Below I have listed top 5 factors which help to get success for your online store or break your online store business.

1) Visual design
Visual design encompasses the arrangement of content, as well as the use and consistency of colors and images in your web site. Colors and images can be used to emphasize your company’s online image, giving customers the impression that your company is professional, reliable and trustworthy. Arranging the images and information in a clean and consistent fashion throughout your web pages can very well improve the odds of converting your web site visitors into online customers. Therefore, use components such as Flash animations, sound clips, and other bandwidth-consuming forms of multimedia ever so sparingly. If using these fancy components do not add to improved web site usability or improved understanding of your product, then please, avoid using them at all cost.

2) Site navigation
Make sure that your product navigation links are the first thing your online users can focus on when they visit your site. Site navigation needs to be obvious and user-friendly, that is, requiring less clicks and links to follow in order for your customers to locate products or other information. Other than that, online users feel that it is hard to find the information they need when there are too many links in your site navigation. If you feel that you require more than seven links in your site navigation, consider grouping the links into different navigation groups. This will help un-clutter your navigation sections, thus creating “zones” to help your customers focus better when they browse your site. For instance, links pointing to your company information, contact page, press releases and site map can be grouped together, while product categories can be in an entirely different navigation group from your promotions and special offer links.

3) Check-out process
The check-out process starts as soon as your customer selects a product into his or her shopping cart and selects the “Check Out Now” or “Buy Now”. Your customer then needs to review the order, enter shipping and billing addresses, provide payment information, and confirm the sale. Experts recommend that you make these tasks into simple steps of three or less. Even the placement of the Check Out/Buy Now button should be conveniently placed in each product page. In addition, you may include user registration to allow quicker check-outs for customers who frequently purchases from your e-commerce site so that they do not have to re-enter their details. However, do not make a habit of making registration compulsory to all buyers, since one in every five online shoppers prefer not to register and give out too much personal information.

4) Product description
Product description has to do with more than just pasting on a snapshot of your product and adding a few lines of words on it. It also has to do with helping your customer understand your product to the point where your customer can visualize the dimensions or usefulness of your product, even “taste” it. You can use your product description as a place for your online customer to experience your product enough to want to buy it. One of the drawbacks to shopping online is that we are unable to use all our five senses, and have to rely on only our sense of sight and sound. Hence, this section is one place in your e-commerce web site where multimedia can play a big role in enhancing your online customer’s experience.

Instead of just putting up the product specifications such as size, weight and color, some media-enhancing examples would be by providing:

- A large-scale image of your painting or hand-painted item (photographer, painter)
- 3-D view of a sculpture or doll (artist, toy maker)
- Color tweaking abilities whereby your product changes color based on your customer’s selection (t-shirt retailer, textile manufacturer)
- Product samples and user comments or testimonials (record store, book seller, infotailers)

5) Online catalog
Though closely tied in with the check-out process and product description, the online catalog factor has more to do with the ease to search and browse for products. A well-designed online catalog should not only contain helpful product description, but also have a product search engine and organized product groupings. This allows your customer to locate your product quickly, and gives your online customer a sense of control over what he or she is trying to look for.

Step it up a notch by providing features such as:

- Flexible search on product specification, like brand or color
- Recommending similar product that suits your customer’s current product of choice, such as a tie that would match the shirt selected
- Product specification comparison, which is especially useful for electronics and travel packages

Keep in mind that your e-commerce site design must support your value proposition and objectives, but most importantly your customer’s needs. Based on the web design factors above and by understanding your customers, you can design your e-commerce web site so that your customers will have a pleasurable and hassle-free visit to your online store.

Web Design and Website Development Services by DirectToIndia.

How effective is your small business website or electronic business card?

Having a website can almost be viewed as having an electronic business card. Most successful businesses cannot be without one. Often it is a first impression or introduction to your business.

What does your website say about you and your business?

· Appealing?

· Informative or transactional?

· Designed for the right target audience?

· Worthy of repeated hits?

· Currently updated, or in need of maintenance?

