Friday, January 31, 2020

150 Experiments on the Call-to-Action: Six psychological conditions that hinder our results

“What you ask me to do is important, but when you ask me to do it has more bearing on whether I choose to comply or not.”

— Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director & CEO, MECLABS Institute

(This article was originally published in the MarketingExperiments email newsletter.)

One of the fastest ways to increase your performance is to improve your call-to-action. We did a meta-analysis of 150 of our experiments to determine 6 cognitive conditions that can hurt conversion.

In this video, Flint McGlaughlin, CEO and Managing Director, MECLABS Institute, talks about three of those negative conditions the customer experiences when seeing a call-to-action. He shows you how to improve your CTA by lining it up more logically with your page visitors’ sequence of thought.

This session is loaded with practical case studies and examples, both good and bad, to help you avoid common CTA errors and give you ideas for your own webpages.

If you would like your own webpage diagnosed on one of our upcoming YouTube Live sessions, you can send your website info through this form, and we’ll try to fit it in.

If you would like to receive more detailed advice from a MECLABS conversion marketing expert via a video conference, visit our Quick Win Consult page to learn more.

Here are some key points in the video:

1:14 Which CTA won?

6:54 Key principle #1 – CTA is more than a button, it is …

9:23 Key principle #2 – CTA depends upon the context of …

10:27 6 negative conditions the customer experiences when they see a call-to-action

11:21 Cognitive condition #1: Apathy, and the root cause

13:12 Condition #1’s solution can be found in this case study: Defence contractor

18:00 Condition #2: Negative surprise and its root causes

19:42 Condition #2’s solution can be found in these case studies …

26:32 Two flawed “asks”

27:20 Here’s a checklist you can use on your webpages with criteria for a good CTA, and Condition 3: Too many choices.

29:38 The solution can be found in these case studies …

Related Resources

Effective CTAs: How the thought sequence of a call-to-action affects landing page performance

The 21 Psychological Elements that Power Effective Web Design

Call-to-Action Optimization: 132% increase in clickthrough from changing four simple words

Marketing 101: What is above the fold?

Get our latest research delivered straight to your email inbox. Subscribe here.


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— Rich Jefferson 
AMERICAN FOUNDRY SOCIETY

The post 150 Experiments on the Call-to-Action: Six psychological conditions that hinder our results appeared first on MarketingExperiments.

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Thursday, January 30, 2020

20 Freshest Web Designs, January 2020

January 2020 is picking up where 2019 left off, with lots of animation and even more bold, bright color schemes. We’re also seeing an unusual number of luxury sites this month, and as always there’s a strong set of startups trying to break into the market. Enjoy!

Plink

To take on giants like PayPal, you need a compelling brand and a simple message, that can also wow with its first impression. Plink hits the nail on the head with its 3D animation.

Madame Turfu

Are you wondering what 2020 will hold for you? Why wait to find out when Madame Turfu can predict the future with this wonderfully fun set of digital tarot cards.

Nathan Taylor

What’s not to love about Nathan Taylor’s playful site? There’s so much to explore and do, but our favorite part is the different lighting modes.

Meatable

Selling Meatable is a tough prospect; it’s real meat, grown in a lab instead of taken by animal slaughter. The simple step-by-step site does a great job of explaining.

Sussex Royal

Whatever your view of Harry and Megan, there’s little doubt that their website oozes class. For a promotional site that isn’t actually selling anything, it’s a strong presence.

Emotive Feels

This fantastic manifesto from design agency Emotive Brand illustrates an A–Z of potential brand emotions with simple animations that would grace the cover of a Bluenote release.

UN\REAL

Swiss design agency UN\REAL’s site is a wonderfully chaotic love affair with web animation. It’s the type of site we can click around for hours, enjoying the sharp transitions.

Kate Jackling

Sometimes the best design takes a step back and allows its subject to bask in all the attention. Kate Jackling’s site does this, letting her gorgeous photography take center stage.

Helias

Helias has fully embraced the blob trend with a flood-filled area of color supporting each of its various products. It’s appropriate, engaging, and breaks up the formal grid well.

