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		<title>W3C compliance – is it a requirement?</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
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A term often busied by web developers and also SEO agencies is W3C compliance. I&#8217;ve written about the benefits of W3C compliant code before, but my perspective has changed a bit over time and I feel it&#8217;s important to point out that full W3C compliance is not a definitive requirement for an effective website.
W3C compliance [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/03/w3c-compliance-is-it-a-requirement/">W3C compliance &#8211; is it a requirement?</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><img class="size-full wp-image-458 alignright" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;" title="World Wide Web Consortium" src="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/w3c.jpg" alt="World Wide Web Consortium" width="200" height="160" />A term often busied by web developers and also SEO agencies is <em>W3C compliance</em>. I&#8217;ve written about <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/check-your-html-and-css-code/">the benefits of W3C compliant code</a> before, but my perspective has changed a bit over time and I feel it&#8217;s important to point out that full W3C compliance is not a definitive requirement for an effective website.</p>
<p>W3C compliance basically means that the HTML and CSS code that a website is built with is fully compliant with the <a href="http://www.w3.org/standards/" target="_blank">standards</a> set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C for short).</p>
<p>The W3C is an international standards organization, founded by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee" target="_blank">inventor</a> of the web. They develop the standards on which the world wide web is run.</p>
<p>You&#8217;d think that making sure your website&#8217;s code complies fully with these standards is pretty important. And it is, up to a certain point.</p>
<p>You can easily find out if your website&#8217;s code is W3C compliant &#8211; simply submit your website URL to the <a href="http://validator.w3.org/" target="_blank">W3C Validator tool</a> and you&#8217;ll get an overview of all the &#8216;errors&#8217; in your code. And you&#8217;ll almost certainly get a lot of &#8216;errors&#8217;. It&#8217;s very unlikely your website&#8217;s code complies to all of the W3C&#8217;s standards.</p>
<p>I say &#8216;errors&#8217; because often they&#8217;re not really errors. The W3C standards are <em>extremely strict</em>, with no room for interpretation. So every little niggle in your code, every small deviation from the W3C&#8217;s strict standards, will generate an error in this validation tool.</p>
<h3>W3C compliance for browsers</h3>
<p>But most web browsers are flexible pieces of software that are built to deal with a wide range of different sorts of HTML and CSS code, and will probably render your website perfectly regardless of how many errors the validation tool shows.</p>
<p>Often web developers have to use shortcuts and non-compliant code to make something work in a particular way on a website, and while this results in validation errors it doesn&#8217;t hinder a website&#8217;s functionality at all. Quite the contrary, sometimes you have to break the rules of the W3C to get something to work exactly how you want it in every web browser.</p>
<h3>W3C compliance for SEO</h3>
<p>There is also the misconception that search engine crawlers require a website&#8217;s code to be 100% W3C compliant, or else they will rank your site lower in the <abbr title="Search Engine Results Pages">SERP</abbr>s. A lot of SEO agencies recommend you make every webpage on your site fully W3C compliant.</p>
<p>This is often a costly endeavour, and quite unnecessary. Search engine crawlers, like browsers, are sturdy and flexible pieces of software that can index almost any type of code, regardless of the errors it contains.</p>
<p>For proper crawling and indexation a search engine will need to be able to distinguish the different elements of a webpage &#8211; style, navigation, and content &#8211; and will need to be able to interpret the meaning of the content, which it does through analysing the content itself and the mark-up code that is used to style the content.</p>
<p>Clean, compliant HTML and CSS code help in this process. Compliant code makes it easier for search engine crawlers to identify what the content on a webpage is, and what that content means.</p>
<p>But 100% compliance, meaning zero errors in the W3C validation tool, is not only often hard to achieve (especially if your website has advanced functionality) but is unnecessary as well. The code just needs to be sufficiently well-structured and tidy enough for search engines to be able to distinguish style, navigation, and content.</p>
<h3>So bad code is OK?</h3>
<p>No, bad code is not OK. It&#8217;s still a good idea to strive towards compliant code. A  website with hundreds of W3C validation errors is not a good thing.  It&#8217;s likely that these errors cause the site to display differently in  some web browsers (or worse, not work at all) and can cause all sorts  of trouble for both users and search engines.</p>
<p>But if your  website&#8217;s code only shows a couple of handfuls of non-critical errors, especially if  they&#8217;re only small warnings, there really is little need to fix  them.</p>
<p>For on-site optimisation your time and resources are better spent on making sure your website&#8217;s <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/write-good-titles-for-your-web-pages/">title tags</a>, <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/category/content/">content</a>, and <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/11/google-seo-starter-guide/">other factors</a> are fully optimised.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/check-your-html-and-css-code/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Check Your HTML and CSS Code</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/fix-your-broken-links/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Fix Your Broken Links</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/write-good-titles-for-your-web-pages/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Write Good Titles For Your Web Pages</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/03/w3c-compliance-is-it-a-requirement/">W3C compliance &#8211; is it a requirement?</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Recent Writings on SEO 2</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MakingGreatWebsites/~3/uDUfnAI9tN8/</link>
		<comments>http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/03/recent-writings-on-seo-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:30:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
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Recently I&#8217;ve been doing a lot of research on microformats and other approaches to structured data. This inspired a post for State of Search where I wonder if the time has come for web developers and search engine optimisers to embrace structured data, or whether we&#8217;re better off waiting for a firmer standard to emerge.
