Calgary-Internet-Marketing

It is interesting how much impact a simple error like a broken link can have on your potential to reach your business’s Internet marketing goals through your website.

The Numbers

One of my clients and I were reviewing traffic statistics with Google analytics recently and were surprised that the new traffic was way up but the number of conversions was not. With an increase of about 20% of new visitors, it only follows that the number of conversions should increase at about the same rate. This was not the case. In fact there were no new conversions at all.

The Problem

After discussing recent changes to the site we discovered that the most important call to action contained a link that was supposed to send visitors to the registration page was directing them to no page at all. All they were finding was an error message.

It wasn’t just that they were not finding the registration page quickly and conveniently which is necessary for success when you have only a few seconds to convert an impulsive action to sign up for a service or buy a product. Credibility for the company and their ability to deal with customers effectively was being lost. Many people who encounter this type of mistake will see it as a major flaw in the company’s ability to deal with details and will simply leave never to return.

Not only that, if people are finding bad or broken links, so are the Search Engines and bad links can have a negative impact on your positioning results.  Working links are important in every way to your success online.

It Gets Worse

Another business site I visited worked fine in Internet Explorer, but I prefer Firefox to do my web browsing. It loads faster than IE and has lots of handy plugins that I like to use. When I landed on the home page, all the links in the menu had not been programmed or optimized for Firefox and simply did not work. This is a major failing created by the website developer.

About 25% of Internet users use Firefox and  the many millions of Mac users (the numbers are increasing daily) use Safari which comes loaded on the system. If your website isn’t designed to function on these web browsers you are loosing business.

The Solution

1)     Make certain that all your links are pointed at the pages you want them to go to.

2)     Check that your website is displayed properly on as many web browsers and the many versions of each those web browsers or have your website developer verify that for you.

3)     Check to be certain that you website functions and displays properly on cell phones and other new media devices.

With Internet marketing, the smallest details can make a very big difference in your results and ability to achieve you business goals.