Bigger Buy Button

IS 379 Final Synthesis Contribution

My contribution is as follows:

- Got into contact with Cindy @ CAHS about which landing page design she wanted to go with. 

- Reverted traffic from the Adwords Ad's back to the CAHS original landing page

- Create the team blog post and presentation

- Had fun?...

IS379 Final Synthesis Team Project

Today is he last day...

Here is a quick evaluation of what our group did this semester:

Using a variety of resources (LIFT Model, Don't Make Me Think and Web Resign for ROI) we were able to custom tailor landing pages to the organization needs of Capital Area Humane Society.

Here are a few things both Brian and I did:

- Eliminate text so the user is less overwhelmed by material.

- Make the Goal action something you know is a button and you know what's going to happen if you click it. 

- Identify a goal which will provide a revenue stream and keep them in business (going to the shelter and adopting a puppy is the way to do this)

The 3 sources provide a good foundation on how to design a landing page.  However they might not work in every scenario.  It's possible (but unlikely) that some landing pages might give the user not enough information.  What if you can't identify a clear experience that the user is primed to do?  You may not be able to pick just one goal action.  There are countless scenarios and by no means should a landing page that "works" in one organization will automatically "work" in another. 

This semester I felt our group found something that worked, and the results supported that hypothesis.

This would have been good @ the start of the semester

This site offers a nice overview demo of different aspects of analytics.

Living Stories

Check out Google's experiment with delivering information that tells the whole story:

News, made for the Web.

The Living Stories project is an experiment in presenting news, one designed specifically for the online environment. The project was developed by Google in collaboration with two of the country's leading newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

All in one place
Complete coverage of an on-going story is gathered together and prioritized on one URL. You can now quickly navigate between news articles, opinion pieces and features without long waits for pages to load.

Easy to explore
Each story has an evolving summary of current developments as a well as an interactive timeline of critical events. Stories can be explored by themes, significant participants or multimedia.

Smarter reading
Updates to the story are highlighted each time you come back, and older news is summarized.

Demographic Design

Using a tool that gives you demographic information about your keywords can help you design your landing page.  According to SearchEngineLand, this is true whether you are talking about ad keywords or organic search terms.  For example (from their post):

Keyword Phrase	Searches Per Day	Gender Split	Dominant Age Range
Phoenix Dentists	4	56% Female; 44% male	25-34
Dentist Phoenix	2	83% Female; 17% Male	25-34

So from this data, I know that a majority of my shoppers are female, and they’re between the ages of 25 and 34. What do I know about this age group and gender? And how can that help my client increase the phone calls to their site?

• Women outnumber men on most social networks, so make your page clean and easy to understand, and make it link to your Facebook fan page and show them how to follow you on Twitter.
• This is a bit of a generalization, but I’m not afraid to use them to get going on a new page. We’re you’re looking at a fairly web-savvy lady who may or may not have insurance. Either way, she’s looking for quality service, recommendations and up-front pricing with no surprises, be sure your page reflects that.
• Import 3rd party reviews right onto your site, and especially on this page to increase the trust factor once this user lands.
• Use straightforward language and information in bullet points. Vanessa Fox said at PubCon this year (to paraphrase) the internet is your new 1-800 number, provide ALL of the information your shoppers need at the click of a mouse.
• I would also try, and then test, an image of a “girl next door” type or some cute kids with great teeth would appeal to your user; and if your user happens to be a guy, a cute girl wouldn’t hurt a thing!

Sorry, Bud...

...but the Droid is sooooo 2009.  Come January, Google may render it redundant at best...

Champions of Care

Okay, we'll have to file this under Web/Tech, because this isn't an iTunes course.  But I wrote the app that manages the data for our weekly radio show and now also creates an RSS feed for iTunes.  If you have iTunes on this computer, you can access it here.

Detroit in 3D: No Special Glasses Necessary!

Well, I must admit, I found this to be very unexpected.  Perhaps Mike has more pull than we knew...  But Detroit was chosen to be the second city to be rendered in 3D by Google!  Read more on the Google SketchUp blog.

Error message lied

So after my last blog I got an error message saying that it couldn't find the page after i clicked publish.  I assumed that this meant my blog didn't load and rewrote it.  Then it happened again.  So I restarted my browser and retyped it.  I got the same message and gave up,,, but apparently they published,, sorry abou that and i hope i deleted them correctly. 

google finance

Google finance V Aol finance.  My overall opinion is that Aol suits my needs my needs better.  They have more historical data that is easier to find.  I really appreciate the fact that when you click on dividends, you get the last five years worth of data.  Sure made my presentation easier.  Although I still find myself using google for references on current data.  Maybe it's the streamlined approach.