OMG! Your Website Is Ugly
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This presentation is available as a free webinar: http://www.theurldr.com/register-omg-website-ugly-webinar/ Have you been wondering why your not doing much business online? It could be your website. Your website needs to convey in 5 seconds or less that you're reputable and trustworthy, you're an expert in your field, you can solve your visitors' problems, and lead them in a direction through your site so they can find what they're looking for. It's a lot to ask a poor website to do, But if you're website is ugly, then your visitors may be leaving. The presentation also discusses the benefits of using WordPress. Learn 6 of the top WordPress plug-ins for small business, how to choose a web host, and how to keep your website safe.
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OMG! Your Website Is Ugly
- 1. OMG! Your Website is Ugly! How to improve your online presence with WordPress
- 2. KimButler@TheURLdr.com www.TheURLdr.com @TheURLdr The URL Dr Kim Butler The URL Dr. 4539 Metropolitan Court Frederick, MD 21704 301-363-2710
- 3. Agenda What we are going to discuss today. 2 Most Important Pages Why you absolutely need both of these pages. Best Practices Usability and design for conversion. 5 Seconds What is your website saying about you? Why Use WordPress How WordPress solves your biggest problems. Website Hosting It’s much more important than you know. 6 Best WP Plug-ins Fast and easy ways to add features & functionality.
- 4. Sound Familiar? Frequent website issues that small and mid-size businesses face
- 5. Website Usability & Design Best practices to increase your conversion rate and success online.
- 6. •Tell your visitors who you are You’ve Got 5 Seconds From the time a visitor lands on your website, you have seconds to engage them •Convey you’re credible & trustworthy •Lead visitors in a direction to help them solve a problem or get info •Convince them you’re an expert •Tell your visitors what you do
- 7. Basic Elements These should be on every page of your website Phone # Logo Logo Links to Homepage Social Media Links Call to Action Call to Action Footer Header w/Navigation
- 8. Web-wide Conventions Don’t violate the norm. Visitors get confused when you do things in unexpected ways they don’t expect. Flash & Animation It doesn’t grab visitor attention. It drives them away. Don’ts In Design Visitors need to have a positive experience on your website. If they don’t, you can lose them forever. They won’t call. They won’t visit your store or office. They’ll go back to Google and click on your competitor in the search results. Back Buttons Don’t break them. Make sure visitors can use them. Frozen Layouts Your site needs to be viewable on any device. Use responsive design.
- 9. After Clicking After the visitor clicks on the link, visits a new page, and then returns to the original page, the anchor text is purple. Before Clicking Before the visitor clicks on the link to visit a new page, the anchor text is blue. Links Should Change Color When you click a text link on a website, the text needs to change color
- 10. Dark Text on White Backgrounds Easiest to read online. Dark colors are best for text and light colors are best for backgrounds. White Text on Dark Backgrounds Causes eye strain and discomfort. More difficult to read online. Use Dark Text on Light Colors Highly contrasting text and background colors makes your content easier to read
- 11. Limited Number of Colors & Fonts Consistency breeds trust and professionalism online. Too Many Colors & Fonts Makes your site look unstructured and unprofessional. Limit Fonts and Colors Use no more than 4 different colors and 3 typefaces
- 12. Clean, Uncluttered & Professional Using white space throughout your site helps visitors process information. Too Much Going On It’s extremely difficult for visitors to quickly identify what’s important and create order. Don’t Forget White Space Adequate white space gives a clean, uncluttered look to your pages and makes them easier to read
- 13. Text That is Readable When in doubt, use Verdana. Modern, simple, professional and high in user preference. Text That is Too Small If you’re audience can’t read your content, they won’t spend much time on your site. Legibility is Imperative Use san serif fonts that are at or above 10 points
- 14. Ask Just What is Needed Ask only for what you need at this point. As the relationship progresses, you can ask for more Too Many Questions Visitors will refuse to answer too many questions. They’ll leave, frustrated. Too Many Nosy Questions Build up a relationship with your prospects before you ask too many questions
- 15. Using Graphics Set Standard Sizes Especially for product images with E-commerce, use the same size images throughout your site Use Alt Tags Use image alt tags to describe your images. This helps your on page SEO. Optimize Images Save images at as low a resolution as possible without sacrificing visual quality. Image Size Use images that are large enough and can zoom in to show adequate detail.
- 16. Goal of the Page Get their contact information? Buy something? Download something? Sign up for a free trial or newsletter? Donate? Make Calls-to-Action Stand Out Use contrasting colors, unique shapes, compelling images, show your product or service and include some white space. Be Compelling & Clear Have a good reason why your visitor should do what you’re asking. Write your call-to- action clearly and action-oriented. Lead Capture Forms Keep it short. Ask only for the information you absolutely need and will use. Calls-to-Action What do you want your visitor to do?
- 17. Two Most Important Pages Your website should not only have a home page, but one or more landing pages, too. Home Page Landing Page
- 18. Home Page The main goal of the home page is to get people off the home page. Quickly! Main Goal To lead visitors to the place in your website to answer their questions and solve their problems Every Second Counts Each consecutive visit to your site has visitors spending less and less time on your home page. You have seconds. They Won’t Read It Ten to twenty words is a realistic number that people will read on your home page. Navigation Is Key Your home page needs to show visitors an easy and direct path through your website to what they are trying to find.
