10 Weird Things that Influence Customers Online

Sometimes what causes customers to change their behaviours are the strangest things in the world. At times customer psychology might make total sense, but at other times they can seem like a completely different species.

These are ten strange and bizarre things that can influence customers online. These are things you probably wouldn’t think to test for, but they make a difference.

1. The Phone Number They Never Call

A lot of webmasters have found that if they put a phone number on their website, it increases their web conversions.

What’s funny is that very few people ever actually call the number. Just the fact that there is a real person on the other end is enough for them to feel more confident about buying.

2. Putting a Period in the Headline

Sometimes being grammatically correct doesn’t pay. In numerous split tests marketers have found that placing periods in headlines and subheads almost always reduces conversions. Commas sometimes also have the same effect.

A period gets people to stop reading rather than continue reading. Even if it’s grammatically correct, you might want to consider dropping to period.

3. Credibility Buttons

You know those “As Seen on TV” or “Seen on Oprah & MSN” logos? Those do a lot for increasing conversions.

What’s funny however is that consumers often don’t actually check who’s on the logo. A credibility button that says “As seen on Bing & Google” works almost as well as “As Seen on CNN.” And just about any site on the planet is seen on Bing & Google.

4. Big & Unusual Buy Buttons

When Amazon was first getting started, they tested all kinds of different buttons to see what got the best result. They found that the “Add to Cart” button they use to be most effective.

Today however, everyone is used to the standard buttons. What marketers are finding more and more is that big and unusual buttons tend to do quite well.

5. The Refund Timing

Did you know that the number of refunds you get tends to go down as the refund window goes up?

If someone only has 30 days to return something, they’re more likely to keep close tabs on when the refund date is. If the refund date is 3 months however, they’re more likely to keep even looser tabs.

Some companies that offer one year refund windows have found that this window actually drastically cuts down refunds. Read more

Six Important Technical Aspects to Consider when choosing your Web Hosting

In follow up to our previous post where we talked about the 3 basic criteria you should look at when considering a host, let’s now talk about the more technical aspects you should look at when choosing a web hosting provider. You don’t have to be a computer science major to understand all the different considerations that go into selecting a web host. These are the most important things anyone who’s considering a web host should look at, from a technical perspective.

Operating System

Selecting an OS The operating system you select has a big impact on the kinds of programs you can run. If you’re running custom software, talk to your engineer about the kind of platform they want their software to run on.

As a rule of thumb, if you’re running Perl, CGI, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Flash, Python, PHP or MySQL, you’ll want to be on a Linux server. Linux servers can include Apache, Ubuntu or Fedora.
On the other hand, if you plan to run applications written in .NET or ASP, you’ll want a Windows based server.

Uptime Guarantee

If you’re running a website that deals with thousands upon thousands of dollars per day in revenue, you might want to look into getting an uptime guarantee.

With an uptime guarantee, the web host will promise to keep your servers up for a certain percentage of the time, at minimum. If the servers ever go down, the web host will owe you money for every minute or hour that the service is down.

This is typically for established, successful companies for whom any down time would be devastating.

Geographic Location

From a strict hosting perspective, the geographic location of your web host really doesn’t matter. The server could be in Brazil or in the United Kingdom and most of your users really wouldn’t notice a difference.

In rare cases however, your server location can come into play.

First of all, if the majority of your visitors come from a certain country, there is a small speed benefit to having your server hosted in that country.

Your server can also come into play for search engine optimization purposes. If you’re trying to rank a website based in Brazil, Google is going to think your website is more relevant to that geographic location if your server is actually based out of Brazil.

The 3 Most Critical Aspects to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Provider

Choosing a good webhosting provider involves balancing a variety of different features with their respective costs. A startup business with very little traffic will need very different web hosting solutions than an established business running complicated software with hundreds of thousands of visitors. Here are some of the most important things you should consider when you’re choosing a web hosting service.

