Remember that people might search for the plural of phrases, or what the product does, or where it could be used, or when it’s used.

Think about breakfast cereals, kitchen cleaner, moisturiser, budget flights and so on. There are bound to be ways that you could incorporate these type of phrases in your copy.

This makes your content read better and will give your visitors and the search engines more information about what your page is about.

Don’t forget that you can mention your product features and benefits too.

Using Google Analytics can ensure that you know what people are looking for whilst on your site.

Perhaps you sell a product or brand that is hard to spell, or is know by what it does as well as a specific brand or model. Think about generic terms, such as Hoover, Sellotape, Post It Notes, Kleenex, Band Aid and the many others.

What about sizes, quantities or colours? What about model names, or equivalents?

Ensuring that you know what your visitors are looking for will help you to have the right products or information available, and how else you can meet the needs of your target audience.

You’ll be able to find out what people think, and what they like and don’t like, and how you can improve things.

However, you don’t want to make your survey too intrusive. Having it pop up the minute a visitor lands on your site, and asking what people think about your site will be pointless.

People won’t bother to fill in your survey if they just want some information, or prices or opening hours. Putting up barriers will discourage visitors from being customers.

A survey that pops up quite discreetly and asks relevant questions as your visitor is leaving your site is more likely to be completed.

Knowing want to do with the results of your survey will also be important!

Another way of finding out what your visits think is to either ring them or to send a postage paid survey form with each order.

Richer Sounds use surveys and customer satisfaction forms to see where customer service can be improved.

Using incentives such as a prize or vouchers or other ways to convince people to fill in your surveys is a good idea too.

What other ways can you think of to get people’s opinions and find out how you can improve your website.

You might be a firm of solicitors needing a formal and corporate website, or you might be selling adventure and sports products aimed at teens, but your passion still needs to be visible.

People will often need a solicitor at a delicate time of their life. Think about divorce, criminal, wills and probate or employment law cases. You’ll need to ensure that you can reassure visitors to your website that you are right for them.

If you’re selling sports products it’s much easier to show your passion with a brighter and more creative looking website. You can have lots of information, or FAQs or buyers guides that show your target audience that you’re passionate and knowledgeable about what you do.

Keeping your website updated, and remembering to remove time sensitive content will also show that you’re keen on making more of your online prescence.

When was the last time you looked through your website and checked it for passion? Could you change your copy so that it’s more engaging, or includes call to action or is more positive? What about “we will” rather than “we can”? What about making sure your content is easy to read and offers plenty of opportunity to show off your product knowledge or experience?

If you are, it might be worth seeing how you can reduce the amount of bandwidth used.

Here’s what you can do:

• Are you using huge images and then resizing them?
• Have you got your CSS rules in your html pages?
• Have you got your Javascript in your html pages
• Are you still using tables for the layout of your website?
• Have you got too much content on each page?
• Have you got videos loading on your homepage?
• Have you got a Flash welcome screen movie?
• Is your site, or a particluar page  likely to become popular suddenly, or benefit from the “Digg” effect?
• Is your site seasonal, or likely to be busy on certain days of the year, or at holiday times?

By thinking ahead, and opimising your code and making your sites quick to load and easy to use, you’ll find that the amount of bandwidth used can be dramatically reduced.  Yhis means that as well as providing your visitors  with a better experience, and a more efficient way of finding what they want, your hosting costs will be less too.

If you’re an ecommerce site, you’ll need to make sure that you’re using the most appropriate hosting package. You won’t be able to afford the loss of business if your site goes down for a couple of days.

If you’re expecting lots of traffic on your website, perhaps you’re a news or fan website, or a technology site that reviews the latest gadgets, or a social networking site, or a company that’s in the news, you’ll need to make sure that your site can handle the traffic.  You won’t want visitors and potential customers or clients to get the wrong impression of your company.

It really does make sense to get the best hosting.  If you’re not sure what you need, or what it all means, then ring up the hosting company and talk to someone.