- 19. Landing Page The most overlooked page on most small and mid-sized business websites. Main Goal To capture contact information from the visitor, sell something, etc. Landing pages can be E- commerce or lead collection forms. All Inclusive A concise selection of images and text that allows the visitor to act on this page, without going to another one. Navigation Is Sparce Navigation on landing pages is eliminated, maybe with the exception of the logo linking to the home page. They’ll Read a Little More If you’re lucky, you’ll get visitors to read more on a landing page than your home page. Also a great place for a video.
- 20. Ashley Kim Butler The URL Dr. 4539 Metropolitan Court Frederick, MD 21704 301-363-2710 11th Grader Struggling w/ English Mom does Google search for “English tutors”
- 21. Finds TakeLessons.com Landing Page for Private English Lessons Contact Form to Get Started Phone Number Credible List of Press and Security Listings (BBB)
- 22. TakeLessons.com home page Landing Page doesn’t mention English lessons No Contact Form to Get Started No Phone Number Credible List of Press and Security Listings (BBB)
- 23. WordPress The most powerful, versatile, easy to use, flexible Content Management System available today. (Yeah, WordPress rocks and you should use it!)
- 24. An Impressive Portfolio 23.3% of all websites online today are powered by WordPress.
- 25. WordPress is Free WordPress is free for use by any company or individual. WordPress is open source, which means you can modify it in any way that you choose. This openness has created a huge WordPress community of companies and people that exist to support businesses with WordPress websites.
- 26. WordPress Themes A theme is a collection of files that work together to display your website in a particular manner. Themes provide the page layouts, color schemes, and fonts that make your website look unique. No Coding Needed Anyone can install and use a WordPress theme. No coding is needed. Mobile Friendly Many themes are responsive design and are mobile friendly Premium Themes More themes available for under $75 from commercial sites Free Themes Over 2,000 free themes in the official WordPress Theme Directory
- 27. Free Plug-ins There are over 33,000 plug-ins listed in the official WordPress plug- in directory. Many are free. Some are paid. Easy to Install One click installation makes using plug-ins a breeze. No coding needed. Easy. Quick. Endless Features Plug-ins give a website a virtually endless array of additional functions and features. Update Easily Keeping plug-ins up-to- date is a breeze with one click updates. WordPress Plug-ins A plug-in is a bit of software code that can be uploaded to your website and expands the functionality.
- 28. Best WPPlug-ins Top 6 WordPress plug-ins every small and mid-sized business website should be using.
- 29. Gravity Forms Easiest to use web contact form for WordPress.
- 30. WordPress SEO by Yoast Gives you control over elements important to search engine optimization and getting found online.
- 31. Akismet Scans and removes SPAM automatically.
- 32. W3 Total Cache Caching plug-in makes your web pages load faster.
- 33. GoogleAnalytics for WP by Yoast Simplifies basic setup of Google Analytics. (GA dashboard inside WP coming soon!)
- 34. Constant Contact Automatically add contact information from your web forms to your Constant Contact account.
- 35. You’re In Control WordPress gives you complete control over your website. For every business owner who is in a situation where you’re not in control of your online presence, WordPress is your answer.
- 36. Types of Web Hosting Picking the right type of web hosting for your business is imperative. Free Hosting Remember, in hosting, as with life in general, you get what you pay for. Shared Hosting You and thousands of other websites share a server. VPS Hosting Virtual Private Server. Hosting in the cloud. More controlled environment. Dedicated Hosting Your website is on its own server. Not necessary for most small businesses. Managed WP Hosting Hosting especially for WordPress websites. Includes maintenance, updates, extra security Managed Hosting Includes maintenance, updates, extra security. Can be VPS. No worry hosting. Website Hosting Most small businesses don’t understand how hosting impacts their website.
