But all too often, optimization stops at the landing page. The success page (the page immediately following the desired action) holds just as many opportunities.

Success page marketing is the optimization of the content contained on confirmation pages and the promotion of a secondary call to action.

The success page can be any page immediately following a conversion. It could be an order confirmation, a resource download or a signup thank you page.

These pages are often overlooked, including nothing more than a simple thank you, order confirmation number or link to your download. What a waste of real estate.

You’ve paid good money to attract traffic and encourage visitors to convert, so why stop there? By converting, visitors have indicated they’re interested in your offering. They’ve taken a huge step and placed trust in your organization. In turn, build on that trust by giving them something welcomed and unexpected.

What to include on your success page:

• Social profile links, including a “share this page”
• Additional resources (white papers, case studies, etc.)
• Company content (blog, forums, etc)
• Related products or services
• Email newsletter signup
• Coupon code for future purchase

Any of these items would make great secondary calls to action but don’t go overboard and include everything. Just like the landing page, too many options create anxiety, decrease visibility of individual items and result in less completed actions. Pick your most important action(s) and promote those items effectively.

Keep testing

The key to success page marketing is offering something valuable to the visitor. This won’t be the same for all visitors or across all campaigns. Do your homework; find out what resonates with your customers, change offers and test everything.

How about you? What have you promoted on your success pages?

Success Page Marketing is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

Mobile Redirect Options:

1. Redirect to mobile version of website and provide an opt-out to full version of site
2. No redirect and provide an opt-in to mobile version of site
3. Provide an interstitial page asking the visitor what version of the website they want to see

Cookie duration can provide additional customization options.

My Preference for Mobile Redirects

In most cases, I’m a fan of automatically redirecting visitors to the mobile version of the site and providing an opt-out to the full website. I think this provides the best experience (assuming your mobile site has the same functionality as your main website) as it doesn’t force the user to think. Obviously, there may be situations where this isn’t the correct method, but I think for most websites it works best.

The second option (not redirecting users to the mobile site and providing an opt-in) usually gets lost in the details. Often the design of the website causes the opt-in link to be small enough to go unnoticed. And if it does get noticed, the user is forced to reload the page.

The third option (interstitial page) is my least favorite option. It places too much pressure on the user; how should they know what version of your website to use, they haven’t even seen it yet!

Even though I believe one method is better than the rest, any of the three options can provide a good experience if implemented correctly. Unfortunately, since all websites are different, selecting the wrong method for your site can destroy the user experience.

Examples of what not to do

OK! Magazine
OK! Magazine automatically redirects mobile visitors to the mobile site and they also check to see if the content is available via the mobile design – Great!…except, this is where things start to go down hill.

If the content isn’t available, they provide you with an interstitial page that supposedly redirects you to the full version of the site, which would be great except the redirect overrides your ability to access the full version. So clicking the link simply reloads the same 404 page. Boo!

TMZ
TMZ chooses to automatically redirect all mobile users to their homepage. For someone reaching the website through search, this adds zero value as most likely they are interested in a specific page and could care less about the homepage story (Justin Bieber’s alleged baby mama!)

What they should do:
You’ll notice in both examples the website used my preferred method of redirect (automatic), however, it was implemented poorly and therefore ruined the experience. Both sites would have been better off simply loading the full version of the site as the content wasn’t accessible via the mobile design.

Having a mobile site is not enough and handling redirects poorly is worse than not having a mobile site at all.

How Not To Handle Mobile Redirects is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

These tools provide a wealth of information but we also use another great tool. One that’s often overlooked in the SEO world…our eyes.

Usability, Design and Interaction
These 3 items are rarely talked about in search circles since they’re not necessary to have a properly optimized website (or at least they weren’t). However, investing in these elements can deliver tremendous value to the overall site and can actually help strengthen more traditional search metrics.

The Human Test
Search engines are increasingly becoming more human and the Google Panda update is a great example of this. With it’s release, Google was able to take feedback from human quality raters, apply it to their algorithm and scale it on a massive level. All of a sudden Google became a much better judge of website quality.

Measuring a Feeling
Now, you can argue that aspects of usability, design and interaction can be translated into quantifiable metrics like browse rates, facebook likes and so on. It’s true. Our audits include these measurements and more like it, but these numbers provide you with the outcome, not the cause. You need to understand what the data is telling you.

