Dan Collins | Nuts & Bolts

Castle Rock Web Designer - Website Conversion

2011-03-01T23:32:00.001-07:00

Hello this is Dan Collins, a Castle Rock web designer and certified usability expert.

For all business owners, it is an exciting day when their website makes its debut to the World via the Internet. Confidence is soaring as they wait with anticipation for leads to start appearing, but alas, a week may pass with few to no leads. Anger and frustration soon replace anticipation for this business as they try to understand what went wrong...until they realize that their issue was a lack of website conversation.

In order to ensure the success of your online business, you have to achieve a high conversion rate. There are many ways through which you can accomplish this particular goal. The first and foremost thing you should do is to identify your target audience.
Creating a website that produces quality leads takes more than just creating a website loaded with search engine optimization keywords. Guaranteeing that your site creates confidence and builds trust with the subject specific, targeted content, is key.

Many business owners focus too heavily on generating website content, just to get more Internet traffic. Yes, increased traffic is good, but not just to increase your website visitor stats. Too many business owners fail to follow up with visitors, and they are the paths to profit!

Improving your website conversion is not a difficult process. You should have a clear line of action and make an outline. Many people fail in taking any type of initiative, and fail before they even begin.

Website conversion has become a necessity in today's online marketing; making it an important step when companies are looking to create a website that will overcome their competition. Those who are experts at marketing online, can expect for their sales to drastically increase in a short period of time, since their clients will feel confident, transferring their business to these companies, due to information on their website, and guaranteeing returning business. Again making it evident that proper website conversion can no longer be overlooked in today's competitive market.

People buy from individuals they like and trust, plain and simple. You may have read or listened to online marketing gurus who say that nurturing trust between you and your customer is an important way to improve conversion rate. People do not make purchases from people they do not trust. Yet, few business owners are implementing systems and tools to tap into that trust to get these leads to open their wallets.

As a business website owner, do whatever it takes to increase conversion rates and increase your prospective clients' level of trust in you. This has the potential to boost conversion, as a result, you will increase your sales.

By employing simple trust factors, to increase the conversion rates, of your web traffic, will impact turning your website visitors into paying customers. If you were to increase your conversion rates, even by a mere 1-2 percent, you would see a high impact on profits. Especially if compared to efforts that simply target your efforts to tripled the clicks to your website, but failed to further capitalize on visitor curiosity.

If you would like to know more about how to increase your website conversion rates please visit my website at www.dancollinsdesign.com.
Dan Collins is an conversion expert and a freelance web designer. He provides professional solutions for small businesses through clean, modern, usability tested web design.

Castle Rock, Colorado Web Designer - Small Business Web Design

2011-02-13T10:57:00.001-07:00

Hello this is Dan Collins, a Castle Rock web designer and certified usability expert.

To begin your internet marketing strategy as a small business owner, your first step is inevitably creating a website. This medium presents a good starting point for modernizing any business and bringing it to the next level. Finding the right web designer can be a hassle within itself, so in order to make an informed decision you should first ascertain exactly what you need.

You have to get a feel for what components and functions are needed from the site. Generally, many businesses require only a standard website. Akin to an online business card, this is a straightforward website that has a few pages detailing the concept of the business, the location, what services are provided and how to make contact. As there aren't any advanced features specified, your developer would not need to worry too much about any complicated coding and can just concentrate on making the website look great.

What kind of advanced features can be implemented?
Once it is determined that the website requires a CMS (Content Management System) the development side of the website becomes important. There are two main reasons to employ a CMS. Firstly you want to be able to update, create and edit your own pages, taking away the need to constantly employ a web developer.

Content can be modified with what is known as a WSYWIG (what you see is what you get) editor that also allows simple formatting of text and negates the need for knowledge of HTML. A CMS will cost extra to integrate with the back end of a website. However, in the long run you could save money on maintenance.

A CMS is no substitute for a true web professional and they have their limitations based on the task they need to perform. Only certain actions can be performed with a CMS, such as updating text, images and data. They can only do what they are programmed to do. So changes to do with website design and layout or added functionality that hasn't been written into the specification will require a web designer.

A CMS can also work as a back end database. The kinds of websites that require this usually provide some sort of online service or listing. This could be a online portfolio of projects or a database of local businesses. A CMS would be needed to create and modify records without needing any database knowledge. Your developer will need lots of database knowledge of course and such a job will require one who is a competent coder.

What other features that may require special attention?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is mission critical, if you expect your potential clients to be able to find you in the search engines. The internet is an over-saturated medium and to get your foot in the door may require special services to hopefully increase your rank within the search results. Google is the number 1 search engine, but SEO is a vast topic better left for its own article. This is a service that many web designers will provide as well and if done well can be the difference between success and failure.

