Portuguese ranks among the top 10 languages in the world. The two main Portuguese-speaking countries are Brazil and, of course, Portugal. While Portugal plays a major role Europe, Brazil does the same in the Western Hemisphere as it is also the largest and most populous country in South America. With such a large population, Brazil also has its share of regional search engines. While there are many, here are a few of the more popular ones.
Google Brazil (http://Google.co.br). Just like the American Google, the Brazilian regional counterpart is the most popular search engine in this country. Google’s version of social networking, Orkut, is reported to be very popular in Brazil. You can submit the URL to your main page in Portuguese by going to http://www.google.com.br/intl/pt-BR/add_url.html.
MSN (http://Br.MSN.com). Statistics show that Microsoft’s search engine ranks second behind Google with roughly 25 million visitors annually. Searches on MSN are done using Bing and you can submit your Portuguese pages through http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx.
Yahoo! (http://Br.Yahoo.com). Yahoo is not quite as popular as Google in Brazil. It has to share roughly 10% of the search market with other non-Google websites. Yahoo Brazil is just like its American owner in that it is a portal with news, groups, free e-mail, and other services. Yahoo ranks just behind MSN with around 17 million visitors each year. You can submit your web pages to Yahoo! Brazil by going to http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/br/free/submit.
Aonde (http://aonde.com). Aonde is a directory and search engine. You can submit your Portuguese pages to http://www.aonde.com/inclusao.htm. Their standard submission option gives no guarantees of page term or inclusion. They also have a Partnership Inclusion option that is free but requires the owner of the pages to maintain either a search field or direct link back to Aonde. The advantages of the Partnership option is that Aonde can include your site within 3 days. You can submit your pages at http://www.aonde.com/inclusao.htm.
Achei (http://www.achei.com.br). Achei not only accepts pages in Portuguese but also in other languages like Spanish, English, Italian, and French. Submission is free but they make no guarantees as to when your site will be included in their index. The submission link for your web pages is at http://www.achei.com.br/incluir/index.htm.
Buscar (http://www.buscar.com.br/). You can register with Buscar online however doing so notifies a staff member who will review it. This search engine seems to be more popular in the Brazilian city of Divinópolis according to Alexa.com statistics. They also have a sponsored link program. To submit your website, go to http://www.buscar.com.br/incluir_url.html. They advertise a 24-hour turnaround time for inclusion if everything is in order.
Guiaweb (http://www.guiaweb.com). While this site is actually located in the United States, about a third of its users come from Brazil and its pages are written in Portuguese. Its default search interface is simple like Google’s. Inclusion is free and easy and can be done at http://www.guiaweb.com/addurl.php3.
Brbusca (http://www.brbusca.com/). This search engine has a different type of search query entry page. You can enter how you want keywords evaluated and results displayed right on the page. Roughly two-thirds of the traffic to this search engine comes from Brazilian users according to Alexa.com. To submit your pages, go to http://brbrasil.com.br/cgi-local/brbusca/submit/cadastro.cgi. The submission page also allows you to check other search engines where you want to register at the same time.
Portalbusca (http://www.portalbusca.com/). This is classified as a directory of Brazilian web sites. You can submit your website at http://www.portalbusca.com//link_submit.php and you must be registered in order to do so.
Achem (http://www.achem.com.br/). Achem is a directory but somewhat unique because the most popular sites in each category are listed as icons. This style of display takes up more real estate on the page but it takes advantage of visual brand recognition. Achem is reported to be popular in the Brazilian city of Moji Daz Cruces. To submit your pages, go to http://www.achem.com.br/cadastrar.asp.
Localiza (http://www.lokaliza.com.br/). Localiza is a search engine in addition to an information portal such as Yahoo. Its search entry page is simple with the various portal category links displayed in simple link text. To submit pages to Localiza, go to http://www.lokaliza.com.br/inclusao.htm.
