Your website needs to communicate your message in the first few seconds. Your unique selling proposition and your opt-in forms need to be easily seen without scrolling down.

A study by researchers in Canada showed that people form lasting judgments about the usability and credibility of a website in as little as 1/20th of a second. The reaction is a physiological and emotional response based on color, images, page load speed and organization. This first impression was not based on informational content.

Your website needs to portray a professional and credible image. This includes the design, colors, fonts and the organization of your home page. Avoid dark oppressive colors; instead use light, bright and inviting colors. Avoid a wide variety of fonts, placing text in all CAPS or reversed out fonts. You want a professional design to instill confidence. Avoid strong colors.

Avoid overloading your visitor with too much information. Keep paragraphs short and give “bite size” nuggets of information. This makes it easier for people to scan your content and find what they are looking for. Include a link with “Learn more” that will lead them to more in depth information.

Visit this site for more conversion rate optimization tips. Conversion techniques will improve sales from your website.

1. Create a list of topics, services or market niches that you are planning to cover in your website. This is your list of what you want to talk about on your website. If you are a sales consultant, you may want to talk about sales coaching, sales management, sales process and lead generation.
2. Start by creating a list of phrases you think people would use in searching. They could be the same as your topic list or they could be slightly refined. These will become your “seed keywords” that you will use in your research.
3. Go to your competitor websites. What phrases are they using that apply to what you sell? If you go to their web page and click on view source in your browser, you can look at the keywords they list in their META Tags. You can also go to sites like keywordspy.com, spyfu.com or compete.com to uncover which phrases they are targeting.
4. As you are picking the right keywords, start by only selecting phrases that are highly relevant to what you offer. The wrong keywords will bring the wrong prospects. If someone typed in your targeted phrase, will they want to buy what you are selling? Don’t start by selecting phrases with the highest search volume.

1. Message: Make your central message clear. You have only a few seconds to communicate your benefits, how you are better than your competition. Use your page headlines, your graphics and your navigation to communicate your message.
2. Initial Hook: Grab their attention with a compelling headline that includes the phrase they were searching for. Your objective is to grab their attention and pique a potential customer’s interest. Your opening paragraph should address the need they came to satisfy.
3. Make it Clear: Make your graphics, your message and your navigation clear and intuitive. The message on your website needs to be clear. This means having an offer that is relevant, understandable and visual. This offer is your call to action.
4. Call to Action: Drive your visitors toward a desired action. Make it clear and highly visible. Place your primary call to action where it can be easily seen without scrolling down. It needs to be highly visible to arriving visitors. Examples of calls to action include- “Buy Now”, “Order Now”, “Join Today”, and “Sign Up For a Free Report”.
5. Build Trust: Show visitors that you are trustworthy. Show prospects there are no risks. Build trust at every step. Show your phone number and address. Post a guarantee. Have a no-risk returns policy. Show your privacy policy. At an action step such as a sign-up for, reassure with an excerpt from your privacy policy.
6. Compelling Copy: Effective copywriting attracts targeted visitors and begins the selling process by attracting attention and building interest in what you have to offer. Website visitors come looking for answers to their questions or problems. Merely giving information or logically presenting your products is not enough.
7. Social Elements: Using social media, merged with eCommerce is one way to improve conversions. This includes product reviews, ratings, consumer feedback, wish-lists, favorites, blogs, forums or chat rooms.

Hint: Start strong and finish strong. Grab their attention when they arrive, and astound them with your finish. Put your best material at the beginning and the end.

Tips are from SEO coaching and conversion expert Doug Williams

Domain: For SEO, having keywords in your domain name will give you some benefit, but it only has a minor effect on rankings. I think there are more important considerations as you select your domain name. It has more importance in branding and trust building than in SEO.

Query Strings: Avoid using dynamic database generated queries that have a “?” in the page URL. If you have a database driven website, use search engine friendly URLs that allow keywords to be used. If you had a vacation rental website, it would be much stronger to name you’re a listing page /waikiki-hawaii-vacation-rentals.html than a string of unintelligible characters. Avoid the use of session IDs.

File structure: For smaller websites create a flat file structure and keeping the number of levels to a minimum. Extensive use of subdirectories and sub-subdirectories is harmful to rankings. Larger sites will require folders for organization. Use keywords to name these folders. Use folders to effectively silo information on websites that cover multiple topics.

Internal links provide the interconnection of web pages and the links along with the anchor text signal the relevance of a page. Primary pages in your site should be just one click away from your home page. Use internal links to connect relevant pages to for focused topics or silos of information.

