Nine Tips For Effective Website Content - Giving Visitors What They Want

Nine Tips For Effective Website Content - Web readers may be a difficult bunch, they may take a while to digest information and they may need convincing of every single point you deliver but they are essential. They can become long term, loyal customers, as long as you give them what they want.

Writing for the Internet is a different skill to writing for paper print or paper publications. Website readers digest smaller amounts of information in less time when compared to reading from paper.

This means that website content needs to be very well organised, concise, well formatted, and appealing. Throw in the proper use of search engine keywords, a powerful Call To Action (CTA), your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), and the natural scepticism of web users and it's easy to see why many website owners use professional content writers.

1 - Use An Inverted Pyramid Style Of Writing

The inverted pyramid style of writing means getting your point across early in the text. Web readers are an impatient bunch and they need to know that the page they're reading is relevant. Include a summary or conclusion of the page's main points at the beginning of the text and then elaborate on this as you progress.

2 - Make It Concise

As well as being impatient, web readers aren't able to digest and process information as well on a computer screen as they are on paper. There are masses of studies and numerous sets of data giving statistics on this, but the general point is that basic pages need to be between a third and a half of the length they would be on paper. Try to aim for 300-500 words for web pages, with longer pages for technical articles, newsletters, and other web based publications.

3 - Use Headers And Sub-Headers

Headers and sub-headers not only enable you, as the writer, to properly structure the page; they also enable the reader to scan through and find the information that is most pertinent to them. Don't try anything too clever with your headers and do ensure that they are relevant and informational.

4 - Use Bullets And Lists

Bullets and lists are another method of enabling readers to quickly navigate around a page and grab the most important information. Many readers will simply scroll down a page and if no information jumps out at them then they won't read anything. Prevent these readers from clicking away from your website by offering bite sized chunks of information.

5 - Use Simple Language

Another area where statistics and figures differ is in the comprehension level of website readers. No matter which figures you listen to, though, one point is clear - we simply can't process information as well when reading from a computer. Use simple language, avoid jargon that isn't necessary or clearly defined, and engage your readers using language that everybody can understand.

6 - Use Short Paragraphs And Shorter Sentences

A paragraph should contain text relating to a single, simple idea. When you reach the conclusion of that idea, you should also reach the end of that paragraph. Paragraphs should contain no more than 70-80 words where possible. If a paragraph requires fewer words then make it shorter. The same goes for sentences.

7 - Make It Easy To Scan

Shorter paragraphs, more concise pages, and good headers make a page easy to scan. So too do bullets and lists. Add formatting such as bold and italicised text, quotes, and even hyperlinked text to make the page easier to scan. Remember to use a degree of caution, however, because a page that consists of different formatting techniques will be very difficult to read and understand. Many readers will simply close your page and move on.

8 - Write Objectively

We've already discussed how Internet users are impatient and find it difficult to digest information; they're also a highly sceptical bunch that will take convincing of virtually anything you have to say. Use objective language and avoid the use of too much marketing fluff. Avoid exaggerated claims such telling readers that yours is the best product in the world and instead show them why - convince them to come to that conclusion on their own and you will enjoy better results for your effort.

9 - One Idea Per Paragraph, One Subject Per Page

A single paragraph should contain a single idea and a single page should cover one topic. If a page is becoming too wordy because it includes information on other subjects, then break it down and hyperlink to those other pages. For longer pages remember the bookmark function and use it wisely to help readers navigate their way around your site and take in all of the information that you have to offer. ( entireweb.com )

Giving Visitors What They Want ... !!!

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Ten Ways to Turn Online Reviews into More Loyal Customers

Ten Ways to Turn Online Reviews into More Loyal Customers - Companies like Google, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, CitySearch and many others have made it easy and convenient for customers to share their thoughts with the world. And they're not just talking about what they had for breakfast.

They're telling the world what they think of Your Business.

Smart companies are using these online reviews to attract and keep more customers. Here are ten ways you can use Web 2.0 tactics to turn online reviews into more customers who keep coming back.

1. Respond to Every Review

Like emails and voice mails, online reviews are easy to ignore. Especially the icky ones. But don't. Instead, think of your online reviews as conversation starters. Someone has reached out to you. And when a person speaks to you, it's bad form to ignore them.

So, the polite thing to do is to respond.

Your response might be just to thank them. Or you might ask them further questions about their experience. Or maybe you share some details about the product or service they mention.

