Don’t Force Customers to Register to Purchase

May 8th, 2009 | Posted in E-commerce

In a recent article about annual loss of $300,000,000 in online sales, we are reminded that User Interaction with your site is imperative. Regardless of whether the number is in the hundreds or millions, the problem is that customers do not want to be stalled or inconvenienced during their shopping experience.   In the online world, shopping cart abandonment is all too easy. Think about it - how many often do you say “no thank you” at a Borders or Barnes & Noble bookstore or other retailer when asked if you want to open an account (”it only takes 5 minutes and you’ll save 20% today”) at the point of checkout?  How about other retailers, supermarkets?  Consumers value their time more than their money - sometimes. Account registration should be optional otherwise, the email addresses you gather from those who do register are canceled out by the revenue loss from those who “walk” away.

SEO vs. SEM - Do you know the difference?

May 8th, 2009 | Posted in Search Engines

Many people new to marketing on the web confuse Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with Search Engine Marketing (SEM).  It helps to think of SEO as doing “on-page” work and SEM as “off-page” work.  SEO is the process of making your website 1) Easily indexed by the major search engines; 2) Funneling your visitors (including search engine spiders) to the desired page or call-to-action.  Just a few SEO techniques would include:

  • Put keyphrases in title (H1, H2,..) tags
  • Link to funnel page using keyphrases in anchor <a href=”"> tags
  • Link other pages to funnel page.
  • Put most important content at top of page
  • Avoid using Javascript-based navigation menus
  • Use clean XHTML/CSS page layouts
  • Avoid putting keyphrases in media (graphics, Flash, audio, video)
  • Setup a blog on your site and regularly write articles that contain your keywords

SEM should be part of an overall marketing campaign in which you define a strategy for driving traffic to your site - and more specifically, a particular page on your site - for your desired keyphrases.  This campaign can include Google Adwords and other pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social bookmarking, social networking, user forums, directories, backlinks, and any other “vehicle” that provides a means for linking back to your site using your desired keyphrases.

When people want to “SEO their site” - that’s good, but there is more involved in getting your site ranked on any search engine. You have to view the full picture and have a strategy that makes sense for your business, content, and objectives.