Seeing the whole picture
If you’re not using your eyes and reviewing the website for design, usability and interaction, you are missing a huge aspect of the website and its ability to perform well in organic search. Technical aspects, content and information architecture are all incredibly important, but they’re still only pieces of the puzzle. They don’t tell the whole story.

The time to focus on site design, usability and interaction is now! These elements will only increase in importance as time passes and will separate the sites that attract massive amounts of search traffic and those that do not.

You may also be interested in these articles:
Calculating Website Redesign ROI
Don’t Settle For Bad Web Design
Shame On You Apple

Photo courtesy of Thomas Shahan.

See With Your Eyes, Not With Your Tools is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

The goal of the new design was to increase content consumption, encourage social sharing and maximize profitability of the site through increased ad exposure and affiliate click through rates.

Usability and Wireframing:
To facilitate a smooth design process, Radium developed wireframes for key pages on the website. Click the images below for full size versions of the completed wireframes.

Homepage Wireframe

Single Post Wireframe

Blog Category Index Wireframe

Website Design
The wireframes were brought to life beautifully by the design team at Southern Media. Coding and development was handled by WP Coder.

Homepage Design

Category Icon Design

Email Subscription Design

Comment Design

Logo Design
The old identity just wasn’t cutting it, so a new logo was developed consistent with the color scheme for the new site. The logo was designed by Matt Palmateer.

About Nestlette
Nestlette is a popular women’s lifestyle blog covering the best in beauty, housewares, clothing and so much more. Visit Nestlette.

If you liked this post share it with friends!

A Redesign Fit For A Nestlette is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

The list contains tools for SEO management, paid search (PPC) optimization, usability testing, analytics, email marketing and social media management.

Website Visitor Testing, Usability & Feedback Tools

Userfly
Tags: Usability Testing, User Testing, Recorded User Visits

Userfly provides instantaneous web user studies by recording user visits and letting you play them back to see every mouse movement, click, and form interaction.

Clicktale
Tags: Customer Experience Analysis, In-Page Analytics, Heatmaps

ClickTale focuses on visitor interactions inside web pages, recording everything from mouse moves and clicks to actual keystrokes. This gives a much more thorough, in-depth view into what your visitors are focusing on and interacting with inside the pages themselves.

Crazy Egg
Tags: Heatmaps, Click Tracking

Crazy Egg lets you visualize every click your visitors make. Discover exactly how visitors are using your website – then optimize it to increase your conversion rate.

Landing Page Testing, Multivariate/AB Testing Tools

Unbounce
Tags: Landing Page Software, AB Testing

Unbounce is a self-serve hosted service that provides marketers doing paid search, banner ads, email or social media marketing, the easiest way to create, publish & test promotion specific landing pages without the need for IT or developers.

Visual Website Optimizer
Tags: AB Tests, Split Testing, Multivariate Testing

Visual Website Optimizer is an easy to use A/B testing tool featuring point-and-click test designer and WYSIWYG editor for creating variations. It also dramatically shortens time to go live with your A/B tests because of the innovative “tag-less” integration.

Google Website Optimizer
Tags: Website Optimization, Website Testing

Website Optimizer shows alternative pages at random to your website visitors, then measures which versions lead to the conversions you want.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Software Tools

Seomoz
Tags: SEO Software, Backlink Analysis, SEO Community

SEOmoz PRO combines campaign-based monitoring, actionable recommendations and premium access to the web’s largest SEO community.

Raven
Tags: SEO software, Link Building Software, SEO campaign management

Raven online software system helps customers quickly research, manage, monitor and report on SEO, email, social media and other internet marketing campaigns.

Paid Search Management (PPC) Software

SpyFu
Tags: Competitor Keyword Analysis, Google AdWords Competitive Analysis

SpyFu allows you to enter in any domain and instantly see the Google AdWords keywords and ad copy which that site uses. You can also compare multiple websites and uncover hidden keyword opportunities.

Sem Rush

Tags: Google AdWords Keyword Analysis, Keyword Research

SEMRush is an online tool for Google organic and AdWords competitors keywords research.

Keyword Competitor
Tags: Keyword Research Tool, Competitive Insight

Keyword Competitor is a real-time keyword research and competitor monitoring tool. Real-time means that all the data collected from the Internet is on demand so that you know each keyword and SERPs and ad placement right now.