· Quick and easy to load? Or cumbersome and flashy?

· Improving your business processes?

· On all the major search engines?

· Playing a factor in your bottom line?

You should be able to answer yes to all of the above questions. Nowadays, most people have Internet access, and are using the web more as a research tool to obtain information from everything about travel to local restaurants.

Having an effective website is a cost-effective and easy way to advertise your business. Once it is built, the maintenance should be relatively easy and inexpensive.

Active or Passive Audience

The difference between using a website as opposed to other methods of advertising is the difference between having an active or passive audience. People hitting your website are an active audience, and are curious as to what you have to offer. Print ads, telemarketers, or mass mailings are geared towards a passive audience. An active audience is seeking information, which your site can provide and win them over. The beauty of the web is that you can advertise your website by using the other passive methods of advertising.

On the flip side, how often have you visited a website that took too long to load, had a lot of flash and fluff but no substance, was out of date, or looked like the boy next door created it after his homework? Your business and your image are too important to place in jeopardy. If a person is trying to learn more about what you have to offer, and sees a website that is less than desirable, chances are you lost that business and they will not return. The web can be the easiest way to pick up new business and you should use it to your advantage.

Some establishments practiced business the same way for many years and are having difficulty becoming web savvy. They are realizing that the economy has impacted their business. The best advice is to look at your competition, most successful companies and businesses, and your neighbor.

It is not a coincidence that more and more people are doing business on the web. Maybe it is time to reach out to a web developer and educate yourself on how the web can work for you.

Courtesy: About.com

A customized website is developed and designed by scratch and is formatted with original material. A template website is an already designed packaged for a website. Website template is design from backgrounds, banners, main navigation links, and masthead areas.

Why to choose Customized Website Design Services over Template Website?

The custom website designing will give you unique design over the web which reflects your brand websites and separated from other billions of websites in the industry. Custom website is designed for company’s business image. Important features of a custom website are header, navigational menu, font and other professional images, are designed to match up to a company business image. Custom websites are generally designed by expert web design company those are having expert professionals to accomplish your custom web designing services. Custom websites are generally SEO friendly which is really required as much as your business requires a website for products marketing. If you have a website without SEO, it will be worthless for your business. So you should have websites that follow search engines guidelines for getting better rank in major search engines.

Generally template websites are very cheap and fast to create a website live on the web, there are certain websites which are selling templates online, but don’t prefer them, as they are having worst support, and the template will be failed to accommodate more pages in it to solve out you need to go for redesigning of a website and finally the designing cost will be the same as you go for custom website designing.

Professional website design should be pretty interesting to watch, simple and should be unique. Choosing a customized web design will help you a lot for your business to be brand with the website you are marketing your business products and services.

For a customized and creative Web Design Services you should choose a reliable company which focuses your business in the market.

Direct To India a Web Design Company in India for a better and creative website designing and development solutions.

Direct To India provides web designing, web development and internet marketing services across the world.

Learn more here, How Twitter Can Be Helpful for your Movie Website Promotion!!!

It’s common to see TV & movie Internet marketing campaigns include Facebook and Myspace marketing strategies, but in coming months, as Twitter begins to get more traction, we expect to see more video, television, movie & entertainment marketers experimenting with and finding success using Twitter as part of a well rounded social media marketing campaign. Such a campaign could involve a Blog, microsite, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and other online marketing resources.

As an online community of people writing text-based, miniature-scale Blog posts of no more than 140 characters, it’s not immediately apparent how Twitter could be used in movie or television internet marketing. But Twitter isn’t just another instant messaging tool. Twitter holds great potential for movie and television producers, directors, distributors, networks, PR teams and internet marketers for online communication, collaboration and relationship building with investors, internal teams, and targeted viewers.