Service

Service is a Service Guarantee n extremely important component of web hosting. If your website goes down and you don’t have an in-house tech, the technical support department of your web hosting company becomes the people you rely on. The technical support department of your web host should be both responsive and knowledgeable. There are a couple ways to tell whether or not your web host fits these criteria.

First you can Google the web host for stories or reviews about their service. While this might not work for smaller hosts, larger hosts will have a deluge of user experiences online for all to read.

Testing responsiveness is easy: Just call their tech support department and see how long it takes to get someone to pick up. Ideally you should get someone within 3 rings. If it takes 30 minutes to get someone on the line, then you probably shouldn’t place your order.

If you really want to put their responsiveness to the test, try calling both during peak hours and in strange hours (E.g. 4am) to see if their 24 hour service truly is 24 hours.

Included Packages

You should check what comes included with your web host. Today’s web hosts usually offer unlimited domains and unlimited email addresses. However, beyond these two basics there are a lot of variations.

First thing to look for is cPanel. cPanel is what gives you an easy to user interface for managing your website. Many web hosts include cPanel for free, though some charge for it.

If you plan on running WordPress, PHPBB or other such common plugins you should also look for a one-click install system, such as Fantastico.

Finally, if you plan on writing your own code or running custom programs make sure the version of PHP, MySQL and/or Apache works with the software you plan on installing.

Your Processing Needs

The kind of hosting package you need to purchase depends in large part on how much processing power you need. Yes, it’s true that most hosting providers give you “unlimited bandwidth” even on a small shared hosting package. However, what’s not unlimited is the processing power you take up on the servers.

The primary limit of servers isn’t bandwidth but processing power. If you’re running an analytics system, custom software, dynamic websites and a variety of other programs that need to process every time a visitor lands on your site and you’re getting tens of thousands of visitors – Then you’re going to seriously tax the system.

Data Processing Needs With shared hosting, you’re usually sharing your processing power amongst 50 to 400 websites. With a Virtual Private Server (VPS) you’re usually sharing with between 5 to 25 people. With a dedicated server, you’re the only one with access to that computer’s processing power.

Keep in mind that if you’re on a shared server, you’re vulnerable to someone else using too much power causing your site to run slow. For example, if someone else’s site suddenly gets 20,000 people to their site in a day, maxing out the server’s capabilities, your own programs will run very slowly because you don’t have those resources anymore.

At the end of the day you need to make a decision about your own server processing needs, your need for stability and the price you’re willing to pay. Shared hosting is the cheapest option, followed by VPS then a dedicated server. Each gives you more power, but costs more money.

Making Your Decision Deciding the best web hosting provider

Start by choosing whether you want a shared host, a VPS or a dedicated server. Keep in mind that you can always move up. Then look at the potential hosts and see which one(s) have the features you want. Make sure they have the capability to install any software that you might want to use in the future. Then test their technical support by placing a test call to see their response time.

Finally, compare the different levels of pricing between the hosts you’re considering. At this point you can make a fully informed decision as to which host to go with.

As for our recommendations, we’re hosted with LiquidWeb using a dedicated server provided by them and we’d highly recommend them for their super prompt service. If you’re looking for a shared host, apart from LiquidWeb, we’ve also used HostGator who’ve been very good and they have some packages available in the lower price range for people looking to test things out.

Bounce Rate and Exit Rate – What is the Difference and Why They’re Important

Two of the most important metrics in internet marketing are bounce rate and exit rate. Many people find it a bit confusing to know the difference between the two. If you are one of them then this article is for you as it is intended to take the mystery out of your website’s bounce rate and exit rate.

Bounce rate refers to the percentage o Reducing Bounce and Exit Rates f visitors who view only one page of your website before leaving. In other words, the visitor ‘bounces’ on and off your particular page. Exit rate is defined as the percentage of visitors who leave your site from a given page based on how many visits that the particular page has received. This visitor who leaves or exits could have been on many pages of your website but simply exited on the specific page. An example would be a visitor who has found your site after conducting an organic search, clicks a page inside your site and then leaves from that page.