Why not take five minutes and make sure that your hosting package, and pricing structure is right for your visitors?  You’ll find all the visitor and page view information you need in Google Analytics.

• the number of sales
• the value of the sales
• the number of visitors to your site
• the amount of time visitors spend on your site
• how visitors find your site
• where visitors are from
• the most popular pages
• what time of day visitors come to your site
• where your site appears in the search results for your most important keywords
• number of newletter subscriptions
• number of memberss

and so on…

However, what you don’t know, is what people really think of your site.  You might be missing a trick by not offering a certain product or service, or by hiding your delivery details, or phone number.

Visitors might want to read more about your products, or your calls to action could be stronger, or maybe your visitors would liek to discuss your products or services with each other on a forum.

Unless you make the effort to actually ask your visitors what they think, you’ll never truly know what they think of your site.  It might be that people love your site, or that your site is the only one offering a certain product, or the lowest price, and that’s why people buy from you.

Why not encourage your visitors to suggest improvements to your site, so that you know what they think?  You might be surprised at the answers, but you’ll be better informed as to how you can meet their needs.

If lots of respondants want you to change your colour scheme, or have more product pictures, or have video demonstrations of your procucts, then you’ll be able to make more use of your website, and turn yiur visitors into customers.

By giving the respondants an incentive,  such as a discount voucher, or a prize for the best suggestions, you’re more likely to encourage even the first time, or casualy visitor to comment.

Whether you choose to email a questionnaire to your members and subscribers, or have a survey section on your website, you’ll want to make sure that your visitors have the opportunity to comment, without feeling pressured into it.

Oh, and by the way, it’s not a good idea to have the survey/what do you think about this website/tell us what you think form pop up on the first page that the visitor arrives at.  The visitor has just arrived at this page, and might not know anything about your website or company.  If they’re just looking for a price, or an address or phone number, they don’t want to be impeded by a form that’s not important to them.

Now you know what sort of things you can do to improve your visitors’ experience of your website,  and its usability, what’s stopping you?

He commented that it must be how people who aren’t “into” cars feel when they go to buy a car.

I was thinking, that it could apply to websites too.  If you’re wondering how visitors feel when they’re trying to buy from your site, why not try buying products or services that you know nothing about from a site that you find in the search engine results.

For example:

If you sell cars, why not try buying a boat or a caravan?

If you sell clothes, why not try buying sports equipment?

If you sell insurance, then choose an architect, or a solicitor

If you sell computers, why not buy a bike, or fishing tackle.

By having to choose something that you know nothing about, you”ll have to do some research, and ask around, in the same way that your potential customers do.  You’ll be finding that every other word is jargon, and you’re expected to know what it means.  You might not know the difference between 2 fishing rods, or what size frame your bike should be, or whether your can tow the caravan you’re interested in.

You’ll be able to learn lots from this sort of activity, and  make your site easier to use, and more approachable for people who don’t know what they want, or how to choose what they want.

If you find looking for fishing tackle hard, and there are lots of options, and essential accessories you need, and brands to choose from, as well as fishing bags, reels, bait and waders, how do think a first time computer buyer feels when looking on your website?  Not everyone knows about hard drives, broadband, RAM, graphics cards and so on.  People don’t want to buy a laptop, they want to be able to use websites.  They’re  probably not bothered about bus speeds, they want to know if there’s a web camera, or how easy it is to install a printer, and how many songs or videos the computer can hold.

If you find a fishing tackle site, with a “rod finder” guide, that asks lots of questions about what you’re fishing for, where you’re fishing, and how much you want to spend, you’re much more likely to be able to find your perfect fishing rod.

If you stumble across a website for a firm of solicitors that puts you at ease, then how could you make your insurance, or financial advice site as easy to use and reassuring?

What aspects of the various sites you look at could you use? What made you click on them in the first place? Did  you just look at sites or brands you already knew? Were the results what you expected?