State [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/03/recent-writings-on-seo-2/">Recent Writings on SEO 2</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p>Recently I&#8217;ve been doing a lot of research on microformats and other approaches to structured data. This inspired a post for State of Search where I wonder if the time has come for web developers and search engine optimisers to embrace structured data, or whether we&#8217;re better off waiting for a firmer standard to emerge.</p>
<p><strong>State of Search: <a href="http://www.stateofsearch.com/microformats-and-rdf-is-this-the-right-time/" target="_blank">Microformats and RDF, is this the right time?</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>A low-level buzz in SEO that’s steadily becoming louder is the use of microformats. This article explores the problems that exist with microformats and RDF and asks if this is the right time to implement these particular approaches to structured data.</p></blockquote>
<p>Google&#8217;s recent legal setbacks in the form of a ruling against it in Italy and strong signals that the European Commission is launching an anti-trust investigation, sparked a passionate defence of Google&#8217;s practices from one its highest profile employees, Matt Cutts.</p>
<p><strong>Searchcowboys: <a href="http://www.searchcowboys.com/google/1543" target="_blank">Google: &#8220;We&#8217;re the good guys, remember?&#8221;</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>As Google is coming under ever increasing scrutiny and pressure, it goes ever more on the defensive. Google seems to possess an almost childish naivety about its position as a global corporate giant, and it needs to come to terms with its role as the new Microsoft.</p></blockquote>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/recent-writings-on-seo/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Recent Writings on SEO</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/are-you-happy-with-your-website/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Are You Happy With Your Website?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/11/make-your-legal-statements-human-readable/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Make Your Legal Statements Human-Readable</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/03/recent-writings-on-seo-2/">Recent Writings on SEO 2</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Recent Writings on SEO</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:50:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
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Aside from this blog and my occasional contribution to the Belfast Telegraph, I also write for a number of search engine blogs.
I don&#8217;t want to simply reproduce the articles I write there on my own blog here, but at the same time I do want to flaunt them a bit.
So from now on I&#8217;ll start [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/recent-writings-on-seo/">Recent Writings on SEO</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p>Aside from this blog and my occasional contribution to the Belfast Telegraph, I also write for a number of search engine blogs.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t want to simply reproduce the articles I write there on my own blog here, but at the same time I do want to flaunt them a bit.</p>
<p>So from now on I&#8217;ll start posting one paragraph summaries with links to the full articles on whichever blog they were originally published.</p>
<p><strong>State of Search: <a href="http://www.stateofsearch.com/the-problem-with-testing-in-seo/" target="_blank">The Problem with Testing in SEO</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>The problems that exist with testing in SEO aren’t deliberate. I’m convinced that pretty much all tests performed by SEOs start with the best of intentions: to help uncover truths and add quality information and best practices to our methods. But nonetheless there are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed. In this article I try to pinpoint the issues plaguing testing in SEO and what we can do to fix it.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Searchcowboys: <a href="http://www.searchcowboys.com/google/1537" target="_blank">Google Personalised Search: is it real?</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>Back in December of last year Google announced it would be rolling out its Personalized Search feature to all its users. Searchcowboys has written before about the pro&#8217;s and cons of Personalized Search, but what has the true impact been so far?</p></blockquote>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/03/recent-writings-on-seo-2/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Recent Writings on SEO 2</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/are-you-happy-with-your-website/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Are You Happy With Your Website?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/05/seo-concerns-when-migrating-your-website/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">SEO Concerns When Migrating Your Website</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/recent-writings-on-seo/">Recent Writings on SEO</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>The unlikely persistence of Email Marketing</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:39:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>

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(This article was originally published in the Belfast Telegraph on 17 Feb 2010.)
Almost as soon as email was invented, it was used as a marketing instrument. The first unsolicited marketing email was sent back in 1978, and since then spam has continued to grow exponentially. It&#8217;s estimated that today 90% of all email is spam.