Website Analytics, Tracking and Data Software

WROI
Tags: PPC Conversion Tracking, Ecommerce Tracking

Track the clicks, leads and sales from all your online advertising in one place. Then, dig deep into each campaign to eliminate the ads, keywords, landing pages and placements that are costing you money without bringing in sales.

KISSinsights
Tags: Survey Tool, Online Surveys, Customer Feedback

KISSinsights gives your customers a way to tell you what they need. Ask a question (or two) and your customers will see it slide up from the bottom right-hand corner of your site.

Compete
Tags: Traffic Analysis, Website Traffic, Engagement Metrics

Monitor and benchmark traffic & engagement metrics on up to 1,000,000 different websites. Use competitive metrics to understand how your competitors are attracting and keeping customers online, and then improve your own on-site performance and marketing channel effectiveness.

Email Marketing Software

Mail Chimp
Tags: Email Marketing, Email List Management, Newsletters

MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use and track your results. It’s like your own personal publishing platform.

Aweber
Tags: Email Marketing Software, Autoresponders,

AWeber’s email marketing tools like professional email signup forms & autoresponder services make it easy for you to build your email list and stay in touch with prospects.

Social Media Monitoring Tools

Radian6
Tags: Social Media Monitoring, Engagement

Radian6 gives you a complete platform to listen, measure and engage with your customers across the entire social web.

Lithium
Tags: Customer Engagement, Social CRM

Lithium engages your social customers (online and mobile) with habit-forming community experiences. We help you find them, find their passions and motivate them to participate so you can all make good things happen for each other.

HootSuite
Tags: Social Media Dashboard, Team Collaboration

HootSuite Social Media Dashboard helps enterprises maximize the reach and efficiency of social media outreach and listening efforts.

Seesmic
Tags: Social Media Tool, Social Services Management

Seesmic is a powerful collection of social management tools that provide businesses and individuals with everything they need to build their brand online. With applications on every platform, Seesmic is the most comprehensive solution on the market.

TweetDeck
Tags: Social Services Management, Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace

TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more.

Miscellaneous Internet Marketing Tools

Hello Bar
Tags: Notification Bar, Header Bar, Toolbar

A simple notification bar for your website that delivers your message and drives more clicks.

If you liked this list please share it with friends!

Toolbox image courtesy of Robert Donovan

The Big List of Internet Marketing Tools is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

Most of the time, this sort of calculation is not done. Either because people believe it is too difficult to accurately calculate or they don’t want to be held accountable for their projections.

Why you should perform ROI calculations

Agency side: This sort of calculation can be extremely valuable during the new business stage. Quantifying the positive return of a website redesign will position your agency as much more than a creative shop.

Client side: Establishing estimates will give you a baseline for the new design and will let you know if the new site is performing better or worse than the existing site design. Not to mention it will get you thinking about additional tweaks and changes to the site post-redesign.

Calculating ROI
The easiest place to start is with actual data. Hopefully, you are accurately tracking website analytics and gathering this information is only a couple clicks away.

Conversion Rate: The number of visitors that reach the website divided by the number of desired actions taken on the site. Ideally, this metric should be specific to individual traffic sources and account for multi-touch attribution.

Monthly Web Traffic: The average number of website visitors. Pay attention to seasonalities and marketing campaigns that can skew these averages.

Close Rate: The number of website leads divided by the number of sales. You can disregard this number if you sell products/services directly through the website. In that case, close rate would equal conversion rate.

Average Sale Price: Your average sale price for an order.

Example website redesign ROI calculation
For illustrative purposes let’s say you are considering a redesign of your website that will cost $25,000.

Current (known) metrics

• Average monthly visits: 10,000
• Average conversion rate (leads): 2%
• Close rate (leads to sales): 30%
• Average order price: $250

Post redesign projections (estimated) metrics

• Projected average monthly visits: 11,000
• Projected average conversion rate (leads): 3%

Traffic increase impact
Due to increased publicity, ease of use and increased sharing among visitors of the site, we forecast the new website to increase overall web traffic by 1,000 visitors or 10%.

Beware of unqualified web traffic!
Sometimes a redesign can cause a huge temporary spike in traffic. Many of these visitors won’t be interested in your offering, they’re merely checking out this new website they’ve heard so much about. When forecasting traffic increases, you may want to be cautious and discount the numbers.

