Lytron, Author at Lytron Fort Lauderdale Web Design & SEO Agency

If You Can’t Beat Amazon, Join Them!

If You Can’t Beat Amazon – Join Them! In 1995, Amazon began as an online book seller. But in the subsequent 17 years, it has become the biggest and most successful online retailer in the world.

But Amazon founder Jeff Bezos isn’t stopping there. The company has acquired such diverse enterprises as the Washington Post newspaper, upscale grocer Whole Foods, and many others.

Many businesses find themselves in direct competition with Amazon, as the online retail giant makes it easier than ever for its customers to buy from them rather than anybody else. In recent years, the company introduced its new Amazon Echo interactive home device that literally allows customers to order practically anything they want simply by asking “Alexa” for it.

In recent years, the company introduced its new Amazon Echo interactive home device that literally allows customers to order practically anything they want simply by asking “Alexa” for it.

And more innovations are certainly coming from Amazon.

If You Can’t Beat Amazon, Join Them! – SEO Florida – Selling through Amazon

In the wake of such marketplace dominance, many businesses are discovering that it is easier to join forces with Amazon than compete against it.

Amazon makes few products on its own, instead serving as a marketplace for other businesses’ offerings. Companies can sell their products to Amazon directly for resale, or ship their products directly to customers who buy them through Amazon.

While Amazon takes a share of the profits, it is often worth it for companies because they can gain access to the online retailers billions of prospective customers.

If You Can’t Beat Amazon, Join Them! – SEO Florida – Amazon Affiliates

Another way to use Amazon’s market dominance to your advantage is through its Amazon Affiliates program.

When you sign up, you can promote products available on Amazon through your own Website, social media accounts, and elsewhere and when people click through to buy those products, you get a small commission for every sale that is made through your portals.

In the early 21st Century, Amazon has created a market position that is hard for other businesses to compete against. So if you can’t beat Amazon, you might consider joining them.

Monetizing Personal Data with Your Website

People will return to businesses if they feel as if they have a personal relationship with them.

Think about your own experience: When employees at your favorite coffee shop know your regular order or your local bookstore calls you when your favorite author has a new book out, aren’t you more likely to go back there?

Capturing and storing personal information about your customers can help build trust relationships with them and keep them returning to your online business again and again.

The Value of Birthdays

One of the easiest types of personal data to capture and store is birthdays. When you ask your customer for their birthday, you can use this data to create special offers, discounts, and other personalized birthday celebrations.

Most people like to have their birthdays recognized and celebrated. Storing a customer’s birthday as a data string in their digital personal information file allows your business to make your customers feel special and strengthen your trust relationship with them.

Monetizing Personal Data with Your Website – Other Personal Data

Birthdays aren’t the only personal information you can collect and store about your customers. Information such the name of the city where they live, whether or not they are married or have children, and where they went to school can be invaluable in building trust bonds.

Product preferences are another great way to let your customers feel as if you know them personally. If they always buy the same products or brands from you, your business can create a personalized marketing plan that will ensure they come back to your website to purchase those products every time.

People like to be recognized and appreciated, even by the businesses they deal with only online. By learning and storing personal information such as birthdays and product preferences, you can build customer loyalty and increase retention.

How Web Search Engines Work

In less than 20 years, the internet has gone from not existing to being one of the biggest and most influential industries in the world.

Google, which was only founded in 1998, is now the most popular search engine on the web. Every day, billions of people use it to find information, buy products, stream video, and many other uses.

The Three Stages of Search Engines

While we all rely on the internet for practically everything today, most people have no actual idea how it works.

Search engines like Google, Bing!, and others use three basic stages. The first is crawling, where content is discovered. The second is indexing, where the discovered content is analyzed then stored in huge databases. And the third is retrieval, which is when you use Google to find what you are looking for on the web.

Crawling

Crawling involves scanning a website to get a complete list of everything on it, including page title, keywords, and links to other sites.

Google uses automated bots called “spiders” to scan hundreds of new websites every second.

How Web Search Engines Work – Indexing

Once a site has been discovered and crawled through, the search engine will then index it, separating it into its various components so that it can be shared with the search engine’s users according to multiple subjects and uses. storing it in vast hard drives capable of holding petabytes worth of data.

Google stores the data its search engine indexes in vast hard drives capable of holding petabytes worth of data.

How Web Search Engines Work – Retrieval

The third and final stage is actually performed by you. When you type keywords into Google’s search engine, you are asking the search engine to retrieve the results it indexed and display them on your device.

Google uses a complex, constantly changing algorithm to display the results in the order the search engine believes will be most useful to you.