By engaging them you are affirming their choice to do business with you and developing a better relationship with them.

2. Always Thank People for Their Reviews

When a customer takes time to give you a review, they are going out of their way. So thank them for their time and effort (even if the review is negative). Remember, their review can be valuable information for you to improve your business. And it might help you attract more customers. Isn't this worthy of thanks?

3. Wait Before You Respond to a Negative Review

You open your web browser. You check on the latest reviews of your business. What you see enrages you. Someone has done more than just taken you to task. They have flamed you (or so it feels).

So the urge is to fire back, let them have it. But don't do it.

Step back from your computer or move on to something else. Do anything but do NOT respond right away. Let the message of the review simmer in your brain. When you come back later you'll have a much more reasoned response. And it will serve you better in the long run.

4. Néver Post (or have someone post) a Fake Review

Because the Internet appears to provide us such anonymity, some folks believe they can manufacture reviews to make their businesses look better.

Don't do it. You'll get caught.

Fake reviews take your eye off the ball. Your goal should be to give your customers such a great experience that they generously give you wonderful reviews that encourage others to do business with you. That should take all your time and effort.

Fake reviews are simply a distraction that will not help your business.

5. Leverage the Power of an Apology

When someone has a bad experience at your business (no matter what the cause) the fastest road to a resolution is an apology.

Your apology does two things. It shows them you care. And it tells them you're willing to take responsibility for a solution. And, because most employees and businesses don't apologize (or don't do it well) then your apology will stand out.

6. Néver Threaten a Reviewer Online

No matter how angry you are at a review, don't strike back by posting threatening or even hostile comments. Remember, the whole world can see what you post.

If you feel an online review is so awful it warrants legal action then take your concerns to the website where the review is posted. They have guidelines and terms of service that the reviewer might be violating.

Also, try to contact the reviewer privately through the website's private messaging service if they have one. Or simply ask (in your online response) that they contact you privately so you might discuss a resolution.

7. Be Consistent

Your business should have a policy and procedures for handling complaints. If not, think about how you might respond to negative reviews in various situations. Do you provide a refund? Do you invite them back for a do over? Based on the type of complaint, what do you feel would be reasonable and effective in getting customers to come back?

Whatever you decide, be consistent about it. Because many of your responses will be online, other people will see them. Inconsistency might cause other customers to feel slighted.

8. Use Online Reviews to Improve Your Business

The best thing about reviews is they are feedback direct from the people who matter most: your customers. And as customers they know best what it's like doing business with you. So take their feedback seriously and use it to improve how you do and what you do.

9. Keep Your Attitude and Message Positive at All Times

When you respond to an online review, your purpose is to improve your customer's experience. If their review is positive, your response affirms that. It shows them they made the right choice doing business with you. If their review was negative, your response might help mitigate the damage to your reputation.

Either way you help improve their experience of being your customer. And you do that by always focusing on the positive.

10. Tell Them What to Expect

The ultimate way to get a steady flow of online reviews from your customers is to give them an experience they want to talk about. The best way to do this is by going beyond what they want and expect from you.

When you tell your customers what to expect (and this message is based on what they want and what you do well) then they have a ruler to measure you with. You've made it easy for them to define their customer experience. And you've made it easy for them to talk about it.

Because your message is based on what they want, it's important and relevant to them.

Because it's based on what you do well, it's something you can deliver on.

This positions you to deliver an experience worth sharing. And with online review websites your customers now have an easy and convenient way to share their experience with the world.

And that will drive even more customers to your business. ( sitepro )

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Will Twitter — and tweets about traffic — change the way we drive?

Will Twitter — and tweets about traffic — change the way we drive? - On an early Friday morning rush hour last month, a Seattle-area web designer named Michael Micheletti was driving his BMW, "check engine" light blazing, to his dealer to be serviced. In some kind of disharmonic convergence, the car gave out a few miles from the dealership—dead in the middle of I-5, one of the nation's busiest corridors. At 7:51 a.m., the following tweet appeared, under the handle "Mikeym": "That black BMW stalled in the center lane of I-5? Yeah, that's me. Sorry, I don't like it either."