Conversion rate increase impact
An increase in overall conversion rates from 2% – 3% translates into an additional 100 leads per month (10,000 x 3%).

But remember – we are forecasting a 10% increase in traffic. This means the website will actually be generating 330 leads per month (11,000 x 3%). An increase of 130 leads per month or 50% over your existing rate!

Sales Impact
Since you haven’t changed anything in your sales process we don’t expect the close rate to improve. Historically, you have been able to close 30% of incoming leads at an average order price of $250. This means out of the 330 inbound leads, you will close about 99; an increase of 39 orders a month.

An additional 39 sales per month translates into an extra $9,750 in monthly revenue and $117,000 in additional revenue for the first year!

ROI on your website redesign
Assuming ongoing maintenance costs of the website don’t change, the cost of the redesign is fixed at $25,000 (cost of redesign). This means the annualized ROI is 368% (($117,000 – $25,000)/$25,000).

A word of caution
The increased traffic isn’t going to happen overnight, so when forecasting these numbers be sure to factor in the time it takes to realize the increase…it could be a month or two or three.

Analyzing the components and factors
Increasing your conversion rate by 50% or obtaining a 368% ROI on your redesign might sound insane but it shouldn’t.

Many websites do everything in their power to hinder prospective customers from converting. Simply by removing roadblocks, encouraging visitor interaction and focusing attention, you can convert more visitors into leads and more leads into sales.

Questions? Concerns? Tell us in the comments!

Calculating website redesign ROI is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

If you’re still looking for ideas and recommendations it’s not too late. Here are 25 resolutions worth pursuing.

25 internet marketing resolutions for 2011

Social Media Marketing:
1. Define an ROI for your social media efforts
2. Create better (targeted, relevant, exciting) blog content
3. Create higher quality multimedia content
4. Energize your community
5. Take part in a new community or blog

Search Engine Optimization:
6. Ensure everyone touching your website understands SEO
7. Encourage natural links for your website
8. Craft web content with natural search in mind
9. Ensure your site is following on-page SEO best practices
10. Proactively request high quality, relevant backlinks

Paid Search Marketing:
11. Don’t overlook the basics of PPC management
12. Judge performance on conversions, not just CTR’s
13. Improve under performing campaigns or discontinue them
14. Improve (AB test) your ad copy
15. Understand when it’s time to outsource PPC management

Web Analytics
16. Tag everything! Establish proper site wide reporting
17. Set actionable, meaningful web metrics
18. Invest in tools to give you the answers
19. Establish AB or multivariate testing on landing pages
20. Ensure someone is responsible for results

Web design
21. Invest in good great website design
22. Build better performing landing pages
23. Establish ROI projections for new designs
24. Design with different devices (mobile, tablet) in mind
25. Design for your consumers

AND one more because it’s so important…
26. Remember that email marketing is still cool

Photo courtesy of: Bob Jagendorf

25 Internet marketing resolutions is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

Cost – “We don’t have money for a quality design.”
Sorry this isn’t a valid excuse. It’s true, some websites can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars…but most don’t. Most small and medium sized websites can be had for $5,000 – $15,000. Some cost much less but I think the majority would probably fall within that range.

If a few thousand is too much to spend there are thousands of website templates that can be bought and customized for less than a hundred dollars. Sure a template isn’t as good as an original design, but when budgets are extremely tight (or nonexistent) a little bit of customization can go along way.

Nature of the business – “We are in a boring industry, people expect our site to look like this.”
This is easily the most ridiculous excuse. If all of your competitors have crappy websites wouldn’t you want to stand out from them with a great site?

In cases like this the bar is so incredibly low, all you have to do is not suck. Craft a user experience and design that customers don’t expect. Make it easy for them to navigate your site and find what they need. Give them an experience they will remember.

CMS limitations – “Our system can’t do that.”
There is absolutely no reason to be stuck with a content management system that doesn’t deliver what you need. The options are almost endless and prices start at absolutely free. Technology should not be a limitation to good website design.

Are you the cause of bad web design?
Maybe you haven’t been tripped up by the excuses above but somehow you still ended up with a poorly designed website. Could over involvement be the cause?

