Extra! Extra!

In the past several years I have had the opportunity to work on four Credit Union (CU) website redesigns. Most of these projects included a search engine optimization (SEO) report that we produced during the Strategy phase. This SEO report included a list of the most popular keyword phrases users were searching on (in Google.com, Yahoo.com, etc) to find the CU website.

In all off the Credit Union website redesign projects where we looked at the website analytics, the data showed that the top keyword phrases were all branded to the particular Credit Union.

For example, while the four Credit Unions had a decent amount of organic search traffic; 80% to 95% (with the remaining traffic coming from PPC banner ads, direct links, user directly typing in the URL, etc) almost all these searches revealed that the person already knew about the Credit Union.

For example, ABC Credit Union (note: I am using a fictitious name for client privacy) had their top 14 most popular keyword phrases contain the Credit Union name “ABC” and their second most popular search was their actual url!

It is important that members who know about ABC Credit Union were able to find the website but when users searched for phrases like “Michigan Home Loans” or “Detroit Car Loans” the Credit Union did not appear in the top 100 listings of the search engine result pages (SERPs).

In my next blog, I’ll discuss how Credit Unions can start capturing search engine traffic from potential members that do not necessarily know about the products/services that the CU offers and rely on search engines for their research.

Do we drive choice online or do we simply offer choices? Do we design for specific user types/segments/personas/profiles or similar subsets of humanity or do we pretend to design for all? Do we craft websites with specific click paths in mind or do we assume users will find content via multiple paths? Do we leave a wide open dialog box and ask users to donate whatever they wish or do we prompt them with specific choices and ask them to check one?

All and none might be the obvious answer in each instance. And there is much study and debate over each. That last question might seem a stretch and somewhat out of place, but I don’t think it is. I was reading results of a recent study (more on this study in a later blog), and it clearly shows that users would rather not ask themselves too many questions — in the case of a non-profit that was testing notions as to how best to request donations, users were given the option of providing a number entirely of their own choosing, or to select one of several options. Meaning very simply, users had to enter an actual number in an empty field or they could click one of several boxes. The latter approach saw a higher conversion rate and significantly more revenue per session.

Applying this approach more broadly, those of us who tinker with websites should remember that users would rather not think. Not a new conclusion perhaps. Just a reminder as we continue to refine our methods of second-guessing users.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one the most daunting tasks for a Credit Union to undertake. How does even a large Credit Union with a devoted SEO budget compete (with big financial institutions like Wells Fargo, Bank of America or Fidelity) for search traffic on keyword phrases like “mortgages, auto loans, IRAs, etc”?

Answer: They don’t.

Financial terms rank #2 as the most popular search category with over 100 million searches taking place each month in the US. While popular keyword phrases like “mortgages” are searched millions of times per month the aggregate sum of less popular words can draw significant traffic to a Credit Union site and usually tend to have a higher conversion rates since the visitor is presented with content more specific to their query.

For example, as illustrated in the graph below, a Credit Union in California might SEO their website for terms like, “California Credit Unions”, “California Car Loans” or “Credit Union Student Loans” which (as an aggregate) have over a thousand searches month.

Chris Anderson from Wired.com coined this type of traffic as the “long tail” and Extractable works closely with all our clients to identify keyword search phrases they can draw organic search traffic on.

How important is a websites home page? More than 90% of visitors enter a website through the home page. It only takes a few seconds for a visitor to make a decision to remain on the website or leave it. If the home page lacks content or visual clues to the information the visitor is looking for, the visitor might use the website’s internal search engine or click through the site navigation but most web surfers (including myself) would rather use the back button on the browser and search again in Google to find a website that has the information they need on the home page.

How do you decrease the bounce rates of visitors on your home page? Your first step should be to define the user groups that comprise your website visitors. For example, we might define the user groups for a financial institution based on Market Segments (Gen X, Gen Y, Retiree) or Roles (Business Owner, Job Seekers, Press, Prospective Members, etc).

Make sure that your home page copy and imagery address all your user groups in order to entice them to click into your website. The more important the user group is to your business the more prominent the messaging should be to this group.

For example, imagine a financial institution that has a majority of their revenues come through their Investment and Retirement Services department but also offers free checking accounts to students and generates a lot of press with their financial literacy workshops they hold within their community.

The website home page (content and visual design) might run a large promo highlighting it’s Investment and Retirement services to the Gen X and Retirees user groups, while a small promo about free checking for students would be in right navigation and a utility link titled “Press” would link to a separate page explaining the free workshops they regularly held within the community.

The website’s home page now addresses all the Credit Union’s principal user groups and the CU is more likely to see increased clicks from their home page to their interior webpages.

Mervyns has issued a press release formally announcing the launch of their redesigned web site. We are proud to have contributed to the project and appreciate the reference within the release.

The more I work with clients and manage relationships, the more I appreciate the importance of setting accurate and appropriate expectations. This is a crucial component in keeping a client happy. And I think we can all agree that in general a happy, satisfied client will come back for repeat business. So, what can we do to make sure we consistently meet or exceed client expectations?