Fortunately [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-unlikely-persistence-of-email-marketing/">The unlikely persistence of Email Marketing</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><em>(This article was originally published in the <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/opinion/watching-web/the-unlikely-persistence-of-email-marketing-14686184.html" target="_blank">Belfast Telegraph</a> on 17 Feb 2010.)</em></p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-404" title="The unlikely persistence of Email Marketing" src="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/email-marketing.jpg" alt="The unlikely persistence of Email Marketing" width="180" height="200" align="right" />Almost as soon as email was invented, it was used as a marketing instrument. The first unsolicited marketing email was sent back in 1978, and since then spam has continued to grow exponentially. It&#8217;s estimated that today 90% of all email is spam.</p>
<p>Fortunately the average user doesn&#8217;t see the vast majority of spam messages. Spam filters are incredibly smart pieces of software, using advanced algorithms to filter out nearly all spam messages. The more you use a spam filter, the smarter it gets as it learns what is spam and what are genuine emails.</p>
<p>Yet sending millions of emails at once is so cheap and easily done that a spammer only needs a few of his messages to get through the filters, and even fewer users to actually buy something from that spam message, to make a profit already.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s the core that lies at the heart of unsolicited spam, as well as legit email marketing &#8211; it&#8217;s cheap and it works.</p>
<p>While a spammer is happy with a 0.01% response rate on his spam emails, a well-crafted opt-in email campaign can deliver much higher returns for an organisation.</p>
<p>Smart email marketers have learned to go beyond just sending standard commercial messages. The key is what is called &#8216;permission marketing&#8217; &#8211; getting the user&#8217;s permission to send him emails, and delivering what the user expects.</p>
<p>A key approach to permission-based email marketing is newsletters. In a newsletter a company can package its commercial message around interesting and newsworthy content. By combining well-written, engaging content with a subtle commercial message, newsletters can form the solid backbone of a company&#8217;s email marketing strategy.</p>
<p>This approach has worked well for decades, and is one of the reasons why email marketing is still around after all this time.</p>
<p>Another reason is that email as a communication system has proven remarkably robust. Many new ways of communicating instantly and across vast distances have emerged &#8211; instant messaging, text messaging, twitter &#8211; but the preferred method of communicating online is still email.</p>
<p>For some reason email resonates with us. It manages to strike a nearly perfect balance between speed and length. Whether it&#8217;s a one-word message or an email with several megabytes worth of attachments, emails travel around the world nearly instantly and arrive with almost flawless precision.</p>
<p>Because of this our email inbox is the focal point of our online existence. Email and the World Wide Web are essentially different aspects of the Internet, but we&#8217;ve become so accustomed to email that often we fail to realise this. Instead we perceive email as an entirely separate thing.</p>
<p>As long as our daily online journeys start with firing up our email programmes, email marketing will continue to thrive. Unfortunately, so will spam.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/connect-with-your-website-visitors-through-email-marketing/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Connect With Your Website Visitors Through Email Marketing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/keep-your-forms-short-and-simple/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Keep Your Forms Short And Simple</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/use-social-media-sites-effectively-or-not-at-all/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Use Social Media sites effectively, or not at all</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-unlikely-persistence-of-email-marketing/">The unlikely persistence of Email Marketing</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Use Social Media sites effectively, or not at all</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hype]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
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Social media is the current Big Thing, or so we&#8217;re told. You have to Tweet! Be on Facebook! Get Linked In!
But do you really? Is it necessary to be on every social media site and shout your message as loud as you can in to as many microphones as you can find?
Social media websites are [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/use-social-media-sites-effectively-or-not-at-all/">Use Social Media sites effectively, or not at all</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-388" title="Social Media" src="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/social-media-300x213.jpg" alt="Social Media sites" width="300" height="213" align="right" />Social media is the current Big Thing, or so we&#8217;re told. You have to Tweet! Be on Facebook! Get Linked In!</p>
<p>But do you really? Is it necessary to be on every social media site and shout your message as loud as you can in to as many microphones as you can find?</p>
<p>Social media websites are not ends in and of themselves &#8211; they are a means to an end. For most users social media sites are channels to connect with friends, relatives and colleagues, to read relevant news and keep up to date with stuff that interests them.</p>
<p>Sites like Facebook and Twitter are the digital equivalent of <strong>conversations</strong> with friends and acquaintances. This means that commercial messages aren&#8217;t really welcome. It&#8217;s important to realise that on social media websites the user controls the content &#8211; what they read, what they share, what they ignore.</p>
<p>Commercial messages are considered interruptive and unwelcome. That&#8217;s why as a company, when you do decide to build your presence on Twitter or Facebook or any other social media website, you need to <strong>adapt your voice</strong> to the medium.</p>
<p>People who are interested in Ford cars don&#8217;t want to read loads of hyped sales tweets straight out of car dealer brochures. What they might be interested in is advance information about upcoming Ford cars, inside knowledge of Ford&#8217;s R&amp;D, or just to see a <strong>human face</strong> behind that monolithic corporate image.</p>
<p>The people at Ford know this, so their <a href="http://twitter.com/ford" target="_blank">Twitter account</a> isn&#8217;t just a faceless PR machine. It&#8217;s run by actual people who have conversations with their followers and provide tweets that are interesting.</p>
<p>This has proven to be a successful approach for them &#8211; the Ford Twitter account has over 25 thousand followers.</p>
<p>On Facebook the overall tone is even more informal and social. Where Twitter is becoming a networking tool, people &#8216;hang out&#8217; on Facebook with friends and family. That&#8217;s why success on Facebook depends mostly on how you approach your audience.</p>
<p>While some companies have the benefit of a corporate image that lends itself well to Facebook (Nike for example whose various FB pages boast tens of thousands of fans), for other companies it can be quite challenging to build a strong presence.</p>