Putting all this information isn't is difficult as you may think. You want the best website for your small business and the more knowledge you are armed with increases your ability to guide the web designer in the right direction.

If you would like to know more about web design for small businesses please visit my website at www.dancollinsdesign.com.

Dan Collins is an conversion expert and a freelance web designer. He provides professional solutions for small businesses through clean, modern web design.

Castle Rock, Colorado Web Designer - Mistakes to Avoid for 2011

2011-01-24T21:29:00.001-07:00

Hello this is Dan Collins, Castle Rock web designer and certified usability expert.
As you embark on this years online Internet website marketing, here is a list of five website mistakes you will want to avoid.

1) Continuing to assume you do not need to be concerned about your online website presence.
It continues to amaze me the number of business people I come across that seem to think that the Internet is nothing more than a passing fad.
These same people are also not concerned about their brand or company's search engine ranking position. If you can't find yourself online, neither can anyone else.

2) Continuing to ignore the Local search results in search engines.
Local search is critical and very important to search engines, like Google, in how they deliver up search results. Make sure you come up in your local market for your products and services.

3) Don't dismiss SEO as a world full of unfulfilled promises and money being thrown into the abyss.
Although there are many "providers" who would fall into the category out there, not all SEO related services are like that. I can show you how to get the results you are after with actual SEO marketing today. It is one of those necessary pieces of the online pie.

4) Conversion, conversion, conversion…
The amount of traffic you receive may be an exciting number to keep track of, but if your traffic is non-qualified for what you offer, your chances of converting the visitors into customers is nonexistent! A strategically designed website, focusing on certain call to actions (CTAs) is essential in today's online market. Just because I could drive buss loads of home buyers past your shack, doesn't mean they are gonna get out look and buy it.

5) Not updating your old website.
In the world of the Internet, things change… and change often. If you are still holding on to that old, ugly, non-usable website that you had made 2-years ago, you are doing more harm than good. Your website is your first impression to the world, and guess what, your potential customers are included in that group.

Keep your website up to date, aesthetically pleasing and most of all have it usability tested to make sure you are maximizing your efforts online.

If you are serious about growing your company's Internet presence and want to blow the doors off of your competition, please contact me today.

Visit me at my website: www.DanCollinsDesign.com

Castle Rock Web Designer Dan Collins servicing Highlands Ranch and Parker

2011-01-10T05:20:00.001-07:00

With today's turbulent economy you need to compete and work smarter than ever. Having a professionally designed website, working for you 24/7 in today's market, is the best decision you can make. Your website is by far the best promotional investment and marketing tool you can have for your business from an affordability and powerful perspective.

Hello this is Dan Collins, freelance web designer extraordinary and certified usability expert.

I am a Castle Rock web designer, Colorado based, usability certified, with over 13 years of experience in the Internet industry. The community of Castle Rock is located between Denver, Colorado and Colorado Springs, Colorado. My goal is to provide my clients with the best possible tools for marketing and branding their business, with the goal of getting them the best exposure and highest conversion rates from their online investment.

Although I have clients all over the world, I am locally based in Castle Rock, Colorado, providing professional websites needed, to compete effectively online and maintain that competitive edge over your competition.

I am a web designer and developer who provides a full spectrum of professional Internet related services, dedicated to increasing your brand awareness, website conversion and ultimately helping to impact your bottom line through increased profits.

My services cover the entire process involved with a quality online presence. Offered services range from Usability certified web design, web hosting and domain support, Search engine domination through my cutting edge Internet marketing approach, usability testing services for existing websites to funnel down why your visitors may be dropping off of your website and not converting into customers, and of course social media network management for businesses who need to better utilize their time to run and grow their company.

With over 13+ years of dedicated experience, I continue to stay current with the latest design trends and technology applications. I am one of roughly only 2,800, Certified Usability Experts in the United States.

So what is the importance in having your project developed by a usability expert you ask?

Usability or user-centered design is the process of involving things like user stories or scenarios, from persona, into the flow of the website and then design for that intended goal. Although I offer usability testing services, taking into account these factors on the front end will help to increase your potential conversion rates from the start.

If you are serious about growing your company's Internet presence and want to blow the doors off of your competition, please contact me today.

Visit me at my website: www.DanCollinsDesign.com

Denver Web Traffic Conversion Expert Dan Collins - On Usability Design

2010-12-31T18:11:00.001-07:00

Denver Web Traffic Conversion Expert Dan Collins - On Usability Design

Effective design is centered on solid usability strategies within the design.

Hello this is Dan Collins, a User Experience Strategy & Design specialist, based out of Denver, Colorado.

I specialize in empowering, all sized businesses, to expand or create, online channels & branding. I infuse innovative Web Strategies and design User Centered Experiences, by utilizing new Technologies and the latest design trends.