The ensuing traffic jam, as local news outlets noted, attracted some attention in the Twittersphere. The Washington state department of transportation used its feed to counsel drivers—at least those who were on I-5 approaching the BMW and looking at (or listening to) their Twitter feeds, and who happened to be followers of either @mikeym or @wsdot, around 15,000 in all—to "give Mike some room." At 8:09 a.m., the denouement was revealed: "Tony from AAA here to help me. I bet my BMW looks really stylish on this tow truck." The epilogue was there on Twitter, too, for those wanting to follow it to the end: Mikeym took a VW Golf and a Subaru Impreza out for test drives, before finally settling on a Hyundai Genesis. (On March 27, he noted: "There are two different people at this Hyundai dealership who drove up in BMWs to do some car-shopping.") He gave the BMW to his son ("family tradition," he tweeted on March 29).

Given Twitter's particular genius for broadcasting micro-narratives of no particular consequence (Will that friend of yours get on that next flight to Spokane? Oh, will that grocery line ever budge?), it's little surprise that conversation about traffic—the liturgy of complaints, the minor revelations, the rare piece of useful information, the grinding banality of it all, or even the joy of not being in it—is such a staple of the site.

here are the local DOTs or Road Authorities bleating out a stream of salting advisories and local closures, often revealing some small kernel about the nature of a place. Consider Transport for London, with English officiousness, alerting its followers: "Western Avenue / A40 (Hillingdon): Eastbound direction. Lane one restriction to facilitate cyclic cleaning." Dispatches from self-appointed traffic authorities can be telling too; note this one from @mumbaitraffic: "Qualis and BEST bus in a fight on Southbound Peddar road near the Dominos … blows being exchanged." Some, like @sydneytraffic, are simply bots that channel official incident feeds to Twitter.

There are frustrated drivers seeking advice on alternate routes (one driver, in famously congested Caracas, Venezuela, wanted to know when a street was going to clear: "Vía @80TeroCcs: Es imposible salir airoso de la Av. Victoria, roca tarpeya trancada y sta monica ni se diga, hasta cuando?"). There's grumbling about speeding tickets (this Tweet combines that with another hoary topic, waiting in queues: "AWESOME waiting in line @ the courthouse to see if I can get me speeding ticket reduced... #SMH" — and for the uninitiated, SMH is not shorthand for the Sydney Morning-Herald but "shaking my head"). There are boasts about speeding. Peaches Geldof followed up one such post with, "Just actually experienced a full on car crash." And Argentine racer Marcos Di Palma faced recriminatory legal action when his passenger posted a photo of a speedometer way over the limit. There are people reassuring followers in the wake of crashes or, in the case of wrestler Kurt Angle, pleading their innocence.

And there are even moments that pierce through the noise with their telegraphic power, such as this, from Channel 4 broadcaster Jon Snow: "Tokyo jammed with traffic: we crawling north by car to nuclear excusion zone and to Sendai fromm the air ghastly: what awaits us on ground?"

Twitter provides a kind of a metaphysical traffic report, probing not just road conditions but the heretofore unconnected, if jammed together, society of the road. In one sense, this is strikingly appropriate: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, as Vanity Fair has noted, was "fascinated by the haiku of taxicab communication—the way drivers and dispatchers succinctly convey locations by radio." The service he proposed would bring that to everyone, enabling "a missing human element to the digital picture of a pulsing, populated city."

Similarly, as a kind of samizdat language of the road, the tweets about traffic evoke an earlier, now largely forgotten form—CB radio—which is associated with truckers but once had a kind of underground network of users among everyday drivers. In Kenneth Tynan's masterful mid-1970s profile of Johnny Carson, there's a moment where the talk-show host tells the playwright he ripped the CB radio out of his car: "I just couldn't bear it—all those sick anonymous maniacs shooting off their mouths." Tynan, in a passage that anticipates the Internet (and Twitter), wrote: "I understand what he means. Most of what you hear on CB radio is either tedious (truck drivers warning one another about speed traps) or banal (schoolgirls exchanging notes on homework), but at its occasional—and illegal—worst it sinks a pipeline to the depths of the American unconscious."

Content aside, there are two main problems with traffic tweeting. The first is that, as with regular traffic reports, one's chances of receiving useful information are slim and depend on getting the right piece of data in the right place at the right time. (For one thing, most traffic info Twitter feeds have what must be a mere fraction of the area's drivers as followers.) When traffic inquiries are specific, Twitter can actually be useful—my Twitter network, for example, often features cyclists inquiring about the state of the Brooklyn-Manhattan bridge crossings after snow has fallen. (Others use the service as the latest way to broadcast "speed trap" locations.) But one has an infinitely greater chance of learning about a stalled vehicle by seeing it than by reading about it on Twitter.