Klokki

Sometimes the hardest sites to design, are the ones for products about which there’s very little to say. Klokki is one such product, but its site is bold, confident, and persuasive.

Jonnie Hallman

Jonnie Hallman’s simple résumé site benefits greatly from the household names he’s worked for. We really like the details, like the way the monogram changes color as you scroll.

eaast

eaast is a design and development partnership from Paris that’s fully embraced the Memphis style. Their simple site proves you don’t need years’ worth of work to sell yourself.

Pantheone Audio

Proving that elegant scrolling is still very much a thing in 2020, Pantheone Audio uses the scroll to seamlessly navigate a luxurious site with a complex grid underpinning it.

Leaf

After decades of the best a man can get, the half of the species that shaves daily seems to be obsessed with reinventing the process. Leaf taps into that simple marketing approach.

Mociun

Most sites that sell jewelry miss the spirit of the pieces by focusing on the financial value. Mocuin gets it right with an on-trend color palette and stunning product photography.

Jon Way

Jon Way’s portfolio features work from over a decade of art direction. There’s a clear, consistent aesthetic thanks to a lovely ‘static’ effect that plays across the whole site.

Kota Yamaji

There’s some amazing work in Kato Yamaji’s portfolio, but what really strikes home is the amount of color he manages to squeeze in.

Robb Owen

We’ve seen lots of animated vector avatars over the last couple of years, but rarely do we see one with as much personality as Robb Owen’s. The cursor tracking makes it feel real.

Glasgow International Festival 2020

The Glasgow International Festival takes place between 24th April and 10th May 2020. Its site features some distinctly celtic typography, and tons of bold color.

Megababe

Megababe is taking on the beauty industry with a range of body products that are insanely popular, and as positive as its super-confident sales site.

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Tuesday, January 28, 2020

How to Check if Google Manually Reviewed Your Site

Do you know how Google decides what website should be ranked number 1, 2, 3 and so on for any given keyword?

Well, they have an algorithm for that.

But as you know, algorithms aren’t perfect. That’s why Google continually tries to improve it.

One way that they try to improve their algorithm is through Search Quality Raters.

What’s a Search Quality Rater?

Google knows that they can always make their search results
better. And one way is to have humans review their listings for any given
keyword.

So, all around the world, Google has
people who manually review websites
. And they review each website based on these
guidelines
.

It’s kind of long and extensive, but it is important that the Quality Raters don’t directly impact rankings.

Instead, they give feedback to the engineers who code up the algorithm so they can make it more relevant to searchers.

Now, the real question is, how do you know your site is
being reviewed?

First, I want you to log into your Google Analytics account and go to the audience overview report.

Then click on “Add Segment.”

Your screen should look something like this:

Then click on “+ New Segment.”

Your screen should look like the image above.

I want you to click “Conditions,” which is under the “Advanced” navigation label. Once you do that, fill out everything to match the screenshot below and click “save”.

Just make sure that when you are filling out the table you are clicking the “or” button and not the “and” button.

Now that you’ve created the new segment, it’s time to see if
any Quality Raters have viewed your site.

How to spot Quality Raters

When you are in Google Analytics, you’ll want to make sure
you select the segment you just created.

If you copied my screenshot, you would have labeled it “Search Engine Evaluators.” And when you select it, you’ll probably see a graph that looks something like the image below.

You’ll notice that no Quality Raters have been to my site
during the selected date period, which is common as they don’t visit your site
daily and, in many cases, they don’t come often at all.

The other thing you’ll notice is that next to the “Audience Overview” heading, there is a yellow shield symbol. If your symbol is green, then that’s good.

Yellow means your data is being sampled.

If you see the yellow symbol, reduce your date range and you’ll eventually see a green shield next to “Audience Overview” like the image below.

In general, it is rare that Quality Raters view your site each month. But as you expand your time window, you’ll be able to spot them.

And once you spot them, you can shorten the date range so the data isn’t sampled and then drill down to what they were looking at on your website.

