Holiday shopping & Website Optimization

Website optimization has popped into my mind the past few days. With my desire to avoid department stores like the plague. I find myself in new territory...shopping exclusively online : 0

So I've been searching for local Austin artwork. Several local hippie artist (my favorite type of artist) are going cyber and using websites to showcase their work. I've been searching art shows, art viewings, new art Austin. You name it I've been searching it online.

I've also wanted to purchase gift certificates to local Austin business, as I continue to want to support the little guy. Overall I'm getting good results. But find the need to make suggestions to some sites that are obviously new at the whole "internet thing" or at least I hope that's the case. One is I find some sites hard to maneuver. Where are prices and locations? I had a hard time downloading pictures of art pieces. Some sites download time was just to long or the pictures were labeled "Coming soon." One site just had its name and then said "site coming soon." Well it's after Thanksgiving you may want to come sooner. Overall I was impressed in how much thought local Austin businesses were getting their name and brand out.

Website optimization Austin may be a great place for local and not-so-local businesses to start.

Can I benefit from marketing through email?

My experience has been email marketing doesn't work at least for me. I get a bunch of annoying emails that I barely look at unless the topic catches my eye. But I notice that there are emails I get where I follow, read, and click on the link and buy. So I thought I want potential consumers I email to do that.

So I began a quest to see if there are those out there in web-world that still feel that this form of marketing can help my business but more importantly for me get the word out about my website.

Just as I learned when working on landing page optimization for my website, my emails need to include information that is relevant to potential consumers. I have a short period of time to catch their attention. Sending them a bunch of wordy hard to decipher irrelevant information (spam) isn't productive and can be annoying to potential consumer. My goal is to get people to check out my website not delete my email before opening it. So living in Austin Texas I've been doing some searching on the internet for Austin Landing Page Optimization and Austin Website Optimization.

So here is what I gathered in my quest for emailing in today's market:
-I'm able to target a specific population
-I'm able to develop and build relationships & trust with consumers
-Still a cost effective marketing tool
-Some suggest sending out articles on topics so I can discuss, educate, and inform

Just like creating and designing my landing page I find I need to focus on crafting the right message. But specifically for email marketing I want to make sure I'm emailing to people that want to hear from me. Although I find blogging has helped me develop relationships with potential consumers and has build trust with people who wouldn't typically give my website the time of day, I want to find more ways to get my product name out there. Email marketing might be the key for me.

I have found that weekly blogs that discuss innovative ways to market has been help and a great way to interact with like minded indivuals. Try Landing Page Optimization Austin Blog.

How the Austin music scene got me to question, "Can blogging help increase website traffic?"

I often find myself spending time reading others blogs. One of my favorites are music blogs. Living in Austin, Texas I have a great appreciation for live music venues. I have found some of my favorite lesser known bands by doing blog searches on eclectic music and small venues to visit in Austin. I got exciting about supporting new alternative bands in the Austin area and found that several musicians use blogs to get the word out about the type of music they were writing, the background of their songs and band members, and where they would be playing next. I also noticed the high volumes of followers (traffic) to their site by people that were just doing some internet searches and they would stop and post comments about how they loved the blog and the music.

This is why I love blogging when it comes to running a business. The consumer gets an opportunity to actually hear from a CEO, president, or maker/inventor of a product or service they may be interested in and read about their opinions and thoughts about things that matter to them.

The cool thing about blogs is that when utilizing a search engine with keywords of my choice I found I got results for several blogs that discuss topics I want to read about. This is what I call Austin search engine optimization that works.

More traffic doesn't always mean more sales/profit but it can potentially increase traffic with people who would otherwise not visit your site. So, although long, the answer is YES blogging can help increase website traffic if you pay attention to a few key things that I found while searching tips for search engine optimization (SEO):

1. Having timely posting
2. Having key works in my blog, blog title, and tags that help navigate potential consumers to my site.
3. Updating my blog to ensure I stay in touch with the public.

Search engine optimization continues to be a top priority for any serious business owner. But I find getting your site out there and making it more accessible is just as important. For an example on how blogging can attract search engine traffic check out an Austin search engine optimization blog.

Thoughts about landing page optimization

The decision to innovate your webpage is one of the most important decision you will make to market your business.

The main goal of a website is to either educate, entertain, inform, attend an event, buy, or donate.

My goal is to learn how to convert a potentially interested person into a consumer. This being said I'm learning that the information that is posted on my website is vital.

When planning to start a website a lot of thought goes into the landing page. I had to do a lot of research to truly understand what it meant to optimize my website's landing page. It wasn't till I read about how you have 8 seconds to grab a person's attention when they visit your site. It's that 8 second rule that helps me make decisions about how the information on my site will be relevant and fresh.

I have found that there are simple things such as font size, color choices, and even using white space that can have a profound effect on how a landing page can be more effective.

One things I've learned after doing some research landing page optimization involves more than I thought.

See Landing Page Optimization Austin for more information.

What I've learned about optimizing my landing page

Landing Page is where users end up after they click search engine results.

The decision to innovate your web page is one of the most important decision you will make to market your business.

The main goal of a website is to either educate, entertain, inform, attend an event, buy, or donate. My goal is to learn how to convert a potentially interested person into a consumer. This being said I'm learning that the information that is posted on my website is vital.

I have learned a few tips after doing extensive searches on optimizing my landing page and drawing business to my website.

1. Using social media like blogs are a great way to get people to connect with you and others about the type of service and/or product you provide (see link for example below)

2. Make sure visitors aren't waiting long for a page to load. A slow loading page can mean a potential consumer moving on to competitor with a faster load time.

3. I always thought a lot of choices was good on a website. When really it can be a bit overwhelming and take away from the action(s) you want a potential consumer to take.

These are just a few ideas I learned. I plan to continue to educate myself more on landing page optimization.

I visited a web site out of Austin Texas that used social media as a vehicle to educate others about landing page optimization in Austin, Texas and search engine optimization. It was a good example of how blogging can be used not just as a marketing tool but as a way to educate and connect with others.

Visit JCJ Interactive for Austin landing page optimization.