Regarding the Internet, the notion of “Image is everything” does have validity, but your website shouldn’t be completely focused on how it looks. If your visitors can not complete the desired task, find the correct information, or get pointed down your sales funnel within a fraction of time, it won’t matter how atheistically pleasing your website is.

Usability within a website is equally as important as the pleasing, professional aesthetics of it.  

"If something is hard to use I don't use it as much."

An obvious statement perhaps, and one that few would disagree with, but despite this many websites are failing their users with extremely poor usability in the form of inefficient site structure, poor functionality & general navigational stumbling blocks.

Statistics speak for themselves.

• More than 83% of Internet users are likely to leave a web site if it takes too many clicks to find what they're looking for

• 58% of visitors experiencing usability problems on a web site don't return

• 60% of the time, users fail to find the information they're seeking for on a web site, due to usability issues

• 25 billion is lost every year due to web site usability issues

• The average e-commerce site could increase its sales by an astonishing 79% with a usability redesign.

When developing a solution for my clients, I focus on user-centered design theories incorporating the highest usability standards into my designs. Of course beauty of the presentation is not sacrificed in the crossfire.

So if you are looking for a full-service

usability designer

to help you to increase brand awareness or increase sales, visit www.DanCollinsDesign.com today!

Website Usability Testing - Expert Website Usability Consulting Denver

2010-12-16T21:38:00.001-07:00

Website Usability Testing - with Expert Website Usability Consulting Denver

Why is my Bounce Rate so High?

A high bounce rate can be due to an incorrect implementation of the tracking code. People may also leave your site from your entrance page because of site design and usability issues. Bounce rates can kill your conversion path, but in reality they can be pretty simple to fix. A bounce is defined as a single-page visit.

When I'm looking into a website with a high bounce rate, figuring out what is distracting the user and making them leave is the goal. I start by finding an organic search phrase that your visitors are using to get to your website, then I actually go to that page. If people are searching for "Cabo San Lucas Weather" and when they click to your website, the page displays information that isn’t about weather at all—it’s about renting vacation units in a complex, with weather information pasted in the page below the fold, that will attribute directly to your high bounce rate.
If the searcher is mislead, when they land on your webpage and don’t see the weather information they’re expecting, they leave right away, their queries unanswered.

If your search terms and content make sense to your visitor, then I look at the layout itself. Tests like User-Experience Testing, Heat-Maps (clicking), and User Feedback testing can tell you a lot about the problems within your website, without breaking the bank. Providing fast ideas for improving engagement on your website. Make your conversion path so easy to follow that a monkey could figure it out. Your bounce rate will drop significantly.

Affordable web design - Denver Web Developer Website Conversion

2010-12-10T13:14:00.001-07:00

Web Designers Denver

Current research shows that it only takes a few seconds of viewing your website, for a prospective client to decide whether or not to do business with you.

Hello, I am Dan Collins, a Denver web designer and a Denver web conversion specialist.

A website conversion rate refers to the ratio of potential customers, who visit your website, to complete a desired action.

There are some Denver web developers who may offer website conversion services, but miss the mark, by leaving out key elements in the process.

Trendy factors for successful website conversion strategies or conversion optimization include having up-to-date blogs, posted on your website, about your business, a strong social media branding, as well as a strong usability tested web design.

So ensure that when you choose a Denver web designer that claims to offer website conversion strategies or conversion optimization, all of these aspects of web promotions are covered, including a big push in Social Media Marketing.

All of these efforts will help to set you apart as an expert in your field, and will help you to make sure visitors, to your website, stay on your site and choose your products or services for their needs.

Be sure to visit me at www.dancollinsdesign.com to request your free website analysis report.

What Buyers Want from Your Website

2010-05-26T13:35:00.006-06:00

We all know our website is a key part of our marketing and lead generation strategy. But when prospects visit your site, what are they looking for? What do they want to see, and what do they consider most important? To find out, RainToday surveyed more than 200 buyers of B2B services -- in companies of all sizes -- to rate the importance of various elements of a service provider's website.

The top 4 elements should come as no surprise:

Service descriptions (87%)
Description of industries served (78%)
Success stories / case studies (73%)
Professional website design and presentation (69%)

These elements are the core of most firms' websites. If something is amiss here, it will raise major questions with buyers from the get-go. Getting these elements in place is just the price of entering the game.
However, if you want to win clients, don't overlook the remaining six elements. Even podcasts and audio content, at the bottom of the list, were rated by 40% of decision makers as being "extremely" or "very important" when deciding to make initial contact with a service provider.

Whatever marketing you are doing, the first stop for most buyers is a visit to your website. It can either draw them in further with online resources and content, podcasts, videos, and news, or it can say the same thing as your competitors' sites, providing a laundry list of services and a nice look, but neither helping nor hurting your chances to start or enhance a relationship.

Hit me up and lets discuss how I can help your Internet presence today!