The key to analyzing what Quality Raters are doing on your site is to look at the “Site Content” report in Google Analytics and that will help you produce results that look like the screenshot above.

To get to that report, click on “Behavior,” then “Site Content,” and then “All Pages.”

What do I do with this information?

The goal of a Quality Rater is to help improve Google’s
algorithm
. And whether they have visited your site or not, your goal should
be to make your site the best site in the industry.

You can do so by doing the following 3 things:

  1. Follow the quality guidelines that Google has released. It’s 168 pages long but, by skimming it, you can get a good understanding of what they are looking for.
  2. Always put the user first. Yes, you want higher rankings, but don’t focus on Google, focus on the user. In the long run, this should help you rank higher as Google’s goal is to make their algorithm optimized for user preferences over things like on-page SEO or link building.
  3. Check out Google’s advice for beating algorithm changes. In that article, you’ll find a breakdown of what Google is really looking for.

Conclusion

If you have Quality Raters browsing your site from time to time,
don’t freak out. It doesn’t mean your rankings are going to go down or up.

And if you can’t find any Quality Raters visiting your site,
don’t freak out either. Because that doesn’t mean that you won’t ever rank well
in Google.

As your site gets more popular, you’ll notice a higher chance of Quality Raters visiting your site over time. This just means that you need to focus more on delighting your website visitors. Create the best experience for them and you’ll win in the long run.

So, have you spotted any Quality Raters in your Google Analytics?

PS: Special shoutout to Matthew Woodward who originally brought the Google Quality Raters segmentation to light.

The post How to Check if Google Manually Reviewed Your Site appeared first on Neil Patel.

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14 WordPress Themes You Should Start Using in 2020

Even web designers who prefer to design websites from scratch eventually look for frameworks, past work, or shortcuts. That way they speed up their workflow.

And there are also those times when it’s hard to find the right template. You need help to create a special page and you feel compelled to build it from scratch.

It only makes sense to take full advantage of drag and drop, front-end editing, design modules, customizable demos, and other shortcuts. They will save you time. Also, they produce a quite similar quality and performance to the one you could achieve by building a website from scratch.

Another example of not wanting to start from scratch is when the website you want to build addresses a function or area that you’re not particularly familiar with. It could be a directory website, adding a knowledge base feature to an existing one, or even a performance feature like SEO.

If you can find a theme that promises to do the heavy lifting for you – grab it!

Just so you don’t get burned in the process, make sure the chosen theme is tops in its class – like the 14 presented here.

1. ListingPro

Perhaps building directory websites is your thing. But this is a design area in which most web designers aren’t all that familiar. And even if you’re quite good at it, ListingPro might just make your efforts that much more satisfying, and save you time while doing so.

And, if you’ve been relying on plugins to patch a design together, ListingPro is the only all-in-one WordPress directory solution on the market. It lets you get the job done without needing additional plugins, or any coding knowledge for that matter.

This #1 best-seller offers a comprehensive set of directory features and functions including –

  • Advanced Search
  • Ratings and Reviews
  • Front-end Listing Submission
  • Events and Ads Management
  • Pricing Plans including Stripe and PayPal
  • Built in Checkout that does not require WooCommerce
  • Listing Owner Dashboards
  • API support for autofill listing submissions

ListingPro is Elementor and WPBakery supported, and offers total design flexibility. It also provides 3 pre-built directory websites to kickstart a project.

Fantastic Theme and excellent customer service. Recently interacted with the support team member. All issues resolved quickly.Very fast turnaround.

– somymon80

Click here to learn even more about ListingPro.

2. BeTheme – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

One way to save design time is to have the necessary tools right at your fingertips. Another is a special feature that does much of the heavy lifting for you to get a website design project off the ground.

BeTheme does both; and it usually doesn’t matter what the purpose of your website is.

BeTheme, the biggest WordPress theme of them all is an ideal choice whether you’re planning your first website design project or you’re and advanced web designer.

