• Ecommerce sites have an average cart abandonment rate of 55% to 75%
• The average online checkout process includes 5.6 pages
• 40% of shoppers are hesitant to create an account because they expect to receive spam

What surprises you?

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<a href="http://www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2013/06/how-to-use-conversion-optimization-to-battle-shopping-cart-abandonment-an-infographic"><img alt="Conversion Voodoo – Shopping Cart Abandonment" src="http://d393l9f30gx0gj.cloudfront.net/ShoppingCartInfographic.png" style="width:580px" /></a><br/>Infographic by <a href="http://www.conversionvoodoo.com">Conversion Voodoo</a> – Performance based landing page optimization.

By Jon Correll

The sites mentioned below are all great sites. We do not mean to call them out; they just had the awesome luck of being the first ones we saw that made the mistakes we wanted to point out. Remember, these mistakes are common throughout landing page content creation. We are not bashing these sites – they excel in many areas, however, they could use improvements in the areas mentioned.

Mistake #1 – Not Actually Writing Content

There is something to be said about mystery. However, when you have a landing page, you want your potential customers or clients to actually understand what you are all about. Sure, videos are great, but having quality text on your landing page is crucial. Swagbucks, for example has a one minute video, a registration, and that’s about it. There’s a little bit of text here and there, but there is nothing to really tell you what the site is or how it works.

Mistake #2 – Putting the Real Information Under the Fold

Ok, so you have written the content you need, now you have your landing page up. However, you simply do not have it formatted well. You need to make sure that information is above the fold. Everything that gets the customer interested needs to be immediately visible, before they have to scroll. Vantage Point has a variety of great services that they offer, but you don’t see that until you scroll down the page.

Mistake #3 – Having the Same Content as Everyone Else

Have you ever done a search for weight loss pills and opened the first five or so links? Go ahead, we’ll wait. You will find almost the same content on all of them, even though they are landing pages for different websites. Though most of them have different text, which is great, they all use the same images or videos. And even when the text is different, it is almost always very similar. When you are researching how to write your landing page, you are likely to write it how you see others in your industry write. This will make you forgettable.

Mistake #4 – Using Too Many Colors, Fonts, Etc.

Simply put, too many colors, styles, and fonts get distracting and confusing. Take a look at the image above. There are upwards of five image styles and eight colors. That’s if you don’t include the gradient on the page title. This is really distracting and will pull potential customers away from the focus of your site.

Mistake #5 – Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization Mistakes

You are great at what you do. That means you will put the passion needed into your landing page. However, without having a professional go over your landing page, there are likely to be a slew of errors. In the image above there are spelling errors, punctuation errors, and capitalization problems.

When you want your website to stand out, make sure you don’t write your own landing page. Get an objective eye that knows how to market your site to give you a hand.

By Jon Correll

We all hate pop-ups, right? Well, technically yes. In most studies, 90-95% of respondents claim to hate pop-ups. So, if this is true, why are they still used all over the internet? The honest truth of the matter is that they are used because, as much as people hate them, they respond to them. Many website owners have seen an increase in sales as much as 40% after adding pop-ups. However, you need to be careful and use un-annoying tactics when integrating pop-ups in your site.

As always, be sure to test your popup, as these are general guidelines and may not be the best for your traffic. Consult our Opt-in Email Newsletter Popup Best Practices for more inspiration on what to test.

Only Have Sales or Email Capture Pop-Ups Show for Visitors Once

If you want visitors to return to your site often, make sure they are not constantly seeing your pop-up. If they don’t give you their email address right away, it’s not likely they will want to the fifteenth time they come to your site. Especially not through a pop-up. So, put a cookie on the site to track visitors and only show the pop-up to new visitors.

Consider Delayed Pop-Ups

Image via Flickr by zimpenfish

Not all pop-ups are necessary as soon as a page loads. Consider a delayed pop-up for your site. There are a variety of options for this, including pop-ups that only show on scroll, on click, or after a certain amount of time on the site.