Brazilian search engines are a little more flexible when it comes to page language. In other words, your web pages do not always have to be in Portuguese. This is different from some regional search engines that require pages be written in the dialect of their geographical area in order to be indexed. It is also not always necessary for web pages to be under a Brazilian domain name before they will be indexed. However, keep in mind that if a foreign-owned company wants to procure a Brazilian domain name that it must usually have a legal entity representing it within the country.
Tags: brazil, brazil seo, search engines
Japan is a major internet market and it has its share of regional search engines. Getting information on Japan search engines is little more of a challenge because most of them are written entirely in Japanese with no English option. They usually accept web pages written only in Japanese as well. Another factor that adds to the challenge is the limited amount of up-to-date English information about each search engine. However, some of them do utilize American search engine databases like Google and Yahoo so English search results are possible but limited. So what are some of the more popular Japanese search engines? Let’s take a look at a few.
Yahoo! Japan (http://www.yahoo.co.jp). This is the affiliate of the famous American Yahoo! However it is tailored for Japanese users and pages are displayed in their native language. Yahoo! Japan is reported to be the most popular search engine in the country. Users credit the popularity of this search engine because of its layout and its availability of several additional services. Getting a business website listed in its directory is expensive and costs around 52,500 Japanese Yen (about $600 U.S.). However, they do promote Internet advertising starting at 3,000 Yen. If you have a non-commercial site, you can have it listed in the Yahoo! Japan directory. Search engine experts suggest that you should focus on Yahoo! Japan as the primary place to have your web pages listed because of its significant market share in the region.
Google Japan (http://www.google.co.jp). While Google is a popular search engine throughout most of the world, it has not surpassed Yahoo! Japan in this area. Google’s popularity in other parts of the world comes from its simple interface but, in contrast, Japanese users seem to like having a portal like Yahoo! Japan with all of its additional services.
Goo Search (http://www.goo.ne.jp). Goo is a product of the Japan-based NTT laboratories and its name has no relation to Google. Some reports rank Goo as the third most popular in Japan behind Yahoo and Google. In addition to a being a search tool, it is also an index and you can register up to 10 key phrases within it. They have built an extensive portal which in some ways resembles that of the American Yahoo interface. Submitting your web pages to Goo’s search database or index requires one of their editors to review and approve them thus helping to achieve higher information quality.
Biglobe (http://www.biglobe.co.jp). This is another among the major search engine portals in Japan. In fact, it has an extensive range of information services to include a directory. It is one of Google’s Adword search partners so it is possible Japanese pages submitted to the latter will appear in Biglobe SERPs (search engine results pages). However, it appears that you can only search using Japanese text and the SERPs are returned solely in that language.
Sagool (http://sagool.jp). Sagool is a search engine innovation by Japan-based Team Lab, Inc. It advertises that it has a unique search algorithm that returns results based on the user’s interests. In other words, SERP pages will be listed in order of what it perceives to be the most to least interesting. It uses what it calls “Omo Logic” to weigh the interest level of pages. No doubt this requires analysis of what kinds of pages people are frequently reading.
Jword (http://jword.jp). Jword has a number of partnerships with other search engine and portal services like Yahoo! Japan and Sagool. Sagool entered into a partnership with them in 2007 and uses Jword’s database to feed search queries. Jword’s search is not provided by a web page but by a plug-in that you install on whatever browser you are using.
Alcarna (http://search.interconnect.co.jp). This engine is similar to Google in that it has a simple interface with a primary focus on searching. It also provides a simple interface for submitting your site for free. They advertise a turnaround time of 24 hours for accepting your site submission. It appears that Alcarna does not take its results from other search engine databases such as Google or Yahoo and submission is totally manual.
Excite Japan (http://www.excite.co.jp). Excite gets its feeds from Google’s database. So, if your web pages are indexed in Google, they can be also accessed from Excite.
Infoseek Japan (http://www.infoseek.co.jp). Infoseek has been around for quite some time and it is among the first Japanese counterparts of the U.S.-based search engines. It is said that if your web pages reside on a server with a domain of .com, .org, or .net, that you must request admission via email to Infoseek. The request should specify the URL where your pages are located.
