The Axandra newsletter archive

25 February 2003

This week we're closing our series with a checklist to simplify your order pages. You'll also learn about our new software tool that helps you to obtain top search engine rankings in a unique way.

Many webmasters face the problem that their visitors don't buy something on their site even if the way the visitors reached the site indicates that they're interested in the
products.

For that reason, our 5-part series shows you what you can do to make your Web site more effective.

PART 5: Checklist for an easy ordering process

When people have finally decided to purchase your product, you must make sure that your order page doesn't drive them away. Statistics indicate that more than 60 percent of online shoppers abort the ordering process.

Check if your potential customers can easily order the products or services on your Web site:

My order page is easy to find. I link from the home page and from all product and service pages to the order page.

My order page link is called "Order", "Buy", "Store", "Checkout" or anything else that my customers easily recognize.

I don't hide the price for my products or services. I know that people will not buy if they don't know what they have to pay.

I tell my visitors about shipping costs and state taxes.

My visitors know the final price before entering the credit card number.

My potential customers can trust me. They know who I am and they can easily find my complete company address.

My visitors don't hesitate to purchase because I offer a no-questions asked money back guarantee.

I tell my visitors upfront about my refund policy.

I tell my visitors upfront about my privacy policy.

My order pages are secure. They use at least 40 bit encryption so that my customers can safely enter their contact and purchase information.

My order pages are easy to understand. I've tested it with my friends or relatives that don't connect to the Internet very often.

I regularly test my order pages if they work.

If my server goes down, I'll get notified.

My order page displays a meaningful message if the customer forgets to enter the street name.

My order pages even work with international customers, for example German customers don't know what to enter in the "State" field and usually leave it empty. Some countries don't even have postal numbers. My order pages do work for them.

If you agree to all points, then your order pages won't stay in the way when your visitors decide to purchase from you.

Top Ten Mistakes of Shopping Cart Design

This was the last part of our "How to make your Web site more effective" series. If you haven't done it yet, read the previous 4 parts to make sure that your Web site generates as many sales as it should (see links below in the Previous Articles section).

* Overture buys AltaVista

The pay per click search engine company Overture will acquire the search engine AltaVista for US$140 million.

Overture said it plans to use the AltaVista Web site as a way to test new search services and marketing products for its advertisers. In addition, Overture "will continue to use AltaVista to sell Overture text ads but maybe in a new way".

* Inktomi extends deal with MSN

Inktomi was able to extend its arrangement to provide search results for Microsoft's MSN Web portal through 2005.

* Ask Jeeves UK introduces paid inclusion

Ask Jeeves UK now provides a service that guarantees webmasters the inclusion of their Web pages in the search engine index of ask.co.uk.

* Google's Zeitgeist for January 2003 released

* Espotting Norway

Espotting has opened its doors in Norway. Espotting Norway is partnering with Yahoo Norge, Lycos and AllTheWeb.

* FAST Search now powers Dell.com

The search engine company FAST Search, that also powers AllTheWeb.com, now provides site search technology to Dell.com.

* Search Engine Resurgence

The Washington Post gives a nice summary of what has changed in the search engine world in the last few weeks: Google buys Blogger.com, Overture buys AltaVista, Yahoo buys Inktomi

* Comments on the Google-Blogger deal

Dave Winer, CEO of UserLand Software, which develops the Weblog tool "Radio UserLand", has commented on Google's acquisition of Blogger.com on his own Weblog. "I never imagined we'd be competing with Google."

* IBP 2.0 offers a unique way to a top 10 ranking

We've just released version 2.0 of our Web promotion tool collection "Internet Business Promoter" (IBP). The great new feature is the Top 10 Ranking Optimizer tool.

It compares your Web page with the top 10 ranked pages for any keyword on any search engine. Then it tells you in plain English what you must do to optimize your Web site according to the top ranked pages.

As always, we've notified our existing customers that the new version was available. Very soon, we've earned many raves from satisfied customers, for example Mike Richey said about IBP:

"It kicks [competitor name] down into the ground. This program is EXCELLENT!!! VERY GOOD. You have made quite a few people here happy."

Daniel Han said: "I started the new IBP and I immediately knew you had a winner here. It takes the mystery out of optimizing my Web pages for search engines. I plan to buy the Business edition soon."

Read about the new IBP 2.0 here.

* How to Get top 10 search engine rankings in 3 easy steps

1. Download the all new Internet Business Promoter.
   
   
2. Start IBP, click the "Top 10 Ranking Optimizer" button, enter the URL of your Web site and a search term that is important for your business. Select one out of 200 search engines.
   
   
3. Click the "Analyze" button in IBP and you're done.

IBP will tell you in plain English what you have to do to get a top 10 ranking for your search term.

It's fast, it's easy and it works. So far, IBP has received 5 out of 5 ratings from Tucows, TopShareware.com, Software Networld, FileHungry.com, VersionTracker.com and FileTransit.com.

• How to make your Web site more effective, part 4
  
  
• How to make your Web site more effective, part 3
  
  
• How to make your Web site more effective, part 2
  
  
• How to make your Web site more effective, part 1
  
  
• Frames and the NoFrames tag
  
  
• The importance of robots.txt

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