<p>They key is to deliver what your fans want. Nike uses Facebook to share cool videos, ask for user input, and launch contests where participants can win great swag.</p>
<p>If all you&#8217;re pushing on Facebook is the same sales material as you send by email, you&#8217;re not on the right track. Get personal, be authentic, and ask for feedback. <strong>Listen</strong> to your fans and <strong>give them what they ask for</strong>.</p>
<p>When you do decide to start tweeting or build a Facebook page, make sure you define for yourself what you want to get out of it. Your goal can be anything from fuzzy marketing stuff like brand-building to solid ROI metrics such as more visitors to your website that convert in to customers.</p>
<p>Sometimes you&#8217;ll find that a certain popular social media site just doesn&#8217;t work for you. And that&#8217;s OK. Social media sites, for all the hype surrounding them, are just channels that you can use for the benefit of your company&#8217;s bottom line. If you can&#8217;t get any value out of them, <strong>don&#8217;t use them</strong>.</p>
<p>For every social media site that you think can add value, ask yourself the following questions: Is my target audience present? And do they want to hear what I have to say?</p>
<p>As long as you set your expectations and manage your social media presence accordingly, you&#8217;ll be OK. Just don&#8217;t be social for social&#8217;s sake. Whatever you do with social media, make sure it means something.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE 16 Feb:</strong> I came across an excellent case study from Microsoft Advertising on how they successfully deployed social media. It&#8217;s a great read and definitely worth your while:<br />
&raquo; <a href="http://advertising.microsoft.com/WWDocs/User/en-us/ForAdvertisers/Social-Media-White-Paper-Microsoft-Advertising.pdf">Microsoft Social Media White Paper &#8211; Learn &amp; Earn</a> [PDF]</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/03/free-social-media-marketing-industry-report/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Free Social Media Marketing Industry Report</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/03/are-you-ready-for-social-media/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Are You Ready For Social Media?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-changing-face-of-seo/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">The Changing Face of SEO</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/use-social-media-sites-effectively-or-not-at-all/">Use Social Media sites effectively, or not at all</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Site Migration SEO Concerns – The Results</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/?p=352</guid>
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(This article was originally published on SearchCowboys. It’s been adapted slightly for this blog.)
About nine months ago I was facing a sizeable site migration project at my employer at the time, and I was tasked with mapping out the best way of handling this migration to minimise the impact on our search engine rankings.
I wrote [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/site-migration-seo-concerns-results/">Site Migration SEO Concerns &#8211; The Results</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><em>(This article was originally published on <a href="http://www.searchcowboys.com/seo/1511" target="_blank">SearchCowboys</a>. It’s been adapted slightly for this blog.)</em></p>
<p><img src="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/seo-site-migration.gif" alt="SEO Site Migration" title="seo-site-migration" width="235" height="95" class="alignright size-full wp-image-354" align="right"/>About nine months ago I was facing a sizeable site migration project at my employer at the time, and I was tasked with mapping out the best way of handling this migration to minimise the impact on our search engine rankings.</p>
<p>I wrote a post <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/05/seo-concerns-when-migrating-your-website/">summarising my research</a> into the SEO aspects of a site migration, and I feel the time has come to look back at the migration and the lessons we learned from it.</p>
<p>The site migration was a two-step process &#8211; we updated the design and we added new sections with fresh content. We decided to follow the recommendations outlined in my site migration blog post pretty much to the letter:</p>
<p><strong>Content:</strong> We phased in the new content one batch of pages at a time. We put a couple of new pages live, linked to them from the homepage, and waited for them to be indexed &#038; cached. Then we put the next batch of new pages online.</p>
<p><strong>Design:</strong> The design changes were implemented gradually as well. The old and new designs weren&#8217;t radically different, it was more a tweaked &#038; modernised version of the old design, so we felt it would be fine to have the old and new designs co-exist on the site for a while.</p>
<p>We first did a <a href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer" target="_blank">Google Website Optimiser</a> A/B test to make sure the new design yielded at the very least a similar conversion rate. When this was confirmed, we migrated pages to the new design one at a time. The URLs all remained the same so we didn&#8217;t have to do any 301-redirects.</p>
<p>We used the <a href="http://www.duplicatecontent.net/" target="_blank">Duplicate Content tool</a> to ensure the HTML code and content of our key pages with high SERP rankings matched at least 90% in the old and new designs, so we wouldn&#8217;t get hit with a ranking penalty when we put the new version up.</p>
<p>When a page was updated with the new design, we waited for it to be indexed &#038; cached in Google and checked how its SERP rankings were affected.</p>
<p>The end result was a site with a fresh design and new sections added, with minimal impact on SERP rankings. We did see some fluctuations in rankings but these fell well within the normal daily and weekly ranking variations.</p>
<p>We also noted that the new content started ranking fairly soon for relevant keywords, despite no direct links coming in to those pages. This is most likely due to the incoming link value generated across the rest of the site, spilling over to the new content.</p>
<p>It was a long and labour-intensive process, and in hindsight I&#8217;m not sure it would have impacted the rankings massively if we just switched the site over in one go. But as organic search generates a significant portion of the sites traffic and revenue, it was definitely better to be safe.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/05/seo-concerns-when-migrating-your-website/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">SEO Concerns When Migrating Your Website</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/06/building-a-website-do-it-yourself-or-hire-a-3rd-party/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Building a Website – Do It Yourself or Hire a 3rd Party?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-changing-face-of-seo/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">The Changing Face of SEO</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/site-migration-seo-concerns-results/">Site Migration SEO Concerns &#8211; The Results</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>The Changing Face of SEO</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:08:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>
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(This article was originally published in the Belfast Telegraph on 3 Feb 2010. It&#8217;s been modified slightly for this blog.)