Lycos Japan (http://www.lycos.co.jp). Lycos merged with Infoseek. Consequently, if your pages reside on Infoseek then they can be found here as well. An interesting touch in the Lycos SERPs is the screen image of the website to the left of each result.
Fresheye (http://www.fresheye.com). Fresheye is a search portal plus directory. The idea behind its name (Fresheye) is that only new or significantly changed sites are listed in its index. For a changed site to be listed, it must have gone through a 10% or greater modification. It takes 2 to 4 weeks to get your site listed and it will be deleted from its index after anywhere from 1 to 2 months.
Keep in mind that web pages submitted to these regional search engines need to be written in Japanese for best results. For this, you will probably need to hire a professional translator if your pages are in English or some other language. Also consider that Japanese characters take two bytes (two character positions) whereas an English character only takes one byte. This may require you to make significant layout changes to your pages.
Tags: japan, search engines
Many countries have search engines directed at servicing their native community of users. For example, in China, there is Baidu and in Russia you have Yandex. Regional search engines such as these provide advantages in that results are in the local language and competition for top spots in results pages is greatly reduced. Like China and Russia, Germany also has its share of regional search engines. In fact, there are a number of them targeted towards the country’s user community. Here, are a few of the more popular ones.
Abacho (abacho.de). This is a search engine and portal much like Yahoo. It has news, items of interest, chat, and free email. While Abacho is a German search engine, it also serves regionally in the countries of Spain, Switzerland, France, and Austria. Three other German domains are redirected directly to Abacho and they are Eule.de, Crawler.de, and Aladin.de.
Fireball. Fireball (fireball.de) is a search engine that allows page submissions from only German URLs (.de). However, it does take some of its search results from Altavista thus it is possible to do English language queries. Fireball also has the option to view its pages in German or English. Web pages submitted manually go through an editing process and those that are not at a top-level domain, have illegal or pornographic content, negative comments, or are doorway pages will get rejected. When submitting a page to Fireball, you are allowed to specify five relevant keywords for it. They stress that the keywords must be relevant or your pages can be permanently banned forever.
Sharelook.de. This site is actually a directory. With directories, you have to select the appropriate category upon submission of your website. Sharelook.de advertises 100,000 entries in its catalog database.
Suche.freenet.de. This search engine is part of the overall freenet.de website which is a German web portal of information similar to Yahoo. The difference is that it is all in German. The search engine uses Yahoo’s Overture to power its results thus by submitting to Yahoo, your site should show up in Suche.freenet.de. Suche.freenet.de owns what was originally one of the largest German online directories: dino-online.de. Today, entering dino-online.de in a web browser will take you directly to Suche.freenet.de. This search engine also uses the Open directory, Dmoz.org, to feed results.
Web.de. This site is also directory like Sharelook. Web.de advertises that by submitting your pages to their directory, you will be listed in one of the top directories in Germany. Turnaround time for processing page submissions is two days.
Witch (witch.de). This is a phonetic search engine meaning that if you don’t know the exact spelling of a search term, you can spell it the best you can and Witch will try to figure it out by translating phonetic spelling to actual spelling. Witch puts priority to German language pages. The pages are manually reviewed and this process takes around 10 days. Search phrases can be up to 50 characters long.
Germany also has regional access to global search engines. These include Altavista.de, Google.de, Lycos.de, and Yahoo.de. Lycos.de, for example, is part of the famous Lycos.com search engine. One might ask why a global search engine would offer their services from a regional domain. The reasons all have to do with reducing the competition of pages trying to reach top spots on search engine result pages (SERPs). If a page is submitted in German and with a top-level domain from the same country it will more than likely get indexed in the regional database. Otherwise, it will have to compete with other pages at a global level which takes much longer to achieve top rankings in SERPs.
Google is the most famous of all the major search engines and has several advanced search commands that are useful tools for the search engine optimization (SEO) specialist. Google has been in the search engine business for a number of years so it is no surprise that it also has a robust set of these commands. Here is a quick reference and example guide for the most-used features.