- 37. Help When You Need It Who do you contact if there’s a problem? Can you get help when you need it? Not Large Resources You’re not going to get decent bandwidth or resources for free. No Premium Hardware You’re not going to get premium hardware without paying for it. Banners or Ads You may be asked to place advertisements on your website. Free Hosting
- 38. Customer Service Do they answer their phone when you need help? Customer service can be a problem. Can’t Control Your Neighborhood If one of the other websites on your server gets hacked, it could negatively impact your website. Performance Shared hosting is notoriously slow and not optimized for performance. 1000’s of Other Sites You’re sharing a server with hundreds or thousands of other websites. Shared Hosting
- 39. Safest & Most Reliable VPS hosting averages $20 to $160 a month. It’s by far the safest & most reliable hosting. In The Cloud Multiple servers work together so a hardware failure of a single server won’t bring your website down. More Protection Multiple servers add another layer of protection for your site. Virtual Private Server A portion of the server is partitioned off for your website. Gives you control. VPS Hosting
- 40. Maintenance Included Maintenance and updates to your server and website are included in one monthly fee. VPS & In The Cloud Many managed hosting setups are in the cloud with VPS. Ask your host for more information. Plug-ins & Email Included The really good hosts set up your company email addresses and install plug- ins for you. No Worry Hosting Everything is done for you. Updates, maintenance, security. Just sit back & relax. Managed Hosting
- 41. Maintenance & Updates Many will update WordPress, your themes & plug-ins as part of your contract of service. VPS & In The Cloud Many managed hosting setups are in the cloud with VPS. Ask your host for more information. Knowledge of WordPress These hosts know WordPress and are aware of the nuances of dealing with a company that has a WordPress site. Specialize in WordPress These hosts have their servers tweaked to provide the optimum performance for WordPress websites. Managed WP Hosting
- 42. Who Will Maintain It? Most hosting companies only provide the hardware and not the maintenance & management. Most Expensive Dedicated servers average $150 to $375 a month. Overkill for Most Small Biz Most small businesses don’t need a dedicated server. Your Own Private Server A server just for you. No other website is on it. Dedicated Hosting
- 43. 6 Considerations in Picking a Host Use these questions and talking points to help you pick the best web host for your needs. Knowledge Have experience dealing with small businesses? Speed Your pages need to load in 2 seconds or less. Check Pingdom and Google. Price Expect to pay $20 to $99 a month for quality hosting, depending on level of service. Customer Service Do they answer their phones? Can you get help when you need it? Performance Stack up against the competition. What is their real uptime? Guarantees? Specialties If you’re running WordPress, does your host specialize in this?
- 44. YouAreAt Risk Cyber attacks are targeting small business because many don’t have the proper security measures in place. 30,000 Hacks In Sept of 2013, Forbes reported that 30,000 websites get hacked every day. The majority are small business.
- 45. Phishing Schemes Many cyber attacks are phishing schemes to steal personal data and credit card information. Fewer Resources Hackers Know Small businesses have fewer resources available to protect their websites Security Measures Aren’t In Place Many small businesses don’t have the proper security measures in place. Don’t Know Huge Problem Most small businesses don’t know what a huge problem website security is.
- 46. How to Keep Your Website Safe 5 Ways to keep your website safe and secure from hackers. Make sure your software and plug-ins are up-to-date. If you’re passing credit card & personal data, use an SSL to encrypt your website traffic. Make sure you’re backing up your website frequently, in case you need to restore it. Use a web hosting company that is providing additional security measures. Make sure your themes and plug-ins are coming from reputable companies.
- 47. Does Speed Really Matter? Does the speed of your website really impact your bottom line? (Yes, it does.) 2 Seconds Half of website users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less and tend to abandon sites that don’t load in 3. 7% Reduction 1 Second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. 79% Won’t Return 79% said they wouldn’t return to a site where they encountered a problem & 44% would tell a friend. Site Search Google has made page load speed on of the over 200 different signals that affect search rank.
- 48. How to Run at Top Speed These 5 tips can increase your page load times and get your site running faster. Google’s Page Speed Tool Check your site’s page speed. Tool gives priority fixes to help your pages load faster. Optimize Your Images Make sure file sizes are as small as they can be without altering the clarity & visibility. Use GZIP Compression Ask your webhost if they are using GZIP compression on your server. No Shared Hosting Make sure you’re not in a shared hosting environment on a gang server. Use W3 Total Cache If you have a WordPress website, use a caching plug-in, like W3 Total Cache.
- 49. Next Steps
- 50. KimButler@TheURLdr.com www.TheURLdr.com @TheURLdr The URL Dr Kim Butler The URL Dr. 4539 Metropolitan Court Frederick, MD 21704 301-363-2710
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Our presentation today is going to cover a lot of information. You’re going to have an opportunity at the end of the webinar to ask questions, but if you think of something you want to ask later today or tomorrow or even this weekend, feel free to reach out to me at any of these addresses. I also invite you to connect with me on any of the social media networks that I participate in. I regularly share information specifically geared to small and mid-sized businesses in regards to their websites, WordPress, online marketing and how to be more successful online. I will share this slide again at the end of the presentation.
- Today we’re here to talk about why you’re not doing more business online and if you have an Ugly website, how that can be negatively impacting your online and offline results. Let me first clarify that when I say “Ugly website,” I’m not only talking about how your website looks, but how the content is written, how the navigation has been designed, and whether or not your website is reaching targeted goals and objectives. There are many elements that can contribute to an “ugly” nonproductive website. Our goal here today is to share information and best practices that can help you as a small or mid-sized business, improve your website and not only make it “pretty” but have it help contribute to your organization’s bottom line. I’m going to divide today’s presentation into two parts. In Part 1 we’re going to discuss usability and design elements of your website: [click to build] You’ve got 5 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention and convey a lot of information to them. What exactly is your website saying about your business? [click to build] Then we’ll discuss best practices for usability and design to increase conversions on your website. Conversions could be number of sales, leads generated, people who signed up for your email newsletters, number of donations. It can be different things to different businesses and different websites. [click to build] Do you know the two most important pages on your website? We’ll discuss these two must haves. Then in Part 2, we’re going to discuss [click to build] WordPress and why you need to be using it [click to build] We’ll talk about web hosting and what you don’t know that may be hurting you [click to build] Then I’m going to share with you my favorite WordPress plug-ins that can add features and functionality to your website. And yes, you can do these things yourself, even if you don’t have any knowledge of coding or HTML.