Search engine optimisation, or SEO for short, is defined as &#8216;the process of improving ranking in search engine results&#8217;.
When search engines first appeared on the scene in the 1990&#8217;s to help people make sense of the [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-changing-face-of-seo/">The Changing Face of SEO</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><em>(This article was originally published in the <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/opinion/watching-web/angelina-jolie-britney--and-beyonce--nude--dirty-tricks-and-the-changing-face-of-seo-14674046.html" target="_blank">Belfast Telegraph</a> on 3 Feb 2010. It&#8217;s been modified slightly for this blog.)</em></p>
<p>Search engine optimisation, or SEO for short, is defined as &#8216;the process of improving ranking in search engine results&#8217;.</p>
<p>When search engines first appeared on the scene in the 1990&#8217;s to help people make sense of the exponential growth of websites, it suddenly became important to show up first in these search engine results pages. </p>
<p>Savvy entrepreneurs quickly figured out how search engines worked and what a website needed to rank first, and the dark art of SEO was born. </p>
<p>The first search engines were relatively simplistic pieces of software that crawled the world wide web and matched words found on websites to search queries entered by its users. All a search engine optimiser needed to do to get his site to the number one spot was stuff as many keywords on a website as possible. </p>
<p>Whether or not that site was actually useful and relevant for the user&#8217;s query didn&#8217;t matter, at least not for the optimisers. It&#8217;s at this stage the SEO industry earned its dubious reputation, a blemish it has yet to discard. </p>
<p>This of course led to abundant complaints from search engine users who were looking for one thing but ended up on websites that offered something entirely different. In response search engines got smarter, but search engine optimisers got smarter as well, and the arms race has been on ever since. </p>
<p>The big breakthrough came with Google who in 1997 added a whole new approach to determining what websites were really relevant for a given search query. Keywords on a page were still important, but more important than keywords were the links from other websites pointing to that page. </p>
<p>Google&#8217;s idea was that every link to a website counts as a vote, a recommendation from one website owner to another. The more links point to a website, the more important that website is. That, in a nutshell, is Google&#8217;s secret recipe, and while it&#8217;s gone through many iterations over the years the core premise remains intact. </p>
<p>Search engine optimisers were quick to catch on. The focus shifted from optimising sites for keywords to optimising them for links. The goal is to get as many other websites as possible to link to your website. </p>
<p>Unscrupulous optimisers, the same types that didn&#8217;t hesitate to stuff as many &#8216;Britney Spears Nude&#8217; keywords on a website that sold vacuum cleaners just to get extra traffic, devised all kinds of different schemes to quickly and cheaply generate as many links as possible. </p>
<p>Search engines like Google also kept updating their software to filter out these false links, trying to count only those links it considered to be real recommendations. </p>
<p>But the web is so unimaginably vast that search engines have no choice but to rely on automatic processes to filter these false links. Machines, no matter how clever we try to make them, are easily fooled, and the &#8216;black-hat&#8217; search engine optimisers (contrary to &#8216;white-hat&#8217; optimisers that use only legitimate methods) are smart and inventive. </p>
<p>But perhaps the era of unscrupulous optimisers is nearing its end. The past few years have been very exciting for website owners and search engine optimisers. Search engines have enhanced their results pages with all types of extra content such as YouTube videos and local businesses. Recently new tweets about the topic a user is searching for started showing up in Google results as well. </p>
<p>The latest refinement Google is deploying, called Social Search, integrates content from the user&#8217;s online social circle. If, for example, you are searching on Google for a holiday home in Portugal, and one of your Twitter friends blogged about it, Google will show that blog in your results. </p>
<p>This new level of personalisation of search engine results, combined with other changes Google has made and continues to refine, means that search engine optimisers are increasingly unable to rely on the basic optimisation factors of keywords and links. </p>
<p>There are signs that indicate Internet users are being drawn more and more to online community website such as Facebook and Twitter and begin their search for online products and services there as well. Why trust an anonymous search engine result if you can get a recommendation from a real friend? Or at least a real friend of a real friend. </p>
<p>Black-hat optimisers will continue to try and outsmart search engines and force their websites to the top of the list. Setting up fake social media accounts is already a common practice, as any Twitter and Facebook user can attest to, but generally these are easy to spot and filter. </p>
<p>I wouldn&#8217;t go as far as to proclaim the death of SEO &#8211; this has been done many times before and been proven wrong each time &#8211; but as web search moves towards social media, and social media becomes more about web search, it&#8217;s definitely going to change the search engine optimisation landscape.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/use-social-media-sites-effectively-or-not-at-all/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Use Social Media sites effectively, or not at all</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/03/free-social-media-marketing-industry-report/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Free Social Media Marketing Industry Report</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/03/are-you-ready-for-social-media/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Are You Ready For Social Media?</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-changing-face-of-seo/">The Changing Face of SEO</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Connect With Your Website Visitors Through Email Marketing</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MakingGreatWebsites/~3/bLBMuETbvxs/</link>
		<comments>http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/connect-with-your-website-visitors-through-email-marketing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/?p=309</guid>
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The steady rise of spam (which is now said to make up over 90% of all emails) has resulted in less emphasis on email as an instrument of online marketing. But well-managed email marketing campaigns are still, and will continue to be, an important instrument in your online marketing toolbox with a great ROI.
