Huwebes, Oktubre 9, 2014

Why your visitors are leaving your website, and how to solve it by understanding website usability

The goal of any website is to keep your visitors long enough to get them interested.  If you’re having difficulty keeping users on your site, your site usability may be to blame.
How are people finding you?  How informative is your content?  Here are some things to consider if you’re having issues with usability:

Consider improving your headline and content:

  •   You have three seconds to convince your visitor whether or not they should stay on your site.  Create compelling headlines tell your visitors whether or not the page is relevant.

  • Keep the words simple and straight to the point — when you’re writing, write to a Grade 8 or 9 level.   Avoid using jargon unless necessary, or if you do, explain it in simpler terms. You don’t want to alienate your readers and make them feel inadequate. Minimize sounding too professional or “corporate speak”.  Instead, write conversationally.

  • Focus on the benefits rather than the features.
If your website sells new cars, it’s important to describe the features of the car, such as the size of the engine.  It’s also important to point out the benefits of purchasing the product,  such as increased personal or family security.

  • Address the pain points of your audience.   Describe or show how your product can resolve their problem.  If the content is compelling and evokes a response from the reader, you’ve done your job.

  • The headline should be above the fold (meaning there is no need to scroll down).

Improve the ease of use of your website:

  • Make things easy to find.  If the layout of your website is too radical and too different from other websites, your visitors will have a learning curve. Most of them won’t have the patience to learn how to use your website.

  • Put the call to action front and center.  Your most important call-to-action should be above the fold—that may mean your contact details or phone number, opt in form, or a button leading to the sales page.

  • Use contrasting colors for your website

  • When in doubt, keep it simple

  • Consider increasing the font size of your website.
Talking the time to increase your website usability will pay dividends in satisfied customers and increased earnings for your company.
If you’re looking for any help increasing the usability of your site, visit www.site-evaluator.com .   Our web expert team will analyze your existing site on over 60 key metrics, and then we’ll tell you how to improve your site’s visibility, traffic, and revenue.

The Importance of Evaluating Your Website Regularly

If your website is not getting the traffic it deserves, one idea to consider is to use an outside evaluation tool on a regular basis.  A site evaluation tool provides you with information current site ranking and can provide relevant strategies to increase your rankings and get traffic from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo

Make sure your website is search-engine friendly. Search engines are always changing and updating their algorithms and they frequently release new guidelines to website owners and webmasters. It’s important to keep up to date with and follow the new guidelines, otherwise your website rankings could take a hit.

Make sure your website technology is up to date.  New technologies means new advances, but it also means new threats to your site.  By making sure that your site uses the latest technologies, you’ll make sure that both your site is secure and your customer information is not compromised.  Also keep in mind that search engines frown on websites that use outdated codes, plugins, or are missing important security measures.

Make sure your website uses basic web usability guidelines.   Is your navigation intuitive?  Is it easy to find the “where to buy” button?  Is the description of your products or services front and center?  If not, consider revising the design or location of the content on your site so that visitors can easily find it.

Make sure you have a social media strategy. It’s very competitive online, so it’s important to make sure your website is tied to the right social media channels. Social media links will help boost your website, but not all links are equal. Some social mediums will provide more traffic than others.  Be sure to find out the differences, and evaluate which will be best for you.

It’s important to keep up to date with the latest in technological and site search developments for your site.  

If you’re looking for any help increasing the usability of your site, visit www.site-evaluator.com .  Our web expert team will analyze your existing site on over 60 key metrics, and then we’ll tell you how to improve your site’s visibility, traffic, and revenue.

Miyerkules, Agosto 6, 2014

Website Evaluation Tools – Which is the Best?

If you feel that you’re not getting enough performance from your site, then it may be time for a site review.
A website review helps evaluate key parameters in your website to ascertain its effectiveness.  The parameters can be compared to key elements of an office.  These include: SEO ranking and marketing (top-of-mind customer awareness), ease of navigation (customer service), ease of accepting payments (acceptance of orders) and ease of getting technical support in real time.
There are a number of evaluation tools out there:

HubSpot Marketing Grader
HubSpot has made a huge name for itself in online marketing. This takes a look at a variety of things like social media and blogs to evaluate your online marketing. It evaluates everything in the marketing funnel, and then compares that to your competitors’.

