1. THE WEBSITE IS BROKEN

Which of these can break your website?
(a) You did not renew your domain
(b) Your hosting company went out of business and dropped your site
(c) You have malware and Google has blocked you
(d) All of the above

If you purchased your domain or domains from a different company than where you are hosted, be sure to stay on top of when they need to be renewed. I had a client lose a domain only to have it snatched up by a web shark who held it ransom for thousands of dollars.

2. NO ONE CAN FIND YOU

Reasons why people can’t find your website?
(a) Your site is broken (see above)
(b) You never submitted your site to search engines
(c) You have not added keywords or used a Search Optimization Plugin
(d) All of the above

It’s important that your website is built with content that includes many of the keywords people use to find you. This is called “on-page” search engine optimization. It should be included in the fee for building the website.

3. NO ONE STAYS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Reasons why people don’t stay on your website
a. People can’t read the text
b. The menu is confusing
c. The map was set for the wrong address.
d. All of the above

These days, attention spans are short. If your content does not catch the eye of the visitor, they are gone within seventeen seconds on average. Work with your web designer to create “Purposeful User Flow” and good visuals to beat your competition.

4. YOUR WEBSITE IS STATIC

Reasons why you should be able to edit your site
a. It costs less if you can make small changes
b. Being able to write blog posts increases traffic
c. Your webmaster went on a long vacation
d. All of the above

You should be able to edit blog posts and/or add new ones to keep your site fresh. Ask your webmaster to give you editor status so you can make changes and additions on a regular basis.

5. YOUR WEBSITE IS OVER THREE YEARS OLD

Why should you update your website every three years
a. The internet and software that supports it changes
b. Your brand is in need of an update
c. Your text and graphics are not attracting new clients
d. All of the above

The plugins and even some themes have a shorter lifespan than you may think. If they don’t keep up with the WordPress updates, they may even be inviting malware.

6. YOUR WEBSITE IS NOT RESPONSIVE

Why Should Your WordPress be Responsive?
a. Over 70% of visitors access the web with their cell phone
b. You will lose business if it isn’t
c. People will think you are not paying attention to your website
d. All of the above

If your website looks great on a laptop but fails to adjust for tablet and especially mobile, then you are missing a lot of opportunities to find new customers.

7. YOUR WEBMASTER IS NOT RESPONSIVE

Why you might need a new Webmaster
a. They graduated from high school and moved away
b. Your site is written in a code that only they can understand
c. Your webmaster is not updating your website
d. All of the above

Make sure you hire a professional who is in this business to stay. Custom websites may make the web developer feel accomplished but if they fail to update the code, then your site will quickly fail. A well established theme company with Premium Themes is a safer bet.

8. IT’S NOT MADE WITH WORDPRESS

Why is WordPress the most used CMS?
a. The software is open source
b. The software is free
c. It is the most widely used CMS Worldwide
d. All of the above

There are thousands of web developers and web designers around the world who use wordpress. New plugins are constantly coming on market so that you can find all the functionality you need.

P.S. Did you guess “d” on all the questions? You are correct!

If your bounce rate is more than 40%, your web site is not doing a good enough job capturing their interest. Ideally you want a bounce rate of 10% or less. So how do you get the conversion you want?

Here are some tips:

1. Use Call to Action buttons: These buttons should be colorful, attractive and at the top half of your pages. You can add them to any and every page if you like. Pop ups work too.

2. Offer a freebie: Do you have a White Paper, Power Point Presentation, Video, Information Graphic or booklet you can offer? Joke of the Day? People willingly fill out forms to get their free info.

3. Make the forms short: We hate to fill out long forms. If all you want is their email, then just ask for that.

4. Use Landing Pages for ad campaigns: Landing pages reside on your web site but look different. They are more a flyer with a form than a web page. There are no menus or side bars. You can advertise your product or service discount and direct people to that page. Such as “http://yoursite.com/offer”.

5. Make your website easy to use: This is more about good design. The information on your website should be easy to access and logically laid out. Also called Information Architecture or IA.

