kill your site if not done properly because it says LOOK AT ME! You can distract people from the call to action and what you want them to do. Don’t ask people to buy before you tell them the price, the size, how many you have to buy, etc. You need to sell someone first.
Matt goes through a number of sites borking up their call to action. It’s funny, but they’re picture so I can’t blog them.
Default Options
If there is one choice, default it. Don’t make me click and then add to cart. It just annoys people. Especially people named Lisa who will then blog about how annoying you are and how much she wants to kick you in the face. Don’t make me give you a reputation management problem.
Create Custom 4o4 Pages
Now matter how many times we tell people to create a custom 404 page, businesses still forget them. Not creating a custom error 404 page is like telling someone to go away because people won’t know what to do when the white page of death hits. Instead, they’re gonna hit their back button and go to a different Web site. It’s the marketing’s people’s job to write the error message, not the IT guy. IT can’t write like humans. The marketing people can. Be nice. Invite them into the site. Don’t tell them to go away.
Navigation
Use keywords to tell people who you are and that they’re on the right site. Use words that address your customers needs. People aren’t looking for “products”, they’re looking for something specific.
Basic SEO
Tell people what you do. Use your keywords in the Title tag. Neutrogena Dermatologist Recommended doesn’t tell people what you do or what you offer. Use the right words.
Don’t create image-only sites. You need text to rank. And you need to write your own content. You can’t just use the default content you get from the manufacturer. That doesn’t tell people anything and it doesn’t make you unique. Connect with people on a different level. You can also let people leave reviews to give you additional content and keywords.
Checkout Steps
[ A lot of Matt’s presentation are screenshot-related. I’m doing the best I can to get down the highlights in a way that makes sense.]
Know how to upsell. Don’t try to sell the slide before someone buys the swingset. If your call to action is out of the primary window, you need to have that “add to cart”, “keep shopping”, “check out”, etc in that first visible frame on the browser. People should not have to scroll down to see the checkout buttons.
He talks about Woot and how kickass their checkout process is. I agree. It’s easy and awesome, which is how I like my life.
Don’t require registration for people to buy something. They don’t want to create a new password. They just want to give you money. Let them.
Users want to feel smart, a sense of accomplishement, reduced stress. They want a sense of location, relation, navigation and destination; otherwise, they’ll be frustrated. Or something.
Up next is Kayden.
How do you increase conversion?
[Agan, put on your imagination hats and dream up the inverted triangle located below. It’s not a list. It’s a triangle with the fat part at the top. See it? Look harder. There ya go!]
- Functional: Make sure your Web site works.
- Accessible
- Usable
- Intuitive
- Persuasive
Through this process, you’ll get to know your audience and be able to identify the bottlenecks so you can prioritize what to change first. Once you know that, you have to start making changes and then track them. From there, set up and run your Google Optimizer tests. Repeat indefinitely.
What do people do on your site?
They use Google Analytics. Set up your goals and your funnel. Identify if people are able to complete those goals. Where are people bailing? Set up the internal site search. Use it to tell you what people are searching for. Are they finding things but not purchasing? Why? Find out.
One of his favorite tools is CrazyEgg. It gives you heatmap abilities. It also shows you where clicks occur and what people are most interested in.
Why people do what they do
He likes 4Q Surveys to get feedback from people. Usability tests can be cheap and eye opening. Do quick wire tests and see how people interact. Could they find everything?
Other tools: Silverback, Morae
You want to identify the weak links on your site, to make changes and then test those changes.
Start Testing
Google Website Optimizer is free. You need two weeks to get some good results.
What do expect?
- Decrease cost per acquisition
- Decrease bounce rate
- Increase time on site
- Eliminate guesswork – use facts.
- Double your overall conversion rate
- Increase visitor satisifaction
Testing is your insurance policy to avoid harmful changes. Maximize your Web site and marketing investment. Use them to opt out of the recession. Screw the recession. Heh.
Andrew Goodman is up. He was a last minute replacement and uses the Web to show us a bunch of quick sites. Again, awesome job by Andrew, not much to get down.
