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Years back, it was difficult to figure out what was really going on on your website. You could only assume why some visitors weren’t buying or why others were leaving the site in less than 5 seconds. These days, we have heatmaps.

A heatmap is actually an image that shows you exactly where your visitors clicked on your website. So, if your website is not converting, a heatmap will help you figure out the cause and what changes to make to increase conversions and improve website performance.

With heatmaps you can get insights on your visitors’ behavior on your site. You might find out that your call to action buttons (Buy Now, Subscribe, etc) are not located where people would expect them to be; or that there are too many steps to follow to checkout and users get lost along the way.

Be clear

To figure out where it’s best to put call to action buttons or links, take a close look at your site.  Basically, you have to organise your content so that users find their way around fast. More importantly, give clear instructions so that they know what they have to do, whether it is to subscribe to an email list, buy a product or download an ebook, and what happens afterwards.

Use the heatmap to see where people are clicking on your web page, meaning what are the “hot spots”. You might discover that they tend to click on images, so include links to redirect them to special offers, for instance. You might also notice that users are clicking on blank areas, which means that you can find a better use for that space – you can put some ads up, or maybe a navigation menu.

Hot spots

Heatmaps can help you increase the conversion rate because you can see where people are clicking. Now that you know what the hot spots on your site are, put the call to action buttons right there, where you know they’ll click. Now tell them exactly what to do: “Buy Now”, “Subscribe”, “Invite friends”, “Participate to contest”, “Download”.  The same goes for links – put them in a hot spot so they know they’re supposed to click on them.  Users don’t need to have to discover what to do on your site, they should be able to figure it out instantly.

Have you ever used heatmaps? If so, did you find them useful?

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There are no secrets to optimising content online but there are some basic rules you might want to consider, as well as some mistakes you should avoid making.

1. Content is King. NOT keywords

The first mistake in SEO copywriting is putting too much effort in to on-page optimisation and too little in to copywriting, the persuasive content that is supposed to answer questions and influence visitors to take a decision.

SEO copywriting is attractive content that generates links and promotion from its own visitors thus increasing the authority of the website as well as the ranking on certain keywords. This means that you can benefit more from a natural link –  a recommendation from a happy user that visited your site – than if you were to stuff your content with keywords. Most users have come to realise by now the difference between quality content and content written specifically for search engines.

2. SEO Copywriting is about conversion. NOT Google Ranking

Ranking well on search engines does not guarantee conversions. Optimised content might get the user’s attention thanks to the top position in Google, but it might as well lose the SEO advantage if it doesn’t accomplish its goal, which is to convert!  Then the user goes back to the search page and clicks on the following links until he finds what he needs.

3. Optimising a web page does NOT equal keyword stuffing

There’s no reason to stuff your web content with keywords to make it rank well. Why not just use the ones that are relevant to your site? Your strategy can be to include the main keywords in the title of the page, as well as in the first and last paragraph; make the URL SEO-friendly by including variations of the main keywords, optimise the H1, the ALT (the description text for the images) and use specific tags. These are the essential optimisation elements that can help you rank well in search engines and, at the same time, it informs visitors on what your site is about. Now that the SEO part has been taken care of, you can focus on copywriting for your web page.

4. Measure quality content through links and bounce rate, NOT traffic

What does “quality” content mean? It’s that content that readers promote through links, discuss through social media, come back regularly to or are influenced by to take action according to the site’s goal. Quality content keeps readers on your site and makes them visit more pages, which decreases the bounce rate. In some way, it manages to engage the user and make him part of your community. Quality content isn’t measured by its traffic because SEO spam also brings traffic.

5. Internal and external links do NOT affect from a SEO point of view.
   

The key here is moderation. Internal links are welcome as long as the anchor text shows natural in the page and the information is relevant. External links are also ok as long as you don’t:

• Overdo it and include more than 100 on a single web page.
• Include irrelevant information, stuffed with keywords.
• Link to sites considered spammy or with no connection what so ever with the on-page content
• Include paid links without marking it with a nofollow tag

6. Focus on the customers. NOT your company

No one cares about you or your company.  Visitors want to know how they can benefit from your product and why they should buy it. There’s a very cool copywriting tool on the web that’s called We We Calculator and you can use it to make sure your copy is customer oriented. Basically, what is does is clean up your text from all the “we”, “me”, “us” you’ve included and remind you to replace it with “you”.