Which brings us to the other massive problem: To be reading tweets about traffic, or sending tweets complaining about traffic, is to be diverting significant amounts of attention from the task at hand. The crash of a distracted driver creates more traffic than the tweets of a DOT reduce it (which raises the question of whether state traffic authorities should be in the tweeting business at all). It does seem a bit odd that while the government bans texting while driving, its own state agencies send out alerts to be read on a handheld device; the agencies protest the tweets are meant to be read before a motorist hits the road.

Of course, there are plenty of times when it's relatively safe to tweet while in your car; say, when you're in a stalled BMW on I-5. I prefer to read traffic tweets at my desk, where they read like a ticker tape of the transport stream, a secret window into the life of a city (one that I'm glad to take in from a safe remove). I'll punch in, say, "Lagos traffic" and read of epic congestion—"Whts wit today's traffic? Is anything special happening in Lagos cos evrywhere seems to be blocked. Na wa o!" (that last roughly translating to a kind of incredulous "OMG!")—noting with some curiosity that even though people in Lagos tweet about horrific traffic every single day, each day brings a fresh round of drivers seemingly surprised by Lagos' horrific traffic. Just as we do when we talk about traffic, Twitter traffic hounds seem to absolve themselves of any blame for whatever predicament they describe: As one tweet read, "Dear Sydney Traffic, you suck!"

Encountering a barrage of these tweets reminds me of a project called Traffic by the "conceptual writer" and poet Kenneth Goldsmith. In the book, Goldsmith transcribed the entire traffic report for a New York City holiday weekend. Here's a typical passage:

Everything else is not gonna be moving at all. And especially avoid the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge going over to, uh, Brooklyn, they've been, uh, just an absolute horror show. You got tons of traffic on the FDR Drive coming down from the Triboro all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge. And also major delays along the West Side from the 120's on down to the Battery. No joke here. It could take you two to three hours to cut through that kind of traffic. Also big delays, uh, north from the, uh, it looks like from the 80's up toward the GW Bridge.

As Goldsmith told Bookforum, "Writers don't need to write anything more," he says. "They just need to manage the language that already exists." And every day, the traffic reports generate new narratives, serial tales of jackknifed tractor-trailers, stalled vehicles, "sunrise slowdowns," and SigAlerts. Only now, the people in traffic are writing themselves into the story. ( slate.com )

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Google is Such a Dominant Force

Google is Such a Dominant Force. Google Inc. shifted into a higher gear in the third quarter and began to leave the recession behind as the 11-year-old Internet search leader recorded its biggest profit yet.

Revenue growth also accelerated for the first time since the U.S. recession began in December 2007.

The results released Thursday are the strongest indication yet that the Internet advertising market is bouncing back from its worst funk since the dot-com bust at the start of the decade.

Google is considered a good barometer for the state of online commerce because its search engine serves as the hub of the Web's largest advertising network.

"The worst of the recession is clearly behind us and because of what we have seen, we now have the confidence to be optimistic about our future," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, told analysts in a conference call.

Schmidt's optimism echoed his public remarks leading up to the earnings release. That sentiment has helped propel Google to a succession of new 52-week highs this week, a rally that continued after the company put out its third-quarter numbers.

Google's shares rose $17.13, or 3.2 percent, to $547.04 in extended trading. In regular trading earlier, its shares fell $5.41, or 1 percent, to close at $529.91. The stock remains well below its peak of nearly $750 reached almost two years ago, but has more than doubled from its 52-week low of $247.30.

Google earned $1.64 billion, or $5.13 per share, in the three months ended in September. That represented a 27 percent increase from $1.29 billion, or $4.06 per share, at the same time last year.

Excluding expenses for employee stock compensation, Google said it would have made $5.89 per share — above the average estimate of $5.42 per share among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue for the three months ending in September climbed 7 percent to $5.94 billion. That is Google's fastest growth rate so far this year.

In a telling sign that things are picking up again, Google's third-quarter revenue rose 8 percent from the second quarter. That's the biggest sequential quarterly increase since the end of 2007.

After subtracting commissions paid to Google's advertising partners, the company's revenue totaled $4.38 billion — about $140 million above analyst estimates.

Schmidt and other Google executives left no doubt that they believe the Mountain View-based company is poised to scale even greater financial heights in the next year or two. Among other things, they said the company's popular video service, YouTube, is getting closer to making money three years after Google bought it for $1.76 billion.

