Did you know that you can customize your 404 Error pages? Did you know it’s a really good idea to customize your 404 error pages? Customizing a 404 error page is a great way to prevent a lost click, a lost visitor and a lost sale or conversion.
First off, what is 404 error page? Let’s say you’ve updated your website and all your URLs have changed. Natural, or organic listings can take awhile to catch up, and someone could click an old listing and land on a 404 error page. Same with bookmarks. Unless you’ve taken the time to automatically redirect every old URL on your site to your new pages, that visitor is going to land on a 404 error page. Another way to land on the 404 page is if someone misspelled a page of your site, or forgot the “L” at the end of the “.html.”
Now here’s why creating your own custom 404 error page is a good thing: The standard 404 error page is pretty generic, it really doesn’t explain what a 404 error is and every server displays different error text. It can also be pretty confusing for a visitor. After all, the page they get is not what they are expecting. They could just leave, and you don’t want them to do that after they took the time to visit you. Custom 404 errors are good customer service. Think of it as one more way of being extra helpful and friendly.
So you just have to ask your customers one question, “Do you feel like buying from me/hiring me/contacting me/partnering with me/using my services?” Of course, you really should follow that question up with a pleasant “Well, do ya?” I’m amazed at how many websites don’t focus on that core question, especially those using pay per click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to their sites.
If your goal is for a potential customer to call you, then why don’t you have your phone number on every page, asking the customer to call you? If your goal is for a potential customer to purchase something, why don’t you have an Add to Cart button immediately visible on the page right next to the product? If your goal is to get a potential client to send you their contact information, then why don’t you have a simple form available for them to fill out with a nice big Submit button right beneath it?
This is a back-to-basics article about your website and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and the relationship between the two. One of the first things we look at here at JumpFly when we get a new client is their website. And one of the very first things we look for is a phone number, prominentlydisplayed on every page of the website.
A phone number in the header on every web page is something we highly, highly recommend to every client. It’s not enough to have it buried in the bottom of the page or only on the Contact Us page. We’re talking every page, in the header where it’s immediately visible.
And it’s not because we want you to get more phone calls, but we’ve actually seen a definite correlation between conversion rate improvement and having that phone number on your website. Here’s what we think is the reason why:
Google Analytics and the Device segment in Google AdWords reports on mobile traffic to a website, and that number is increasing for all my clients, no matter the type. Also to note, in most cases, the bounce rate is significantly higher than desktop devices and the conversion rate is lower, which are not the statistics anyone wants.
You might be thinking that I’m only talking about BtoC or ecommerce sites, but that’s not the case. More and more business people are doing initial research on companies from their smartphones – maybe while sitting in a meeting or while at the airport.
ComScore Inc. published a study called “Mobile Shopping Goes Mainstream” and the data is incredibly compelling. If you do not have a true, mobile-friendly website, you need to put that high on your to-do list for 2012. I wrote a separate blog about the importance of mobile websites for business-to-business companies, but this blog will concentrate on true ecommerce sites.
When I say “true, mobile-friendly website,” I don’t mean your regular website viewed on a smartphone, but actually optimised for the mobile user experience. Two-thirds of smartphone users performed shopping functions (including purchases, product comparisons, coupon searches, taking product pictures or retail location searches) in the month of September. (Another interesting statistic from this study is that 56% of people were in their home when purchasing, when they most likely had access to a desktop or laptop computer.)
Are you a part of a design team? Well, then you must be aware of the burgeoning realm associated with mobile website designing. The world is moving fast. Technology is dominating every other field of work. With the advancement of computing technology, internet services and especially the mobile technology, the world is experiencing a massive realm of competition. Mobile devices nowadays are not only used for phone calls or portable media players. They have been stuffed to the throat with loads of features like access to the internet, GPS systems, etc.
Mobile devices that have been enabled with an internet access capability are quite useful nowadays. Mobile web is referred to the internet usage on a mobile gadget. It can be a tablet PC, a Smartphone, etc. Initially, the internet was limited to fixed-line systems. Mobile devices can host web based applications and internet surfing, but it still has a lot of advancement to make.