Did I miss anything? Let us know in a comment below.

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News recently that the European Commission wants to cut mobile phone overseas roaming charges has highlighted another modern phenomena. The fact is, the internet is so much part of our daily lives, many of us will take our annual vacation this year but still look to connect on the internet while away.

Back in 2009 a report from Ramtech suggested that internet access was even a major selling point for UK-located holiday parks and since then with the sharp rise in smartphone usage that demand has risen massively. The same is true for those holidaying abroad many of whom now seek out accommodation with WiFi or at least a cyber-cafe nearby.

Yet, when on holiday, relaxed and a little switched off, many forget the potential dangers connecting online can present. So we’ve put together our 6 top tips to ensure your holiday can be safe and enjoyable while also avoiding potential pitfalls.

1. Keep any smartphones, laptops, tablets etc safe and close to hand.

Just as they are valuable and at risk of an opportunist theft when in the UK, so they are in a sunny climate and more exotic location.

2. If using internet cafes or hotel public-access computers beware

Keylogging hardware is easy to fit and easy to grab personal data with. It might not be as easy for you to check before you use, but it is worth just checking the connections of the keyboard to check it is routing direct to the PC. Not every proprietor will be as honest as each other either, but the more ‘back-street’ a cafe is, the more likely it might be a front to be stealing customers details either via software or hardware. Just be cautious.

3. Free WiFi is great but not secure

A blog earlier on in the year by our sister site set out the risks of connecting to public WiFi and the same applies when abroad – or even at the airport. There are means and ways of minimising the risk though so have a look at the advice there.

4. Only access sensitive data if you really need to

You are on holiday after all. Try to avoid logging into online banking or other sites where your private information is fully accessible. Sometimes, necessity will require it and the other tips above will help you minimise the risk, but the best way of doing that is to not access sensitive information at all.

5. If using social networks be careful what you post – you never know who may be watching

Sharing the photograph of you and your mates at the airport or posing by the pool, might seem exciting but if somebody reading your profile knows you are away on holiday, that means they also know you are not at home, creating an invitation for thieves make an invited visit while you are not there. This includes not posting comments like “Soooo, excited! Only 3 more sleeps ’til holiday!”.

6. Don’t disappear from view either

If posting on your travels is a spotlight on your home being empty, so can not posting at all on social networks for a week, if you are usually an avid Facebooker or Tweeter. If you don’t think you will be able to check-in while away – and by check-in we don’t mean using location-based networks (see 5 above!) – consider using a scheduling client for tweets and Facebook updates of a mundane kind that make it look like you are still around. HootSuite offer this kind of system.

Your holiday should be a stress-free time, follow the above advice and try and keep it that way.

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It’s the nexxxt big thing and one of the biggest talking points in the hosting industry for years.

This week we launched our .xxx domain registration and with lots of debate but mixed with a fair degree of mis-understanding we thought we’d try and explain a bit more.

.XXX will clean up the internet, of that there is no doubt. The big players in the adult industry are behind the initiative and for them there are lots of benefits. The .XXX domain offers a new sign of professionalism that member of the adult industry are keen to get behind. All .XXX sites are vetted by McAfee for malware and other internet threats so users know the site is safe and can be trusted. Presenting your business as a trusted adult brand should increase customer confidence, resulting in more traffic and more paying customers. For those in the industry a .XXX domain a very wise investment. A kind of a seal of trust for adult sites and it is the only gTLD dedicated to the adult industry.

Protect your business too

Yet, it is not just adult industry organisations that should be interested and looking to secure xxx. domains. As with any new domain suffix, there will be many cybersquatters looking to piggyback the name of an established brand. Your name might not be easy to protect under intellectual property law but you can minimise the risk by registering your own name.xxx before anybody else does. Even if another registrant doesn’t intend to benefit from your reputation, can you afford for your ‘brand’ to be associated with adult content? If you secure the domain name yourself nobody else can use it. If you do have an existing Trademark in the name you can even use the Sunrise B procedure to block anyone from using a domain for a one-off, lifetime fee.

How do I get my .XXX domain?