6. Make it Mobile Friendly: We’ve all heard about Google’s new algorithm by now. As of April 21, any site that is not Mobile Friendly, moves down the search list. 20% of first time visitors to your site are using their smart phone. Time to look for some Responsive themes and upgrade your site!

You may be wondering how does one check on their conversion rate? If you have a google email account, you can go to the Google Analytics website and use that user name and password to sign in. Then, type in your web site’s address. It may take a week or two for any activity to propagate there, so be patient. Check back to their website again to read your stats. And let’s hope it’s good news!

Types of Video
There are a few different types of videos to consider. Are you selling a product? Is your primary interest to sign people up to your blog via a Call to Action? Or, are you trying to use it as a teaching tool? Whatever the reason, video is a great addition to your website, twitter ad or other social media. It’s a fact that viewers respond to human interaction. And, there is less bounce rate with videos. (The exception is a video without sound.) Place them in a blog post…on the home page, or even in the header.

What to Write
Write content that is easy to present and not overly complicated or too long. Create a plain background in your office that you can stand in front of. Some people use photo paper. Be sure to have your face well lit from all sides, so you don’t look dour. Supposedly, you can find the right lighting supplies at Home Depot or Lowes.

How to Perform
Loosen up before the presentation. Jump around and wave your arms! It may take a few takes to not be tongue tied. Surprisingly, your iphone, smart phone or ipad will work fine as the video camera. I suggest putting it on a tripod for support, so it’s not shaking. Music is also nice to have in the background.

About Wistia
Here is where Wistia comes in. It’s a high quality embed video hosting company with no strings attached. (No Ads) It’s free and includes analytics and video marketing tools. For $25 a month, you get advanced analytics tools and other tools such as email collection. Unlike You Tube, it is there for you, not for the advertisers. Don’t avoid You Tube altogether. You might attract a casual tube surfer to your site, they say.

Avinash Kaushik from Google

A few months back I talked about how to know when to update your website. The general rule is to update after three years. A lot can change in that time, and you may not be aware of what you can do to keep up. Two important ways are: 1. Running a Responsive theme and 2. Using Google Analytics.

Is your site responsive?
Does it have a simpler more vertical design for the phone and tablet? Nearly 60% of your viewers will see your site for the first time on their phone. If it is not legible, then you can bet they will immediately go elsewhere for the service or product they need. (See Bounce rate below)

Did you know that many WordPress themes, but not all, are built with responsive styling? Basically, this means that the design adapts to different browser sizes — so that instead of needing a separate mobile site or mobile plugin, the content will be resized and rearranged to fit smaller screens.

My favorite responsive theme is Divi by Elegant Themes. Not only is it responsive, but it comes packed with a module based design layout. You can drag and drop elements or blocks of information around your pages.

For instance: You find out that the Call to Action block is recommended to be at the top of the page. Or, you want to call attention to a sale or special event. You can go right into that block and change the color, text or photo without any other change and then move it into a different position. Likewise, any slide in the slider module can be moved to a different order, or you can remove one slide or add a new one.

Bounce rate may be more critical than seo
Many of my clients are concerned about search engine optimization. They want it, and they assume new customers will be calling immediately. But, what if the customer is browsing when they find your website? They won’t necessarily respond to your Call to Action or Contact Us page. Many visitors will stay less than 1 minute and not go beyond the home page or page of entry.

But what bounce rate is good? According to Rocket Fuel Team at gorocketfuel.com: “As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average. 56 to 70 percent is higher than average, but may not be cause for alarm depending on the website. Anything over 70 percent is disappointing for everything outside of blogs, news, events, etc.” To find out more about bounce rate, how its determined and how to improve it, go to this Google page.

Check out the video above from Google’s You Tube page: “If you could only choose one metric to look at, Bounce Rate might be your best choice. Learn why in this entertaining and informative segment from Avinash Kaushik.”

You can set up and see your bounce rate with Google Analytics. If you don’t already have Analytics up on your web site, do ask your webmaster to help.