- I deal with companies of all sizes, from solopreneurs to corporations with tens of millions in sales. But regardless of the size of a company, I many times hear the same complaints and problems. [click to build] My customers can’t find my website [click to build] My website is offline more than it’s online [click to build] Every time I want to make a change on my website I have to pay someone to do it [click to build] I don’t have control of my own website [click to build] I can’t get the person who manages my website to answer my phone calls [click to build] My website doesn’t do any business [click to build] My website looks terrible on my smart phone [click to build] Somehow our website got hacked Do any of these complaints sound familiar? All too often, organizations with a website have one or more of these problems. Let’s start our discussion today with how your website looks and how that can be effecting how much business your doing.
- Let’s discuss Website Usability and Design, with a focus on elements that can improve your conversion rate and make you more successful online.
- Our audiences have a very short attention span. You don’t have much time to engage your visitors once they get to your website. In fact, [click to build] you really only have about 5 seconds to engage them. And as if only having 5 seconds isn’t bad enough, in that short amount of time, you have to [click to build] Tell your visitors who you are [click to build] Tell your visitors what you do [click to build] Convey to them that you’re credible and trustworthy [click to build] Convince them you’re an expert in your field and your industry [click to build] And lead them in a direction to help solve their problem or get information they’re seeking And the way your web page is designed and the way it looks, has a very large impact on whether or not your visitor is going to spend more than 5 seconds on your site. If your page confuses your audience, don’t look professional, and doesn’t provide a clear path to the information that visitor is seeking, they will leave your site, most likely never to return. And no, they won’t call you. The few seconds they spent on your website has cemented in their minds an impression of your business. Regardless of what your brick and mortar store or office looks like, if you lost them online, 9 chances out of 10, you won’t get the opportunity to make a better impression in person or on the phone.
- But it’s important to remember that not everyone sees your homepage when they visit your website. You can’t control the first page that someone visits, so you need to have a few basic elements on every page of your website to help visitors get their bearings and quickly determine if they are in the right place. [click to build] Your company logo should always be in the upper left hand corner of your web pages [click to build] Your logo should be a link back to your homepage [click to build] Your phone number should be in the upper right corner or in the header [click to build] Your website should have navigation in the header to the most important pages of your site. Best practices say no more than 6 or 7 links. Use plain, descriptive words as your links. This is not the place to be cute or clever. Don’t use made up words. Just say it like it is. [click to build] You should have at least one call to action. What is the goal of the page? What do you want someone to do? You need to tell them. If your page scrolls and is long, you should have multiple calls to action that are visible as you move down the page [click to build] Every website should have a footer. You should include navigation to the important pages of your website, particularly, any links to pages that didn’t fit in the header. [click to build] Your should have links to your social media accounts on every page. Here on GotoWebinar’s website they are in the footer. I prefer them in the header, but regardless of where you put them, they should be in the same place on every page of the website. Including these basic elements, help orient your visitors to where they are, where they’ve been, and where they’re going on your website. You don’t want to make them think. You don’t want to make them look for things. Put your elements in the standard places that all other websites do.
- You want to put your best foot forward at all times and project a professional experience on your website. Don’t lose visitors over flaws and errors in your website’s design. Visitors form a first impression in literally a second and a half. The mere instance they see your webpage, they make an unconscious decision about whether they want to invest any more time even reading through your page. If your content is old and out of date, they won’t call you and they won’t come and visit you. This is a huge misconception that I hear from small businesses all the time. Well, they’ll just call us if they want up-to-date information. No they won’t. They’ll hit the back button and click on your competitor in the search results. Some Don’ts in Design Basics include: [click to build] Flash and Animation don’t grab visitor’s attention. It drives them away. It’s extremely hard to concentrate on what to do and where to go on a website when there are moving images all over the place. In addition, older operating systems may have problems with Flash, which will make your site appear broken. [click to build] Frozen Layouts don’t allow your website to conform to the device it’s being viewed on. Mobile has become such an incredibly large part of internet usage that you must have a mobile friendly website. Use a responsive design that will adjust to the device your visitor is using, whether they are on a smart phone, tablet, or computer. [click to build] Don’t Break the Back Button. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get back to where you started, only to find that you’re being held hostage on someone’s website. That’s a sure fire way to make sure visitors will never return to your website. [click to build] Web-wide Conventions are used for a reason. They are the norm. Visitors have come to expect certain things in certain places and for website features to behave in a certain way. Don’t deviate from what is expected. It confuses visitors when you try to do things in unexpected ways.
- The oldest usability guideline for any type of navigational design is to help users understand where they’ve been, where they are, and where they can go. [click to build] Changing the color of the anchor text, or the clickable words, on a webpage tells a users when they have already visited the page.
- Generally, dark colors are best for text and light colors are best for backgrounds. Low contrast can cause eye strain and discomfort. The right color contrast ensures legibility and readability on your site. Remember reading online is much more difficult than reading on paper. Highly contrasting text and background colors makes it easier. Black text on a white background or something similar is easiest to read. And nothing screams out amateur more than a busy background. Get the paw prints and hearts off the background of your website. It not only looks bad but text set in a busy background decreases readability.