Email allows [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/connect-with-your-website-visitors-through-email-marketing/">Connect With Your Website Visitors Through Email Marketing</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-312" title="Email Marketing" src="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/email-envelope.png" alt="Email Marketing" width="104" height="100" align="right" />The steady rise of spam (which is now said to make up over 90% of all emails) has resulted in less emphasis on email as an instrument of online marketing. But well-managed email marketing campaigns are still, and will continue to be, an important instrument in your online marketing toolbox with a great ROI.</p>
<p>Email allows you to <strong>engage with your website visitors</strong> in two-way conversations, enabling you to connect with your customers. Email marketing is a great way to enhance customer retention as well as cross-sell and up-sell your products and services.</p>
<p>But you can&#8217;t just start harvesting email addresses and spam them at your whim. You need to develop <strong>a solid email marketing strategy based on your customers&#8217; needs and requirements</strong>.</p>
<p>In this article I will outline the basics of email marketing to help you get started.</p>
<h4><strong>1. BUILD YOUR LIST</strong></h4>
<p>The most important aspect of your email marketing is the list of email addresses your messages are sent to. A good way to build your list is to have a sign-up form on your website that allows visitors to subscribe to your emails. You can also harvest emails from your online order process and contact forms, as long as you give users a clear way to opt-out &#8211; or better still, opt them out by default and make opt-in optional.</p>
<p>There are varying levels of legislation for each country regarding opting your users in on your email lists, so be sure to do some research and find out what the requirements are where you&#8217;re based. It&#8217;s usually best to err on the safe side, as not only will this ensure your emails won&#8217;t be marked as spam, your users will appreciate it and you&#8217;ll have a greater level of engagement with your subscribers.</p>
<h4><strong>2. WRITE YOUR MESSAGE</strong></h4>
<p>A good email starts with a great subject line. Users are bombarded with dozens, if not hundreds, of emails a day, and the first thing they see when your emails arrive is the subject line. This is the most important aspect of your email that determines whether or not a user will open the email and read it.</p>
<p><strong>Tips for good subject lines:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Clarify the benefit:</strong> users have crowded inboxes so your email&#8217;s subject line needs to communicate a clear benefit. What will a subscriber get out of it if he opens and reads your email?</li>
<li><strong>Personalise:</strong> use the recipient&#8217;s name in the subject line, as this helps your email stand out and helps make a connection with the recipient.</li>
<li><strong>Ask a provocative question:</strong> Questions make recipients wonder and often encourage them to open your email. An example would be &#8220;Are you at risk of overpaying on your insurance?&#8221;.</li>
<li><strong>Avoid spam words:</strong> words like &#8216;cheap&#8217;, &#8216;free&#8217;, &#8216;instant&#8217;, and dozens more are often interpreted as signs of spam.</li>
<li><strong>Be mindful of character limitations:</strong> many email clients cut the subject line off at some point, either due to the user&#8217;s screen resolution or the program&#8217;s layout. Understand what part of the subject is seen by most of your recipients.</li>
<li><strong>Test, test, test:</strong> try out different subject lines with different formats and benefits, and never stop experimenting.</li>
</ul>
<p>Next is the actual content of the email. Needless to say this needs to match the subject line. If you make a promise in the subject that you don&#8217;t keep in the content, chances are most readers will either delete your message straight away, unsubscribe from your list, or report your email as spam. Too many spam reports and your email will never reach another inbox ever again, instead being redirected to your recipients&#8217; junk mail folders and thus oblivion.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s generally a good idea to write email content following the same guidelines as for website content: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/great-headline/">strong headlines</a>, <strong>structured content</strong>, and <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/use-strong-calls-to-action-to-increase-conversion">clear calls-to-action</a>.</p>
<p>This means starting with a strong headline that describes the content accurately and challenges users to read it. Then you need to divide your content into short paragraphs that are easy to read &#8211; large blocks of text are unattractive and discourage readers. It&#8217;s also a good idea to emphasize key phrases in your text with <strong>bold</strong> and <em>italics</em> so that readers that quickly scan through it still catch the general idea.</p>
<p>And finally you need to finish with a <strong>clear call-to-action</strong>. What do you want readers to do with what you&#8217;ve just told them? If you want them to visit your website and buy a product, tell them! If you want them to forward your email to their contacts, encourage them! Use buttons in combination with text links and get users to interact with your email.</p>
<h4><strong>3. FORMAT YOUR EMAIL</strong></h4>
<p>A good subject line and strong content aren&#8217;t enough to get the most out of your emails. Your message needs to look good too. A plain text email will look boring no matter how good the content is. Nearly all email programs support HTML emails, which means you can write email messages the same way as you build web pages.</p>