Using Twitter, we see film & television developers & promoters coming up with new ways to reach their targeted audiences that include:

• providing insight and commentary in real time (i.e. on location during shooting)
• promoting special contests, sneak previews
• facilitating collaborative video production experience
• building conversation about the movie or television season or individual episodes
• opening dialogue between promoter and promotion participants
• movie & television website traffic generation
• promoting events such as movie premiers
• posting press releases

If, for example, during the making of a film a well known actor, actress or director posted regular Tweets via Twitter via their mobile phone it’s conceivable that hundreds if not thousands would follow and engage these immediate, seemingly intimate, “insider” posts.

Already, many TV networks such as ABC Family, NBC, CBS and MTV are experimenting with Twitter as a way to reach younger, tech-savvy audiences. MTV used Twitter to promote its MTV Music awards on June 3, 2007. The Disney-owned ABC Family network used Twitter to launch a new show called “Greek”, offering text updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses from cast and writers. NBC plans to use Twitter to drive traffic to a targeted MySpace page. This fall, CBS will be using Twitter to promote its new shows.

What other do you see movie & television marketers using Twitter? What would you like to see a Hollywood or BFI film try using Twitter as part of their social media marketing campaign? Do you think Twitter to promote movies or television shows is more or less powerful / effective than building email lists or facebook groups to try to achieve some of the same goals listed above? Hence, when I did movie marketing for a website before 6 months ago I found twitter at 21^st place for driving traffic towards to my movie website.

But now I’ve been learned a lot by communicating and understanding movie website promotion from the scratch to end, so happy movie marketing with twitter.

If you are a movie marketer come and discuss with the online media strategist at DirectToIndia.com and buzz your movie before it releases.

Website Design, SEO and Web Development Company

!!!

If you have a small business, the best way to market your products and services is by developing an e-commerce web site. It will benefit your business in number of ways. But, it is important to have a custom designed web site that can convey your product effectively to your target customers and thereby generate good profits and returns for you.

How to Build Custom Website That Improves Your Business?

It’s essential to have a well designed website which speaks about your products and services. A website should be pleasing to look at and easy to navigate. It is therefore essential to give careful consideration to aspects like appearance of the website, usability and functionality. It is equally important to have good and relevant content on the website subjected to your business services. If the visitor likes your website and finds it easy to navigate, he will visit your site regularly and browse it too.

If your current website is not able to generate profits for you or you want to get an ecommerce website to effectively market your small business, get your website designed by renowned web designers. There are various companies that provide e-commerce website design, web development and the search engine optimization services to many clients across the globe. You can get a custom build website for your business at reasonable rates.

The cost of building a website depends on your business requirements. This in turn decides how much functionality your website should have. The dedicated website specialists give you custom build website designs as per your business needs and budget. They can get you a new website design or work on the existing one to give you better web presence. Custom designed website will help you in website sales optimization (Conversion Optimization).

Getting a custom design website can help to improve your website presence and target customers effectively which helps you to generate website sales and more RIO.

To get more information about our services and packages for Custom Website Design and Custom Web Development Services Contact DirectToIndia.com Today for Free

Chaitanya Patel Sr. SEO Marketing Specialists at DirecttoIndia.Com Web Design Company

Here below I’ve mentioned the top websites which allows you to create a successful buzz as well as provide handsome amount of traffic towards your movie website which helps to generate a more sales on ticket office.