Note: keywords can also be key phrases. In order to recognize a key phrase exact pattern, surround it in quotes. For example, to search for Spanish lessons in the page body text, use intext:”Spanish lessons”. Also note that all commands are single line comannds.
| Command | Example | Explanation |
| ~<keyword> | ~content | Displays pages with keywords related to <keyword>. This helps a webmaster determine what other keywords to use on a given page and avoid overuse of the primary keyword in their content. |
| cache:<site URL> | cache:www.somesite.com | Displays how the page at <site URL> appears in Google’s local cache. |
| ext:<file extension>
filetype:<file extension> |
Spanish lessons ext:ppt
Learning Spanish filetype:ppt |
Only find documents that are of the file type indicated by <file extension>. The examples show entering a standard search followed by the file extension search command. Examples of filetypes are:
doc – MS Word document htm – HTML document xls – MS Excel document ppt – MS Powerpoint document Other extensions, for instance mp3, can be entered as well. |
| inanchor:<keyword>
allinanchor:<keyword(s)> |
inanchor:Spanish inanchor:videos
allanchor: Spanish videos |
Find pages with anchor text (link text) containing the keyword(s). The command inanchor only accepts one word per command while the allinanchor command accepts all keywords following it. |
| info:<site URL> | info:www.somesite.com | This command will tell you if the website at <site URL> has been indexed by Google. If it has, it will also display a set of links that access tools to further analyze the site. These tools include: showing the Google cache for the site, finding similar web pages, showing other pages that link to it, displaying other web pages on <site URL>, and finding web pages that list the URL in their text. |
| intext:<keyword>
allintext:<keyword(s)> |
intext:Spanish intext:games
intext:Spanish allintext:Spanish games |
Find keywords in the text of the page content. The intext command only accepts one keyword and the allintext accepts multiple keywords following it. The first example searches for all documents with both keywords following each intext command. The second example searches for documents with only the keyword following the intext command. The last example (allintext) searches for documents containing all keywords following the command. |
| intitle:<keyword>
allintitle:<keyword(s)> |
intitle:spanish intitle:conversation
intitle:spanish conversation allintitle:spanish conversation |
Search for keywords within the title of documents. The examples work the same as the intext command but for the document title only. |
| inurl:<keyword>
allinurl:<keyword(s)> |
inurl:spanish inurl:conversation
allinurl: spanish conversation inurl:spanish conversation |
This command isolates the keyword search to the url. The examples work the same as the intext command but for the URL only. |
| <keyword> * <keyword> | allintext:Spanish * lessons | The * is a wildcard search specifier. In the example, any word can appear between the keywords Spanish and lessons. |
| related:<site URL> | related:<somesite>.com | Finds other websites related to the site given by <site URL>. It does this by looking at <site URL> and evaluating the links that populate its pages. Then it lists the sites commonly linked to by <site URL> |
| site:<site URL> | Spanish conversation practice site:<somesite>.com Spanish conversation practice -site:<somesite>.com |
The first example finds sites located at the specified URL and containing the search keywords. The second example is an important one to remember. It provides results that are not found on a particular site. |
Bing is Microsoft’s successor to Live Search and many predict that it will eventually grab a major share of this market. Entering basic search keywords into the Bing interface is pretty much like any other major search engine but it is the knowledge of the advanced search commands that allows you to tap the full benefit of Bing. These advanced search commands become extremely useful when you want to be very specific about what you are looking for and filter out irrelevant results. Also note that not all Live Search commands will work in Bing. Here are some of the more popular Bing commands for doing advanced searches.
| Command | Example(s) | Explanation |
| site:<URL> | site:seowarrior.net
seo warrior site:oreilly.com |
First example returns results ending with “seowarrior.net”.