<p>However, there is one big difference: there are <strong>huge limitations</strong> on the HTML code you can use in emails. Every email program, from Outlook to Hotmail, from Gmail to Thunderbird, handles HTML differently. On top of that many advanced features used in webpages, such as CSS and JavaScript, won&#8217;t work at all in most email programs.</p>
<p>This means you need to keep the HTML code as simple and straightforward as you can. A good rule of thumb is to <strong>avoid using any CSS and scripting languages</strong>, and stick to plain simple HTML code using tables to build your email&#8217;s layout.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t have sufficient knowledge of HTML, there are literally thousands of email templates available for download online which you can use and adapt for your own emails. Of course you can also avoid the whole HTML hassle and just use plain text emails, as long as you understand that your emails will look unexciting and may not be as effective.</p>
<h4><strong>4. USE EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE</strong></h4>
<p>So you&#8217;ve built a list of subscribers, written a good email and formatted it in an attractive layout, and you&#8217;re ready to send it out. You can use your own email address for this and manually send it &#8211; this is adequate for small lists. (Just make sure to use <strong>BCC</strong> so your readers don&#8217;t see the whole mailing list!)</p>
<p>But if you want to get serious with email marketing, the best approach is to use <strong>professional email marketing software</strong>. Good email marketing software does most of the hard work for you: managing your subscriber lists, building good HTML emails, and reporting on the success of your email campaigns.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of options available, usually in the form of online services, and for all different business sizes. So you don&#8217;t need to have a big budget to make use of good email marketing software.</p>
<p>A good place to start is <a rel="nofollow" href="http://aweber.com/?334417" target="_blank">AWeber</a>, a very popular online email marketing service provider that offers cheap rates for lists under 500 subscribers and has over a hundred ready-made HTML templates to choose from. <em>(Disclosure: I am an <a rel="nofollow" href="http://aweber.com/?334417" target="_blank">AWeber</a> affiliate and get paid a small commission for every sign-up through this website.)</em></p>
<h4><strong>5. MEASURE AND IMPROVE</strong></h4>
<p>Once you&#8217;ve sent out your first email campaign it&#8217;s important to analyse how it performed. Did you achieve what you hoped for? If not, why? Was the open rate low? You may need to work on better subject lines. Were there few clicks from the email to your website? Maybe you need better content or stronger calls-to-action, or maybe the HTML layout wasn&#8217;t right.</p>
<p>With email marketing, as with your website, you&#8217;re never done testing and improving. There&#8217;s always a way to get more out of your marketing campaigns and increase user engagement. Never get complacent, but strive to continually improve your email marketing.</p>
<h4><strong>6. ENGAGE IN CONVERSATIONS</strong></h4>
<p>Email started out as a two-way communication medium. Despite the rise of unsolicited bulk email, that core essence of email hasn&#8217;t changed. Don&#8217;t just send out your campaigns and turn a deaf ear to what your subscribers say, but engage with them.</p>
<p>A good way to do this is to make sure that the reply-to address of your email campaigns is a valid email address. Yes, you may get a lot of mail delivery errors and out of office replies, but you will find that many users will reply to your email marketing campaign in various ways. This is not a bad thing &#8211; quite the contrary, it means that they took the time and effort to respond to your message.</p>
<p>Engage with your readers in conversations, whether they&#8217;re complaining about your email or complimenting you. Not only can you get valuable feedback on your email marketing, you will also build customer loyalty this way as well as enhance your online reputation.</p>
<p>Another method is to put polls, surveys, and contests in your emails. This increases user interaction with your emails and will allow you to gather valuable information from your customers.</p>
<h4><strong>TO SUMMARIZE</strong></h4>
<p>Email marketing is a powerful instrument that can bring strong value to your online marketing efforts. A well-run email campaign will ensure your customers keep coming back to your website. A badly run campaign however can have a detrimental effect on your reputation and might hurt your long-term prospects. So put the effort in and you&#8217;ll find the rewards will exceed your expectations.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2010/02/the-unlikely-persistence-of-email-marketing/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">The unlikely persistence of Email Marketing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/keep-your-forms-short-and-simple/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Keep Your Forms Short And Simple</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/03/find-out-when-others-are-talking-about-you-online/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Find Out When Others Are Talking About You Online</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/connect-with-your-website-visitors-through-email-marketing/">Connect With Your Website Visitors Through Email Marketing</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Use Strong Calls-To-Action To Increase Conversion</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:40:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversion]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/?p=300</guid>
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I&#8217;ve written before about website clickflow and content optimised for the sales funnel. I want to expand a bit on how you can turn visitors in to customers with strong calls-to-action.
