Let’s  say you have just launched a new website.  Your marketing team loves the web design.  Your IT team is thrilled with the security and efficiency and the C class folks are all lining up to salute.  It’s perfect right?  Maybe, maybe not.  What about taking that quantum leap and testing your site with your intended audience, your customers?  Or, as The Net Impact, an a St. Louis based online interactive agency, recently determined for the City of Wentzville MO, why not test the site from the perspective of your citizens?

When it comes to a municipality website, the usability of the site by its citizens is a necessary condition for performance.  If the  website is difficult to navigate, people leave. If a landing page fails to clearly state what the municipality offers and what users can do on that page, people leave. If users do not like the access to pertinent informationof the website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to find or doesn’t answer their questions, the visitors will be left hanging or will  soon be clicking away to a differetn website. Notice a pattern here?

So how do you determine if your website is user-friendly? User testing allows you to roleplay how citizens will navigate your site. At the same time, you record their comments and responses to their efforts to navigate and move through the site in order to accomplish a designed task.  Sound complicated?  It’s really not.   

For an excellent example of  usability testing review the  recent case study conducted by The Net Impact for the City of Wentzville’s website.  After The Net Impact  launched the  The City of Wentzville’s new website, the city worked with their Web marketing team to conduct a series of usability tests to gauge how user-friendly the website’s navigation and overall experience was for visitors and to get a better idea of ideal traffic flow for visitor satisfaction. TNI created a series of scenarios and tasks for testers to complete on the City of Wentzville’s website.  These tasks were specifically designed to take testers through the navigation pathways of the site and to recreate the experience of a typical visitor to the website.  An impartial  third party service was enlisted to select a broad sample of testers.  A random sampling of testers, with diverse backgrounds including gender, age,  income level, and computer skill level, was determined.  This group best represented the  profiles of actual visitors to the site. As testers performed each task, their mouse movements, clicks and live feedback were all recorded.

Once the user tests were complete, the team of Internet marketing specialist analyzed videos and tester feedback to generate a recommendation report and next steps in order to improve the user experience. From the results we concluded that overall the testers were impressed by the amount of information provided.  Several commented that they wished their own city provided this information and thought this site set the bar high for other municipalities.  However, there were still ample comments from  testers reflecting confusion and difficulty in  finding information .

The Net Impact’s recommendations included consolidating menus, eliminating redundant information and making links to highly requested information more obvious. Some of the tester’s comments also regarded  web design.  The majority of the testers found the site aesthetically pleasing.  Many liked the colors and the rotating photos, but wanted to see more pictures of the city. In addition to suggesting Wentzville add more images to display the character of the  city, The Net Impact suggested different options for the city to make other tools, such as their community calendar easier to find and more simple for visitors to use. – Read more TNI  Case Studies

In conclusion, based on the invaluable feedback from the user testing, the TNI team continues to work with the City of Wentzville to revise aspects of their website to in order to continue to increase effectiveness and functionality. 

Bottom line: User testing is an important aspect of any Internet marketing campaign. The Net Impact employs usability testing as part of our analytics methodology in order to construct  complete online marketing strategies. Remember as well that website testing is an ongoing process, but when managed properly it will drive your efforts and help visitorsrealize a greater satisfaction with your municipal website. Contact The Net Impact today to learn how we can help you find the most effective way to make your website visitors take action.

Search engine marketing or online advertising tend to be the continuation of an engaging experience. From the initial search engine query, pay-per-click ad to social media sites, each online transaction is a succession of consumer actions or behaviors.

In other words, humans are more prone to interact with the online brand than by print ad. The Internet presents three-dimensional advertising. From posting a comment, cutting and pasting a link to share with friends or subscribing to a newsletter, target audiences have a higher propensity of getting involved with a brand, maximizing its online ad campaign’s mileage.

Unlike the print ad, where advertisers are unable to measure how many times the target audience reads, pay-per-click ads, Web sites, social media (blogs), and email campaigns inspire interaction, effectiveness and ultimately cultivate brand loyalty.

Read more about maximizing your company’s search engine marketing campaign.

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Martha Stewart did it. Celebrities and politicians do it all the time. So, why should a small business be any different? Some people call it reputation repair or a reputation reconstruction. But for the mini-sized conglomerate, riddled with negative customer feedback, renovating or rebuilding a company’s brand necessitates a profound marketing strategy. Below are three alternatives for amending an infamous company reputation into an influential one.

Create a New Alias
Phillip Morris (now known as Altria) and Arthur Anderson (Accenture) are two examples of organizations that rebuilt their brand with a name change. Both were plagued by a negative approval ratings associated with their products and services.  Given the magnitude of these corporations, they could afford the cost of restructuring and the legalities involved.

For many small businesses, it’s not always that simple or affordable for that matter.
However, the Missouri Web site design company, The Net Impact recommends a less expensive approach: Purchase a new domain that describes a company’s product or services. Learn more about developing a new web site.

Assume responsibility.
Although a written apology shows that an organization assumes responsibility for an illicit policy or omission and error, it may not be enough to assuage the negative PR.

Bury the negative commentary.
Public relation specialists are the spin-doctors of negative news. They know how to transform rotting lemons into syrupy lemonade On the Internet, there’s no need to hold a press conference or churn out a new autobiography, explaining how a business hit rock bottom. Instead, search engine marketing agencies strategize aggressive link building and pay-per-click marketing campaigns, transforming an organization’s reputation into a pillar of legitimacy, while making negative comments fade into the search engine abyss.

Obtain a reputation reconstruction consultation; contact a SEO St Louis company.

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1) When it comes to developing the navigation of your site, the answer is B, “…choose the site pages, wisely”. On the Internet, creativity is a subjective concept. If your target audience doesn’t “get it,” or feels like the communiqué is irrelevant, the goal of your marketing strategy becomes counterproductive.

2) A marketable Web site is comprised of the business brand and search marketing strategy incorporated into the design. Remember, search engine marketing is an extension of your business model. Effective search engine marketing highlights a company’s offerings, integrating the brand’s continuity, online.

3) Search engine marketing is a concoction of key word specific products and an engaging sales message, distinguishing your products and services from the competition. Snappy, creative page headings tend to confuse search engines, minimizing a site’s exposure.

4) A site description is…”a pithy, one to two-sentence overview, utilizing key words to describe a company’s products and services.” Site descriptions are a brief synopsis about your company’s products, services and offerings. The information is indexed and/or cached by search engines (Google, Live and Yahoo). As a result, site descriptions are a vital component of the search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. Additionally, the description includes a succinct overview, highlighting key company information, densely peppered with key words.

Read more about selecting a St. Louis Search engine-marketing firm, certified with Google.

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•    Site description
•    Page titles
•    Navigation

Test your search engine marketing intelligence. (Select A or B for the following questions.)

1) When it comes to developing the navigation of your site,
A) …creativity reigns.
B) …choose the site pages, wisely.

2) A marketable Web site contains the following ingredients…
A) …the business brand and search marketing strategy incorporated into the design.
B) …design, brochures, and other marketing content.

3) Effective page titles are a mix of…
A) …key word specific titles of your products and services.
B) …short, snappy creative page headings.

4) A site description is…
A) a pithy, one to two-sentence overview, utilizing key words to describe a company’s offerings
B) A lengthy paragraph that highlights a company’s products and services.

Next week, we’ll provide the answers and review how site descriptions, page titles and navigation influence your site’s optimization. Read more about selecting a St. Louis Search engine-marketing firm, certified with Google.

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