November 18, 2003

When companies and IT departments need to build a new website or have the old one redesigned, they often disagree or are not certain how they should be doing it, since they most likely don't have the right information they need on the subject. This article is a bit away from search engine optimization, but still carries the same amount of importance if a corporate site is to be successful.

Even if you get 2,000 qualified and targeted visitors a day to your site, if it does not convert, obviously, it's certainly not doing the job it was intended to do. This article will help you better convert targeted visitors into regular buyers and repeat customers.

The eternal question of graphics
This topic is as old as the Web itself. Should the new website be light in graphics and very intensive on text to please the search engines and give what they need to properly index the site? Will site visitors demand rich media enhancements such as Flash technology and will they in fact buy more if the site delivers what they want? Which particular steps in the design process should be taken to guarantee the best site enjoyment?

I will answer all these questions in one single and short sentence: keep everything as simple as you possibly can. Results from a Jupiter Media Metrix research study done in August and released in September of 2002 underline some extremely important data. Less than 21% of respondents would visit a website more often if it incorporated Flash technology or other rich media features. Furthermore, these important additional facts were also revealed:

     60% of all retail shoppers wanted more specific product information
     42% said they would visit a site more often if the pages would load faster

Should we incorporate attention-getting features?
The same study also revealed that companies could reach all these mentioned goals with a minimal application of technology, if they would simply do it the right way. So whatever happened to "the more whistles and bells that we have on our website, the more people will buy from us" theory? Regular readers of my articles know about my strong preference for keyword & key phrase-rich and marketing-savvy text over rich multimedia elements. I have often discussed the shortcomings of Flash technology and warned my readers that multimedia bells and whistles can not only seriously harm their results with the major search engines, but they are totally useless to your site visitors.

Unless your company produces or is in the business of promoting major Hollywood movies or is in the music business promoting top talent, rich media and graphics or Flash animation shouldn't be the foundation to build for your visitors' experience. What your visitors require is product knowledge, detailed information on all its features and benefits, along with warranty or service information. If instead all they get is a slow-loading site with flashing graphics and if they can't find the relevant information they are looking for, they will leave faster than the time it takes to say 'good bye'.

Furthermore, the numbers in the Jupiter Media Metrix survey which revealed that more than "60% of all retail shoppers wanted more product specific information" tell a lot about what it is they truly want. What it really means is that more than one-half of all respondents are yelling: "We are not getting the information we require from most of the sites we visit". Folks, this strong sentiment will result in many lost sales and lost opportunities.

If your website provides little product information or is vague in the wording used to communicate its information, in an attempt to hopefully get people to contact you for more information, you are in fact forcing your users to take an additional step before they can buy from you. When it comes to the all-important subject of conversion rates, why take additional risks and make things more difficult for your would-be buyers?

Rich graphics or rich features are not the answer
I always say this: compare buying on the Web to buying in the real "brick and mortar" world. Here's an example that might shed some light on the reasons of my thinking. Let's for example say you're physically visiting a retail store in a busy shopping mall. The store in question is the latest in design, with flashing floodlights, glossy posters on every wall and rock videos with loud pop music pounding from every corner. You see a certain product, like it, but have a couple of questions about it. You wait for a sales clerk to come and help you but you don't see any or they all seem to be too busy to serve you and your questions are left unanswered.

Would you continue waiting just because the store design was hip? Would you buy the product anyway and think that your questions weren't important? I don't think so. Chances are you would leave this "Flash store" without spending a nickel, with the certainty that you can buy the product elsewhere, in a more convenient and relaxing atmosphere. The same holds true for any website.

Two ways to improve a site visitor's experience
We will now go back to the important subject of search engine optimization and how to design the best website, both for your visitors and the search engines. The question is: how can you take full advantage of the latest Jupiter survey information and improve your site content and visitor experience and do it as soon as possible? Here are the answers:

Number 1: Deliver to your web visitors what it is they want. When you think about it, the sole reason people visit a product or service website is because they simply need the information and they want to find it now. They may need detailed product information, and, judging by the Jupiter report, the more they know about the product the higher the chances they will buy. Maybe what they need is more precise information about your services or your product warranty before they contact you. The easier and simpler you can make it for your prospects to buy from you, the better chances they will in fact buy from you and the less chance they will surf to your competitors. "Carefully detailed product descriptions and model information are a powerful means of differentiation for retail websites and require little incremental work", the Jupiter report tells us in their latest survey.

Number 2: Carefully craft and write your sales copy with well-researched keywords and key phrases in mind. Apart from helping your visitors become buyers, one of the most important advantages of having more content on a page is to make the search engines happy. Always remember that the search engines need text and lots of it and will happily crawl content-rich pages that offer the most text information. If you have questions in the best way to write a website for keywords and key phrase marketing, click here for some of my past articles on the subject.

Always remember that you are designing your website for your users' experience and not your own. When in doubt, Jupiter recommends surveying your users before modifying your site or adding enhancements. This will help give you the information you need, while also offering a good practical review on what is important to your users and the pitfalls you need to avoid.

Article written by Serge Thibodeau,
President & CEO,
Rank for $ales
Copyright (c) Serge Thibodeau 2003

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