In contrast, if this visitor simply landed on your site from the organic search and did not visit any internal pages, it would be considered a bounce. Generally speaking, an ideal bounce rate to shoot for is between 20% and 25% provided you are targeting relevant, core keywords. If your bounce rate increases past 35%, you should look at the usability factors of your website. Of course, some search queries do generate high bounce rates such as in the cases of specific informational queries like ‘what flavors are available in Sam’s Coffee?’

A high bounce rate Ideal Bounce Rate on a home page is usually an indicator that something is wrong so if you find that most of your visits are only to your homepage and nothing more, you will need to optimize your site by improving its functionality, user-friendliness and/or by providing nicely written content visitors will find very helpful and very informative.

Berry Berry Angry – The Top 13 News Headlines Lashing Blackberry

Dear Blackberry, do you know what the #iPhone said to the #Blackberry? ..#iWork! (Retweet)

Irregular and scattered outages of BB messaging and email service have caused havoc across the globe. These problems don’t seem to be having an end date and have entered US and Canada as well while for Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa it’s the 3rdcontinuous day of hardships and problems.

BBM services which allows users to connect with each other doesn’t seem to work either and to add fuel to the fire, Apple released its iOS5 version yesterday, which offers features almost similar to the BBM services. With sagging sales and competition from Apple, only a miracle can save BB now to restore faith and trust amongst its users. Also lack of information from the top management is another reason for negative word of mouth against BB.

Here the Top 13 headlines lashing at BlackBerry, from across the globe:

Compensation calls as BlackBerry breakdown spreads to US

Angry BlackBerry users have called for compensation as the internet outage that has crippled their smartphones continued through Wednesday and spread to North America and Asia.

RIM scrambles to end global BlackBerry outage

BlackBerry outage blamed on ‘extremely critical’ network failure

Blackberry’s message goes missing

BlackBerry Outage Spreads to U.S., RIM Responds

BlackBerry outages spread to US, Canada

BlackBerry outages spread to North America

RIM: We’re still working on restoring BlackBerry service

For BlackBerry Maker, Crisis Mounts

BlackBerry’s Service Hiccups Spread; Five Continents Affected

Berry berry angry

Blackberry backlash: Slough headquarters in the dock over global phone meltdown

10m users hit by the three days of chaos

BlackBerry services out for third day

BlackBerry’s Response on Facebook

Not very convincing!

Here’s what some twitter users have to say:

Though RIM authorities are working against time to restore the services, this outage of BB services has come as a bolt from the blue for RIM which is already struggling with slow sales, an almost failed tablet and ultimately falling market share.

Given below is a poll of how many of you still have faith in BlackBerry, cast your vote as well!

Also a hilarious video which would go well with what’s happened:

5 Must Do’s to create a “Sticky” Website

Having strong online presence is necessary for any business in the current global scenario. However, just having a website is not enough. In our last post, we discussed the importance of “sticky content” in reducing the bounce rate and thereby improving your search engine rankings.

So while it’s already been established that having a “sticky” website is necessary, the million dollar question pending an answer is, “how do we go about creating sticky content?” Well, we feel that there are 5 absolutely essential must do’s for your site, if it has to stand any chance of being “sticky” enough to engage your users.

1. The content should be authoritative and engaging

Usually people browse the Internet seeking information. They are under the impression that who ever has created the website is an authority on the subject. You need to make sure that your content is well researched. It should provide relevant and in-depth information to the visitor. For example, if you have a website on pet health, you need to ensure that you have all the relevant details about the subject. If you just publish a list of pet care products with pricing, the visitor is not likely to spend much time on that page unless you could also save them the trouble of providing enough information about each product. Before working on your content, list all possible questions people may have about the subject. Ensure that your content answers all these questions. It is also important to ensure that you engage your visitors. Most of the time visitors reach the landing page, read the content and move away. It is advisable to have something on the web page which would encourage them to take further action. For example you may help them with how to go about ordering a product. You may even have a poll or a small quiz. However you need to make sure that all these are relevant to the subject.