Use Small Pop-Ups

Imagine this – you are on a website, reading along, and all of a sudden something blocks what you were reading. It’s a little jarring, isn’t it? Though it is likely to get a visitor’s attention, it is also very annoying. However, if you use smaller pop-ups, they are less likely to be ignored than those that grab the attention in an irritating way.

Pop-Ups can be Used for More Than Email Capture and Sales

Image via Flickr by Rob Enslin

Did you know that you can use a pop-up for more than simply getting email addresses or trying to sell something? Many websites now use prompted customer support chats. A pop-up will ask the visitors if they would like to speak with a customer service representative. If they click “Yes,” it will connect automatically with the website chat. This is a great way to make sure that visitors get great service. Comments, information for the customer, and more can be put in pop-ups.

Respect When a Visitor Says No

More and more websites today are not respecting their visitors when they simply don’t want to deal with the pop-ups. If visitors to your site click to close, they do not want to see the pop-up. They do not want to enter their email addresses there. Accept this. Do not then have another pop-up that asks if they are sure. This is one of the most irritating trends in website pop-ups. If your goal is to be un-annoying, stay as far away from this trend as possible.

Even though we all profess to hate pop-ups, they are working. Each type of pop-up, however, works in different situations. It is important to do testing on your site to find out if your pop ups work and if so, what options are best for you.

By Jon Correll

First Impressions are Everything

Image via Flickr by wetwebwork

Have you ever been set up on a blind date? You open the door and take a look at the other person for the first time. What do you see? Unfortunately what you see first is what is going to stick in your mind for the rest of the date, and probably for a long time afterward. First impressions are crucial. You don’t want to assault the visitors to your site with painfully bright color schemes and outdated gifs. Don’t be the guy that shows up with overly greased hair and a Hawaiian shirt to go to a fancy restaurant.

Don’t Say Something Stupid

Sticking your foot in your mouth when you are with your friends is bad enough. When you are on a first date, or when you say the wrong thing on your landing page, that can be the end of it all. Your date – or your visitors – will walk away, and you will never hear from them again. Of course, exactly what the wrong thing is depends on the person. That is the tricky part about this one. You can’t please everyone all the time. Anything you say could probably offend someone. However, it’s important to try to be as polite as possible.

Getting Too Personal is a Turn-Off

Asking questions is good. Getting to know someone is great. But asking too many questions is a little nerve-wracking. Especially if you are throwing questions at the other person without offering any information about yourself. And when the questions get extremely personal, it’s even worse. Make sure to be subtle about the questions you ask on your landing page. If you wouldn’t ask it on a first date, don’t ask it on a landing page.

Falling Asleep is the Sign of a Bad Date

Image via Flickr by Ed Yourdon

You don’t want your date to fall asleep in the middle of dinner, right? If your landing page is boring, it is just as bad. People don’t want to sit and read through extremely boring walls of text. They want something that will keep them interested. Spice things up, and you might just keep the other party interested enough for another go-around.

Honesty Pays Off

Image via Flickr by Genista

Have you ever met someone who you could tell was a complete liar? People are good at sniffing out lies, whether on a first date or on a landing page. Be honest. You are more likely to make a good impression this way. People will trust you and be more likely to want to know more. From making up stats to fibbing about your past, lying is going to just make you look like scum.

First dates and landing pages, who knew they were so similar?

By Jon Correll

Stay Calm with Blue

Image via Flickr by stevendepolo

Blue has long been seen as a calm, cool color. In web design it also shows that you are trustworthy. There are a variety of major companies that use cool shades of blue to help portray this in their branding. Take Microsoft for example. Blue works great with any number of products and industries.

Grab Attention with Yellow

Image via Flickr by Upupa4me

Yellow is a bright color that is going to grab your visitors’ attention. In color theory, it is seen as a youthful color that is associated with creativity. Yellow is rarely used as the main color on a site because of how jarring it can be, unless it is a very subdued shade. Instead, it is used as a highlighting color. Frequently, yellow is used on creative sites, such as ones for bands, writers, or artists.