- Limit the number of font styles on your site and apply them consistently. The same applies to color. Use no more than four different colors and three typefaces in the main areas of your site or it will appear unstructured and unprofessional. People don’t trust sites that look like a ransom note. Another rule for text is don’t use all caps. All cap text reduces reading speed by about 10%
- When there’s too much going on, it’s extremely difficult for visitors to quickly identify what’s important and create order. Visually crowded sites are overwhelming. Using white space throughout your site helps your visitors process information and gives a clean, uncluttered look. Having adequate white space around content points draws visitors attention to important information you’re sharing, without causing eyestrain. When you provide enough white space it relieves spatial tension on the page.
- Web text should be short, scannable, and approachable. Typically you should write half as many words for the web as you would for print. When your website is trying to appeal to a broad consumer audience, it is best to write for an 8th grade reading level. Your web pages should be using a font that is at least 10 points if not larger. Do not use a smaller font to try and cram more words on the page. San serif text is the fastest and easiest font to read online, which is exactly the opposite of print text. When in doubt about what to use online, use Verdana. It’s the most readable online font, even in small type. Modern, simple, professional, Verdana is the recommended font for use in body text, where readability is critical. It is high in user preference.
- If you are are too nosy too soon, people will refuse to answer your questions. Websites have to build up a bit of a relationship with users before they can start asking them too many personal questions. Think carefully about what information you truly need at each stage of the relationship building process. If you really need a mailing address because you’re going to send them something in the mail, then ask for it. But if you have no intention of sending information through the US Postal Service in the near future, gather that information at a future point in time or when you’re talking to your prospect on the phone.
- Images and graphics on your website are an extremely important part of the overall look and feel you convey to visitors. Meaningful visuals on your site can complement text to show, rather than tell, what products and services look like. [click to build] Choose images that are large enough to be viewed on the page, but can also zoom in to show enhanced detail. [click to build] Optimize your images. This means to save them in as low a resolution as possible without sacrificing visual quality. Tools like Yahoo’s Smush It and TinyPNG can decrease your image file sizes without effecting image quality. [click to build] Use image alt tags to describe your images. This not only helps with on page search engine optimization, it also provides a description of the image when it’s moused over. [click to build] One of the best ways to have a truly ugly ecommerce site is to use product images of different lengths and widths. Set standard image sizes on your site and use them consistently.
- I’m on your website. Now, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? One of the biggest mistakes I see on websites is not having calls-to-action. Every page on your website should have a goal. Whether that goal is to get contact information from a potential lead, get a customer to buy something, or lead someone in a direction to more information, it needs to have a distinct and specific purpose. If you page doesn’t have a purpose, then it shouldn’t be on your website. Objectively look at each page of your site from the visitor’s point of view and decide if the correct call-to-action exists and if it’s strong enough. [click to build] You also want to make sure that your calls-to-action stand out. Use contrasting colors, compelling images, buttons, arrows. Test different combinations to see which one converts the best. [click to build] Write calls-to-action that are incent your visitors to do something action-oriented. Don’t beat around the bush. Tell them. [click to build] With lead capture forms, remember to keep it short. We mentioned it previously, but it is so important I’ll mention it again. Only ask for the information you absolutely need and will use. Each additional field of information you ask for eliminates a percentage of people from filling it out. The more fields and questions, the less responses and completed forms you’ll get. Think hard about what you are asking.
- Now we’ve come to the two most important pages of your website. I can pretty much guarantee that all your websites have a homepage. But, your website should not only have a home page, it should also have one or more landing pages, too. Let’s discuss why you need both and what the differences are.
- The main goal of your home page is not to sell your product or service, it’s to make an introduction, provide a really fabulous first impression, and then get your visitor off the home page. It’s whole point of being is really to lead your visitors to the place in your website where they can get answers to their questions and solve whatever problem they’ve come with. [click to build] Your more experienced internet users, will actually spend even less time on your homepage than an inexperienced visitor. And every time a visitor returns to your home, they’ll spend even less time admiring your pretty graphics and your clever copy. Users spend less and less time on the homepage with each subsequent visit. And the few seconds they choose to spend on your homepage [click to build] will realistically have them only reading about 10 to 20 words of your content. [click to build] Users spend the majority of their time figuring out where to go next, not reading word-for-word what you’ve written for them. That’s why navigation is key throughout your site, but especially on your home page. Know your visitor and your customer. Design the homepage to help them figure out where they want to go. Quickly!
