Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Key factors for web design optimization

Every web design project has its own priority depending on the business. Optimization of the design is a key factor to keep your audience on to your website. Below mentioned checklist are some major points that should be tracked in every step of your design optimization.

Aim or Scope of the project:

The website is brought into existence for some purpose. This purpose could be anything varying for sharing of information to selling the product or service. Usually the purpose of most of the commercial website is to promote the sale of products or services offered by the website owner.  The website needs to be designed on the basis of what the final user of the website want. If the website design meets the demand of the final users, then the website will be able to generate revenue for the website owner.

The users expectation:

The website is finally going to be used by the human beings. All sorts of human beings do not have the same mental capacity. Getting used to the technicalities of the computer and the internet usually depends on the age of the user. When designing the website the age of targeted market segment has to be the prime consideration. If the website is to be designed to target the elderly people then the functionality of the website is going to depend on the vision as well as the thought process of the user. All the elderly people are not used to the technicalities and they need to be guided and presented with the simplest message or information that can be easily understood. The functionality of the website also depends on the extent to which the targeted audience can see the message or information clearly.

Need for the website:
A website designer needs to study the prospective final users of website especially to know how they are going to use it. If the website is for promoting the sale of a product, there should be a facility for the user to place the order, and if this facility is not offered or the facility of online payment for the delivery of ordered product is not given the prospective buyer is never going to place the order in the future. If the web designer wants to assure maximum functionality of the website he/she should consider what the visitor is going to do when the website is displayed on the screen.

Clarity in design:

The designer can assure optimum functionality of the website when all the visitors of the website know to use it. This depends directly on the clarity of the information or messaged exhibited on the website pages. For the visitors especially the first timers and kids, instructions need to be clearly presented on the screen, then and then only optimization of functionality is possible.
 
The working methodology:

The final user of the website should be informed about how the website is going to act on pressing or clicking the various buttons. The user needs to be also informed about the consequences of clicking or pressing the buttons by mistake and how to rectify it. When the user knows the working of the website the functionality can be optimized.
 
Interactivity within the website:

The website needs to be as interactive with the user as possible. The more the website is interactive the more the user gets used to the functionality. This implies that even if the functioning is a bit difficult initially, as the user practices the functioning becomes easy.

Mistakes that can be retrieved:

At time mistakes by the users can escalate and halt the functioning of the website. If the user is informed about the ways to rectify the mistakes, the mistake can be corrected without it getting escalated. For example, the website containing a video may not run in an old flash version where in the user can be directly linked to the latest version of flash installation page for ease of navigation. 

There can be many other factors, but it all depends on the size and requirement of the website. So research on the basic necessities and scope could help the designer design exactly to your key requirements. 



Wednesday, December 7, 2011

How to decide on your keywords for SEO


After a lot of research into various blogs and top SEO articles, I decided to post on this question. I am quite sure that whoever is looking into this article by now has got ample knowledge on what a keyword is. To find relative keywords- Google adwords keyword tool is a very good option.
But the argument I found wrong from many top blogs was that, they were not able to make their clients accept that some keywords have the ability to convert into sale than some other keywords. After carefully looking into a lot of details from different blogs and analyzing the factors, here are reasons that can justify why sometimes it is better do what clients prefer.

Ok now let us consider an example here:

Let us consider the two keywords to be “buy camera” and “buy sony digital camera x12345”. As per the argument “buy sony digital camera x12345” has more chances of being converted into sale as the user has already found the model they need and is searching it more narrow to find the best place to buy or to find the best possible price to buy.  But did you think that buy camera would be the first keyword they would have searched before confirming on the model they wish to buy. You might be now wondering so what difference does it make?

If buy camera brings you 450000 unique potential customers and if “buy sony digital camera x12345” brings you 45000 unique potential customers- which one would you prefer?
Ok here is the math
450000 is 10 times the value of 45000 and if you have like 100 e-commerce competitors selling the same product, then price, brand name of the portal and customer satisfaction becomes the next factors. So if you can attract 450000 customers with the best price and customer satisfaction guaranteed to the product you sell, then there is more probability that buy camera keyword would sell more than buy sony digital camera x12345.  And yes, increasing your brand value can create an even larger impact giving customers a feel of security to buy on your website.

Another reason why major e-commerce site customers would like to have more traffic is because they always want more people to know about them to establish their brand name to customers. It really doesn’t matter they sell from that particular keyword but it is really important that they are on top of such keywords where there is more customers. When more people know about your brand, there is more probability that you would end up selling more of your products. Just think whether it is better to spend in millions in advertising or is it better to spend a fraction of that money and make it compelling for people to visit your website for such keywords? I would say this is more of growing e-commerce economics which deserves a lot of study yet.