Second example shows all results with URLs ending with “oreilly.com” for keyword “seo warrior” |
| intitle:<keyword> | intitle:”seo warrior” | Returns all results containing keyword “seo warrior” in the HTML <TITLE> tag. |
| inbody:<keyword> | inbody:”seo warrior” | Returns all results containing keyword “seo warrior” in the page copy. |
| ip:<nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn> | ip:157.166.255.18 | Returns results originating from domains or subdomains for the given IP address. |
| language:<ll> | language:fr talents | Returns results in French for keyword “talents” |
| location: | new york location:br | Returns results from Brazil for keyword “New York” |
| link:<URL> | link:cnn.com
link:cnn.com -site:cnn.com |
First example returns backlinks to cnn.com and the second example returns backlinks to cnn.com not originating from cnn.com. |
| linkfromdomain:<domain> | linkfromdomain:seowarrior.net
linkfromdomain:seowarrior.net site:.net |
First example returns all links from this blog. Second example returns all links that are of .net gTLD. |
| url:<domain> | url:www.google.com | Returns the result if the given URL is found in Bing’s index. |
| filetype:<filetype> | guitar lessons filetype:pdf | Returns results of the given file type (pdf) for specified keywords. |
Tags: bing, Bing Cheat Sheet, Bing Search Commands
This is Part 2 of the Yandex Search Commands Cheat Sheet.
| Command | Example | Explanation |
| # abstract=(<keywords>) | #abstract=(Spanish & Conversation) | This command will search the meta DESCRIPTION text of an indexed page and return links that contain the keywords in it. |
| # hint = expression | news lang = “en” #hint = Thailand | The hint command searches image captions. The example will find all English news pages with the keyword Thailand as part of the image caption. |
| # host = “URL”# rhost = “reverseURL” | keyword # host = “www.site.com”keyword # rhost = “com.site.www” | Search for the keyword(s) on the website denoted by “URL”. Note that the command does not work consistently unless you include the “www” before the domain name. The rhost command operates like the host command except that the URL is reversed. |
| # image image_name | # image image1.jpg | This command searches web pages for images by their filenames. The example searches all web pages containing an image named image1.jpg. |
| # keywords = (KW expression) | # keywords = (Spanish & Conversation) | The searcher can find only pages containing the keyword(s). By using the & operator, more than one keyword can be searched. |
| like:URL | like:www.somesite.com | Search for all pages that are like the page located at URL. |
| # link <site_url> | # link “http://anywebsite.com” | Search the Yandex index and find links to the site name following the command. Enclose the site name in quotes to ensure an exact search. Otherwise, you will get partial matches on the site name. This is a very useful command for determining which websites have backlinks for a particular URL. |
| lang = “<language>” | Teaching English lang = “en” | This is a very important command if you only want results returned in the language specified by <language>. Otherwise, results will be mixed. |
| # mime:<file extension> | spanish # mime:pdf | The mime command searches for documents of the specified file type or extension. |
| title[] | Teaching English lang = “en” title["English Teaching Site"] | The title command is useful if you want to look for a website in Yandex with the exact title specified. |
| #url=”host” <keywords> | #url=”www.spanishsite.co” lessons | The benefit derived from the url command is that the searcher can isolate one website and find the desired keywords in only it. |
| Keyword domain=”dom” | conversacion domain = “es” | Search for the key word or phrase within the domain specified by “dom”. In the example, the search specifies to search for the keyword on all Spanish domains. This is useful if you want to limit your search for pages in the native set of a certain country. |
| date=”yyyy{*|mm{*|dd}} | Russia news date=”201001*” | Search only for pages dated with the specified date in year, month, and day format. The * denotes a wild card. For instance, the example command says to look for Russian news pages dated in the month of January, 2010. |
Yandex is the major search engine of Russia and its focus is mostly on Russian websites. If you don’t speak, read, or write Russian, it may not be useful to you. However, it has a huge index and even native speakers of other languages can use its advanced search commands in order to find what they are looking for. There are many Yandex commands so I will divide this post into 2 parts. This is the part 1 of Yandex search commands cheat sheet.