As for the tools, BeTheme’s 40 core features supply everything you’ll need. They include:

  • Muffin Builder drag and drop page builder
  • Administration Panel for unlimited design options
  • Shortcode Generator and shortcodes
  • Layout Generator – create a page almost from scratch

As for the heavy lifting there’s the library of 500+ pre-built websites covering 30 industry sectors, all website types, and multiple business and personal niches.

These pre-built websites

  • are professionally crafted and attractive
  • are responsive and customizable
  • contain basic UX functionality

i.e., everything needed to get any project off to a lightning fast start

This Theme has great design quality and is very easy to get around. No technical skills needed in web development.

– syllabus

Click here; see if BeTheme is the time-saver you’re looking for.

3. Kalium

One way to build a website quickly and without unnecessary hassle is to import the content you need. Perhaps starting with a demo. Then, doing the necessary customizing and tweaking to get what you want.

Kalium provides a helpful selection of high-quality pre-made concept demos you can import. Plus you can import theme options, pages, sliders, widgets, or whatever else you need.

In addition to the pre-made concept demos the package includes

  • WPBakery, Revolution Slider, and Layer Slider
  • Product Filter Plugins
  • Shortcodes
  • A large and comprehensive font library
  • A powerful header builder
  • 30+ portfolio types and unique styles
  • Full eCommerce support
  • 16+ languages and RTL support

This top-selling theme offers free lifetime updates and excellent customer support. Plus it is fully responsive and GDPR compliant.

I’ve been using this theme for years now and it has been so flexible and adaptable as my business grows and my style evolves. There are lots of great themes like this that offer easy and quick customization but what I think really sets this one apart is the CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! The support team is beyond amazing – always answers questions promptly and are extremely helpful, saving me hours of time and headaches! Can’t say enough good things about this theme!

– itsmemissyxo

Click here to learn more.

4. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

When you apply your creative talents to building a website from scratch it still takes time. When you have an assortment of tools to help, it takes less time. If you have the ultimate toolbox at your fingertips, i.e. TheGem, you might surprise yourself how easily your workflow speeds up. With the release of TheGem 4.0 it gets even better. 40,000 customers agree.

Awesome and fast Support! 🙂 Thank You!

– Nhecker

Click here to check out this awesome toolbox.

5. Total Theme

Plugins can boost you up or drag you down. It often depends on your site’s needs. Total will definitely boost you up and never drag you down. Total does not require a ton of 3rd party plugins to use all of the theme’s features, including:

  • Over 40 premade demos together with a one-click importer
  • More than 500 built-in styling options and 100+ drag and drop WPBakery modules

More than 41,000 happy customers will attest to this.

I work with TOTAL for years now and I’m still impressed by its support and documentation. If you have a theme to choose, TOTAL is the one (and only)! 😉

– spotmedias

Click here to learn more about Total.

6. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

60,000+ sales to date make Uncode an Envato top seller. When this creative, pixel-perfect theme was designed, it was done so with an extraordinary amount of attention to detail.

Uncode is ideal for agencies, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. It is also ideal for building magazine and portfolio websites.

The best way to see what this WordPress theme could do for you is to visit the site and browse Uncode’s showcase of user-designed websites. You’ll be impressed.

Best Customer Support experience I have ever had. I had a hard time understanding the mobile and tablet customizations and have been helped out by their customer support team dozens of times. They are always friendly and helpful, and I love my site.

– oximedical

Browse the user-designed websites, and enjoy.

7. Schema

This fully responsive, ultra-fast theme has all the tools and elements to qualify as a “perfect” theme. Perfect or not, but certainly close to it, Schema has a feature that is lacking in most themes. This feature resolves a problem most web designers have and can save you a ton of time.

It’s the ability to make a website more SEO friendly than you might have thought possible.

Schema even guides the search engines through your site to show it off and get the best ratings.

Schema is one of the fastest themes around, I highly recommend it.

– Rashmi

Click here if SEO has become a constant challenge for you.

8. KnowAll

One way to make a good website a great one and drive up conversions is to replace a run-of-the-mill FAQ section with a knowledge base. It is a resource which most visitors will find extremely helpful.

