Whiteboard Friday – Happy Landing Page-oween
This week, Rebecca Kelley walks you through some spooky tips on optimizing Landing Pages for maximum conversions.
Website development tips and web design resources.
This week, Rebecca Kelley walks you through some spooky tips on optimizing Landing Pages for maximum conversions.
It’s possible to spend way too much time on the Internet, as we know. If your business is based there, you most likely spend a great deal, if not the majority, of your time online, and you may want to consider hiring a virtual assistant. It goes without saying that you should spend all this time as effectively and creatively as possible.
It cannot be stressed enough that the key to long term business with a stable customer base is relationship building, and a professional virtual assistant company can provide you with the systems and strategies to make this happen. Customers who feel that connection will stay with you. This is true for readership as well. And, that’s ditto for building rapport with business associates.
To that end, become a constant commenter. Don’t just look at things online, but be involved in social networking, multiple blogs and business forums. If you’ve been on the Internet any amount of time, you’ve most likely found sites and blogs you regularly frequent. Find out about the people who frequent these blogs as you learn.
Blogs
These are great places to hang out as you can interact with others who are like-minded. Make your own comments about any posts you read, see if you agree with what others have posted and comment to them, as well. You could strike up a lively conversation with the owner of the blog.
I am sure you have heard of search engine optimisation services, also known as seo services. It’s the process of using keywords to draw targeted traffic to your online business. But what about keyword phrases? Use them to bring in even more lucrative visitor traffic.
Keywords are used in content, web page headlines and the like to gain interest from the major search engines. Once you register your website development with them, their little soldiers (bots/spiders) go to work checking out what you have to offer. Use highly specific words that your customers will choose to search for your website; your content can then rank within the first page of results. Ideally your entry would be the first link that your searchers find.
Website content is not just something for visitors to read. It is also a way to attract the “right” visitors in the first place. It is very important that you use the right keywords across your site, so that you gain the acceptance of the search engines and become visible.
Doing your Homework.
You thought that homework stopped when you graduated from school. If you are in business then you will always be learning, so long as you want to go as far as you possibly can. To that end, it is time to do a little homework for your content – keyword research.
Many virtual assistants these days are looking for a great deal and a good future as a website development specialist or web designer. We have seen that more and more bricks and mortar operations are turning to the Internet to market their products. Very often these individuals don’t know how to create an online presence creatively and they need help to make it all work.
What is a web designer? The web designer works with other businesses to set up websites for them. If you have knowledge in this area and are talented to boot, you can take your virtual assistant business in that direction.
The Internet has almost limitless potential. On a daily basis, many millions of people visit the Internet to seek out information, buy products or services and conduct business. You need to build up an online presence to be able to access this world. This is how people will learn about your business and your existence.
Web designing has a tremendous learning curve. If you talk to somebody about CSS for HTML, they really won’t know what you are talking about. It can be intimidating for someone who wants to build a website (for an existing business or as an Internet business) to do so and not make mistakes.
Mistakes can easily cost you business. If your pages won’t load quickly or you have graphics that don’t look good, visitors can be turned away before they even get to know what your site has to offer. Many businesses would avoid this part if they could.
The traditional office space will in all likelihood become an unnecessary requirement as virtual assistant services start to make more practical sense to organisations everywhere. From a purely efficient point of view, it makes little sense to tool out your operation with a dedicated “back office” of staff, equipment and resources, complete with all the ancillary costs and additional overheads that each back office element attracts. Employing staff is generally the most significant expense for a business owner, and it invariably comes with an extra set of restrictions, liabilities, commitments and problems.
Quite recently, expert virtual assistant services have emerged to assist business owners around the world – utilising extraordinary technology, to efficiently and effectively administer their operations. Now it is no longer necessary to hire a personal assistant or back office staff when you engage the services of a competent virtual assistant company.
Can you afford to not investigate at least a few virtual assistant services? Invest some time during a quiet moment and make a list of all the administrative functions that your business typically calls for and you will be surprised at how long the list is. Pencil in the job description and calculate how much time is involved with each task. Highlight the specific skills required and make notes on how you currently handle all these elements. Most businesses have to rely on a fairly extensive list of administrative tasks simply to operate. Also, in our present economy, internet-based activities are essential if you’re looking to effectively communicate with your clients or customers, engage in social media promotions or market your business to the world.
When you make a note of your total administrative and back office costs, make sure that you include all the “hidden” costs, including all those employee benefits you are responsible for, the true cost of your office space rental, insurances and the depreciation costs and maintenance schedules of all that equipment.
Virtual assistant services can take care of all your administration and Internet needs, very cost effectively. You can engage these services on a piecemeal basis or as a comprehensive approach to your overall commitments. Most virtual assistant services, even those that may be somewhat geographically remote from your location, will ensure that they are readily available according to your typical office hours. Due to the speed of Internet connections and a variety of communication methods available through the Web, the virtual assistant can be as close as that personal assistant in your next-door office.