| Command | Example | Explanation |
| keyw1 & keyw2 [& … ] | free & spanish & lessons | Stringing keywords using the “&” will cause the query to search for text with all words in the same sentence. This is useful for finding the exact page you are looking for given a sentence from it. |
| keyw1 && keyw2 [&& …]
keyw1 << keyw2 |
free && Spanish && lessons | This is like “&” except that you can search for the keywords in the same document. Note that “<<” also operates in the same manner. |
| “<keyword>” | “free Spanish lessons” | Search for keyword/phrase but do an exact match of text between the quotes. |
| keyw1 /+n Keyw2 | deliver /+3 grammaticallyNote: be certain to indicate a positive /n value with the + symbol. Otherwise, you will get mixed results. | Search for keywords but the keyword following the / must be offset in a forward direction by the number of words indicated. In the example, the search will find all documents with the word “grammatically” located 3 words after “deliver.” The benefit is that you can be very precise in finding the exact document you need given that you have the original text. |
| keyw1 /-n keyw2 | deliver /-3 grammatically | This is like the previous command except the minus sign tells the engine to search for the second keyword n words before the first. |
| keyw1 && /n Keyw2 | deliver && /3 grammatically | The “&&” specifies that the keyword and offset keyword must exist in the same sentence. The + symbol is not necessary in this case and tests showed that including it yielded mixed results. |
| keyw1 /(x y) keyw2 | deliver /(-2 +3) grammatically | This command finds the keywords within the word range specified by x (left offset of keyw2 from keyw1) and y (right offset of keyw2 from keyw1). |
| !keyword | !politic | The ! operator tells the search engine to find the keyword in strict form. In the example, all pages with the exact word “politic” will be found but not those with “politics” or “political.” |
| keyw1 ~~ keyw2 | Spanish ~~ tutorials | The ~~ operator specifies to exclude pages containing keyw2 from the search results |
| keyw1 ~ keyw2 | Spanish ~ tutorials | This operator is like the previous except it specifies that the exclusion occur when the keywords appear in the same sentence. |
| keyw1 | Keyw2 | Spanish (lessons | tutorials)“Spanish lessons” | “English lessons” | The pipe symbol is the OR operator. The example tells the search engine to look for the keyword Spanish and either lessons or tutorials. You can also use key phrases provided they are enclosed in quotes. |
| $ anchor(expression) | $ anchor(CNN) | This command searches for the expression within the anchor text of links. The anchor text is the text you see in a link to another website. |
To be continued…
China’s major player in the search engine market is known as Baidu. Of course most of the instructions are written in Chinese so it is not easy for a western visitor to use advanced search commands without the help of a quick reference cheat sheet. For starters, Baidu has a web page off of its main portal to do advanced searches. However, the problem for westerners is that it is all in Chinese with no button for switching to another language like English. To reach the advanced search page, go to the URL: http://www.baidu.com/gaoji/advanced.html
The best way to use the advanced search features is to translate the fields. This can be accomplished by using a web translation portal such as Yahoo’s Babel Fish. Just enter the link to the advanced page in the web page translation field. For the source and target languages, choose “simple Chinese to English.” While the translation is not exactly correct, it is close enough for an English-speaking visitor to make use of. The following table lists the fields on the advanced search page and their functionality. Some of these advanced search functions can also be accessed from the main Baidu search page and the second column in the table lists an example of how to invoke it. Note that the field label is the translation returned by Babel Fish and does not reflect correct English grammar in each case.
|
|
|
|
Search Result (field 1): Below contains the complete key word |
Spanish lessons |
Each result in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) will contain all of the keywords listed |
Search Result (field 2): Contains the following complete key word |
“Spanish lessons” |
Each result in the SERP will contain any of the keywords listed |
Search Result (field 3): Below contains the random key word |
Spanish | lessons |
This command uses the OR operator | to instruct the search engine to return results with any of the keywords listed |
Search Result (field 4): Not including the following key word |
Spanish -(institutes grammar) |
This command excludes the keywords listed in the field.