A call-to-action is a button, phrase or link that tells your website&#8217;s visitors what to do next. That &#8216;Buy Now&#8216; button, those &#8216;Click here to [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/use-strong-calls-to-action-to-increase-conversion/">Use Strong Calls-To-Action To Increase Conversion</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p><img src="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/click-this-button.png" align="right" alt="Call to Action" title="Call to Action" width="200" height="76" class="alignright size-full wp-image-305" />I&#8217;ve written before about <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/10/guide-your-visitors-to-your-conversion-page/">website clickflow</a> and <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/12/the-online-purchase-funnel/">content optimised for the sales funnel</a>. I want to expand a bit on how you can turn visitors in to customers with <strong>strong calls-to-action</strong>.</p>
<p>A call-to-action is a button, phrase or link that <strong>tells your website&#8217;s visitors what to do next</strong>. That &#8216;<em>Buy Now</em>&#8216; button, those &#8216;<em>Click here to read more</em>&#8216; links, that &#8216;<em>Register for a free trial</em>&#8216; banner&#8230; they&#8217;re all calls-to-action.</p>
<p>Your website needs calls-to-action (abbreviated: CTA) to help <strong>turn visitors into customers</strong>. Internet users rarely take the time to thoroughly read text or contemplate a website&#8217;s purpose &#8211; they are used to surfing quickly and with purpose.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s therefore very important that you make it instantly evident what you want your website&#8217;s visitors to do when they come to your site. Do you want them to buy a product? Tell them. Do you want them to subscribe to your newsletter? Make it clear.</p>
<p>Here are some tips for effective calls-to-action:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Short and concise -</strong> make it instantly clear what the action is you want a user to perform. Don&#8217;t elaborate too much but get to the point.<br/>&nbsp;</li>
<li><strong>Self-evident -</strong> a CTA that makes a user think is a bad CTA. Users need to know instantly what is required of them, so make sure your CTA is totally self-evident.<br/>&nbsp;</li>
<li><strong>Bigger is better -</strong> I&#8217;m not encouraging you to turn your whole web page into one big red CLICK HERE button, but don&#8217;t be too shy using big buttons either. Often webdesigners err on the side of caution, so don&#8217;t be afraid to try bigger buttons.<br/>&nbsp;</li>
<li><strong>Contrasting colours -</strong> Blue buttons on a blue background don&#8217;t really stand out much. Use contrasting colours, like bright red, neon green, or eyebleeding orange. This makes buttons and links stand out more from the regular content.<br/>&nbsp;</li>
<li><strong>Persuade -</strong> What works better: &#8220;Buy Now&#8221; or &#8220;Buy Now and get a 10% Discount&#8221;? That&#8217;s right, the 10% discount. Spice up your CTAs with extra benefits such as discounts, free samples, bonuses or limited time offers.<br/>&nbsp;</li>
<li><strong>Above the Fold -</strong> if you put your CTAs low on your webpage, changes are most users won&#8217;t see it as they have to scroll down the page to get there. Make sure you have a strong CTA high up on the page so visitors see it right away, then repeat the CTA lower on the page for those users who do take the time to read on and scroll down.<br/>&nbsp;</li>
<li><strong>Experiment -</strong> don&#8217;t be afraid to try out different CTAs on different pages on your website to see which one works best. You can also run tests with services like Google Website Optimizer to find the best call-to-action. As with many things on the web, continuous testing results in continuous improvement.</li>
</ul>
<p>Implement strong calls-to-action throughout your website and you&#8217;ll have a more effective site that converts more visitors into customers.</p>
<p>If you want to read more about effective CTAs, read this great article from Smashing Magazine: <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-buttons-examples-and-best-practices/" target="_blank">Call to Action buttons: Examples and Best Practices</a></p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/02/search-engine-advertising-a-step-by-step-guide-part-3/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Search Engine Advertising: a Step By Step Guide &#8211; Part 3</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/01/search-engine-advertising-a-step-by-step-guide-part-2/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Search Engine Advertising: a Step By Step Guide &#8211; Part 2</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/12/the-online-purchase-funnel/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Optimize Your Content For The Online Purchase Funnel</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/11/use-strong-calls-to-action-to-increase-conversion/">Use Strong Calls-To-Action To Increase Conversion</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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		<title>Google Explains How To Make Your Website Work</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MakingGreatWebsites/~3/B8SfsgVdnI4/</link>
		<comments>http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/09/google-explains-how-to-make-your-website-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:33:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Barry Adams</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/?p=296</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
			
				
			
		
After their successful Search Engine Optimization Guide, Google is continuing to provide excellent entry-level guides for website owners. Their latest guide, Make Your Website Work, gives best practices that help turn your website&#8217;s visitors into customers.
The guide is viewable online at Google&#8217;s Conversion Centre or can be freely downloaded in PDF format.
Related Articles:Google&#8217;s Search Engine [...]<p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/09/google-explains-how-to-make-your-website-work/">Google Explains How To Make Your Website Work</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>
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<p>After their successful <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/11/google-seo-starter-guide/" target="_self">Search Engine Optimization Guide</a>, Google is continuing to provide excellent entry-level guides for website owners. Their latest guide, <strong>Make Your Website Work</strong>, gives best practices that help turn your website&#8217;s visitors into customers.</p>
<p>The guide is viewable online at Google&#8217;s <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/conversion/ebook.html" target="_blank">Conversion Centre</a> or can be freely downloaded in <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/conversion/make_your_website_work.pdf" target="_blank">PDF format</a>.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>Related Articles:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2008/11/google-seo-starter-guide/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Google&#8217;s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/06/seo-starters-guide-in-40-languages/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">SEO Starter&#8217;s Guide Now Available in 40 Languages</a></li><li><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/02/search-engine-advertising-a-step-by-step-guide-part-3/" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Search Engine Advertising: a Step By Step Guide &#8211; Part 3</a></li></ul></div><p><a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com/2009/09/google-explains-how-to-make-your-website-work/">Google Explains How To Make Your Website Work</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.greatwebsitesblog.com">The Great Websites Blog</a></p>



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