1. Clearly Outlined Scope – Make sure the scope of a project is clear and comprehensive. You cannot set expectations if you do not have a solid understanding of what it will take to complete the task.

2. Validate the Requirements – Review functional specifications, or relevant project documentation, with the client to validate our mutual understanding of the project requirements.

3. Identify Dependencies and Assumptions – Make sure to identify and communicate any dependencies or assumptions that may be associated with a task – so there are no surprises if these things impact the task.

4. Explain the Process – A misconception about what it takes to technically implement something could lead to problems. Explain the process in language the client will understand.

5. Be Real – Think rationally about what it will take to complete a task. Don’t let what you “think” the client wants to hear influence your assessment. A minor disappointment early on will be out-shadowed by a successful launch.

6. Adjust Expectations ASAP, if Needed – Unanticipated stuff happens. When it does, and you know there will be an impact to the schedule, budget, or overall outcome of a task, quickly adjust expectations with the client. The sooner the better.

The effort we take to set appropriate expectations up front will be greatly appreciated by the client when we meet or exceed their expectations in the end. It shows them we know our stuff and meet our commitments – that we are the kind of quality agency they want to work with again and again.

I’ve taken to counting links on home pages, probably for no good reason other than a somewhat odd curiosity. What I’m finding however is that over the last few years the pendulum has swung significantly between home pages that look like laundry lists and home pages that offer as little as possible. We’ve all seen the former and we all know Google as the perfect example of the latter. And for some reason most of us think we want to look like Google to some degree, and yet we know we can’t. Our interests are usually more complicated and cannot be resolved by search alone.

But there is a middle ground, a means to make your site look simple enough but still expose a significant amount of content at the top-most level. Here is where I point to IBM — those of you who have sat with me recently know I tend to do this often. IBM’s home page reveals nearly 200 links and yet on first glance you don’t see links, ie, you are not struck by an extended list of these. Instead what you notice is a compelling graphic that speaks to the IBM brand, their position as innovation and collaboration leaders. Headers and footers are muted, presented in a very narrow band. And the extended list of links in the bottom third of the page are grayed out slightly allowing the graphic its prominent place. The page is deceptively simple — it looks simple and yet offers robust navigational options. GE is somewhat similar — for a corporation of its breadth and complexity the home page could not look simpler — quite frankly it’s almost plain looking. To be sure it does not expose the volumes of content IBM does largely because its drop down menus don’t work quite so hard, but it does permit access into each corner of its corporate interests.

Simple is sharp. It’s good for the eye. It moves you to click.

In the last several Credit Union website redesign projects we have launched online surveys in order to gather feedback from members and make sure our client’s website redesign goals were inline with the expectations of their members.

More than any other data we have collected and analyzed, consistency of responses we receive to the following question have been amazing, “Which of the following changes and enhancements to the web site would you find most valuable?”

Members were allowed to select from a list of changes or enhancements they wanted the website redesign to address. Such common selections included: Email Alerts, RSS, Financial Calculators, Blogs, New Look, Easier to find Information, etc.

Consistently, the top 3 selections by members weren’t “features” or “technical” in nature but addressed the information architecture and design of the site:

Every Credit Union had 26% - 36% of their members identifying the following website changes as the most valuable:

New updated look
Easier to find information
More detailed information

The 4th most common selection was “Online opening account and funding feature” which 25% of members selected.

While it is good that Credit Unions update their websites with new technologies, they should not forget the fundamentals of providing a website that allows their members to easily find the financial information they need while representing a professional image.

This week’s issue of The Economist has a nice article on the state of financial literacy here. We are proud to contribute this noble educational cause through our work with Charles Schwab. Happy Financial Literacy Month, everyone!

So I used this weekend to make inroads into a growing backlog of online marketing articles, deleting many from notable figures that have surprisingly little to offer but also noting a number that are worth describing and debating in this forum.

One piece in particular caught my attention because in large part it describes the state on online marketing perhaps more effectively than most pieces I’ve seen. It comes to us courtesy of Marketing Profs. Periodically they run surveys where they gauge best practices in the online marketing world, but in this case they surveyed marketing professionals and asked them about their familiarity with and adoption of SEO practices to drive Web traffic. The results were compelling and telling and reveal the rather poor understanding of SEO even within the very industry that ought to be driving it. A few results from the MarketingProfs survey that polled a group of self-described corporate marketers (66%) and consultants (32%):

How long have they been using SEO?
27% don’t bother with SEO
22% have been at it less than a year
24% somewhere between 1-2 years

When asked what would it replace today,
42% of respondents said SEO funding would likely replace online advertising in the way of banners, newsletters and ads.

As for the major challenges they encounter,
48% say they have difficulty demonstrating any results, and
43% are not properly staffed

And although most (83%) cite improvements to their website as their largest Web marketing efforts,
47% of the respondents do not think they use SEO effectively to drive traffic to those very websites.

Lastly, perhaps not surprising given the state of the practice,
44% don’t know whether SEO is having any impact on marketing ROI

It seems puzzling that there is still a fog hanging over SEO, that it’s value is still a mystery to many who ought to understand it well when an increasing percentage of marketing funds are making their way online.