I
Know What You Did Last Session…
“Get rid of the counter. If it is
low, your visitor is going to wonder what they are doing there, and if it
is high, your competitors are going to copy your site. There are
better ways to monitor your visitors - they are logs, but we can discuss
that later.”
Are You Sure You’re Secure?
“And your secure server, where you allow people to fill out the
online application… you have to tell people that you have a secure site.
It used to be only your psychiatrist would ask you if you are ‘secure’
now the whole world wants to know, so you better tell them your site in
encrypted and they can safely give you the information you need.”
Animated Gifs Out Of Control.
“Let me comment on your graphics as well. Most of your
graphics are nice, except for that little animated mailbox image that
opens and closes, and opens and closes and opens and… Animated
gifs are a ‘right of passage,’ sort of like Chicken Pox for a kid; you
have it and then move on. It is when those animated gifs stick
around and then these graphics become the Energizer Bunnies of the net,
afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome; yelling at you, screaming at you,
begging you to notice the graphic, detracting the viewers eyes from the
content of your site, the real reason why they visited. Get rid of the
animated mail box, today.”
Sounds Like…
“While I am on the topic of things that may be annoying to your
visitors, you know that little “cha-ching” sound you have that you
probably think tells people they are saving money? Well, some people
might interpret that as you are making money every time they open one of
your web pages. Your web site should be what like what parents sometimes
say to kids, ‘they are better to be seen not heard.’ So, the rule for
music or sound effects, unless you are MTV or sell music, don't have
music, or sounds, on your site. It gets worse when somebody tries to
put what they like on a site, thinking everybody will like their music
tastes -- nobody wants to listen to your niece tap dance the drum solo
from In-a-gadda-da-vida... the long version, nor hear your parrot whistle
the theme song from Gilligan's Island... you may like it, your visitors
don't. Take the sound off, today. "
|
Linda
hadn’t so much paused for a breath during her insightful, cutting
analysis. Michael wondered what else could she say; the site was only 15
pages.
These Fingers Are Made For Clicking…
Linda paused, realizing she had been a bit harsh, and looked at
Mike’s books again; looked for a bit of levity. “You know what JFK
would say about a web site, about your web site?” Mike just shook
his head ‘No.”
“He would say, ‘Ask not what your customer can do for you, but what
you can do for your customer.’” Mike, wanted to roll his eyes, but he
got the message.
With a joke to break up her delivery, Linda got back into the heavy
analysis role, “I would venture that the person who designed your site
was male.” Linda said. “It is a nice site, but the color scheme the
graphics you used, well they reeked of old male chauvinism, especially
that line you used which said, ‘As hard as you work to provide for your
family, your wife, your children, you want the best for them.’ The
latest Internet studies now put females at 50% of all users, and those
nail polish coated fingers do a whole lot of clicking. You need to
design a site that is appealing to both sexes.”
“Alright, I get the idea. I need to
make a few changes. Let’s go back to the trainloads of people,
this paving the road less traveled. How do we do that?” Michael
asked.
What We Want.
“You know, Michael, ‘www’ doesn’t stand for World Wide
Web, it stands for ‘what we want.’ Your customers can now
comparison shop hundreds of sites in one session. If you don’t
have what they want, you won’t get what you want.
I Can See Clearly Now.
“Delivering targeted traffic is extremely difficult. You have
to a have a clear vision of what you are providing either as a service or
a product, then you have to speculate as to what your potential visitors
are looking for, and then you have to design web pages to communicate your
message, in a manner agreeable to the search engines, so people can find
you. They are a potential user of your services right now, right
this minute, whether 2 a.m. on a Saturday night or on their lunch break
while at work, they want what they want, right now.” |
“I noticed on your site you
say ‘home loan’ this and ‘home loan’ that, but you don’t say home
mortgage. Why is that?”
Mike responded, finally an answer he knew, “Well, in this state, there are
no mortgages, so I didn’t use the word mortgage.” It felt good to
Michael to deliver the right information.
Sorta, Kinda, Approximately… Absolutely.
“OK, but it is not what you think, it is what your clients think.
And if they type ‘home mortgages,’ when looking for ‘home loans,’
you better have ‘home mortgages,’ because that is what they want. And,
to add to the equation here, search engines are absolute in their searches.
If someone types ‘home mortgages,’ that is what the engine is going to
look for, not ‘home loans.’
It is the same way as if you were going to buy the latest CD by your
favorite group, and the clerk gives you the CD that was their first album.
It is not what you were looking for. In fact, some searches are so
absolute, that if you type ‘home loan,’ only pages with ‘home loan’
not ‘home loans’ will appear. Other engines are case sensitive so
if someone searches for ‘HOME LOANS’ the phrase ‘home loan’ is not
a match.”
Not Just A Pretty Face.
Mike thought for a moment, “So you are telling me there is a whole lot
more than just having a web site that looks good?”
“Yep.” Linda replied, as concisely as she had been all day.
On The Road Again…
Mike, satisfied with what he had learned, and a staff meeting pending,
said, “OK, I will change my web site. Let’s try and pave that road…
Can we meet again?”
Rod Aries and Robert Farris are co-founders of MortgagePromote.com
a leading Internet marketing provider to the mortgage industry offering web
site lead generation services, proven Internet marketing techniques, and
comprehensive search engine ranking strategies to mortgage brokers, bankers,
and lending institutions. Web site: www.mortgagepromote.com.
E-mail: info@mortgagepromote.com
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