Top Social Media Websites and Tips for Film Marketing

1. Wikipedia.org: Signup for Wikipedia.org and write about your movie summary and provide the casting members and the information about the production company of the movie. If you have external links than place a reputed link which provides more details about your movie. Update your wikipedia.org page with the time by time as new activities and events happens with your film team and members. To have listed your website on wikipedia.org will itself provide a good amount of traffic.
2. YouTube.com: Submit trailer of your movie in YouTube and optimize the video in better manner as it rank in top of the results for the related category in videos this will definitely helps you to drive decent amount of traffic towards your website.
3. MySpace.Com: Having a account and connected with friends from the relevant industry in Myspace.com will help you to make good discussions about your upcoming movie and what I think it will be the best way to generate a successful buzz about your movie in online media. Always be consistent and keep the details updated.
4. Facebook.com: Facebook.com works and helps in the similar manner what does myspace.com does for your website. Facebook.com will helpful to generate good buzz about your movie in outside US as in US still myspace.com holds the big market.
5. Twitter.com: The great format of blogging which is defined as micro blog where you can express what are you doing. Still you must need a perfection to provide events and activities wisely which generates really hot topics discussions. Don’t over twitting.
6. IMDB.com: List your Movie site in IMDB.com and see the difference. However it provides paid inclusion services but the most reliable source to get excellent movie targeted traffic.
7. Rotten Tomattos: The best movie forum available on the web to produce generous discussion about every thing about your movie. Place review of your website and stay connected all the time with the members gently and promote your website in the Rotten Tomattos Forum.
8. Commonsensemedia.org: A very good website to submit your upcoming movie reviews.
9. Bebo.com: Nice social networking websites which help you to interact with the people you are interested. And finally,
10. Your Website official Blog: Your Movie Blog is the best place to produce latest events and activities buzz about your movie. You must be consistent in blogging and write about the every one who is associated with the movie. Don’t write to promote your film only but keep your blog for your readers and let them read some interesting news and information around the film industry in which they are mostly interested.

I hope these 10 social media platforms will help you in better movie marketing campaign. If you are a movie marketer contact DirectToIndia.com now with the details.

Send us your inquiry at

info@directtoindia.com

or you can simply visit our corporate website

http://www.directtoindia.com for an affordable and successful Film Marketing Campaign.

Why social media matters in Movie Marketing or A Film Marketing?

Having a website for a any film or movie production company is becoming these days very common. It will be very costly to drive traffic to the website with conventional marketing tactics than how could you generate a buzz for your movie in online media?

Social Media Optimization is the single most effective and affordable way for a Movie Marketing to buzz your movie in online media. There are plenty of social media websites in which you may promote your website but it shouldn’t be look so cheap.

I analyzed where people who used terms including the keyword for any movie site I found top social media websites on the top 10 results which allows audience to review the website and can discuss the thoughts about a movie. The good amount of the buzz you spread in Top Social media websites the good amount of popularity you can gain for your movie website.

By keeping a movie website buzz live in various social media platforms such as forums, Blogs, review websites, social networking websites, twitter and press releases websites. You need to be consistent on providing each and every single event which is associated to your movie in every social media platforms.

You must subscribed with Google Alerts as you can easily come to know about the buzz in online media for your movie and follow the link to provide the exact information and promote your movie site. Keep the alert status comprehensive and get the alerts as it happens. Although, it’s essential that you choose good social media websites from various social media platforms for better film marketing. Still, the fact that so much of this initial search traffic is going to social media sites before the release date suggests that the channel is an important information source for audiences even weeks before they buy a ticket.

So movie marketers take considerable note: social media matters even before the movie is released to create a successful buzz, reviews and discussions about movies.

If you are a movie marketing company and want to market your movie in online media contact us know to get a free quote. We at Direct To India has expertise and experience of successful movie marketing campaign through social media platforms for your films to make success on box office.

info@directtoindia.com

or you can feel an inquiry form at

http://www.directtoindia.com/contact-direct-to-india.html

Direct To India

Web Design, Web Development & Internet Marketing Company

I received some queries from popular bloggers who use Classic blogger template, and are happy with that.

But they are having trouble getting the “Add This” bookmark widget to show up. They think that they are probably putting the code in the wrong place, and tried every possible combination to place the code.

Normally all receives below error.

Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not closed: <script src=’http://s7.addthis.com/js/152/addthis_widget.js’ type=’text/javascript’/>

As for Blogger Classic, to be totally honest, there is not a lot of demand for using Add This” bookmark button. But I think let help bloggers who are using old Classic Blogger Template.

