The Trust Crisis Imagine walking into a store where the salesperson refuses to make eye contact, tell you their name or what they do, or answer basic questions about the business. You’d likely walk right out. Yet online, countless companies do exactly this by burying their About pages in footer links or filling them with corporate jargon. The cost? Massive. … Read More
Stealing from the shoulders of giants
I’m not a great fan of Amazon. But as much as I dislike their practices, I can’t stop using their services. One of the things that I grudgingly admire is their website. And considering the amount of money they make from all of us, I think it’s only fair to take a few of their ideas and use them on … Read More
Three mistakes that your website is making
When’s the last time you tweaked your website’s main pages? Not a complete redesign. You don’t have time for that. But what if I told you that your website is almost certainly making at least two out of three common mistakes? And that these mistakes are easy to fix. Generally in literally a few minutes. And what if they had … Read More
Your website designer knows nothing about SEO (probably)
Nobody wants to redesign their website, but we’re all going to have to do it at some point. Eugh. This post will make sure that your next website redesign won’t destroy your Google traffic. It might not be useful to you right now, but I’d recommend reading it and storing it somewhere safe for when you next try to choose … Read More
Repel Your Visitors – with examples
I’ve put together a non-exhaustive list of more than thirty ways to ensure that visitors to your website don’t stick around. I suspect that most people reading this are guilty of at least one or two. Fixing them will genuinely make the visitors’ experience, the web and even the world a slightly better place. Â (See number 18.) Confuse them: 1. … Read More
Website teardown: BrickOvenBaker.com
Today’s website teardown is a little brutal. I’ve been in touch with today’s victim, and in the last email he had the following to say:Â “Dave, please be as brutal as you need to be.” I am delighted to oblige. “I look forward to having the shit kicked out of my site.” Excellent. “I hate it more than anybody else and … Read More
Website teardown: Business of Software
Having your website critiqued by a fresh set of eyes can be useful, as we’re so used to seeing our websites that we’re effectively blind to any issues that may be staring visitors in the face. This first in a series of website teardowns is for the Business of Software Conference. If you’d like to submit your website for review, … Read More
The reality of first impressions
How much of an impact does the first impression have on a website? We already know that visitors don’t really spend any time in deciding – they make snap judgments. So why do so many websites fail to deliver? Transcript of video: Hi this is Dave Collins from SoftwarePromotions. Today I’m going to be talking about how long visitors to … Read More
Good news everyone!
Every morning I spend half an hour looking at news and commentary from a wide variety of sources. Yet it’s only recently that I’ve become aware of how the quality and creativity of the headlines and titles have improved dramatically over the years. I think that David Ogilvy may be to blame. And yes there is blame: “On the average, … Read More
It’s time to throw away your sales funnels
Why do we use the analogy of a funnel for our website visitors? Could it be wishful thinking? A funnel is designed to conduct the flow of liquids or other substances into a container with a small mouth. Rather than pouring the liquid over the mouth and hoping that some of it actually falls in, the funnel channels the flow. … Read More