Get Back to Nature with Green

Image via Flickr by Walt Stoneburner

Green is a very natural color. Depending on the shade of green used, there is different symbolism. However, in general, it is a color of safety. In addition, when we see green we think of money. Like blue, green is seen as a calming color. It is used in many different natural products, grocery stores, and herbal supplements.

Exude Sophistication with Black

Image via Flickr by Axion23

Black is the new… well, black. This is a color that never goes out of style, especially in web design. It is seen as a color of sophistication. It can easily be overused; however, in the right amount, it is a very sleek color that looks great with everything.

Get Excited with Red

Image via Flickr by Hammer51012

Red can mean a variety of things; however, all of them involve getting riled up. Red can mean danger, excitement, love, or even stop. Red can be good or bad, though in most web designs it is seen as a negative. Red is used as a stop most often in design. Make sure you are very careful about how you use red in your design, or you may evoke the wrong emotions.

Create and Calm with Purple

Image via Flickr by matthewvenn

Purple has traditionally been seen as a royal color. However, it is also seen as a very creative color. Since it is a cool color, it is calming. Many brands use shades of purple to help evoke calm creativeness, and even feelings of wealth, hearkening back to the old view of purple being a royal color.

Invoke Action with Orange

Image via Flickr by anantal

Orange is an action color. It is vibrant and gets people ready to go. The color has long been associated with warmth and passion. When you want to add in an accent color that gets people ready to buy, orange is a great option.

Consider your colors

Color is important to web design. The colors you choose should look good together, but they should also evoke the right emotions. Keep in mind that these are general guidelines, but each website and customer set is different. We always recommend testing any color changes you perform on your design.

By Jon Correll

Google Considers Responsive Web Design Best Industry Practice

Image via Flickr by Robert Scoble

When talking about Search Engine Optimization, it’s important to know and follow what Google says is in. It has the largest market share of the search engines, so basically, what it says goes. Recently, Google has stated that responsive web design is the industry best practice. This means that if you have both a regular website and a mobile version, you may end up being ranked lower than someone who has a responsive design.

Usable Sites Rank Better – And Recognizable Sites are More Usable

Image via Flickr by axbom

One of the biggest things in SEO is that a site needs to be usable. The more informative and usable a site is, the more likely it is to rank well. Unfortunately, many sites that are designed to be mobile sites are not as user-friendly as their normal counterpart. This can be confusing and frustrating to the users. With responsive design, however, the same elements are on the page; they are just in a slightly different spot. Because of this, users are more likely to stay on the page, showing the search engines that it is something useful.

Only Build Your Links Once

Have you ever tried to build links to multiple websites that are really the same site? It’s a pain in the butt. If you want both your mobile site and your main site to have good links, you need to go through this process. When you have a site with responsive design, you only have to go through this hassle once. All the link building that you do for your main site also translates to links for your mobile site, as it is the same thing. This helps your SEO significantly.

Make Your Keyword Marketing Easier

Image via Flickr by Jeff McNeill

Are you running keyword campaigns for both your main site and the mobile version? Not only are you paying twice for essentially the same content, you also have to manage each campaign. This can be frustrating for you, as well as time consuming. With a site that uses responsive design, you can include mobile-based keywords, which means you will have to deal with fewer keyword marketing campaigns.

Future Updating Becomes Much Quicker

When you have a mobile site that is completely separate from your main site, you will have to update each one separately. This is not only annoying, it can lead to mistakes that can seriously mess with your SEO. However, when you only have to update in one place, you are less likely to make significant mistakes.

There are a lot of reasons that responsive web design is the big buzz word today. Some sites tend to fit a responsive model better than others – and it’s not for everyone – but make sure you at least consider the pros and cons of a responsive site.

By Jon Correll

Emphasize Important Elements

Image via Flickr by Johnny does

What is the most important thing on your landing page? Is it the text, the images, or something a little more specific? No matter what is most important, make sure that it is surrounded by white space. This will help emphasize that this is an important element. If you have an image that is extremely important, don’t make the image larger; instead, increase the white space around it to emphasize the importance.

