Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Is There a Purpose or Are You Just Trying to Get Attention?

By Stacy Bass

In days gone by, the landing page of a website, often referred to as a home page or welcome page, was designed to be flashy, using animation and music to grab a viewer’s attention.  The goal was to grab enough attention to make a viewer want to stick around and read everything you had to say.  In current times, however, our viewing habits have changed.  We are tied to the web 24/7 and if we can’t find what we’re looking for within seconds, we just simply move on to another site where we can.  It’s wonderful to find a website that entertains you or grabs your attention, as long as it doesn't detract from your purpose for visiting the site in the first place.  We are inundated with internet access; we have it on our phones, tablets, laptops and desktops.  As a result, our attention span and patience have diminished and we want to achieve our purpose expeditiously, being entertained by the website is secondary. 


So, what does that mean for your website?  The answer to that question begins with you.  Ask yourself the following questions. 
  • What is your goal for your website; is it just a marketing tool or is it an electronic store front?
  • Are you selling a product or service?
  • Are you informing people of something or conveying a message to your audience?
  • Are you seeking members for your organization?
  • What actions should visitors be able to perform on your website?
  • Can visitors accomplish their goals from your landing page?


Once your goal is clearly defined, you can create a landing page strategy better suited to meet your goal.  A landing page should contain these critical elements:
  • Briefly introduce your product, service or message.
  • Contain graphical images to grab attention.
  • Provide a call to action, such as “buy now”, “schedule an appointment”, “join now”, etc.
  • Make sure that people know how to contact you by phone, mail, email and social media.
  • Allow users to easily navigate to other pages for additional information.
  • Contain keywords that will allow search engines to find your website.


So, if your landing page is only designed to grab attention, or even worse, if it doesn't garner any attention at all, it is time to find its purpose. 


Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.  We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world.  Select Web Solutions is an Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  Our products include Orange County custom website solutions, WebZeo affordable websites in Orange County, MobZeo Orange County mobile websites,  ProZeo Orange County social media profiles,  ListZeo Orange County Website Business Listing Service, SendZeo Orange County newsletter marketing, MailZeo hosted email services in Orange County, SEOLight affordable Orange County SEO, and much more.  

We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry.  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus. 


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Thursday, September 4, 2014

Embrace Your Negative Reviews…SAY WHAT?!

By Stacy Bass

I’m not really suggesting that you should be happy about receiving a negative review on Yelp, Google, Bing, etc., right?  Who in their right mind would say that?  Maybe ‘happy’ is not the best choice of word, however I am suggesting that negative reviews do not have to be…negative.

We all have immediate access to information at our fingertips 24/7.  A few keystrokes and we can learn all about a company, a product or service, a person, and so on, without any tremendous effort.  More and more, people are using technology in every facet of their life, including decision making.  I recently wrote about how I used reviews in making a simple luggage purchase; it is just a sign of the times.  Looking through reviews really shows how right poet John Lydgate was when he said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”  While none of us are pleased when something goes wrong, the reality of business (and life) is that sometimes things don’t happen according to plan and sometimes people get upset about that.  The thing about reviews is that while you have no control over a person who feels the need to write a negative review, you do have absolute control over how you choose to respond.  In short, you should embrace negative reviews as an opportunity to shine. 

A negative review presents the opportunity to turn a dissatisfied customer into a happy customer, and better yet, you have the opportunity to demonstrate for those who are not yet customers just how much you value your customers and how you will treat them as a customer.  To begin, the length of time it takes for you to respond to a negative comment is the first opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to satisfaction.  It is very important that reviews and social media accounts are monitored frequently.  Ignoring negative reviews will not make them disappear; instead ignoring a negative review gives some credence to whatever the issue causing the dissatisfaction was.  Respond to the review publicly and professionally.  Acknowledge the customer’s comment and apologize for whatever led to their negative feelings; showing your concern and intent in rectifying the situation.  However, NEVER engage in a verbal sparring match with the reviewer, even if they are wrong in their claim, are being nasty or are flat out just trying to cause trouble for you.  You have nothing to gain by responding in kind, and everything to lose.  There are several horror stories that have gone viral when companies have responded poorly and in each instance the company gets the blame regardless of whether the initial issue was justified or not, simply because of their poor handling of the matter.  After you have responded to the initial review publically, take the issue offline and bring it to a full resolution.  Be open and listen to the issue; you may just discover an opportunity for improvement.  Once you have resolved the issue, follow up with the customer and see if they would update their review now that you have resolved the issue. 

Transparency goes a long way in building customer satisfaction.  If you consistently address and resolve customer concerns in a public manner, it shows others researching your company, products or services it builds confidence that when stuff does go wrong that you care enough to make it right.  As a consumer, would you choose the company who ignores their negative reviews or would you choose the company who makes the effort and treats their customers with courtesy and professionalism?


Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.  We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world.  Select Web Solutions is an Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  Our products include Orange County custom website solutions, WebZeo affordable websites in Orange County, MobZeo Orange County mobile websites,  ProZeo Orange County social media profiles,  ListZeo Orange County Website Business Listing Service, SendZeo Orange County newsletter marketing, MailZeo hosted email services in Orange County, SEOLight affordable Orange County SEO, and much more.  

We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry.  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus. 


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