I thought I had
run out of ideas. Then I talked to a few folks and realized that
there is a lot more to know about the web. While I’ve covered
a lot of the technical things you can do to get your site noticed,
I haven’t discussed much about keeping people on your site
and also about making your site more friendly.
Now you are starting to get traffic to your site, the next things
are how do I keep them on my site, get them to spend more money,
and how do I get them to help send more traffic to my site.
1. Give them something of interest to do.
Information is what the net is all about. Pick content that
complements what you are doing and make it easy to read and
navigate. Something as simple as providing a list of complementary
site links will keep people on your site and coming back. Become a
resource (build really good META tags on this material and get it
listed). Don’t forget the fun things either. http://headgap.com/fortune.spml
2. Give them a way to send what they find to their friends.
One of the best things that is becoming prevalent on the net is
the ability to send the information from a site to a friend. This
could be anything from sending the URL and a short message, to
sending the article they are currently viewing. You are
doing this, aren’t you?
3. Get visitor emails immediately
Give them a way to send your newsletter to their friends, not only
on your site but in the newsletter as well. You must have a sign
up spot prominently displayed on your web site.
Remember that listserver I mentioned last month? A listserver is a
mailing list program that lets your customer subscribe and
unsubscribe automatically. Make sure you manage your lists. While
your list is small it is okay to keep them in one, but you really
should attempt to split out the types of customers. If you take
the time to segregate people who have purchased and people who
have simply signed up on your site, then you can target your
newsletters. That is one of the benefits of all this information
and technology. Make sure you spend time planning and identifying
potential groups and how you will address each group. When your
list gets large, it really makes it easier on you to have them
split. You can then spread out demand on your server and bandwidth
by allowing your newsletters to trickle out over a few days. This
in turn will allow you to spread out the demand on email
responses, customer service, order processing etc. Why kill
yourself and create a bad experience for a customer when you can
just as easily put out smaller chunks. Just remember to cross
check your lists for duplicates.
4. Don’t be too slick.
Aren’t you sick to death of all the polish and gloss and
color coordination? Doesn’t it make you psychotic when you
get to a site that has so many dancing banners and graphics you
can’t figure out what to do? Why does Yahoo keep their site
so simple and why are they the number one portal/search engine?
Have your mother navigate your site and keep your mouth shut long
enough to watch and learn.
5. Be nice to AOL
users, Mac users, people with really old machines, and all the
other worthless people on the earth.
They probably
make up the majority of your customer base. Techie types tend to
look down on the uninitiated. Make sure you or your techies
aren’t guilty of this. AOL in particular is a force to reckon
with. It seems that the majority of people spending money on the
net are AOL users (I don’t like it but haven’t figured
out a way to change it). I personally optimize my web layouts for
800x600. Most pro sites do also. I also go back and view the page
in 640x480 and make sure people on older 14” monitors can not
only navigate, but also that they can read the information. I use
Mac equipment but also am keenly aware that most people
don’t. The Macs make text and graphics smaller and lighter
than they appear on PC’s. The point is, take time to view
your site on multiple machines and monitor sizes. Also, remember
people over 40 may have vision difficulties (and a lot don’t
want to admit it!). Even with vision correction, VERY small text
is difficult to read, and any color against black is a nightmare.
While it looks cool, it isn’t the best combination for
extensive reading. Don’t make your graphics and text too
small. Let’s face it. How long will you stay on a site you
can’t see or read, or on a web site that you have to scroll
two screens over to read? A good way to be consistent and help
insure your site is viewable by the most people is to use style
sheets optimized for your site traffic by browser.
6. Be nice to modem
users.
Broadband is
coming and will be great and big high quality graphics will really
look cool, but who wants to wait 10 minutes for your page to load
when they are using a modem. Again, you have to be realistic. Only
a small percentage of folks are connected broadband. While it is
changing rapidly, don’t be a dope. If you view any of your
pages and you can’t hold your breath in the time it takes to
load on a 28.8 modem connection, you have messed up. 30-50k is
tops for a web page and all its graphics. Learn how to optimize
your graphics or get someone who knows how. Make your pages as
small as possible, but do keep in mind the customer has to make a
buying decision from your graphics. Give them the option to see a
larger view whenever possible. Many of us are beginning to make
two sites, one for broadband users and one for dial up users, and
this is becoming more prevalent on the net everyday. You
don’t want to neglect broadband and you can easily offer 3D
product view, animations and movies as an option with a simple
file size in k warning.
7. Be human!
That may sound
strange, but most people despise being categorized or identified
by an order number. While that is how you should be organizing
your marketing data, you want to always think of ways to
personalize and humanize your content. Get yourselves a
spokesperson or make one up. Wendy’s Dave is a good example,
but Colonel Sanders is easily identifiable as well. Spruce up your
“About Us” page. Do you have pictures of your facilities
and employees? Use them to give your site a more
“comfortable” feel. People like to deal with people.
Your site should also have contact information (including address
and phone number) in easy to find locations and clearly marked.
Don’t you feel more confident when you buy something if you
know where the guy lives?
8. USE A
SPELLCHECKER.
Get someone to
proofread as well. I frequently abbreviate and use improper
grammar so I have someone with better skills proofread my stuff
after I’ve run it through the spellchecker. Selling allows
you to do things like using Title in descriptions or ALL CAPS for
special emphasis. Most of that type of thing is okay, just
don’t get crazy with it. However, some people on this earth
know how to spell and they look down on folks who don’t. You
want them focusing on what you say, not the errors. Make the extra
effort to get it right and make it easy to read.
Bob Nunn is owner, Operator Headgap Systems, http://headgap.com,
http://tfbbs.com
Board Member, AppleCore of Memphis, Inc., http://memphisapplecore.com
Email: headgap@headgap.com