- Landing pages differ from home page in that they are on your website to address one specific purpose. Whether it’s selling your top product, getting leads for your niche service, collecting donations for your latest fundraising effort, whatever it is, it exists for one reason. It’s not meant to be all things to all people. If your organization has three distinct products or services aimed at three different markets, then you should have three separate landing pages, each one focusing on one of those products or services and how it addresses the market it’s geared towards. [click to build] Landing pages eliminate unnecessary choices. They include all the information your visitor should need to complete the desired action, so make sure that action is prominent and clear. [click to build] Unclutter the text on your page. Simplify concepts. Shorten paragraphs to easy-to-scan bulleted lists. Organize information with short headlines so visitors do not have to read unwanted topics. Create room to breath with lots of whitespace on the page. Use video, but make sure it is short and concise like your text. No more than 2 minutes tops. Under 60 seconds is preferred. [click to build] Landing pages don’t contain navigation or information that is not directly related to the goal of the page. Other than your logo in the upper left corner being a link to your home page, the rest of the focus of the page should be to keep visitors on the page, until they act.
- To better illustrate why landing pages are so important, let me introduce you to Ashley. Ashley is an 11th grader that is struggling with English. Ashley’s mom is concerned about her daughter taking the upcoming SAT’s and she feels that Ashley needs some help. Ashley’s mom goes online and does a search for English tutors.
- Ashley’s mom finds TakeLessons.com and she lands on a page that is specifically for private English lessons. This matches her search exactly. There a list of credible press that this company has been featured on with gives Ashley’s mom the confidence to know this is a real company. They have a Better Business Bureau logo showing they are an accredited business. There’s a Norton security logo to show their website is secure. Ashley’s mom has some questions, but they are already answered right on this page. She sees a phone number if she wants to call or she can fill out a simple form and request more information. This is a landing page that did a very good job of helping Ashley’s mom find a solution for her daughter’s problem. But let’s take a look at what would have happened if Ashley’s mom had gone to TakeLessons.com’s home page.
- Here’s the company’s home page. You’ll see that it doesn’t mention anything about English lessons. It’s featuring Music lessons. There is nothing in the main navigation at the top of the page that mentions English lessons. There is no text anywhere on the home page that mentions English lessons. This was a rotating banner, but unfortunately, English lessons was the fifth picture. Ashley’s mom isn’t that patient to sit and watch all the pictures rotate through, so she never would have seen the information for English lessons. She would have left thinking she was in the wrong place and TakeLessons would have lost a sale. This example illustrates not only the importance use of landing pages that are focused on specific segments of your customer base, but also shows how the design of your home page can either help you make a sale or turn away a possible customer, forever.
- We’ve discussed the importance of first impressions online and how to make a good one. We discussed best practices in design and usability to help you convert more visitors to customers. We discussed home pages and landing pages and how to use each on your website. But now the question is, how do you implement all these great ideas. Especially if you’re not in control of your own website or if you have problems with your website being down or if you can’t get the web guy to return your phone calls. I’m here to tell you that WordPress is the answer to your problems. Even if you don’t know HTML code, you can manage a WordPress website and with a little direction it can look and perform better than what you have now. WordPress started as a blogging platform, but what many small businesses don’t realize is that WordPress is a powerful and versatile Content Management System that can be used to build and manage not just a blog, but an entire website. What makes WordPress so attractive to small business is the fact that it is very easy to use and is extremely flexible in what it can accomplish.
- WordPress is used by 23.3% of all websites online, according to a recent survey by W3 Techs. Because of how robust WordPress is, it is used by many top brands as their website of choice, including Vogue, the New York Post, Fortune, Beyonce, Time, Google Ventures, TechCrunch, and Izod.
- One of the most important reasons to use WordPress is the fact that it’s free. It’s free to download at WordPress.org and any company or individual can use it. WordPress is also available from some web hosts as a one click installation, where you don’t even need to download it. WordPress is open source, which means you can modify it any way that you choose. This openness has created a huge WordPress community of companies and people that exist to support businesses with Wordpress websites. But if you choose to design your own website, there are many tutorials and resources available to help you through the process.
- What makes WordPress so ideal for small business is the huge catalog of free and low cost themes and plugins that are available to use, to customize your WordPress website. A WordPress theme is a collection of files that work together to display your website in a particular manner. Themes provide the page layouts, color schemes, and fonts that make your website look unique to your company. WordPress themes are designed to make it easy for you to change the colors, upload your images and your logo, add your content, and choose what elements appear in different positions on your pages. There are over 2,000 free themes available in the official WordPress Theme Directory, and even more available for less than $75 from commercial sites like Theme Forest, StudioPress, and WooThemes.
- A WordPress plugin is a bit of software code that can be uploaded to your website and allows you to expand the functionality, easily and quickly. Plugins can be installed in virtually seconds, by anyone. This gives any business owner or employee the ability to add features to their website without knowing any code or be a programmer. Think of plugins as the website building tools in your online toolbox. There are over 33,000 plugins that are listed in the official WordPress plugin directory. Many are available for free and some are available at a flat fee or at a subscription price.
- With over 33,000 WordPress plug-ins to choose from, it can be a little overwhelming. Which WordPress plug-ins do you use? Which do you even start with? Let me give you my six favorite WordPress plug-ins.
- Gravity Forms – Every website needs the ability to capture contact information from their visitors. Gravity Forms is the easiest to use and least frustrating to install web contact form you can add to your website. This plugin costs $39 for use on a single website.