Pingdom Full Page Test
Pingdom is great at evaluating your website in some key metrics. For instance, it takes a look at your website’s speed and bottlenecks, and identifies areas where you can make changes that boost performance.

SEO Quake
This tool is, as the name denotes, SEO focused. It’s a toolbar plugin for your internet browser that gives Google/Alexa scores, and your page rank. It’s great for monitoring and analyzing links. It also offers features that can analyze your keyword density, and then diagnose problem areas on your website.

Fast Track Site Evaluator
Another great tool worth checking out is our comprehensive Site Evaluator. It measures your performance on everything that goes into a website like SEO, marketing, and design.
Getting a full report will take a couple days, but it’s well worth the wait. You will receive a detailed analysis which identifies areas of strength and weakness, as well as recommendations on how to improve. Get yours today!

For more information about Site Evaluator and Fast Track, please visit www.site-evaluator.com or www.fasttrackteam.com, or call 1-855-7FASTTRACK.
                          

Free Website Checker Evaluates the Effectiveness of Your Website

Have you ever wondered if there’s a way to determine whether your website has all the elements you need to make it work effectively and help to grow your business?  Ever looked for a checklist of items that you could do that would help increase site traffic and sales?
Site-evaluator.com was created to evaluate business sites on six key areas that affect internet business, including:
1.    Is your website easily accessible?
2.    Is your website being marketed effectively?
3.    Is site navigation reasonably fast? (performance)
4.    Does your site rank high in search engine searches (SEO)?
5.    Does the website leverage itself through social media tools?
6.    Can your customers find what they are looking for?  (usability)
By visiting the site and entering your URL, your site will be evaluated against these benchmarks in site performance and marketing.  You’ll receive concrete suggestions on how to site traffic, social media presence and more
The complete evaluation includes three additional elements:
1.       How much percentage of the time is the site up and available for users?
2.       Is your website safe from outside attacks and is confidential customer information protected?  (security.)
3.       Does your website provide easy-to-use and real-time technical support?   
Both evaluation types are completely free, and Fast Track’s Site Evaluator emails you the report within a few days.
For more information about Site Evaluator and Fast Track, please visit site-evaluator.com or fasttrackteam.com, or call 1-855-7FASTTRACK.
                          

Here’s a Site Evaluator that Can Check Website for Free

Is your website bringing in the inquiries and orders that you projected?  Or are they few and far between?  Can’t understand where the site is failing?
Stop the guesswork when it comes to how your site is performing and check out www.site-evaluator.com. This excellent free tool allows you to measures your site on accessibility, performance, marketing, SEO, use of social media and usability – all for free.
Site-Evaluator Complete Evaluation provides a full site review for free.
If you’ve got a bit more time, you can also submit your URL for a “Complete” review, including additional critical areas of availability, data security and technical support, and it’s still free.  The Complete Evaluation will give you the total picture of how well your site is performing and in what areas it needs improvement.    
Site-evaluator.com is a free website evaluation tool created by Fast Track to assist business in evaluating the overall effectiveness of their site on the internet.
Fast Track creates cutting edge websites and web applications for businesses of all sizes faster and better than anyone else in the business.  We are a recognized, innovative expert in the development of Microsoft technology applications and one of leading developers of mobile, tablet and web applications utilizing .NET technology.   We offer a complete range of development services - from business analysis, software design and prototyping to software development, QA services, post-project maintenance and support.
Fast Track’s unique background allows us to deliver high quality results in a cost effective way.  
At Fast Track, we produce user-friendly websites and applications tailored to your business needs.  Our solutions focus on increasing your online presence and revenue. With over 100 years of combined IT experience, we’ve worked with all types of clients—from startups to large corporations and everything in between.   We take the time to understand your needs and deliver intelligent and seamless solutions.
           