|
Demonstration strip number: Choice search result demonstration strip number |
N/A |
This is a dropdown menu where you have the choice to list 10, 20, 50, or 100 results per SERP. |
|
|
N/A |
This dropdown menu allows you to select the aging of the results. You can select all pages, pages one day old, pages one week old, pages since January (current year), or pages one year old. The dropdown lists also lists the choices in this same order for those who do not understand Chinese. |
Language: The search homepage language is |
N/A |
This is a selector where you can choose the language of the pages being searched. The first selector is “All languages”, the next is “Simple Chinese”, and the last is “Traditional Chinese.” |
Document format: The search homepage form is |
filetype:pdf Spanish Lessons |
This is much like the filetype search command in other search engines. Choices in the dropdown menu are:
|
|
|
Site: (Spanish Lessons) title: (Spanish Lessons)
|
This is a selector where you can choose the location in which to search for the key word(s). The first choice specifies to search the entire site, the second in the title, and the last for the URL. |
In the station searches: The definition must search the website which assigns is |
site:(cnn.com) Thailand |
Search for the keyword within the domain entered into this field. |
Tags: Advaced Search, Baidu, Baidu Help
Just a quick note that SEO Warrior (“Guerreiro SEO”) in now available in Portugese.
The easy way of finding this version of the book is by searching for ISBN 9788575222287 in Google. Here is one URL that is available in Brazil:
http://www.novatec.com.br/livros/guerreiroseo/
Tags: Portugese, seo warrior
So much focus is given these days to optimizing websites in order for them to rank highly with search engines. Everyone wants their website to appear on the first or second page of a search engine results page (SERP) for a particular keyword. But this focus oftentimes clouds another critical facet of website design and optimization and that is in the area of conversion. Conversion could be defined as a specific web visitor action that fulfills a particular goal (as devised by the website owner). One common conversion could be a sale of a product. Another example could be a user subscription to your newsletter.
Without an acceptable conversion rate from a website selling a product, search engine optimization (SEO) is really futile because it does not contribute to the profitability of a business. So what is the art of conversion? After a site is optimized for search engines, how does a site owner increase the likelihood of visits converting to sales? This text goes over some of the most basic (conversions) considerations when the goal is to make sales.
The key is to build trust from the moment a visitor comes to your site. And one of the most important ways to build trust is to have a website with a high-quality appearance. Adhering to current standards of Web 2.0 is one of the best ways to build it. It is also good for SEO. For example, animated GIFs were eye-catching in the early days of the World Wide Web but today they give a website a cheap (and shady) look and can work against building trust from your visitors. Images and other graphics should be of exceptional quality and at the same time they should render quickly in any browser.
Part of building trust is not asking for too much personal information. People, for the most part, are suspicious of anyone on the Internet. So if a visitor comes to your website to purchase your product, you shouldn’t make it a requirement to register on it prior to a sale. Before you ask for information from your visitors, ask yourself if there is a real need for it. For example, the only reason you would need someone’s home address is if you have to ship an item. And, the only reason for collecting someone’s telephone number is if you have to call them in order to confirm some information. It is a good idea to always disclose to the user the purpose of any information you do collect.
Building trust is enhanced by making sure your customers can contact you. What many businesses do is make sure that their toll-free number is prominently displayed at the top of every web page on their site. If your business has a physical location, you should also display it on each page. Many display it at as a footing but the important thing is can it be easily seen by the person browsing your website.
It is always a pleasure for potential customers to be able to shop easily. They do their shopping in the web object known as a shopping cart. The shopping cart items should have clear pictures of each product along with well-written, keyword-focused descriptions. Plan your categories so that a shopper does not have to go down too deep in the shopping cart tree in order to find what he or she is looking for.
Make the checkout process easy for your users. If customers have to experience a complicated process for checking out (making payment) there is a possibility that they will change their mind because of the inconvenience. If possible, try to stick to one page for the checking out. Along the same line, offer as many payment options as you can (e.g., Paypal, debit and credit cards). The payment page should be for payments only. In other words, don’t add links to other areas as this can distract the customer. The only distraction that is justified on the checkout page is having a link to reference your privacy and return policy and this should be in a breakout type of window that is easily done using JavaScript.
Make sure your website is electronically secure. This gives customers a safer feeling when they have to use their electronic payment option. You should implement the shopping/checkout area of your website in a secure shell with at least 128-bit encryption. Utilizing the assistance of third-party internet security providers also goes a long way in building trust. And, if you use one of these security providers, prominently display their logo on your site.