For more helpful SEO tips, go to the Doug Williams SEO Services Company website.

Expressing gratitude to your employees helps you make a personal connection with each person. Showing appreciation builds a bridge between you and your staff. It opens the door of communication and helps them see you as a person, not just the boss. The good news is that writing a quick thank you note to an employee or acknowledging them in front of their peers only takes a moment.

Employees who are recognized with corporate awards are more engaged in their work, accomplish more in less time, and help the business make more money as a result.

When selecting employee awards, you should always keep the unique characteristics of the recipient in mind. Match the award to the achievement and personal style of the recipient, carefully taking color, shape, and size into consideration. We have outlined a series of sample questions that you can use to gauge which employee awards your recipients would prefer.

People will come to a website with a specific need or intent. If they are searching for services, then they need a local business.

Local Intent: Including a city or other geographic reference indicates buyers that are searching for local businesses.

Don’t select broad, national phrases if you are a local business. It is much easier and faster to get ranked for local phrases (broad terms + city or other geographic descriptor). Your local area is where 80% of your sales come from. This could be your neighborhood, city, state or a multi-state region.

Buyer phrases are action oriented and very specific. Usually it is best to hire out keyword research services if you are going to SEO your own website.

When selecting employee awards, you should always keep the unique characteristics of the recipient in mind. Match the award to the achievement and personal style of the recipient, carefully taking color, shape, and size into consideration. We have outlined a series of sample questions that you can use to gauge which employee awards your recipients would prefer.

Award plaques are a great choice because they allow memorable wording to be engraved on the plaque. This can make a special achievement or special occasion continue to live on in their memories.

To determine the quantity and budget for your event, it is important to relate the rewards to your corporate goals. Use them as a benchmark to determine which employees were productive and have earned their awards. Your budget will depend on the impact you want to make on each recipient. Read this article to identify which employee awards program works best for you and the impact they make on the recipient and organization.

You need a SEO expert, but you also need a SEO services company that understands business marketing. You talk to several companies and settle on one that you like. What should you expect?

Your Goals: Start by advising them of your goals, keyword phrases you are targeting and your budget if you have one set.

Quoting should always start with a site assessment. This should include an analysis to see if there are any technical problems with your website. This is the diagnosis phase before prescribing the right SEO methods.

Keywords: The SEO services company will need to know what keyword phrase or phrases that you will want to be found for. They should then evaluate if this is the best phrase(s) for your business. They will look at searches per day, competition level, should local terms be used, etc.

Technical Problems: These are things that would prevent your website from getting top rankings. This could be an all Flash website, a site built in frames or a website that is all graphics with little or no text. There could be spamming methods such as hidden text (white text on a white background), cloaking, keyword stuffing, etc.

Website Stats: The website itself then is looked at for current traffic volume, number of pages, Title tags, H1s, number of pages that could be optimized. The number and quality of current links as well as what anchor text is being used to link back the website.

The SEO services company is now ready to recommend the SEO needed for your website along with the price. SEO should include both an initial SEO (on-page) as well as monthly SEO. The SEO recommendation should include keyword research and selection, optimization of pages, content growth strategy and a linking strategy.

In crafting your plan you will need to identify your goals, keywords, look at your competition and the state of your website. You then need to create your SEO strategies and then decide how you will measure your progress.

1. SEO Goals: Decide what your business needs are. Is it rankings, is it to make sales, generate leads or build a community? SEO will attract traffic, but you need it to be the right visitors.
2. Keywords: Do keyword research. Select the best keywords based on relevance, search volume and level of competition. You need to understand the psychology of how and why people search.
3. Competition: Take your most important phrase and do a search on Google. The top 10 results will be your competition for that phrase. Analyze your competition for domain age, number of pages and the number of backlinks.
4. Site Assessment: Look at your own website. How does it compare to your competition for those same factors? Is your content engaging and focused on what your potential visitors are searching for. Is there a clear and visible call to action?
5. Strategies: Craft a plan for both SEO and conversion once visitors arrive. Apply keywords to a page plan. Now you create strategies on how you will best optimize your website. This may mean structural changes, content growth strategy, social media optimization and link acquisition strategies.
6. Measurement: Identify how you will measure success in meeting goals. Look at your Google Analytics data (or other analytics) for visits, bounce rate and time visitors spend on your website. Look at search engine rankings on Google and Bing. What conversions is your website producing in the form of leads, sales, etc.

Having a sound plan for your SEO traffic is much like planning your business growth. A plan will help ensure you reach your objectives.