When you have any doubts about the effectiveness of your site, let Fast Track help.   For more information about Site Evaluator and Fast Track, please visit site-evaluator.com or fasttrackteam.com, or call 1-855-7FASTTRACK.

Miyerkules, Abril 16, 2014

Site Evaluator - Site Usability

What is Site Usability?

Can your customer easily find what they want on your website? Does your website have a search function? Is your website easy to navigate?
Customers like a website that is easy to navigate and understand. If it’s difficult to find your products or services, or the ordering process is cumbersome, customers become frustrated and abandon their purchase.
Usability is a measure of how easy a website is explored and navigated.
Customers look for easy, intuitive web sites. If they do not find what they want immediately. from your website, they leave.  
The lesson is pretty simple: ease of navigation translates into sales. Your website acts as your self-service counter. If your website directs your customers consistently through products section then to the Order Form, then you may have gotten a sale.

How is the Site Usability calculated?

Links score = (100 * (Links +Link States))/20
Search and Site Map availability score= (100 * (Search Availability (0 for No and 1 for Yes) + Site Map availability (0 for No and 1 for Yes)) / 2
Usability score (%) = (Link score + Search and Site Map availability score) / 2
Usability score (%)
Usability
>= 70 and <= 100
Good
>= 50 and < 70
Could be improved
<50
Poor



How can you improve your site usability score?

Providing these kinds of services on your site will increase the usability of your site:
  • Search function
  • Site map
Lastly, make sure that there are no broken links on your site.
If your website platform doesn’t offer these services, check our Power Site, Fast Track’s fully customizable website solution that includes all of the latest features including a CMS, eCommerce, SEO and more.


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Lunes, Abril 14, 2014

Site Evaluator - SEO

What is SEO?

SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies you could use today. Utilizing SEO strategies helps your website get ranked and obtain visiblibility on search engines Such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. Organic SEO strategies , Such as optimizing your website key words, metatags and descriptions; using h1 and h2 tags in your copy and using social media to help Increase your website popularity, increasing your visibility to potential customers.

Websites try to grab the coveted top rankings with search engines Because customers, as a rule, do not go too far or too deep in THEIR search. When a customer types in Certain keywords, the search engine will show a list of web results broken down into Several pages starting from page 1. Generally, customers will click on the top websites on the list. He will then visit these sites and make possible sales. This underscores the importance of ranking high with the search engines.

By ensuring that all of the keywords, page titles and so on alignment with page content, web crawlers see the information on the page as a Relevant source. This increases the credibility of the page and allows search engines to find the page more readily and push up the search rankings.

How is the SEO calculated?


Google search rank
SEO score
(%) SEO
= 1
100
Great
> 1 and <= 10
100 - Google Search Rank
Good
> 10 and <= 20
00 - (2 x Google Search Rank)
Could be improved
> 20 and <= 30
100 - (3.2258 x Google Search Rank)
Poor
> 30
0
Poor
Following SEO Regarding Additional details are also provided with the SEO score:
A. SEO Score
  1. Search Ranking
  2. Google Search Rank
  3. Keyword
  4. Search Engine Results
B. Additional details
  1. Popularity
  2. Content Keywords
  3. Incoming Links
  4. URL Format
  5. Style Sheets
  6. Headings
C. Top of the funnel - SEO:
  1. Page Index
  2. Alter Tag
  3. Page Title Company Name Starts with
  4. Unique Page Description
  5. Other Sites Linking
D. Analytics:
  1. Unique Visitors
  2. Analytics Software Usage

How can you Improve your SEO score ?

If your site is low in the site rankings, try these simple strategies:
  1. Make sure that your page titles, descriptions and keywords accurately represent the content on the page.
  2. Use Headlines (H1 tags) and sub heads (H2, H3) in your site. Use your keywords in the heads and subheads. This adds authenticity to the topic and your page.
  3. Such as using social media Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to communicate with your customers and potential customers is a great way to grow your business.  
If your website platform does not offer these services, check our Power Site , Fast Track 's fully customizable website solution that Includes all of the latest features including a CMS, eCommerce, SEO and more.
Visit www.site-evaluator.com for more information about Site Evaluator - SEO
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