There was a time when microsites were nothing more than flashy, push-marketing pages, usually comprised entirely of videos built in Flash. Now, however, a new generation of microsites is on the upswing. These sites help your visitors cut out the information overload of full-fledged sites while providing new opportunities and techniques for agile marketing and conversion optimization.
The new style of microsite tends to be pure HTML and usually have no Flash at all, lending them to the best practices of SEO. You can have rich and detailed content, with graphic designs that are engaging without being overwhelming. You can provide access to other pages via a simple tab navigation, with each tab focusing on a specific subtopic. The new generation of microsites can provide all these features, without any of the troubles the past microsites used to have.
Microsites can help you serve up an optimized visitor experience. Your visitors are searching for good content and instant gratification, both of which microsites can provide with their extremely targeted focus. You should have an organized collection of subtopics that can guide your visitors to the information that they want. You can deliver deeper content in bite-sized chunks using sub-topics, making it easier for your visitors to consume.
Since microsites live outside the formal framework of your main website, they often are deployed quickly. This can make it easier for you to use your favorite A/B or multivariate-testing tool to experiment with different content variations, presentations and conversion offers.
The new generation of microsites can provide conversion optimization professionals with new opportunities for targeting strategies, at the same time leveraging the practices and tools used in larger sites.
Today, many people are optimizing their websites to ensure that they reach their maximum ranking on the leading search engines. In general, this is a great idea and your website should be updated regularly. However, keep in mind that you are trying to attract consumers online, so your website should also be optimized for people and lead conversions. Optimizing your website is easy and can increase your conversion rate.
Guide Your Visitors
Before you start making any changes to your website, think about your visitors. How do your visitors view your website? You want to make sure that they are given the right information that they need to navigate through your website. Make sure that important information like contact information is visible and in front of your visitor’s face. Start making the right changes that will guide your visitors through your desired path.
Providing graphics, hyperlinks, and short forms on each of your pages can bring your visitors one step closer to where you want them to be. Make sure that any questionnaire that you place on your website is short and to the point. The less time your visitor spends providing you information, the better. Your visitors will be more likely to provide you with their name and email, than to fill out long forms that could take more than a minute.
As always, make sure that your content and imagery are interesting and compelling to your visitors. This is vital to your selling point, and it is your window of opportunity to gain your visitor’s interest long enough that they will stay longer on your website.
Compelling Landing Pages
Provide eye catching and amazing imagery that will attract your visitor. It is a proven fact that having great images and videos on websites can influence the way people feel about the website that they have just landed on.
Keep your visitors happy and entertained by providing:
- Entertaining content that is short and to the point
- Offering minimum choices to navigate through the website
- Proper imagery that gives an idea of what you sell or provide
Most importantly, do not let your visitor get lost on your website. Think about the way you naturally navigate through a website when you are searching for a product or service. Keep in mind how you might feel if you landed on a website that provided you 30 different ways to get to the next page. Keep it simple and to the point on every page. There should be no more than 8 links to other pages, and your content should not be overwhelming. Remember, people in general do not want to spend more than 5 minutes reading and trying to figure out how to get to the next page.
Offer Trust
Most people are generally scared to purchase or provide their information online. They feel that the information that they will provide could lead to identity theft, etc. Make your visitors feel at ease when they land on your website.
Provide your visitors with visual assurances like:
- Security buttons; these have been proven to increase conversion rates
- Testimonials of current and past visitors
- A company image or profile picture
The more your visitor feels at home, the better. Provide them with the proper security that they need and you are home free. About 1/3 of consumers will not shop online, and that is still a significant number of people. Then, you have those who only shop online at websites that they trust. Building trust for your website is a key factor to gaining more business from the people you seek.
Test Your Website
Once you make a change on your site, make sure that it works, and that it is being perceived properly. Make an A/B test and find out which changes better appeal to your targeted audience. Knowing your visitors can help you create the ideal landing page. Testing your website and its changes can be boring, but it is important, and will prove to be a worthwhile time investment.
Consciously changing and optimizing your website is very smart and an important step to make when considering maximizing your conversion rates. Having a well-optimized website for search and conversions can transform the way you do business. Get your website noticed, and create the ideal landing page with your targeted audience in mind.
Website Reviews
All websites go through a review from time to time. These reviews can be helpful and very enlightening. Think of this process as a painless experience with a great outcome.
It is necessity to keep up with the current trends and changes that happen with user habits. In general, the search engines are well aware of the different changes in the user’s search habits. Search engines track users to gain an understanding of why they are clicking on certain links and going to specific websites. This is one way for search engines to provide better search options for users.
Touching up your website and keeping it fresh is the key to gaining more web traffic from users. Reviewing your website can also reveal problems that your website may have, that you might not have been aware of, if you did not review it. For example, you may discover a broken link, spelling errors, and information that may need to be brought up to date.
In addition to reviewing and up dating your website, search engines look for “fresh” content. Be aware of what is on your website and provide as much fresh content and information as possible to keep your website noticed by search engines. Reviewing your website can help you gain more user traffic and help you stay within sight of any search engine.
User Friendly Websites
Before you start adding links and content to your page, consider your website visitor’s frame of mind. How are they feeling right now? Did their search engine just take them on a wild goose chase? Sometimes users are frustrated because they are seeking a specific product, service, or information, and they are taken to different websites that have nothing to do with what they are looking for.
Provide a great header with no more than eight top-level links. Having less links on your website will help the user remember more. More links can provide a problem for them and they may get lost or confused.
Offer a logical order of links that are based on where your visitors want to go first. Make sure that you provide descriptive and vibrant labels. Remember, you want to limit the number of links, but make them memorable for your visitors. Also, make sure that no matter where your visitor is taken on your website, that they know exactly where you are taking them.
Another important thing to remember is to keep your website fresh and appealing to your visitors. Give your visitors a reason to search through your website.
Marketers and Website Designers
When using a professional to create and design your website, keep in mind that they have your best interest in mind. They have a different set of guidelines and interests regarding your website. They will tell you that your selling proposition should be stated early and clearly. Your links should be a specific color like green or orange to attract your visitor’s attention. Your daily routine should consist of your customer’s satisfaction, conversion goals, and page ranks.
This may seem unusual for you to concentrate on creating user confidence and how your links should be or look like, but there is a reason for everything. Remember that your website needs to be competitive and users have to want to go to your website and refer it to others. You need to communicate with your website users well and in a creative way. Gain and provide a positive experience for both your visitors and your company.