Do you currently have an active bank account? Most people do these days. It is where you keep your money instead of stuffing it in a mattress! For many business owners, certain accounts are established to hold the revenue that they generate from their ongoing credit card sales.
In this day and age, there is certainly no shortage of people who are regularly looking for ways to defraud others. The credit card industry recognises this unfortunate issue, and therefore requires merchant accounts for any business that processes credit cards. It can be offline or online. In a bricks and mortar operation, credit cards are processed through a machine, manually. However, here we are going to talk about merchant accounts that are made for an eCommerce situation.
With eCommerce website development, any merchant that accepts credit cards uses the services of a payment gateway to facilitate their transactions. It is part of an automatic process, where each transaction is handled and recorded, comprehensively.
Don’t confuse a merchant account with the typical bank checking or savings solution. The account is just used for credit card payments, and nothing else. A merchant account can be selected in several different ways. For example, do you require a number of add-on solutions, or will you make your decision according to the level of fees applicable?
An Internet businesses has an additional account known as an “Internet merchant account.” The purpose of this account is to handle the related credit card funds on a temporary basis. On a schedule that you agree upon, the money is then transferred from this account to your merchant bank account.
In this day and age, business is doing a pretty good job of catching up to the technology which has been created for it. Two popular terms you’ll find within this particular arena are eCommerce and website development. You should definitely pay attention here and we will tell you why.
ECommerce is simply the term for conducting business online. There are many ways to transact such business. Try and draw analogies in the real world and contemplate how you go about doing business there. You go to the bank to make withdrawals and deposits; you visit the grocery store or retail shops to make purchases; you go to the gas station to fill up your car’s tank. These examples represent commercial transactions and we are used to dealing with things this way on a daily basis.
Businesses trade with each other regularly. They engage in various services and often purchase or rent gear. They may only expect payment at a future point in time and will send an invoice accordingly.
The most common solution that people think about when selling products through website development enterprises online, is that the actual product gets delivered to the front door of the buyer by the Post Office or courier. However, online businesses do more than just sell tangible products. eCommerce is the domain of many digital products, as well.
You have to do a lot to get your website ready if you plan on selling physical items, and apply real online business management skills. You want to make the products visible via photos, create landing pages, market them elsewhere and create a reliable shopping cart process to meet the customer’s needs. When it comes to selling digital products, however, a different approach is taken.
Digital products can be received in one of two ways: in the mail or downloaded directly to the customer’s computer. The download solution is often preferred by online organisations, as delivery is rather easy and no real inventory needs to be stored, other than the initial files.
But, how do you get the products to the customers securely without being scammed yourself?
Here are some considerations on this issue:
You want your virtual website development storefront to be so inspiring to customers when they arrive there, that they are motivated to purchase. As soon as they are ready to purchase, they need to be able to consummate this efficiently. This is where payment gateways come into play.
A gateway represents a conduit to get from one place to another. In terms of eCommerce, the gateway enables the verification and handling of credit card related business. A payment gateway is necessary if your online business plans to accept payments.
Any internet business consulting firm will tell you that if you plan to deal with credit cards, you will need to refer to a merchant account. A merchant account can be opened at the bank of your choice. This is where money will be transferred once a credit transaction has been verified through the gateway.
There are vast arrays of companies online that operate as payment gateways for merchants to accept credit card payments. You can choose a payment gateway independently. Another option is selecting one of the many companies that offer more than just one service. Some shopping cart software packages include merchant account and gateway options as well.
You need a merchant bank account and a payment gateway account to get you started. Be sure to match up the gateway with a merchant account before you proceed and choose the bank, as acceptance methods very. A payment gateway account is a vehicle to enable you to funnel payments between your site and your merchant account. If this seems at all complicated, consider the services of an elite internet business consulting firm, to help you get started.
If you’re convinced that conducting business online is the way forward, then you need to go about setting up your presence through website development as effectively as possible. Creating an eCommerce website has a great deal in common with creating a website in general. It’s time to focus on these basics, as we start off.
Before you even think about doing anything else, a decision has to be made about what type of website you’d like to create. Will you have a virtual storefront? Are you just looking to impart information and content on your website? Maybe, it will be necessary for you to combine the two options? What about a marketplace kind of overall structure?
It’s important to remember that your domain name is very representative of what you’re trying to achieve and it outlines your business objective. For already established offline brands, the domain name is usually the same as that of the enterprise. However, if you conduct all your business online, you can choose anything that you want. All you have to do to see if your name choices are already in use, is do an Internet search to check for availability.
Once you have established a name, you have to find a way of helping people to find you. Search engine results pages are very important and if you register your site with these entities, your pages and embedded content will have a good chance of being ranked. To start off with, use tailored keywords that are a bit less common in search parameters, but highly specific to your products or services, such a long tail keywords, within your content and throughout the website. Always keep in mind that a top-notch online business consulting firm will be able to help you, if you need assistance with any of these details.
Who will host your website? Choose a web host that offers other services like website maintenance, easy-to-use templates and other perks. Look for facilities that offer you a considerable amount of space for data storage, page creation and value.