What aspects of customer service, or the delivery details did you like? How much attention did you pay to the About Us or Mission Statement pages, and why?  What affect did the colours or fonts have on you.  What about navigation? What about the tone of the copy? What about images and  logos? Would having videos describing how to use your products, or what to look for when buying your products be beneficial to your customers? Would your customers benefit from being able to discuss their purchases or hobbies with a forum?

There are many things that you can take from this sort of activity, and by seeing things from your potential visitors and customers point of view, and understanding that not everyone shares your passion for power drills, or is as keen on koi carp as you are, you’ll be able to make your website easier to use, and the  buying experience much better.

Why not give it a try?

You can’t assume that your visitors will know what you do, or how you do it. They might have arrived at your site on a product page, rather than your homepage.  They might not know what tool they need, or which plumbing service, or air conditioning unit will be right for them.

Why not make sure that you have  plenty of information for first time buyers, or those who aren’t likely to know what they need.

Alternatively, if you sell a very niche product, or provide an extremely specialised service, then you shouldn’t patronise your visitors by only offering basic information.    If you know that people will only find your site, or look for you, if they know exactly what they want or need, then give them what theyre looking for.

How can you make your site better for visitors and help them find what they need?

Remember that not everyone will be sat at a desktop computer with a 22″ monitor.  Nowadays people will browse shopping sites, and use Facebook and Twitter on a laptop in front of the TV.   They will also be using their phone too.

If your site is for a venue, such as a restaurant, or a theatre, or maybe a theme park, or a car dealer, or even an electrical store on an out of town retail park, it’s essential that your site will work properly on a phone.

Don’t underestimate the importance of being able to find your site whilst on the move.  Think about the sort of people who will be looking for your site, and the situations they will be in.

A mother might be looking for an all night chemist with a poorly baby in the car.  A family lost on their way to a theme park after a long and hot drive on a bank holiday might need to know how to get there avoiding the motorway.  Somebody looking for a museum, or a zoo, a football ground or a stately home or an art gallery might need to check opening hours, or where the best car parks are.

If your site does give directions, then make them useful.  Not everybody knows road names or numbers, and just because the road name is listed on the map, it doesn’t mean that there is a street name sign at the junction.

Why not think about using local landmarks, or prominent buildings.  It’s much easier to suggest that drivers follow signs to Somewhere, and then take the turning after the Pub, than it is to tell them to follow the A123 for 2.3 miles, and then take the B456 for approximately 1 mile.

If you’re located directly opposite the Supermarket, or behind the church, or next to the post office, then why not tell people.  Not everyone is local, and so it’s easier if they have a landamark to look out for.  In addition, if they need to ask for directions, they’ll know what to ask for.

Don’t forget to put your post code prominently on your site,  so that those using satellite navigation can quickly get directions.

Why not make sure that you have your opening hours or entrance prices clearly visible on your site?

Why not make sure that visitors can find out where the branch of your shop is in Anytown? If people are searching for Your Company Name in Town, does the relevant page come up showing them the directions, address and phone number? Is the top result a complaint about your company?

It’s worth making sure that you perform searches like these, so that you know what results your potential visitors and customers will get.

How else can you make it easier for those people on the move to find you?

Thanks to Boagworld Podcast 211, at http://www.boagworld.com for inspiration and the nudge.

Doing this will enable your reader to understand what your product or service does and why they need it.

Think about the difference between:

“these headache pills contain abc123 which is more effective than xyz321″

and something like:

Remember the last time you had a headache? Remember how much it hurt, and how you struggled to see properly,  and to concentrate?  How long did it take you to find the headache pills?  If you don’t normally get headaches, and don’t know where to find the pills, or you were at work, or in the car and didn’t have any to hand, what did you do?  The new family sized pack of Superpills is slim enough to keep in your wallet or purse, so you’ve always got them with you, and thanks to new ingredients, they’re even quicker at getting rid of pain, and so allowing you to get on with your day.

Although it’s more text,  it puts the product in context, and plays on real feelings and experiences.  Nobody cares about the ingredients, or the new formula, they just want what the product does, and in most cases, now!  As mentioned before, in the Product Placement blog post, nobody wants to buy a drill, they want a hole!