This is a difficult subject to broach because as an agency you want client involvement. However, it needs to be the right type and level of involvement. Some clients secure a great designer but don’t give them freedom to design the site. They feel the need to make countless edits and revisions for no real reason other than to be involved.

One of the reasons you select an agency or designer is trust. Trust them to build you the site you requested.

But it’s not completely the clients fault. As a designer you need to set expectations and educate clients on your design process. You also need to take their suggestions and determine if they make sense or not.

Your client will have a level of expertise within their industry that you simply can’t match. It’s possible you overlooked something, don’t let your pride get in the way. Design for your target consumer.

Agencies, designers, clients – what reasons for bad web design did we miss? Tell us in the comments!

Don’t settle for bad web design is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

To test this theory and have a little Halloween fun, I decided to see how many advertisers were practicing what I consider to be the 3 basic principles of paid search.

Basic principles of Google AdWords (paid search):

1. Targeted (related) thematic keyword groupings
2. Compelling ad text with relevant keyword inclusion
3. Relevant landing page content

I’m sure we could expand the list to include other basic elements like ad delivery, budgets, conversion tracking, etc. but I feel these 3 items are the basic core to a solid paid search strategy because they drive relevance.

My testing methodology is quite simple; enter in a search phrase and review the first page ads to determine if the advertiser is using relevant ad copy and directing the searcher to the most appropriate page on the site. Keyword groupings are difficult to assume with only a few tests, and, are therefore excluded from this analysis.

Since Halloween is right around the corner I used variations of Halloween costume related search phrases for the analysis.

Test phrase #1 – “womens halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 54% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 54% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #2 – “kids halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 81% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 45% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #3 – “couples halloween costumes”
Results: 8 paid search ads

• 87% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 50% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #4 – “mens halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 54% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 18% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #5 – “boys halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 72% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 27% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #6 – “girls halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 72% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 18% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Total Experiment Results:

• Only 57% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• Only 35% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Obviously this is not a scientific experiment but the results do give us some insight into advertiser behavior. In these particular test results, many advertisers weren’t targeting ad copy to search queries or directing users to the most appropriate page on the site. These two simple changes could dramatically improve results and profitability of the campaigns.

A side note to the findings – many advertisers offer costumes for men, women and kids and as a result most of the advertisers that were following best practices were doing so consistently.

And what would a Halloween post be without a treat? Here’s a homemade candy corn recipe.

Related Posts:
How to Profit from Pirates
Paid Search Cannibalization
Landing Page Review: Major Footwear Brands

AdWords: Back to Basics is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog

Here are 5 default blog settings worth changing.

1. Remove extraneous links
By default most blogs automatically link to categories, tags, comments, post dates and authors. Sometimes these links can be helpful to readers but many times they’re unnecessary and can create duplicate content issues for search engines. Every link on your website should add value for the reader. If you have links that don’t add value, remove them. Your readers will appreciate it and search engines will reward you.

2. Optimize your call to action
It’s very important to consider your call to action (CTA). What action do you want readers to take when visiting your site? Do you want to increase the number of RSS subscribers, get readers to consume more content, sell a product or service? Depending on what your CTA is, you’ll want to ensure your blog promotes this effectively. Review your layout and make sure areas that receive focus are geared toward generating conversions.

3. Change default text
Blogging platforms (WordPress especially) are used for so much more than just blogs that often the default text doesn’t accurately describe your site. If something doesn’t fit your site, change it. Buffalo Restaurants does a great job of using WordPress as a local restaurant review site. Notice that any reference to ‘comments’ has been replaced with ‘reviews’ to better fit the site.

4. Customize plugins
Plugins are an easy way to add functionality to your blog and can save a ton of programming time. However, that doesn’t mean you need to accept their default design and functionality. The plugins you select, should blend in with the look and feel of your website, and act the way you want them to. If you’re not a designer or programmer you may need some assistance with this step but it’s well worth the investment.

5. Change your Gravatar
Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. They are a great way to make your site more approachable and increase interaction among readers. Therefore make sure the authors of your blog take the time to set a relevant image. I lean toward using a personal photo of the author but a logo or unique design will also work.

Do you have any additional suggestions for simple blog tweaks? Let us know in the comments.

Related Posts:
Is social media the great leveler?
Alternatives to blogging
Do you have time for social media?

5 blog settings you need to change is a post from: Radium
Check out more articles on our Search and Social Media Blog