Mon Dec 24 08:03:18 PST 2018

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Include a Call to Action
Many beautiful websites have no call to action. It is a great idea to guide the user.
Some people use flashing text, excessive red coloring or highlighting, or other
over-the-top techniques that distract the user away from what you want them to
do.
Sales pages may want to play off of the emotions certain colors bring out, but with
informational or general product pages, the focus should be on ease of use. I
recommend avoiding using random misplaced bright colors on most web pages;
instead, make it obvious what action you want the user to take.
The one exceptionally large blue button on the page?

The one that is centered inline in the content area?that?s it, that?s what I want you
to do. Users should be able to do the action you want them to without even
thinking! Both The Big Red Fez by Seth Godin and Don?t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
are books largely devoted to this simple concept.
Page Layout Error
Even if you keep the sales copy exactly the same, trying a slightly different page
layout can result in a tremendous increase in profitability.
For example, when I first started the SEO Book site, I only promoted this e-book
off to the side. I switched to promoting this e-book on every page right below the
page content posts and overnight the sales more than tripled.
Another good example of how page layout can really make a difference in a web
campaign is Howard Dean?s presidential campaign. During Howard Dean?s 2004
presidential campaign, they used their blog to cast a vote on whether or not their
campaign should accept matching funds. After people voted, they were sent to a
landing page. The first day saw 100,000 voters and raised $248,000.
They looked at the vote return landing page and noticed that the donate button
was at the bottom of the page. They moved it to the top of the page. On the
second day, another 100,000 people voted, but they raised $4,500,000.
Make it Flow
Small sentences and paragraphs with common words make writing flow easily. In
addition, you can make the text easy on the eyes by setting a line height (the area of
a line of text and the space above or below it
to at least 120% of the text height,
and by using the maximum contrast between your text and background.
Since you have no sales person on your site, the text is the sales person. It needs to
answer questions and arouse appeal toward your products.