On-Screen Tech Support Builds Bonds with Customers

There is a growing trend among many online retailers to provide on-screen tech support boxes right on their business website. You may have seen these text boxes, which usually pop up at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen when the user lands on the web page.

Typically, these on-screen tech support boxes say something like, “Let me know if there is anything I can help you with today!” They also may include an image of a smiling person wearing a headset.

How On-Screen Text Boxes Work

If the page visitor has questions about your products, services, or other aspects of your business, they can simply type in a text message into the text box.

If the on-screen support screen is being monitored by somebody within your company, they can respond right away in real time. Often this responsibility is “pushed” to a specific department, such as customer service.

Depending on the setup you use for the on-screen text box, any customer inquiries may be forwarded to an individual’s laptop, smartphone, or another device.

On-Screen Tech Support Builds Bonds with Customers – SEO — Building Customer Loyalty Bonds

Having an on-screen tech support box right on your website is a great way to build loyalty bonds with your customers. While a very small percentage of customers will actually use the box, people like the idea that there is a real, live person they can communicate with at any time they like.

It helps them feel as if you genuinely care about their concerns and questions. On-screen tech support text boxes also give you the opportunity to resolve customers complaints, fix problems, and even upsell customers to more of your products and services.

These increasingly popular add-ons to your web pages can be a very effective way to enhance both the usefulness and interactivity of your web pages.

Tips for Optimizing Your Website

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When visitors land on your website, do they immediately understand what your business does or what types of products you offer?

If not, the problem usually lies with your web design. How you set up your pages directly influences whether your page visitors are going to stick around or “bounce” to another site.

Things to Avoid

If your web page is too busy, if it includes a lot of annoying animations, or you are still using Flash, your visitors are probably going to be turned off by your content.

Plus, the more moving parts your website has, the slower it’s going to load, especially on smartphones and other portable devices.

It’s fine to include animation, videos, and other moving media. Just make sure they support your content and give your visitors to play them only if they want to watch them.

Tips for Optimizing Your Website – Things to Include

One of the most important ways search engines determine whether or not a particular web page is popular is by how many social media shares it receives.

If people are sharing your page on their Facebook or Twitter accounts, it’s going to significantly improve its rankings on Google and other search engines.

Make it easy for people to share your pages by including social share and “Follow” buttons on every page of your website. Then encourage visitors to use them.

Tips for Optimizing Your Website – Call to Action

When visitors land on your web page, you usually want them to do something specific like buy a product, watch a video, or click through to another page.

Tell people specifically what you want them to do by using a “Call to Action”. Many visitors won’t know what to do next unless you explicitly tell them.

People are more likely to spend more time on your web page if they find it visually appealing and they understand specifically what you want them to do.

Pictures of People Connect Better with Page Visitors

When you post articles, blogs, or other content on your web page, it’s important that you always include some sort of image to go with it.

But not just any image will do. Visitors to your web page will connect better on an emotional level if you include an image that includes at least one person, rather than simple pictures of objects of products.

Numerous studies have shown that Internet users prefer websites that include pictures of people over pictures of things.

The Human Touch

Human beings are social entities and they like to make connections between people and their stories. When you include an image that includes a real person, people will project their thoughts and ideas onto that image.

But when you simply post a picture of a thing, the viewer can’t make that imaginative connection as easily. They can’t empathize with an object in the same way that they can with a real live human being.

The Voyeuristic Effect

People also like to look at other people. But they don’t always get the opportunity to do so as much as they would like in real life.

Think about your own experiences. In the office, or even in your own home, if you were to stare at another person as long as you wanted it probably would make you both feel uncomfortable.

But you can look at an online photo of a person as long as you like.

This is known as the voyeuristic effect of online marketing. Professional marketers know that if they include images of young, attractive people with their postings, it will attract and hold the eye of the viewer longer.

Pictures of People Connect Better with Page Visitors – SEO Fort Lauderdale — Effective Web Pages

Your web postings will have more effect if they include photos of actual people whenever possible.

People love looking at people. Use that to your advantage.

Overstuffing Your Webpage with Keywords Is Counterproductive

Search engines like Google and Bing! work by scanning content on the Internet and ranking them according to their keywords. These are words or phrases that tell the search engine what the web page is about.

Using the best keywords in the right places on your web pages can help propel your sites to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for Google and other popular search engines.

But using too many keywords in too many places on your web pages can actually be counterproductive to your purpose of attracting new customers, readers, or other website visitors.

An Example

For example, let’s say you own an auto repair business in Fort Myers and you want to attract new customers to your website.

Optimal keywords might include things like “Fort Myers auto repair”, “Fort Myers dent removal”, “Fort Myers towing”, “Fort Myers car repair”, and “auto repair in Fort Myers”.