- WordPress SEO by Yoast – If your visitors can’t find your website in Google’s search results, all your website building hard work is for nothing. WordPress SEO won’t guarantee you a first page ranking on Google, but gives you a lot of control over elements that are important to search engine optimization. It also coaches you through developing the title tags for your pages, the most important on page SEO feature. This plugin is free.
- Akismet – If you have a blog on your website and allow comments, you’re going to get SPAM. Akismet scans incoming comments and automatically removes SPAM. This plugin is free for personal use and $5 per month for business websites.
- W3 Total Cache – This caching plugin makes your web pages load faster. Even if you only use the default settings, you should end up with a faster website. This plugin is free.
- Google Analytics for Wordpress by Yoast – Google Analytics is the most powerful, free way to monitor traffic on your website. Yoast has simplified the basic setup. Coming soon, an integrated Google Analytics dashboard inside your WordPress admin panel. This plugin is free.
- Constant Contact – There are two plugins to use with your Constant Contact account. A freestanding plugin and one that integrates with Gravity Forms. Both automatically add contact information filled in on your website, into your Constant Contact account. This plugin is free.
- This all leads us to the most important reason to choose WordPress for your business or nonprofit website. WordPress gives you complete control over your website. For every person who is in a situation where you’re not in control of your online presence, WordPress is your answer.
- Choosing a web host can be confusing and frustrating. There are tons of web hosts out there all flashing their $3.99 a month price tag with a bag full of empty promises and guarantees. Many have awful customer service, with tech support that is not geared to the small business community. It’s important to understand what truly impacts the performance of your website. Many businesses don’t realize just how important good web hosting is to the success of your site and your online business. There are many factors that need to go into a hosting decision, such as optimization of your servers, security, backups, maintenance, and since Google added page load speed to their algorithm for site search (whether or not you are being found in the search engine results), it has become more important than ever to have a fast, dependable website. The availability of your site isn’t just for web searchers, it’s also for the search engines. If you’re website has continual issues with downtime, it can be detrimental to your search engine positioning. So let’s go over six different types of web hosting with the pros and cons of each.
- We’ll start with Free hosting – Remember, you get what you pay for. Nowhere in business is this more true than with website hosting. [click to build] Keep in mind you’re not going to get premium hardware or resources without paying for them. [click to build] There are all kinds of catches with free hosting. You may be asked to put a text link or a banner ad on your site. How professional will that look to have another business’ ads all over your website? [click to build] Free hosting isn’t going to come with support, resources, or too much help. What happens if they decide to quit their free hosting? [click to build] And exactly who do you contact if you have a problem that you need solved quickly? Although free hosting doesn’t have a monthly monetary cost, it can be costly to your business in potential down time and problem resolution. If you want anyone online to take you seriously, free hosting is not going to be an option.
- Shared hosting environments are the most common form of hosting. In many cases, organizations don’t know to ask for anything else. When you sign up for $3.99 or $5.99 or $9.99 a month hosting from one of the huge hosting companies, [click to build] your website is most often being put on a server with hundreds, possibly thousands of other websites. [click to build] This situation can create a huge server load, which can slow down all the websites and limit all the resources. [click to build] If one of those other websites on your server gets hacked, this can have a negative impact on the overall performance of any other site hosted on the same server. Yep. That means your site can be negatively impacted too. For an [click to build] overwhelming majority of shared environment hosts, it’s all about volume, volume, volume, and how many websites they can stuff onto the same server. These hosts aren’t particularly interested in making sure your small business website is optimized for performance and customer service can be questionable. Shared hosting is not for any website that gets more than a couple of visitors a day.
- VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. [click to build] This is a method of partitioning a physical server into multiple servers. In a VPS, your host partitions off a portion of that server just for your website. Even though there can be many other websites on the VPS server, you’ll have as much control as if you were on a dedicated server, all by yourself. Usually, VPS environments don’t put as many websites on a server as in shared hosting situations. [click to build] The majority of VPS hosting is in the cloud. Multiple servers work together, so a hardware failure of a single server won’t bring your website down. [click to build] If a single server fails, another server in the cloud takes over the work. This is yet another added layer of protection for your site. [click to build] When your website is hosted on a VPS, if one of the other websites on your server has issues or gets hacked, it’s much less likely that this will effect your website. VPS hosting averages $20 to $160 a month. It is by far, the safest, most reliable hosting for the money and is highly recommended to small businesses.
- Managed hosting is for small business owners whose websites play an important role in their overall bottom line, managed hosting is a no brainer. After all the time and money you’ve spent developing your website and online presence, the last thing you want is a host that is only interested in volume, or worse yet, someone managing your website that is inexperienced in maintenance and upkeep. [click to build] Managed hosting is the no worry type of hosting. Providers of managed hosting take care of everything for you. From your website’s performance to security, from updates to backups, someone else is doing all the work. [click to build] Don’t worry about setting up all your company’s email addresses, managed services will do this for you. The really good ones will even suggest to you the right plug-ins to use and how to get the best performance out of your website. [click to build] Most managed hosting environments are going to offer VPS Hosting. [click to build] With this level of service, you are going to pay more. Usually managed hosting runs from $29 to $99 a month, sometimes the actual hosting is additional. But if your business depends on your website and you don’t have an experienced employee in-house that can handle the upkeep, this is a cost of doing business that you really can’t live without.