Feeling more emboldened, Schmidt said Google will start spending more liberally again after skimping on its expenses for the past year. The commitment includes hiring more employees after Google pruned its payroll for the past two quarters, paring its work force to 19,665 people at the end of September.

Google could be further along the comeback trail than other companies that depend on Internet advertising.

Part of the reason is because Google is such a dominant force; it process nearly two-thirds of the Internet search requests in the U.S. Advertisers are more likely to invest in search marketing because it only costs them when Web surfers click on their commercial messages.

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Annoy Visitors At Your Website

Easy Ways to Annoy Visitors At Your Website. this is a satirical look at usability. Although it reads like a "Do" list, it is really a "Don't" list. If you follow it literally, your site is history.

1. Place some (or all of) your content in a small frame and force your visitors to read the content through that window. Don't worry about what constitutes "small" here, since most of the time, even if you create a big frame, it'll be considered too small by most visitors. This trick has a high annoyance value since your visitors have to view the information through that small little box and scroll continuously to see the text while the rest of the browser window is filled with information they don't really want to read at the moment. With this strategy, visitors cannot resize or maximize the window to make their reading more efficient or pleasurable. This method will allow you to frustrate those hapless souls and, as a bonus, make them leave your site.

2. Disable the right click menu of the browser. Nevermind that people need the right click menu for many purposes, and that they can access the same functions through the main menu bar even after you've disabled it. After all, if your aim is to annoy, you might as well make their visit to your site as unpleasant as possible.

3. Play background music when they arrive at your page. If that's not enough of an annoyance, make sure you loop the music so that the visitors are plagued by it continuously while they are on your page. If you're feeling particularly sadistic, place automatically-playing music on many (or even all) pages of your site. You don't have to worry about choosing a horrible tune - choose your favourite piece if you like. Since one man's meat is another man's poison, any sort of music tends to annoy most visitors.

4. Make every link on your site opens in a new window when your visitor clicks on it. That is, put a target="_blank" to every link. This will annoy visitors since every time they click on a link in your site, a new window or tab will open. Another benefit of this technique is that it makes your site look amateurish.

5. Force your visitors to navigate your website using Flash. That is, place all your content in a Flash file - text, pictures, links, etc - even if Flash is not ideal for such content (a straight HTML page is best for those types of content). Make sure that visitors who don't have the Flash plugin enabled or installed cannot see anything or do much on your website. This effectively drives away all mobile users, a group of users that is growing in size, as well as cripple your visitors who have come to expect certain facilities to always be available in their browsers (such as the BACK key and the ability to bookmark specific pages) when they visit websites. Now they will be forced to work through the more limited Flash plugin of their browser with whatever subset of features you deign to provide. In fact, exclusively using Flash for your site content might even help you to drop to the bottom of search engine listings too, thereby reducing the number of visitors to your site. After all, if you don't have visitors, you don't have to think of new ways to annoy them.

6. Load your site with pop-up windows that open when your visitor reaches your page as well as when they leave the page. In fact, if you want to annoy them even further, open a pop-up window when they click on links on your site.

7. Reduce the navigational usability of your website. Don't put site maps or navigation bars with shortcut links to pages that your visitors will usually want to go such as the "Download" page if you're a software author. If you can annoy your visitors by forcing them to read whole pages of your text before they can find a link to move on to do what they really want to do, so much the better.

There you have it. Seven quick ways that you can use to annoy, frustrate and irritate your visitors. They may even be effective in driving them away permanently. There are undoubtedly many other ways, but the methods listed above are easily doable by new webmasters.

WARNING: remember, the above is satire. It is a "reverse tutorial" if you will. You don't want to follow it.

[ thesitewizard.com ]

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Search Engine Traffic Percentages

Search Engine Traffic Percentages. A recent post in a discussion list suggested that Google is becoming the Microsoft of search (dominating web search as Microsoft dominates PC operating systems). So I decided to research a theory - one I'd developed about search engine traffic. I dug into the traffic stats on three of my own sites and those of several clients that I monitor traffic for.

While this case study is tiny and certainly NOT conclusive, I'll wager it has strong parallels across small business web sites. The conclusions drawn are admittedly opinion, based on very limited statistics, but those are all that matter to those of us seeing tiny search engine traffic from supposedly monstrous portals.