Draw the Eye

Image via Flickr by Nanagyei

You know exactly what order you want customers to look at things when they come to your site. Help draw the eye exactly where you want it with the use of white space. The human eye is drawn to white space and what it surrounds. You can guide a customer’s eyes simply by increasing or decreasing the amount of white space around specific elements of your site. This can help you guide the eye exactly where you want it to go.

Scanning is Necessary

Image via Flickr by Jayel Aheram

When you go to a website, do you look over every piece carefully before deciding if you are going to stay on the site or not? Most people don’t. We are impatient creatures and you can see this best online. A potential customer will look at your site and will leave if they don’t find what they want in a very short amount of time. Making your site easy to scan is crucial to retain visitors.

Get Rid of Confusion

Image via Flickr by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

When you have too much information crammed on your site, it is going to get confusing. No one likes to feel confused and if you have too much in a small space, your customers are likely to leave. Help your customers better understand your website, your goals, and all the information they need by getting rid of clutter. Cut down on unnecessary information, and make sure that text boxes, images, etc. all have enough white space to become easy to view and understand.

Set the Tone

Image via Flickr by Ken_ts

What do you want to say with your website? Did you know that you can set the tone of your site with proper white space? You can show information, lightheartedness, business, casual, and more all with the way you use white space in your design. Openness, freshness, and airiness are frequently the ideas when a lot of white space is used. With little white space, the entire design feels more cramped and closed off.

Many new designers are scared of using white space. However, if you want your site to look professional and get good traffic, it is important to make sure you incorporate white space in your design. Keep your customers comfortable and on your site with a great design.

By Jon Correll

Social Media Bumps up Your SEO

Image via Flickr by Jason A. Howie

Riddle me this – What do social media and search engines have in common? Answer – They both love fresh, new, relevant content. Because of this, they are working hand-in-hand today. Realistically, if you have a crappy social media presence, or none at all, you are likely to rank lower in the search engines. Maybe it sucks (depends on your opinion of social media), but that’s the way the world, and SEO, is going. The more social, the better.

Show Your Customers a Human Side

Image via Flickr by BadgerGravling

Depending on what your company sells, your customers may never really see a human side to your business. Even if they do, sometimes it just all seems so… robotic. Have you ever called in to customer service and felt like you were being given the run-around, or the agent was reading from a script? Of course you have. However, with a good social media presence, you can show your customers and the world a different side of your company, a more real side.

Better Lead Generation

Unless you live under a rock, you have heard and seen memes go viral. Posts go public, and sometimes it’s insane how quickly word gets around about what is happening with a company. This can be great for a company. Even if your company doesn’t have something that goes quite as viral as the all-famous Rickroll, if you have something that is good quality, it will be shared by your customers. When someone shares something on Facebook, it opens your company up to customers that you simply would not have had before. Because your company was put in front of these people by someone they know and trust, they are more likely to work with you as well.

What Happens if I Decide I Don’t Like Social Media?

Let’s say that you like living under your rock. You decide that social media, for some reason, isn’t the direction that you want your company to go. What are the consequences of that decision?

• Your company will fall behind the curve when it comes to marketing
• Your company will fall behind on SEO
• Customer satisfaction may drop
• The world will end
• We were kidding about the world ending…we promise

So, realistically, not adding social media to your website is not the absolute worst thing possible. However, knowingly putting yourself behind in the marketing world is not the smartest idea. If you want to make money with your company, the best things to do are to stay as far ahead in marketing as possible and make your customers happy. So, start up your social media marketing now!

By Jon Correll

Text Needs to be Readable

Image via Flickr by scriptingnews

Have you ever visited a website on your phone, only to realize that you can’t actually read what’s there? It’s irritating. Not only do you have to zoom into what you are trying to read, you then need to move the page all over the place, back and forth, to continue reading the page. It’s almost not worth the effort. As a website owner, you need to make sure that your landing page for mobile devices is easily readable on the smaller screens.