With KnowAll, you can implement

  • Live search that provides instant answers and suggests related content
  • Feedback and action analytics that enable continuous improvement of the site

And you don’t have to do it from scratch.

Click here to learn more about this premium knowledge base solution.

9. Avada

When you invest in the #1 top selling theme of all time you can be pretty sure you’ve made a good decision. Avada’s collection of pre-built websites, demos, partial demos, and a huge array of supporting design elements ensures you have the material you need to build a top-quality website rather quickly.

  • Avada’s Fusion Builder is drag and drop.
  • The Dynamic Content System gives you unparalleled flexibility.
  • This premium theme integrates flawlessly with WooCommerce.

Everything works great with this theme!

– SiliconWaelder

Click here to learn more.

10. Neve

Neve is a multi-purpose theme that comes with ready-made designs for for startups, agencies, eCommerce shops, blogs and more. Other good reasons to check Neve out:

  • Neve loads crazy-fast and receives top scores on Page Speed Insights and GT Matrix performance tests
  • It is compatible with most popular page builders (Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, Divi), including Gutenberg
  • It comes with +50 ready-made starter sites
  • Neve is AMP optimized, responsive and 100% mobile ready

This theme is just great, totally customizable and perfectly integrated with Gutenberg.

aless81 (@aless81) on WordPress.org

Click here to discover even more about Neve.

11. Movedo

This premium quality theme by a top-rated author features a clean, modern design, amazing responsive options, great flexibility, and more than a few out-of-this-world automations and parallax effects.

They include mouse move, scrolling move, and column move. Movedo also features a Knowledge Base with a quick search option, plus it is designed for easy browsing.

To sum it up – Movedo rocks!

Great theme, overall astonishing functions and page builder, also the support is tremendous.

– cedzufrei

To see what dynamic parallax can do for your websites simply click here.

12. XStore | Responsive Multi-Purpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

If you’re in an eCommerce frame of mind, don’t bother to look further for a solution. Describing XStore’s features can be short and sweet.

First, there is the single product page builder, a powerful header builder, and $300+ worth of premium plugins.

Second, there are 80 good-to-go shops.

Building your own eCommerce store could hardly be easier.

Fast response! Polite! Work hard! Thank you! You should definitely choose! This template is the best of many themes!!!

– KUNOICHIjp

Click here to see all the details.

13. Pofo – Creative Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

If you have building a portfolio website in mind, Pofo is the right choice. This modern and creative design theme is the ideal tool for creating business, agency, and personal portfolio websites.

This is especially true if you wish to incorporate blogging and eCommerce into your sites.

Pofo is fast, flexible, and customizable with 200+ demo pages, 25+ homepages, and 150 pre-built elements to work with.

While everything is great about this theme, from Design Quality to Flexibility. The main reason why I’m using this theme for 5 websites, is the Customer Support. This is absolutely perfect. Within time, friendly, professional. Sending CSS codes. I love working with this Pofo theme.

– studiojas

Click here to learn more.

14. Hongo – Modern & Multipurpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

This modern, multi-purpose theme was specially created with WooCommerce stores, blogs, and company websites in mind. Hongo’s package includes WPBakery, Revolution Slider, and an impressive collection of out of the box premium features. The collection includes comparing products, quick view, product videos, and 11 ready store demos.

Hongo also provides users with quality online documentation. Its customer support enjoys high ratings.

Simply the great designs and best theme for WooCommerce, loading fast, customizable and easy to use with the detailed documentation. Their support team is technically sound and very kind to guide wherever needed. We have bought some other themes from ThemeZaa now and they have never let us down, thanks!

– diyaatps

Click here to learn more about this new and modern theme.

*****

Now that you’ve seen 14 possible ways to make your website building adventures easier, we hope you’ve been able to drill down to one or more that makes perfect sense to you.

We would appreciate it if you would share this article with a friend or with your social media group.

 

[– This is a sponsored post on behalf of BawMedia –]

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