As we’ve said .XXX is the biggest domain name launch for years, so we’re offering you a wide range of choices to ensure you have the best chance of securing your chosen domain name. Our pre-sales page explains more, but in all cases you can place your pre-order now and be sure to be at the front of the queue when applications open.

Are you exxxcited about .XXX? Can the internet use it as a way of better policing certain types of content.

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Admit it, your email inbox is cluttered with folders, messages and half-finished tasks. As much as email has made our life easier and more efficient – imagine standing over the fax machine every time you wanted to send a quick message between offices – the volume of email we now all deal with on a daily basis and the time pressures of modern life means it can be hard to get on top of it.

One internet group have even taken it upon themselves to ensure that those emails that are sent are not too long and trest them more like SMS text messages for brief, specific questions and answers.

Yet, if you believe some media outlets, email is a dying trend – but then they’ve been saying that for years!

A ComScore report earlier this year also suggested that email usage was plummeting. Yet our daily experiences suggest differently and a close look at the ComScore report explains why. The report correctly reported that the usage of web-based email plummeted across the board last year  – nearly 60% in the 12 to 17 year old age range – but so it should. Web-based email is now often a secondary method of picking up email on the move, many now download direct to their smartphone where email is still very strong and getting stronger.

The reality is email has so much more functionality that the social media networks many suggest are replacing it. It has the immediacy, the functionality and the privacy that people want when swapping business or private personal information. Email enables a permanent record in a place you control – rather than on a public network. Email is definitely here to stay, but how we use it, how it works and interacts probably will change, in many ways, it needs to or it will lose its efficiency benefits.

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We all know the internet has changed the way we do things, but a new study from a Psychologist at Columbia University, New York suggests that our reliance on being able to ‘Google that’ means modern brains now remember information differently than they traditionally did.

The study, titled “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips,” comes from psychologist Betsy Sparrow who talks about the results in this video.

The four part tests measured how we remember information. Firtly, a series of trivia questions were posed and the participants asked them to rate the difficulty of that question, then followed with a colour identification test. This is where the first alarm bells rang. When words in the color identification test were related to search engines (e.g. Yahoo and Google) then  respondents answered more quickly, effectively using the ‘search engine’ concept as a trigger to recalling the informaion.

The second part of the test saw the trivia questions turned into statements. Participants were told to read and recall these statements. However, some of the sample were told that that the information was saved and accessible again for example via a search engine. In other cases the participants were advised that the facts in the statements were not retrievable. The results? The second batch of participants seemed more able to memorise the information and recall the information at a later date.

The final parts of study then went on to reveal that when participants were shown data and shown where they might be able to find that data at a later date (ie in a specific folder on a hard drive) the subjects found it easier to remember the data location than the data itself.

Sparrow has labelled this adaptive memory, the art of memorizing methods over memorizing facts and is in fact a natural way of conserving brain power for tasks by using the memory-finding medium instead.

“Our brains rely on the internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker,” said Sparrow. “We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.”

Yet despite the negative connotations that some may put on the findings Sparrow thinks it is a good thing, giving us a better focus on storing more information or at least more ways of understanding information.

Do you rely on the internet more than your brain for information?

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A new look for Google’s Android Market should make finding a suitable app easier and more logical so they claim – but as yet it is only available in the US.

A complete redesign takes a leaf from the iTunes store, making popular apps more obvious for visitors “In the home screen, we’ve created a new promotional page that highlights top content ….[and Providing] instant access to featured apps and games,” said Eric Chu in a blog post on Android Developer.

It certainly is very different in look from its predecessors. The changes having been made “To make it fun and easy for users to explore fresh content” explains Chu, there’s even “Trending lists”.

The design is clearly tweaked to allow users to download or purchase apps quicker than the earlier incarnations of Android Market that we had had to grow to love.

This video will give you an idea of what, where and how – even the video has a very Apple feel to it.

Yet, at the moment it is the US market only able to benefit from a more sane interface. Chu’s blog advises “We’ve already begun a phased roll-out to phones running Android 2.2 or higher — the update should reach all users worldwide in the coming weeks.” Look out for it.

Have you got the new look market yet? What are your thoughts?