When you put these words of phrases in places like the headline, sub-headlines, the first 100 words of your content, the last 100 words of your content, photo descriptions, and other places, search engines will see them and understand that your website is about an auto repair business in Fort Myers, Florida.

Keyword Stuffing

While you may have pleased the search engine algorithm scanning and ranking your website, it’s also important to remember who the web page is ultimately intended for: The viewer.

Search engines help people find your web pages. But it’s up to you to get them to stay and read your content once they arrive. If they find keyword stuffed sentences like this, they probably won’t stick around:

“Our Fort Myers auto repair business specializes in Fort Myers dent removal, Fort Myers towing, Fort Myers car repair, and other auto repair in Fort Myers.”

Keywords are important for getting your pages ranked high, but they shouldn’t interfere with the end user’s ability to interact with your web pages.

Including a Poll Builds Customer Loyalty

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One of the most effective ways to make your customers feel as if their opinion counts is to include a poll on your web page, blog, or another online site.

Polls also are simple, fast, and valuable ways to gather critical information that can help your business improve. They let you understand how your customers truly feel about important elements of your business, such as products, quality of service, or other elements.

Adding Polls to Your Web Pages

Most web page design programs, including WordPress and others, have simple tools that make it easy to insert a poll onto your blog or website. These widgets are tiny bits of code that are automatically inserted into your page. All you need to do is to create the poll question and a few possible answers.

When customers land on your blog or webpage, they will see a professional-looking poll that they can use to share their opinions about whatever question you ask. The widget will then capture and store their responses, as well as all the other participants who take the poll and deliver you the results in a simple, easy-to-understand format.

Including a Poll Builds Customer Loyalty – Change It Up

Based on the results of the poll you can improve your products, your service, or other elements of your business. Or you can use the data to make other improvements to your business.

There is no limit to the number or type of polls you can include on your web pages. You can change your polls every month, every week, or every day if you want.

Polls are a fast, simple, and effective way to get feedback directly from your customers. The information you collect can be helpful when looking for ways to improve the quality of your business, products, or service.

Rewards and Recognition Keep Customers Coming Back

The people who visit your website have plenty of other options. So how can you be sure that they will keep returning to your web page over all of your competitors?

You can increase the chances that customers will come back to your pages again and again by launching rewards and recognition programs.

Recognizing Your Customers

People like to be recognized. It’s just human nature. So when you come up with ways to recognize return customers who frequent your website, they will be more likely to come back again and again.

Big online retailers like eBay and Amazon are experts at this. They remember their customers’ previous purchases, their preferences, and even items they have looked at before but didn’t buy.

Given today’s advanced online software, even the smallest businesses can create and execute effective customer recognition programs that capture key data about their visitors and then use it to improve their direct online marketing.

Rewards and Recognition Keep Customers Coming Back – Rewarding Loyalty

In addition to being recognized, people also like to feel appreciated.

Creating customer loyalty programs that offer incentives for people to return to your web pages is just good business. You can use special offers, discounts, prizes, and other tools to motivate people to choose your business over your competitors.

You also can reward people for promoting your business to other people, such as giving discounts or rebates for referrals or motivating people to talk about your business on their social media accounts.

Keeping Customers Coming Back

With so many online choices, customers today need incentives to choose your web pages over your competitors. Rewards and recognition programs give customers something of value in exchange for being loyal to your business or promoting it to other people.

Rewards and recognition programs are a good investment in your business’s future.

With SEO Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Picture

The algorithms search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use to create search engine results pages (SERPs) are highly complicated and top-secret. They also are constantly being updated, improved, and modified.

A lot of web page managers will spend endless hours trying to outsmart these algorithms, constantly scanning the web for anything that will give them an edge over the competition. In some instances, companies will pay thousands of dollars and devote weeks of resources to move up just a few spots on the SERP for their specific keywords.

Given today’s highly competitive online environment, it’s easy to get caught up in this web-based arms race. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to lose sight of the big picture.

Web Page Basics

Inserting a keyword here or moving an image there may marginally improve your page rankings. But if you really want to attract more people to your web pages all you really need to do is to provide high-quality content that people can actually use.

That’s what search engines value most. And it makes sense.

From Google’s perspective, they want web users to use their search engine more than any other because then they can sell more space to advertisers and make more money. And the best way to attract the highest number of web users is to give the best possible search engine experience.

With SEO Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Picture – Give Them What They Want

If people go to Google to find information or products they want to buy and instead discover links to low-quality websites that are only marginally related to what they are searching for, they are going to go somewhere else.

The same holds true for your web pages. If you don’t provide your customers or clients with what they want, they will keep searching until they find what they are looking for.

Google understands this. And you should, too.