The participating clients from this case study ALL submit their sites to paid inclusion programs from AltaVista, Inktomi and AskJeeves/Teoma. Two use LookSmart LookListings and all but one are listed in YAHOO! Directory. All are listed in the Open Directory Project and all submit to smaller industry specific directories and smaller search engines. One uses Overture PPC on a limited basis, while none use Google Adwords. All were optimized by yours truly and each represent varied industries in retail, professional services and one is an information site only, is non- commercial and sells nothing. Each of them ranks well at most search engines, but see little traffic from those good rankings.

The research I did confirmed what I'd only assumed before by backing it up with solid numbers. On my own sites and those of clients that I reviewed, Google sends over 70% of all search traffic to every one of those domains in every case. This includes Google foreign variants, Google Directory and Google image search (image search numbers are tiny). The foreign Googles send tiny numbers of visitors from non-English speaking countries, but English speaking Google traffic from the UK, Canada and Australia drives more traffic than either Yahoo or MSN according to traffic statistics of those sites reviewed for this case study.

With the highest difference between compared search engine traffic of 8 percent variation between studied domains, I've compiled a list of average traffic delivered by search engines for those sites to which I have access to traffic logs. The Google percentages are inclusive of those portals that use Google results such as iWon.com and Yahoo web results. Direct Yahoo results are for sites listed in their directory.

Google 74% Yahoo 14% MSN 9% Ask 2% All other SE's 1%

I'm concerned, not that Google is too big, but that the other search engines just don't get it, don't deliver it and don't want to give it up. What is IT? Traffic!

I attribute this to one thing. Those search engines don't want to give up visitors to FREE search results. They are happy to send visitors off if they gain income from that traffic in either PPC ads or advertisements of ANY sort. Knowing that those free results will lose the "eyeballs" of searchers, they struggle to deliver both PPC ads and sponsor ads that most closely approximate the search phrase entered by the searcher. Thankfully, all have dropped banner ads from the SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages).

They cannot stand the idea they will lose the visitor and seek to entice them to click on something, anything that'll earn them income. Even if it means delivering NON-relevant results to entice the searcher to use a different search phrase seeking to gain more relevant results, thereby viewing more ads and additional PPC ads the visitor may click on to deliver income to the portal.

I believe these search engine traffic percentages are a direct reflection of relevance delivered by those search engines. The more relevant the results, the more likely they'll send a higher percentage of traffic to your site.

74% of search traffic referred: Google offers their own PPC results, offers no outside banners, Amazon links or effluvia related to the search. They deliver relevant results and visitors love that, then leave freely to return next time they want relevant results.

14% of search traffic referred: Yahoo offers Overture PPC results (which they'll soon own), Amazon links and sponsorship links, along with that "Also search in: Yahoo! Shopping" link at the bottom of every result page, hoping you'd rather shop than to actually find what you were searching for!

9% of search traffic referred: MSN offers Overture PPC results, "Broaden your Search" (LookSmart) links, "Shopping Results on MSN" links and a sponsor text link at the bottom of every page as though you didn't really want to find anything but their ads.

2% of search traffic referred: Ask offers more paid results than any other search property with 5 sponsor links at the top of every search result page and TEN links to further paid sponsor results in a "Related Searches" footer to every result page. Ask sponsors provide search ads. Doesn't Ask understand that most searchers see right through this?

Relevance at each of these search engines declines further with progress down the list of traffic referred. Is it any wonder Google is the leader? They lead in relevance, therefore in search engine referred traffic. All any engine need do is provide relevant results with limited sponsors and no excessive "shopping" or multiple source PPC links and book links. If they do that, they'll compete effectively with Google. More relevant search engines deliver the traffic to web sites, NOT to their advertisers.

I have a bold suggestion to make to MSN as they develop their new in-house search engine. Drop the ads, sponsors, book links, shopping links and resist the temptation to bring back banner ads. Searchers want to find what they are looking for and easily see through transparent attempts to sell stuff to them and keep them from leaving. Let go of searchers by delivering highly relevant search results while clearly labeling limited numbers of sponsor or PPC ads! The result will be devastating to Google by giving searchers a real alternative that they may prefer using!

YAHOO! has a huge task ahead of them - to integrate the recently acquired Inktomi, Overture (and Overture's recent acquisitions Altavista and Fast/AlltheWeb) search technology into their search mix. Clearly they've plenty of technology now and won't need Google when they add all these ingredients to the search soup they are cooking up. Yahoo will possess all the best technology and must only decide to provide relevant search results WITHOUT shopping links, excessive sponsor links, book links and other clutter to the SERP's. I suggest that if they show only limited Overture PPC ads and clearly labeled sponsor ads along with the relevant results - that they can also threaten Google's lead.

