If you’re like many website owners- you’re frustrated with the amount of action you get.  Whether you want to capture leads, sell a product, or just get people to like you- chances are you want to get something out of that fancy website you’ve worked so hard for.  But how do you get your website visitors to do what you want them to do?

The trick here is to engage your users-  Tell them what you want them to do- You must create a successful Call to Action.

Before you create your call to action you need to decide what it is you want your website visitor to do.  You might want a user to complete a contact form, signup for a newsletter, download information, purchase something online or more.  Write it down- right now-  What is the one specific thing you want your visitor to do when they get to your website?

Now that you know what you’re trying to get out of your visitors its time to create your call to action.  A good call to action uses effective imagery to grab your visitors attention. There should be a balance of “white space” so that your call to action stands out from the rest of your site and its design. For instance, if you are a real estate agent who wishes to have users of your site search for property in the area you serve, then a large property search button positioned in a prominent place on your site is a great call to action.

Having an effective call to action will actually help your users users and give purpose to your website. It can also be seen as a way to measure your sites success. For instance using a prominent call to action which leads to an increase in the number of product purchases or newsletter sign ups shows that your site is doing an effective job in promoting you and your brand. Always make sure to tell users what you want them to do, guide them through what process you want them to follow.  Don’t be afraid- you’re actually helping your visitors by getting them to the most important part of your website.

So, in short, here are 3 ways to make a successful Call To Action:

1. Use Large Imagery: Large prominently placed imagery drawing attention to the call to action is always a great idea.
2. Create a need: this is marketing 101, before you even think about where you place your call to action you need to make sure that you create a need for the user to interact. On top of this, make sure you highlight the benefits of responding, searching, signing up etc. Use active/urgent language such as “Buy” “Sign Up” “Register” “Search Now” “Donate” etc. All of these are words and phrases which require the user to do something.
3. Have a Call To Action on every page: This is important as users generally go deeper into your site than just the homepage and if you were encouraging them to sign up to your newsletter on the home page but no where else then you are definitely losing out!

In addition to this, make sure you follow through on what your call to action is. If you are signing people up to a newsletter then make sure they are on the list, if you are encouraging them to contact you for more information, make sure that you respond to them in a timely manner and get them this information.

Finally, keep it simple! The keys successful call to action items is keeping it simple. People have short attention spans, if your website is too complicated your visitors are likely to give up.

It’s here and it’s receiving a lot of press attention around the globe – what are we talking about? Google+  Google’s new social networking experiment is taking the net by storm and everyone in the tech media is talking about it. In the marketing world people are already questioning how they can leverage the new social network for their brand and help get a “+1” for their site, products and services.

Google themselves even say that “With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world. The next time your connections search, they could see your +1’s directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they’re most useful.”

So it definitely an exciting new tool for people to recommend your site to their friends, family or coworkers. Think of it as similar to sharing and liking something on Facebook, except the focus is not about friends and building followers, but sharing information and recommendations.

“To the naked eye, it seems all about bringing more traffic to web publishers, but in reality it is all about business” – Frank Watson, Search Engine Watch.

One of the thoughts about the new project is the possibility is Google uses the +1 recommendations to rank pages in the search results – this could be huge to all sites in the search engine. Of course this is not certain, but it could possibly be a route they take down the road. This will likely be watched with close attention. Google has even written information about the +1 button to webmasters and explain that “Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking”  http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html so this could very much be a possibility.

As you can see from the below screenshot, a simple search for “Orlando Real Estate” brings Realtor.com as the first organic result and it includes the Google +1 button.

By clicking on the +1 button it allows you to recommend the link to the world! Remember +1’s are public and therefore be mindful on what you decide is worthy of you hitting the +1 button.

The big question is how will +1 effect a sites traffic? Well, personalized annotations next to your page in the search results may increase the odds that those who have searched go to your page as they may see that you have a following and others have liked your site. This is another way of building your brands image and brand loyalty

As for +1 with WordPress, there are plugins rolling out that are incorporating the button on WordPress sites. Using the +1 button can be a great way to get positive reviews and build trust with future and current customers.

While the office is quiet this weekend we’re slaving away in anticipation for the new WordPress 3.2 update due any day now.

Our servers have passed with “flying colors” and our hosted clients are able to safely upgrade to WordPress 3.2 – as always follow the upgrade instructions carefully AND be sure to back up your database and file structure BEFORE you begin the upgrade.

If you would like our techs to upgrade your WordPress blog installation please open a support ticket and we will get you on the schedule.

Thanks and have an awesome 4th!!!