Here is the code I am sharing with you for using

<!– AddThis Button BEGIN –>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var addthis_pub=” YOURPUBID”;

var TITLE=<$BlogItemTitle$>;

var URL=<$BlogItemUrl$>;

</script>

<a href=”http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=20″ onmouseover=”return addthis_open(this, ”, ‘[URL]‘, ‘[TITLE]‘)” onmouseout=”addthis_close()” onclick=”return addthis_sendto()”><img src=”http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/lg-share-en.gif” width=”125″ height=”16″ alt=”Bookmark and Share” style=”border:0″/></a><script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://s7.addthis.com/js/200/addthis_widget.js”></script>

<!– AddThis Button END –>

YOURPUBID: This is your blogger username, replace YOURPUBID with your blogger username.

]]> http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/index.php/add-this-bookmark-button-in-classic-blogger-template/feed/ http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/index.php/most-demanding-skills-in-web-development/ http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/index.php/most-demanding-skills-in-web-development/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:59:27 +0000 Chaitanya http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/?p=208 Being a web developer in this time of economic crisis how will you make your stand strong in the web developwement industries? However, no matter how bad the economy worsens and recession effects, there will always be work in certain booming fields of web development.

Here I’ve list top most skills for web developers to survive and get continuous job work. I suggest to developers to learn these skills which have highest demand for development work in market.

Most Demanding Skills in Web Development

1. Framework Knowledge

Frameworks are one of the next big things. With the spectacular rise to fame of Rails, Django, and other MVC frameworks, developers have learned that they can develop websites much faster with the use of these tools and software. Frameworks help you to reduce development time and cut out much of the repetitive stuffs that normal custom programming (development) would need. Having knowledge of the top frameworks (Rails, Django, CakePHP, Symfony, and a few others), can give you a whole other dimension to your skill set.

2. Widget Development

Widgets have changed how web development has been done in the past couple of years. With the advent of widgets, data has become more portable, interactive and most importantly, viral. It’s in almost every web startup’s business plan to include a widget or two at some point, mainly because it helps increase their audience and puts more eyeballs on their content.

Widget development needs knowledge and expertise of Javascript and/or flash, not to mention knowledge of the regular language that the parent site is built in.

3. Custom CMS Themes

Web Designers and Website developers can always find work creating or customizing a CMS theme. As the popularity of CMS like Wordpress, Joomla, Rapidvector and Drupal have risen over the past years, so has the demand for creating themes for the software.

Many people use CMS to power their personal or business websites, so this work is always going to be around. A decent website needs a unique and usable design that reflects well on the brand behind it.

4. CMS Customizations and Plugin Development

CMS are great because it gives site owners with little technical know-how the ability to change aspects of their site on the fly with the help of modules. While most CMS platforms have a long list of modules to offer, many businesses and personal sites need more, and custom modules or plugins are the perfect solution.

Web Developers can have thriving businesses in CMS development and customization alone. Here are a few (and by no means all) of the top CMS platforms that could use plugin development and other customizations:

* ExpressionEngine

* Wordpress

* Drupal

* MovableType

* Joomla

* Rapidvector

5. PSD to XHTML Services

Another one of the more popular skills needed is converting Photoshop files (PSD) to XHTML files for template use. Because designers don’t always know how to convert Photoshop layouts into template files, a CSS and XHTML ninja can always find work. Because of the array of browsers now in common use and the niggling differences in how they render sites, you want to be a web developer who can build-out sites that display the same in any browser. This kind of design to code service is the most sought after of them all.

6. Javascript Plugin Creation

Much like the rise of CMS and MVC frameworks, Javascript frameworks are just as popular. These Javascript frameworks are built with the ability to add custom functionality in the form of modules. If you’re a developer who knows how to build custom Javascript modules for frameworks like jQuery or Dojo, you’ll have plenty of work available. Here are some of the most popular Javascript frameworks you might need to get a handle on.

* jQuery

* Scriptaculous

* Dojo

* MooTools

7. Facebook/MySpace Applications Development

Facebook and MySpace have both opened up their platform to allow developers API access, and the demand for social network apps has been huge since then. A whole new industry for web development sprang up overnight, and hundreds of applications are now added on a daily basis. The social media application platform has been found to be very viral and potentially very lucrative.

