It is important for webmasters to avoid coming across as merely sales pages that are after internet users’ money. While people log on the internet to make purchases, their mindset isn’t “to spend money” but to “find a product, service or information that will help make their lives easier or better”. It is important for internet marketers to realize this. Consequently website owners should their web pages in such a way that their offer meets a legitimate need or desire for their target market. Visitors who feel like they are getting important and valuable information from a particular website will be more willing to make a purchase if they do not feel like someone is simply after their wallets.

It is important to provide content over and beyond the sales pitch. Doing so will helps webmaster position their website as a valuable and expert resource and sell more products. However, since the purpose is not to simply provide content but to make money it is very important that the sales material (advertisments) are seamlessely integrated into the web design. While advertisements need to be placed in a prominent place, they should blend into one’s website. The first thing that should catch a reader’s eye is the content and not a bunch of advertisement. There are various ways to integrate marketing information without turning off your customer.

Writing reviews on products that a webmaster is an affiliate or that they own is one way to create text and advertisements. It is to be sure that these reviews are balanced. Marketers should say something both positive and negative about the product and do their best to turn those negatives into positives whenever they can. Often times, people get on the internet to learn more about a particular product or service before they purchase it. Therefore, they are very interested in reviews and what other people have to say about that product or service. This gives marketers a great opportunity to earn the trust of their visitors and make a sale. However, it is important to be honest. If a webmaster gives a glowing report about a certain product and it turns out to be great, they will automatically be deemed as legitimate. On the flip side, if they endorse a sub-standard product, they will likely lose readers and their reputation will take a hit.

Banners are another very good way to incorporate sales material into one’s web design. Professional banners can be created very inexpensively. There are many good web designers on popular internet marketing forums that will create banners at affordable prices. Banners are a great way to promote a product without shoving it down people’s throats. If the banner is attractive, it will work as a design asset.

Text links are another advertising option.. These are simply short blurbs that promote a product. Webmasters can link them directly to the product’s sales page or to an internal page where a review is written about the product. Text links can also be embedded into a website’s content. It is important that it naturally. If is does, web visitors may not even be aware that they are being pitched to.

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Identical content is a problem for websites. Sometimes you will have it even if you don’t intend to. Unless the the website is static, there is a chance that a Google bot will find another way to get to a page and will label it as “identical content”.

A useful tool like site search can sometimes be a contender that will turn a page into identical content nightmare. When a link from the homepage or s sidebar links to a page is usually looks like this:

<a href=”page.php”>Anchor Text</a>

When a search results page links to that same page, because of referrer tracking, the link might look like something like this:

<a href=”page.php?ref=search”>Anchor Text</a>

If coming from a categories page the link might contain the category name variable in it, like this:

<a href=”page.php?cat=category-name”>Anchor Text</a>

If the website keeps track of session and needs to pass that via URL that will make another version of the same link:

<a href=”page.php?ses=0123″>Anchor Text</a>

Now Google bot is confused… 4 different versions of the same page… how will it choose which one to label as original and which are duplicate content?

On Thursday, Feb. 12th, Google released a new “rel-ement” that we can use in the link tags. It is rel=canonical. We would need to add this element to the link where we use the URL that we want to be labeled “original”. So our new link will look like this:

<a href=”page.php” rel=”canonical”>Anchor Text</a>

You can read more about this on the Official Google blog.

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While there are not very many people that get lost on the net and end up on a page that does not exist, there are still ones that do. What happens when they arrive to one of these pages? The visitor will either hit the back button to return to where they came from or they will hit their browser’s home page button, either way they end up leaving your website.

There are ways to improve the bounce rate if a site simply by optimizing the error pages. Instead of saying “Oops… Page does not exist.” you can say “Oops, the page you were trying to reach is not here but please take a look at other information that might interest you” and have a category or article list below. Instead of leaving right away, your visitor will have something to look and click on instead of just an error page.

 Here is the list of 26 of some of the popular websites’ error pages.

WhiteHouse.gov
We’ll start with the WhiteHouse.gov. It has a nice, clean error page with information on how to procede.

Amazon.com
This one is pretty basic and with the amount of business, visitors and items they sell, I think they could have done a lot better. It would also probably raise their sales.

Ask.com
Same for Ask.com, this page could have been more. They could have a few recommended categories or even ads or something to click on.

BlueFly.com
I can see that they put a little more effort into this one. At least there is a suggestion to go to the homepage.

BarnesAndNoble.com
Wow, Barnes & Noble really surprised me with this one. Nothing… Not even a logo.

Compete.com
Compete.com has a good error page but just like the others, it could be more.

CopyBlogger.com
Here is a good error page. This being a blog, it is surrounded by sidebars, which give plenty to click on. Also the text of the page suggests next moves for the visitor.

DanZarrella.com
Dan’s site just sends you to the homepage instead of showing an error page. This is actually pretty clever. The user will never know that the page could not be found, unless of course they were looking for something specific.

Ebay.com
Nice and full error page here. Lots of clicking choices.

FaceBook.com
Very basic… Could be more I think.