2. Provide links to reputed sources

It is advisable to provide links to trusted and reputed sources. It adds to the credibility of the website. It alsoconveys to the search engines that you intend to provide the best information to your visitors. For example, if your website is about photos of nature or animals, you may have reference link to websites like the National Geography. To put it simply, your content should convey that you are the authority on the subject. Also allow users to share the information they find on your website. This can be achieved by integrating social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook into the web page.

How to Use Google Places for Your Business

Local Listing It is a well-known fact that the vast majority of consumers turn to the internet when looking for local businesses. Google has also told us that ¾ of all online activity is related to local content. This is of vast importance for local businesses which depend on the search engine giant to drive people through their doors, to generate phone calls and to increase the awareness regarding their brands.

Most local businesses spend a good deal of money and time fine-tuning their paid search campaigns and SEO strategies. However, many are not realizing one of the most valuable and cost-free tools Google has, is Google Places. This service was first offered by Google two years ago this fall to replace the Google Local service. The nice thing about Places is the fact that it is totally free and quite easy to set up.

To get started with Google Places you will have to submit your basic info including your business name, website URL, description of your business, category, hours of operation, telephone number, payment options you accept and a photo or video which highlights your business. You are allowed to add up to ten images and five videos. The more info you enter about your business the better your organic rankings will be in Places but avoid keyword stuffing as Google could remove your listing. It’s also important to be specific when adding your business description. Avoid saying things like “we’ve been in business for over two decades” or “we’re the best dog groomer in the city”.

Once you have set Local Search Optimization up your account and have finished entering your business information, Google will send you a PIN verification number by mail (postcard) SMS or via a phone call, the choice is yours. You will need to log into Places and enter your Pin next to the business listing you created and then you’re done. It will take Google 30 days from the time you enter your PIN to verify your business.

It’s important to know that Google Places only lists seven businesses per search with its red place markers marked A through G. This means that those business similar to yours which have listed themselves on Places before you did get the place markers. Listing your business as soon as possible is the way to go so that you can claim one of the coveted 7 place markers. Another way to get into the top seven is to encourage customer reviews because the more reviews you get, the more likely you’ll land in the top seven.

You can check to see if your business is listed in Places by searching for your phone number in Google maps. If it shows up, then that’s great! There really isn’t any reason not to use Places as it provides a great way for customers to find you which will most likely convert into sales and business prominence.

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Bing Business Portal

If you own a business, having a strong online presence is crucial to make sure you are available to all your customers all around the world, 24 X 7. To streamline your business’s online presence and to make the most out of it, take a look at the all new Bing Business Portal from the famed Microsoft Corporation that was launched on 11 April, 2011. The new Bing Business Portal (BBP) has been created in place of the older Bing Local Listing Center (LLC) and with BBP now in place, all previous, existing listings on LLC have been moved over smoothly to the new BBP platform.

The new version of the Bing Business Portal is Microsoft’s answer to Google Places, Google’s business listing platform. The beta version of this Bing Business Portal packs in a lot of punch for the local business owners to help grow their business.Businesses can now develop and organize all of their Internet listings, among other things. This single action can help ensure your customers and users can easily track you on the Internet, and boost traffic to your website.

How, you ask? Well, with the improved listings on the Bing Business Portal you can enter a good amount of essential details that are new about your business such as supplementary keywords, links to your social profile pages, a link to you core business website, your corporate logo, images of your premises (especially beneficial to the hotel industry where you can showcase the ambiance, parking etc), accepted modes of payment and other business specific information (a glimpse of future service offerings or current services). Businesses can enter up to six additional categories and keywords, this helps to paint a more accurate picture of the business for prospective customers and enhances the relevance of their Bing listing. In so doing, the Bing Business Portal helps businesses to attract a targeted audience.