When you look into even more larger perspective, if more people are visiting your website through a certain keyword and you still are not able to convert them, then the problem lies in your inability to be competitive in the market by not able to give customers what they need. You can be so cost competent and eliminate others by converting maximum of that search volume onto your website with a defined strategy. 
There are various factors that keep changing. 

Note:My argument may not be right for a certain set of keywords but it can be highly beneficial for certain others. The best I would prefer is a combination of both and see which performs better over a period of time.

There is a lot of difference when it comes to PPC advertising. For PPC advertising, I would suggest to place the bet more on the long tailed keywords than the shorter ones. Now you might question me, what difference does it make? In normal SEO result click, you don' t pay for the click and don't even need to expect for the consumer to buy a product as you don't lose anything but show them that you have the product at a particular cost and expect them to come back later after they have decided to purchase whereas in PPC you would be losing money with every click a user makes.

If you can really think from the clients’ point of view, then you will probably start understanding why your clients need it that way. So next time your client asks you something, don’t argue like a child. You can always suggest him based on your knowledge, but make sure you really give him what he needs in the end because there might be a lot of strategic goals that he don't want to reveal you or make you understand.


Monday, December 5, 2011

How to make a successful website launch?

Ahh that sounded like an easy question to be answered when i choose the topic to post today like most bloggers do, but when i think about the complexity and factors that can make a successful launch it keeps going. Ok here is a quick look on the kind of companies that need to make a strategic plan for their new website launch.

  • Companies launching their first website 
  • E commerce portals
  • Social Networking sites
  • Magazines/Newspapers
Oh well let me stop it there. Looks like everyone needs a successful launch..:) So let me tell you exactly how a strategic plan could help you achieve a successful launch based on our experiences.

1. Try to make the best of what you can. Do not get convinced with the website if you really feel you are not happy about and don't launch it until you are convinced. Take the help of a professional consultant if you don't find enough time to convert your ideas and passion into creating it. Remember- first impression is the best impression and to gain confidence of people around you, do it best the first time.

2. Careful planning can help. For example: If you are planning to launch an online magazine website, fix a date in your mind for the launch. Start gathering and building your website. Don't stay idle during the process. Try and create a buzz about the launch and make sure more people are starting to notice you. Pre-launch limited details in social networking sites. This not only helps you in gaining attention, but you might also get some valuable suggestions that could help you make it even better. 

3. Start engaging with your customers even before the launch. For example: If your magazine covers news on real estate industry, and your plan for running the website is from advertisements from that particular industry then try to engage with them. You might end up gaining some valuable industry needs and insights that could help you tweak your website even more.

4. I should have told this the very first. Brain storming ..:) Find all possible looks, style etc that can match your future aspirations of making the website and taking it to your greatest vision.

5. There are times when sometimes you want to know how users react to your product launch, or the launch needs to be done immediate due to pressure from various sources and you do not want to lose their confidence simply because you know that it was not the best you have given yet, then the most simple thing you could go is a Beta launch. This can as well help you gain respect with the work you have done so far, without losing any potential customers. 

6. Advertising helps if you are ready to spend. Get help of a smart advertising agency, who can really create that buzz for you. Simple marketing tricks can be of great help. Try convincing similar bloggers in your field to write a topic about your pre-launch and it can as well create a buzz.

7. If the website is content oriented, make sure the content is unique and really benefits that community. This will bring you retention.

Guess i have covered a few important points and if any of you have anymore suggestions please add it in the comments. Looks like its time for me to make the necessary tweaks of my website as i have started grabbing attention in my blog..:) Easy said than done..:)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

How can I feed my blog/website updates automatic to google plus(+) page, twitter, linkedIn, facebook etc?


For twitter,linkedin and facebook, please check the link twitterfeed.com
The process is simple and saves you a lot of time rather posting updates manually in each of the networking sites. Hope twitterfeed adds a googlepage feed as well soon to it. There are a lot of support posts on the internet if you are struck somewhere. Also you can post your comments or questions in the comments section below and I might be able to try and help you out.
Check the video below for twitterfeed activation method

For the not so competent IT guys, I would advice you to wait for some more time for the google plus page feed as no specific method has yet been released. Also join this site so I would be updating a post on it anytime soon I find a real cool way of doing it like the twitterfeeds.
For others, please check the google API page https://developers.google.com/+/api/ for knowledge on various google authentication systems and calling parameters. 

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