Pull Focus Correctly

Where do you want visitors to focus? Again, the smaller screen size is going to cause problems if you don’t have a separate landing page. On a computer, you can easily draw focus where you want it to be. However, translating that exact same page to a website means that not everything is going to show up immediately. When you create a new landing page, you are able to ensure that visitors see what you want them to see immediately.

Loading Times are Different on a Phone

Image via Flickr by dpstyles™

Does your landing page have a lot of images? If so, it is going to take a lot longer to load on a mobile device than on a computer. This can frustrate the customers, leading them to leave your page before it has fully loaded. If you want them to stay on your page, you need to make sure it loads quickly. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should get rid of all graphic elements, but you do need to be careful about the graphics used.

Have a Simple, Direct Call to Action

On your computer landing page, you will probably have multiple places where you have a call to action. These may be varying lengths and even varying complexities. However, on a mobile page, your call to action needs to be simple and direct. Make sure your customers know and understand the call to action.

Location, Location, Location

Image via Flickr by Daniel Milford Flathagen

With geo-location as well as location-based keywords, you can market to specific areas. This is perfect if your business is location-based. Having a specific mobile-based landing page can help you get local customers, and even get them in to your business. When they do a search from their phones for local businesses and find yours, you can even integrate Google maps directions to get them right to your office.

With so many people headed online from their phones, it’s important to take advantage of the extra business you could get. No one likes to have to spend extra time trying to navigate your site, simply to read what is there. Make it easy on your visitors.

By Jon Correll

Product Information Pages

Image via Flickr by Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta

This includes comparison sites, tech information, and more.

• Minimum Bounce Rate – 3.24%
• Maximum Bounce Rate – 50%
• Average Bounce Rate – 33.03%

Have you ever looked for information on a product? There is a lot of information on these sites, and because of that the bounce rate tends to be significantly lower than other types of websites. Comparison charts and interesting information, as well as tips and tricks, will keep people interested and your bounce rate down.

Lead Generation Sites

Image via Flickr by FunnyBiz

This includes email grabbers, sales leads, quote sites, and more.

• Minimum Bounce Rate – 5.24%
• Maximum Bounce Rate – 81%
• Average Bounce Rate – 47.38%

The amount of information to read leads potential leads to read the page long enough that it does not count as a bounce when they leave the site. One way to help decrease your bounce rate is to make sure your information is interesting and informative.

Web Stores and E-Commerce Sites

Image via Flickr by decodrama visual

This includes any website selling a product or service.

• Minimum Bounce Rate – 14.3%
• Maximum Bounce Rate – 68%
• Average Bounce Rate – 33.9%

Have you ever gone to a website looking for a product, not found what you wanted right away, and left? That is how the bounce rate increases. To lower the bounce rate on your e-commerce site, try adding product descriptions with a lot of information to keep the customer on the page.

News and Media Sites

Image via Flickr by Andrew

This includes websites that have an affiliate news station and those simply reporting news online.

• Minimum Bounce Rate – 25%
• Maximum Bounce Rate – 81.4%
• Average Bounce Rate – 55.56%

So, why do news and media sites have such high bounce rates? Many people will take a look at the headlines, decide they don’t want or need to look any further, and leave the page. To lower the bounce rates on these pages, you need to ensure that your headlines are interesting and will pull the reader into the story.

Other Types of Sites

There are a lot of websites out there, and because of that, many industries get lumped together. Other industries combined have interesting bounce rates.

• Minimum Bounce Rate – 13%
• Maximum Bounce Rate – 85%
• Average Bounce Rate – 41.13%

Because of the broadness of this category, it is understandable why the numbers vary so much. One basic thing that can be done to improve the bounce rate is to make information more appealing to keep people on the site longer. Better images, higher quality content, and interesting information will keep people from bouncing off a site as soon as they get there.

So, what is the biggest take-away from all of this information? If you own a website, you need to make sure you content is interesting and quality. People are going to stay longer if they are actually interested in what they see.

By Jon Correll