Not only that, business owners can now easily offer tempting deals on the Internet and promote these deals and all their other offers on the Bing desktop as well as on the mobile platform. That too, without having to pay a single dollar for it.It doesn’t end there, the BBP lets you display crucial additional details and offers about your product, service or brand that can help your business in search results and drive hits to your business site.

SEO Basics Revisited: Off-Page Optimization

This article comes as a follow up to our previous post ‘SEO Basics Revisited: On-Page Optimization‘. Now that you are familiar with the basics of on-page optimization, let’s move on to the next step – Off-Page Optimization. This too isn’t as complicated or as difficult as you would imagine. Off-page optimization is nothing but a number of strategies that you can implement off your web page to improve your search engine ranking and increase targeted traffic to your web site.

Here’s is a simple explanation for all the newbies: Let’s say you build a great product and invest all your time and effort into making it the best. However, you do not spread the word about this great product and no one knows about it! What’s the use? So, just as you need to let others know about your product and get recommendations from them, you need to do off-page optimization for your site as well.

Off-page factors should be carefully planned and implemented to achieve a higher search engine ranking. Many people think that off-page optimization is just link building and go about it in a random and unplanned manner. However, this is not going to bring much benefit to their site. They’re just going to waste a lot of time and efforts and not get any results. They need to consider several aspects before starting off-page optimization for their site. Given below is all the information you will need to know about off-page optimization.

I. Factors to Consider Before Building Links

It’s not enough to get just any websites to link to you, the quality of inbound links is also very important. You may get 100 links but may not see any difference in your results if you don’t consider the following points:

1. Inbound Links from Authority Sites
Authority sites are popular sites that people frequent, get linked to on the basis of their merit, or are referred by many when they need to check up on the subject. Getting links from known websites is priceless while doing off-page optimization for your website. It’s like a certificate from an authoritative figure who has acknowledged the quality of your page. For example, if your site is about current events or news, and CNN.com links to you, consider it as the best bonus ever!
Tip: Make your website as professional and informative as possible. If you give reliable and valuable information, it will instantly impress people. This will also increase the chances of getting linked by other such authority sites.

2. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
Anchor text is the actual word or phrase of your link. It is important to have anchor text targeting your keywords because the search engines will notice this as a relevant link for your site. As you start getting more and more links with your targeted anchor text, your rankings for those terms will start to improve.
For example, if your site was about selling or renting houses then you should use your keywords in the titles: such as ‘Houses for sale’, ‘Houses for rent’, ‘Homes for sale’, ‘Homes for rent’, ‘Buy a house’, ‘Rent a house’ etc.
The most common anchor text is ‘Click Here’. Sometimes, it is not possible to choose the anchor text for your links from other pages, but for those sites where you can, you need to get it right. Some places where you can enter your own anchor text are online web directories and social bookmarking sites. However, for those sites which do not, you could try sending a request asking if the anchor text can be modified to make it more relevant for your site. You’ll be surprised to see many of them would make the necessary changes.
Tip: Try to include your keywords in your anchor text. Decide what keywords you want to rank for and include them in your anchor text. However, be careful because your anchor text should not read like a string of keywords, it should make sense as well.

3. PageRank of Incoming Links
Google Page Rank is a tool developed by Google to determine the importance of a website or a webpage based on clearly defined set of algorithms. It is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. Whenever you link out to another website, you pass on some of your page rank value. Similarly, if you get a link form a high PR page, your site will also benefit from a fraction of the PR value of that page.
PageRank is based on incoming links, but not just on the number of them – relevance and quality are also important (in terms of the PageRank of sites, which link to a given site). However, not all links weigh the same when it comes to PR. If you had a web page with a PR8 and had 1 link on it, the site linked to would get a fair amount of PR value. But, if you had 100 links on that page, each individual link would only get a fraction of the value.
Tip: While links from high PR sites may be beneficial to your PR, do not restrict your off-page link building activities just on the basis of PR.

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