Google.com
Not very

impressive. Could add an arrow and say “Try again” or something. I doubt anyone would mind with Google though.

LinkedIn.com
This is a nice error page. It even asks “Are you looking for any of these LinkedIn features?”.

MSN.com
See? Google and others could have done this too. MSN did a good job on their error page.

NeimanMarcus.com
Yaa, not good. If not for any other type of site but for eCommerce online retailer, a full, optimized error page is a must.

NewEgg.com
Just like this … very good error page.

Ovestock.com
And this one too. Very good error page.

ProBlogger.com
Darren knows…,  good error page.

SEObook.com
Aaron has his error page just forward to this sales page. Why not? Perfect!

SEOmoz.org
Good error page on Rand’s SEOmoz too. Suggested links on the page.

ShoeMoney.com
Jeremy’s blog suggests to try to search for something else. This is also a good way to keep a visitor on the site.

SmashingMagazine.com
Another good error page. Google Ads and all.

Techipedia.com
Tamar’s error page is loaded with choices. Good one.

Twitter.com
Lol, does Twitter even need one? I guess it does, if user’s account no longer exists. This should probably do OK, but more choices is better. 

WebDesignIdeas.org
I of course followed suit and had mine done with a list of most popular an recent posts.

Yahoo.com
Yahoo’s error page is good but I really liked what MSN did on theirs.

More Error 404 Resources From the blogosphere:

SmashingMagazine: Wanted: Your 404 Error Pages
SmashingMagazine: 404 Error Pages: Reloaded
Francesco Mugnai: The 100 most funny and unusual 404 error pages
DzineBlog: 36 Cool Custom 404 Error Pages
HongKiat: 49 Nice And Creative Error 404 Pages
404ErrorPages: 404 Error Pages
SEOmoz: Get Creative With Your 404 Error Pages

So… have you even taken a look at your Error 404 page? I think you should. It will be a good investment in the long run.

Share with us your thoughts on error pages.

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CushyCMS is a mini CMS solution for the clients that have a simple website and want an easy way to edit content on the site. Installing WordPress or even Joomla makes no sense for a small simple site and building a CMS from scratch is also too much effort for a small site. This CushyCMS lets you setup and edit almost any part of a website with very little effort. Check out the video on the website for a quick tour.

You can also read more about it on Vandelay Design Blog where they posted a nice Cushy CMS Tutorial.

Go to CushyCMS.com

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In another one of our articles we discussed the importance of Using Social Media to Increase Traffic on Your Website. One of the items that we briefly discussed was using video clips to promote your website, services, or products. With the explosive popularity of sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, and Yahoo Video, it’s time to embrace video and make it work on behalf of your company and your website!

Online video marketing surged in 2007 and is projected to grow even larger. Marketing Vox, a leading online marketing news site anticipates that around $2.9 billion will be spent on online video advertising by 2010. With online video becoming such a major marketing player, it’s an important advertising genre to consider embracing.

Here are a few basic concepts to keep in mind when considering the use of online video to promote your website, company, products, or services.

1. If you’re going to create video to showcase a product, your services, or just introduce your business…it has to be creative and compelling. Your video needs to spark some type of emotion from the viewer. Whether it’s humorous, intriguing, or somewhat controversial, you need this “hook” to create a clip that people will want to see and recommend to others to watch. The hook is at the core of any good viral campaign. Get creative and come up with a catchy plan!
    
2. Online video offers another outlet to showcase your brand. Make sure that you include your site logo or company logo on any streaming video that is released. If you create and submit video to video sharing websites or other channels, then using branded video clips will further increase your website and company exposure to potential customers.
    
3. Testimonials. These are incredibly popular and important. Again, they need to be genuine and not manufactured. By having real customers discuss why they chose your products or services and how it has been beneficial to them displays a great deal of credibility for your company. These are the videos that you will definitely want to promote on multiple social media sites!
    
4. Be genuine and real. If you are going to create a video about your company…film your real employees, in your office, doing real work. Don’t “manufacture” a video that is fake and staged. People will see right through it.
    
5. Use video as a platform for your products. Show people how they work. Detail how and why your product is superior to competitors and why people should purchase your products. Highlight the benefits that customers will receive by purchasing your products.
    
6. If your business is service oriented, then show viewers how your services are performed. Explain to them what makes your services superior to competitors. Tell them why they should call or email you to procure your services.
    
7. Webinars (Web Seminars). These are what I like to tag as “stage 2” videos. These are training videos that primarily work best for websites who sell products. These webinars should be created to train your customers on how to properly use your products. Most of the time, this type of video will be much more detailed and involved. However, they are extremely important as well. When a potential customer wants to purchase a product, yet they are unfamiliar on how to effectively use it, they will be reassured to know that you have online videos available to them for additional training.

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list by any stretch. However, it’s mean to compel you to think about the myriad of ways that online video can be beneficial to your company and website. With the constant expansion of Internet users each year, creative marketing is going to always be needed in order to succeed in the World Wide Web. Online video is emerging as one of the best and most effective ways to reach potential customers. So…grab on to it and use it creatively!

Here’s a good detailed YouTube suggestions on how to use video.

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