Some of these applications are built to make money or drive brand awareness, but ultimately the applications can be very successful and viral if they’re done properly. A solid developer can make a decent living creating Facebook and MySpace applications.

Facebook requires that you learn their own language of syntax, like the FBML (Facebook Markup Language), so you need to be ready for learning this skill.

8. iPhone Applications Development

Yet another platform-specific skill set, building iPhone applications can be very profitable, and much like the social media applications, a great skill for any developer to know. Making an iPhone application that is accepted into Apple’s platform has an excellent chance at making great money or receiving tons of downloads.

This is a great thing for web developers because companies are starting to see the value in developing iPhone and other mobile technologies, and consequently will want more and more applications developed in the future. Not just Iphone but I can say developers should learn overall mobile development to get recurring profits.

9. Ecommerce Integration

Business websites are always going to need ecommerce integration. Essentially, if you can take a language or framework and fuse it with a payment gateway, you’ll do well for yourself. I’m predicting that we’re going to see more paid services than free, ad-supported services being developed in the near future, as less money is being doled out to startups.

As the economy turns sour and the ad industry starts to get a little tighter, websites that use a subscription-based revenue model will start to become more common. Having the knowledge to piece together integration with online banking services like Paypal and Google Checkout will be great skills to have.

10. Flash and Action script Knowledge

Flash animation can do a lot for a website. Flash can be used to create videos, interesting navigation, fun animated sequences, widgets, and many other useful things on the Internet. The flash technology can add a very professional dimension to any website, and large websites and corporations always pay to have their sites look professional, and often commission Flash animated interfaces to showcase their products. With search engines working on ways to have Flash communicated better with them, this is a skill that’s sure to boom as the search technology advances. You can use even flash I software development to make its design attractive.

Therefore, learning frameworks is one of the best way to increase your skill set and potential work as a freelancer. Whether it’s a Javascript framework, CMS, or MVC framework, taking the time to learn a new skill can be a huge advantage to finding work. Also, website owners pay big bucks for development that allows them to make money, because they see it not as a regrettable expense, but as an investment in future profit. Services like ecommerce integration, creating iPhone apps and flash knowledge will also be much-needed skills, and people will always pay for those skills.

Custom Web Development Company DirectToIndia.com to hire skilled web developers.

]]> http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/index.php/most-demanding-skills-in-web-development/feed/ http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/index.php/what-is-conversion-optimization/ http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/index.php/what-is-conversion-optimization/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:22:26 +0000 Chaitanya http://www.directtoindia.com/blog/?p=206 What Exactly Is Conversion Optimization?

Conversion Optimization is the process of making it easier for the users to buy from you (or whatever other conversion goal you have, whether it be filling out a contact form, etc). Don’t worry, starting to improve the conversion-friendliness of your site is easier than you think. Let’s take a look at some of the steps in the process and how they can integrate with your search marketing campaigns and strategy.

Step 1: Understand and Improve Usability

Before anyone will want to buy from you, they need to feel comfortable at your site. Take a look at some of the following tips to help make a site more user friendly:

• Think like a user. Step out of your company mindset for a moment…how would the user feel about this site?
• How would a new user rate your navigation? Useful? Useless? Easy to navigate? Difficult? Navigation is one of the foundational elements of usability so spend some time making this work for site visitors. The rule of thumb is to make sure navigation gets people to where they want to go in 3 clicks or less.
• Remove barriers to either conversion or users finding what they need. Is there anything in your site that makes it awkward or difficult to proceed? Fix it.
• Are the visuals pleasant or do they assault your eyes? Fix it.
• Study well-executed competitor sites or those with similar functionality to find features you should be using.
• When it comes to e-commerce usability, Amazon.com is the leader. When lost for ideas, visit their site, and other strong sales sites. It will be sure to spark something.
• One thing Amazon doesn’t do perfectly, that you should: Use Search Engine Friendly and User Friendly URL’s so visitors can bookmark pages they like and come back. Example of Friendly URL: http://www.yoursite.com/this-is-a-friendly-url.php - Example of Unfriendly URL: http://www.yoursite.com/page.php?section=books&product=89403&q=75839