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In a further bizarre twist surrounding the changes to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive forcing website owners to obtain specific consent to allow their cookies to be tracked – see our earlier post for background – Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has suggested EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes had not been accurate enough with her language leading to inconsistent advice being given.

In a Public Lecture  last week at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Hustinx criticised Kroes for publicly supporting self-regulation efforts by the advertisers set to inform internet users about cookies being used to track them, but not necessarily obtain their consent.

Hustinx said “These associations have in fact failed to implement the new consent requirement,” suggesting that these steps do not go far enough to meet the Directive requirements “Although initiatives for increased transparency and consumer control in the online environment are most welcome, this should not result in a limitation of consumer rights. The Commission should avoid any ambiguity as to its determination in making sure that these rights are delivered in the European Union,” Hustinx addedd.

The debate is sure to run and run.

The Directive stems from 2009 when Europe’s lawmakers decided that storing and accessing information from a user’s computer was only lawful “on condition that the subscriber or user concerned has given his or her consent, having been provided with clear and comprehensive information…about the purposes of the processing”. That Directive then had to be added into national laws by 25 May 2011 which the UK duly did but is one of only five EU countries so to do.

The UK new regulations appear to conclusively implementing the Directive requiring “informed consent” to tracking from users, which set much debate about pracitalities going. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), issued guidance on how online businesses could meet the new requirements and got much criticism for being impractical. Since then the Government has announced it is working with Microsoft, Mozilla, Google and other browsers to look at developing a technical solution that is browser based and The ICO has said it is giving UK websites a year to comply with the regulations.

Expect more debate to ensue.

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We’d like to take the praise for predicting earlier this week that online TV was soon to come to these shores most likely in the form of classic repeats, but really it wasn’t a prediction of epic proportions, just progress.

So we weren’t really surprised to find that BBC Worldwide is to start renting out classic TV episodes via the Tardis that is Facebook from today.  Perhaps playing it safe they are launching with everyone’s favourite time-traveller: Dr Who. Classic episodes available for Facebook’s own currency Facebook cover nine stories, each containing several episodes. Once rented the episodes will be available to stream online for 48 hours.

Content available includes digitally remastered versions of classic Doctor episodes like “Tomb of the Cybermen”plus a Facebook exclusive. 1988’s “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” isn’t available on DVD but will be available over the new Facebook system to viewers in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the BBC look to keep interest in the Doctor Who brand up inbetween new series.

Have you tried subscribing? Will you try in the future?

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On the internet, death is just a word, it is not a status. Many a website has been left dormant, RSS feeds left without update and Facebook profiles even eerily left in suspension but for a wall full of sympathy messages.

Now in the US even ‘worn-out’  TV programmes culled from the schedules can’t die - they just move online. In the age of the internet, death is not a barrier, just a different avenue.

Last week ABC and producers Prospect Park surprised all but a few in the know, by announcing via a joint press release that two long-running ABC soap operas — One Life to Live and All My Children  were to live on beyond their TV deaths. Back in April ABC had announced the axe for the soaps. Declining ratings and a drive for more discussion shows meant that September was set to see the final episode of All My Children and that One Life to Live would not run beyong January next year.  Yet, the latest twist – worthy of any soap - means they will survive, but in a virtual world - ironic given the very basis of soap operas are the creation of virtual worlds.

The plan appears to keep running the same way too, just not directly on a TV channel. The press release explained that the shows will be distributed beyond their planned finale dates “via online formats and additional emerging platforms including Internet enabled television sets.” With the additional claim that the future episodes beyond the ‘grave’ will be produced “with the same quality,” and the same length, fans of the soaps are obviously very happy.

The are not the first shows to make the move either.  Glenn Beck, a former Fox News presenter recently announced he is to re-launch his cancelled show online in September as a fee-paying online TV show.

Will the UK follow suit? Don’t rule it out. With demand for online video and TV increasing, the natural option would be to revive older formats, either as re-runs or as re-makes. The problem is, as we have seen with much of the ‘fresh’ content produced by smaller satellite and cable channels in this country, production budgets and therefore values just can’t be as high as we are used to with terrestrial TV. Online TV however in the short-term may hold the key to future gameshows, trialling of formats and re-working of old ideas.

Are you watching more of your TV online?

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