Website Design has witnessed a number of changes and has evolved over a period of time. The first page that was uploaded on a website was in the form of just black text. The creator of the page was Tim Burners Lee who also happens to be the founder of the World Wide Web. But, now, website design has undergone tremendous changes and includes complex codes and designs. In the era pf 1990’s, website design moved towards colorful text and pictures and the web page looked more like brochures. Zen Cart and Joomla Website Design are in demand nowadays.
The popularity of the internet attracted many people towards it and they were more than willing to exploit the chance given and enjoy the benefits of first movers. The websites were designed by them in a colourful format which could please the eyes of the users and had a flood of information in colourful text that too on a single web page, the information was overloaded on the single web page. Although, such websites did enjoy the popularity of the masses but after some time users were repelled by the excess information on the screen and they used to move away from it. The websites consisted of many overlapping colours and of course a lot of information, the pop ups drove away the attention of users from the main text and they did not appreciate it much. So, the early web designing had many drawbacks.
It is a scripting language for the common purpose. PHP is one of the most preferred languages accepted across the world wide for development. PHP application development is the best use for frameworks and provides a design structure. PHP based websites offer more room to grow as PHP adds more functionality to your website and allows your site visitors to interact with you through scripts. PHP programming language designs customer-oriented and eye-catching websites as well as best dynamic web pages. This is fastest growing scripting language that takes your business beyond your expectation level in this highly competitive market. With the help of PHP application development you can develop business web pages for small and large business holders and personal web pages according to the client’s needs. It is easy to add content and additional pages to a PHP based website without much editing.
Mobile websiteis assuming more and more importance for a simple reason; you can reach the customer on the spot, right when she or he is in a shopping mood. Over 327 million people use mobile phones in the U.S (funnily that is more phones than the number of people, but then, people have more than one phone.)Compare this with only 196 million people with access to the internet; and access does not mean actual usage. Just a dipstick survey can show you that there are big spenders who never go near a computer; but all of them use a mobile phone. Mobile website designing is the art that can take your product or service to this huge majority.
Can you just port your regular website onto mobile space?
The answer is yes and no, but with the emphasis on the ‘No’ side. Thoughtfulmobile website designing changes the very look, positioning and effectiveness of your content. Cell phones are used mostly on the go and often outdoors; your target audience would not have the time and patience to navigate as they would normally do on a computer website. Your message should be crisp, clear and to the point. Further, Search engines crawl through smart phone websites in a different way, which is an important reason for customized mobile website designing.
Before designing a website designers analyse & think of impressions that assist them in this process assert. Visitors mainly spend 4-5 seconds to understand and evaluate what your website offers. Homepage is a gateway for your customers to access your web store so to make your mark on the web the homepage design should be bright, semantic, striking & get the point across to visitors. Now days, websites are designed in a way which stand more than simple informative pages. For past few years, CSS3 & HTML5 have been on the distant prospect of website design. Masterful designers assert that appearance is one of the main thing that draw people to site. Designers make use of new techniques and tools to create professionally-looking impressive website covered with spectacular advancements. A website which defines balanced composition that covers client requirements, reflects the values, aesthetics of his business and communicates those ideas to approaching visitors.
Website designers keep experimenting with new design trends to create striking and stunning solutions for online business to fulfil their wish to lead on online competitors as site is real shop front.
For marketing a product, it needs to be designed for a particular market. Where people have evolved from computer internet browsing to mobile internet browsing, the standards of websites have also sought the need for advancement. Therefore, mobile website designing came into being.
As every business wants to be on the top most position, in this rat race, website marketing is of great help to those who use it well. A mobile web site needs to be designed for a mobile screen and not for a computer screen. One needs to make sure that the website design is compatible with a mobile handset. In recent times, Iphone, smart phones and android have become a good source for mobile website marketing with innumerable applications made specifically for these mobile phones.
A website is the organisation’s path or a window that exhibits all the proceedings, based on the past to decide the future of the company. So the effective web design decides the company’s progress. Designing effectively means to have a balanced artistic design with practicality and functionality.
Developing a new website takes time and patience, because the content should be presented in a readable, easily-accessible way, not just for the benefit of visitors but for the search engines too. Even though the companies come up with their content, a typical web design company over its wide and immense experience over the web design services should guide the clients. So the web design company should abide to the following etiquettes to develop an effective web design.
Photo’s by #Rankin at #Dazed exhibition / on Instagram http://instagr.am/p/l4sF5/
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