Step 2: Find Ways to Build Trust

Before people will spend money with you, they need to trust you. Some things to check for on your site:

• Basic trust-building elements like secure lock icons and “secure ordering” verbage on your shopping cart pages. You’d be surprised and how many shopping cart programs don’t come with these out of the box.
• Another no-brainer, but for your shopping cart it’s important to make sure your site uses standard e-commerce security features such as SSL encryption for processing orders, and appropriate security certificates that are up to date and work on all browsers. One mistake is that companies sometimes forget to renew certificates, and they expire without them even knowing it. This is more common when there has been a series of web development teams working on the site over time, and information gets lost along the way. With all the identity theft issues people deal with today, they don’t want to send their credit card info over an unsecured connection, so make sure this is in order.
• Do you have warranty or product guarantee info that the users would love to know about? Do you have any other features or services that make you stand out among competitors? Make sure potential customers/clients know about these, not only on your site, but also in your paid ads. For example, if you have an industry-leading warranty or feature, make sure that there it’s shown prominently (and tastefully) on your site, and also in your paid ads. Not only will the customers convert at a higher rate (from all traffic sources), but if you mention this in your PPC ads it will also increase your click-through rates. This is one example of the value of integration.

Step 3: Help Users Find Other Products to Buy

This may sound obvious, but make it easier for users to spend money at your site! Just like the “impulse buy” sections right by the checkout counters in many stores, install modules that show other items the user can buy once they’ve added products to the cart, or while they are viewing other products.

Options include:

• Popular products / top sellers
• Featured products you want to let customers know about
• Other items also purchased by those who bought that particular item (similar interests)
• Accessories that go with that product, etc.

Don’t Know Where to Start?

Remember that marketing is about communication.

If you’re stumped for where to start, simply start asking customers or clients for feedback. If you’re really motivated, hold some focus groups. See what they think would make your site better, easier to use, and build more trust. You can gather some incredibly valuable data by talking to the people in your target audience.

Dial-In Your Content

Once you do start to get a handle on this, it’s important to continually dial in your page content, titles, and META descriptions to more closely follow the mind of your target audience. Sometimes these changes can result in an immediate and large boost in traffic, even though most of the time it’s slow growth. Often as we’ve done research for clients and discovered that we either need to use an alternate phrase from what they initially thought, or added a strategic word or two to the page titles, we’ve seen traffic and sales jump very quickly after executing the change.

Continually Improve Your Understanding of Your Audience

After you’ve spent some time improving the conversion-friendliness of your site, and learning how your users think, you’ll start to know better how to improve your campaign strategies for organic search optimization and PPC. For example, are you finding out that there are certain phrases that a searcher is more likely to use? Often what you initially think they would search for is very different from what they actually search for, so it’s important to do your competitive market and keyword research on an ongoing basis.

Also, review your contact form submissions and customer service calls. Find out what kinds of words and phrases people are using. This may give you some additional clues as to what kinds of terms and phrases to target. Find out what kinds of questions people are asking, because these may result from weaknesses in the site. For example if there is a common question that comes up, it may be a question your site should be answering but isn’t.

One client site we did this with provides an interesting example: By noticing a common question that kept popping up, we created a module to answer that on the product pages. The conversion rate instantly went up by about 50%, along with sales. Also, by adding this information to the page in a search engine friendly manner, the pages started ranking better for some important phrases and terms, driving more traffic to the site, which in turn drove even more sales. If that’s not a case for integration of conversion optimization and internet marketing, then I don’t know what is!

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

This is an ongoing process, not a one-time deal. Keep working through the process throughout the life of your site, and with each cycle, it will get better and better. I’m confident that the more you do this, the more you’ll see the value of integrating conversion optimization into your internet marketing strategy.

Courtesy: Search Engine Guide