If the re-born, re-cooked and massively complex YAHOO! or the "new" MSN resist the temptation to send searchers to advertisers rather than sending them to relevant results, then we will have three very strong competitors in the search market. The numbers of search referrals will level off at about 30% per competitor and Google will have to fight to gain back their current dominance. If YAHOO! or MSN seek to favor advertisers over searchers, Google will maintain dominance - clear and simple.

I encourage all webmasters to do their own comparisons of traffic referrals now and then again when YAHOO! and MSN weigh in over the next year with their "new" offerings. It could get very interesting if there were some true competition in search, so referred traffic from YAHOO! and MSN starts to deliver to webmasters rather than advertisers.

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How To Keep Visitors On Your Site Longer and Bring Them Back Again and Again

How To Keep Visitors On Your Site Longer and Bring Them Back Again and Again. You work very hard to bring traffic to your site. When they finally do get there what happens? Well in a lot of cases they.... leave. Yup, they simply move on to the next site. That click happy mouse hand just doesn't like to stay put for long.

What's a poor webmaster to do?

Following are five suggestions that will keep the mouse clicks within your site.

Copy . The first area to look at is your copy. What are the first 30 to 50 words that a visitor reads (if they read it at all). Is it compelling? Does it tickle the readers fancy enough for them to keep exploring?

You need to learn and apply the art of copy writing. If you can not write an effective presentation for your site you really should consider hiring someone who can. After all, what's the point of doing all the marketing only to lose them on the first paragraph.

Design. Yes, we've all read that you can have a terrible looking site but still make money with effective copy. While there may be some truth to that, it is certainly no excuse to get sloppy in the design and presentation of your site.

When meeting new people you always want to look your best. Likewise on the web, that first impression is extremely important. This static collection of pixels on the monitor is all that they have to go by. Make it a good one.

I am competent enough at using html and software programs to build �a decent web site'. But, my objective is not �a decent web site'. It is to have a GREAT web site. So I have chosen to work with one of the best designers on the Internet. If you are serious about presenting the best possible site to the world then I encourage you to find a skilled, artistic designer too.

Content . How can you discover what it is that your visitors are truly looking for?

For starters, do a reverse search at the Search Engines. Some of the bigger Search Engines like Excite have a search voyeur http://www.excite.com/voyeur_xt that shows you the actual words and phrases that are being used at that moment.

Visit the busiest sites that are in your industry. Look at what they are offering and how it is presented.

Conduct an in-house survey. Ask your visitors and newsletter readers what they are looking for. You'll see a much better response rate if you offer some type of incentive for them taking the time and effort to fill out your form or questionnaire.

One more thing... Keep It Fresh! Constantly update the information on your site. Let your visitors know this too. They will want to bookmark your pages if they understand that next week there will be even more of what they are looking for.

Free Resources. Give something of value to your visitors. Ideally, you should strive to offer something that is unique and of great interest to your target audience.

Following are some of the methods that we have recently employed and found to be exceptional at keeping traffic on our site longer and bringing them back again and again.

• Free Internet Marketing "How To" Reports
• Free Audio Training Reports
• Entertaining (but fast loading) FLASH Video
• Links to other Resources
• Newsletter/Ezine
• A Book Store
• Free Advice
• A Chat Room with Voice capabilities
• Free Classified Ads
• Internal Banner Exchanger

Some of these features work so well that other webmasters are emailing to ask if they can offer links directly to them. Many other sites have voluntarily republished many of our original reports too.

Email Contact. In every email communication that you send out you should be promoting your site. After you sign your name make sure to add a hot link to your site. A short ad or signature file is also quite acceptable in most messages.

Even though we just mentioned newsletters and ezines, they merit special mention. Currently there is no better way to bring large amounts of previous visitors back to your site than to stay in touch with them via email.

Encourage all your visitors to sign up for your newsletter so that you can remind them of the features of your web pages. Of course you will have to provide quality content in your Ezine as well.

There are many other methods to keep your visitors clicking back to you. But with these five suggestions you should be well equipped to receive that much sought after repeat traffic'. [Chris Small of WorldDealCenter.com ]

READ MORE - How To Keep Visitors On Your Site Longer and Bring Them Back Again and Again