- Managed WordPress hosting is really the optimal level of support for a company with a WordPress website. [click to build] Many times you can eliminate separate maintenance costs associated with updating WordPress, updating WP plugins, and backing up your files, with managed WordPress hosting. Read the fine print, but many of the niche WP hosts include these specialized services with their hosting packages. [click to build] The other consideration with Managed WordPress Hosting is the knowledge of a niche host in exactly how the server should be set up and optimized to run WP sites. [click to build] Most managed hosting environments are going to offer VPS Hosting. [click to build] WordPress has it’s own nuances, so dealing with a company that specializes in just WP hosting can really make your website lightening fast and ultra secure. If your company has invested in a WordPress website and does not have an experienced employee in-house that can perform all the maintenance and backups, this is a smart investment that should be a priority.
- With Dedicated hosting your company has a dedicated server. [click to build] That’s a server that is for your website only. You’re not sharing your hardware with anyone else. You get to control every aspect of the server and how it runs. [click to build] 95% of small businesses do not need a dedicated server. Once you have a hundred thousand unique visitors going through your site each month, you may want to consider it, but in the beginning or even in the middle, it would just be overkill. [click to build] Dedicated servers average $150 to $375 a month. [click to build] Another consideration with dedicated servers is who is going to manage the setup, updates, and maintenance. Most hosting companies are only providing the server hardware. It will be up to you to configure it and optimize it for speed and delivery. This is yet another reason why Dedicated Servers are more than most small businesses need.
- 6 Considerations in Picking a Good Host for your Small Business Website [click to build] Performance - How does your prospective web hosts’ technical specs stack up against the competition? What is their real uptime? What is their real uptime guarantee [click to build] Knowledge - Does your web host have experience dealing with small businesses? Small businesses may not have a lot of technical knowledge and need more support. [click to build] Speed - You need a fast website. Your pages should be loading in 2 seconds or under. Check Pingdom and Google… to see if your current host is delivering. [click to build] Customer Service - Can you get help when you need it? Can you talk to a live human? Find a host that specializes in small business hosting and your meeting your needs. [click to build] Price - For quality hosting, expect to pay $20 to $99 a month, depending on the level of service you require. [click to build] Specialties - If you are running a WordPress website, does your host specialize in this type of hosting environment?
- In September of 2013, Forbes.com reported that 30,000 web sites get hacked every day. Many small business owners mistakenly think that because they aren’t a huge conglomerate or government agency, that cyber criminals wouldn’t be interested in targeting their website. Unfortunately, the 30,000 websites a day that are getting hacked are predominately, legitimate small businesses. Years ago, cyber criminals distributed malicious code via e-mail. Today, they mostly use websites to distribute their diseased code to unsuspecting visitors. Yes, your innocent, small business website could be polluting its visitors with malicious code that in turn will infect their computers.
- Many of these cyber attacks are done as phishing schemes to steal personal data and credit card information or using your computer to store illicit material to use as part of an attack on an individual computer or network. Hackers are interested in your small business website because many smaller businesses have fewer resources available to protect their websites and don’t have proper security measures in place, plus they just don’t realize how large of a problem it really is.
- How do you keep your website safe? [click to build] Make sure your software and plugins are up-to-date. [click to build] If you are passing personal information like credit card data, use an SSL to encrypt your web traffic. [click to build] Make sure you are backing up your website frequently, in case you need to restore it in the event of an attack. [click to build] Use a web hosting company that is providing additional security measures to keep your web properties safe. [click to build] If you are purchasing themes or plugins, make sure they are from reputable companies.
- According to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com, nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and tend to abandon sites that don’t load within 3 seconds. [click to build] A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. To put that into perspective, a site that generates $10,000 a day with a 1 second page delay, could potentially be costing it’s owners $250,000 a year in lost sales. [click to build] Web shoppers don’t like web site performance problems. 79% said they wouldn’t return to a site where they encountered a problem and 44% of them would then tell a friend that they had a poor experience shopping with that company online. Who needs that bad press? [click to build] In addition, Google has made page load speed one of the over 200 different signals that affect search rank.
- How do you Ensure Your Website is Running at Top Speed [click to build] Use Google’s Page Speed Online tool to check your site’s page speed. The tool gives you high, medium, and low priority fixes that can help your pages load faster. [click to build] Optimize your images. Make sure the file sizes are as small as they can realistically be without altering the clarity and visibility of the images. Large image files can really slow down the load time of individual pages on your site. [click to build] Make sure you’re not in a shared hosting environment on a gang server. [click to build] Ask your webhost if they are using GZIP compression, which can help websites load faster by reducing file sizes by as much as 70% without affecting the visual quality of what you see online. [click to build] If you’re using WordPress, use a caching plugin, like W3 Total Cache. It improves user experience and decreases page load times by caching the latest version of your web page and showing it to visitors so the browser doesn’t have to dynamically generate the page every single time.
- We’ve covered a lot of information today about websites, hosting, WordPress, and ways that you can improve your online performance. What if you still have questions?
- Here is all my contact information again. I’ll leave this slide up as we go into our Q&A session.