In fact, as you get to know me and how I work, you will get a lot of simple tips from me that the pros use to increase their conversions or the conversions of their clients.
I have had the privilege to work for one of the most brilliant internet marketers in the business and learned a lot from him.
These tips have been tested and shown to increase conversions, and as you start to implement these little tips, one at a time, they can have a huge cumulative effect on your conversions.
So, in layman's terms, what are we talking about?
You know that every web page has a URL; the page's permanent home on the internet. Most of the time, we can name our own pages. For example, if you want to go to my web page to sign up for my free weekly video tips (hint, hint), then you can visit this page:
https://amazingenglis.blogspot.com/videotips.html
I named the page file "videotips.html" to make it easy to know which page it is just by looking at the link. My guess is that you do the same for your pages.
But every now and then, we don't get the opportunity to name our links. An application creates them and assigns it to us.
The resulting URL may have a series of random looking letters, numbers, and symbols that stretch a mile long and give the visitor no clue as to what the page is.
When they hover over the link, they see that long, ugly link. Believe it or not, the appearance of the link has an effect on what percentage of people will click on it or not.
Here are some examples of when you may run into these ugly links:
- You are split testing a page and a tracking link is created for you
- You are running a sale on a product and your shopping cart creates a tracking link for you
- You are linking to your book somewhere like Amazon.com (Boy, they have UGLY links)
Instead of linking to these ugly links, wouldn't it be nice if you could create a pretty link for your visitors to see? Well, you can if you have access to upload files to your web server, and I will show you how.
Now, some you you may bring up services like TinyURL.com as examples of sites that will do the same thing for you.
While it's true that services like TinyURL.com will create nice little redirect URLs pointing at long URLs, they are still ugly little URLs all the same.
Want proof? If you are reading this on my blog, look to the right column and find my Twitter post. If there is a URL in it, it's a TinyURL redirect. The one currently on my page as I write looks like this:
http://tinyurl.com/cxvwca
Where the look of these URLs can really impact your business is when you are trying to get people to take action that has the potential to translate into money: a product or book URL, an Opt In URL for your newsletter, a tracking URL with a coded discount for potential buyers of your product or book.
So, how do we create pretty URLs? Let's get to it. I will use an example on something that most of you can do now: creating a redirect link for your Amazon.com page. You can then apply the principle to any link you want to make pretty.
So, here is the Amazon.com link for my riveting thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure (not my words, but those of the great Clive Cussler):
http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Effect-Tony-Eldridge/dp/0595451721/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s;=books&qid;=1238649501&sr;=8-1
Sheesh! You thinks that's bad, you ought to see my Amazon Associate's link for that book.
Let's make it pretty, shall we? How about this:
https://amazingenglis.blogspot.com/samsoneffect.html
Yeah, much better. Just make sure you don't have a current page created at that location on your web site or you will overwrite it with this new one. The great thing about redirects is that they redirect people to the correct page instantly. Your visitors will never notice a disruption or lag.
Okay, Here are your Steps Increase Conversions With Pleasant Looking Redirects:
1. Open a NotePad page
2. Paste This Template Into Your Open NotePad Page
Replace my ugly amazon.com link (in both places) with your ugly Amazon.com URL. Be careful to leave the single quote marks (') around the first instance and the double quote marks (") around the second instance:
<html>
<body>
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
window.location.replace('http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Effect-Tony-Eldridge/dp/0595451721/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238649501&sr=8-1');
//-->
</script>
If you are not redirected within 10 seconds,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Effect-Tony-Eldridge/dp/0595451721/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238649501&sr=8-1">Click
here</a>.
</body></html>
3. Save HTML
Save the file as the html name you want to give to people (Your pretty URL name). For example, my file is called samsoneffect.html
It's important to name this exactly the way you want it to be, because what you name it will be the valid redirect location on your web site. Also, make sure you add the .html to your name or NotePad will save the file as .txt file.
4. Use Your FTP Transfer to Upload
Once your file is saved, use your FTP transfer to upload it to your web site's root directory. When that happens, your full URL will be working. In my example, my new redirect will be:
https://amazingenglis.blogspot.com/samsoneffect.html
5. Post This Link
Before you post this link on your page, in your blog, in your e-mail auto signature, on your bookmarks, etc, test it. Make sure it works. If it does not work, open the file and make sure you did not accidentally delete any of the quote marks when you pasted in your url. Also, make sure you placed the file in your root directory. (If you want it in another folder on your website, see my note at the end of this article).
To open your HTML file and edit it in NotePad, right click on the file, choose "Open With" and select NotePad. If you accidentally saved it in a .txt format, just change the name, removing the .txt and making sure the .html is in the name.
Congratulations, you now have a pretty URL. And tests have shown consistently that your pretty URLs will out click and out convert your ugly URLs almost all the time. Like I said, if you add this with the other tips I give you, the cumulative effect on your conversions will be impressive.
NOTE INCREASE CONVERSIONS
If you do not want to clutter up your root directory with redirect files like this, you can easily place them in a folder on your server.
Just make sure the folder name is pretty too. For example, I may want to place my redirect file in a folder called "specials". I would create that folder on my server and upload my samsoneffect.html page to that folder. My new link would be:
https://amazingenglis.blogspot.com/specials/samsoneffect.html
You can apply this to any type of UGLY link that you want to beautify. Good luck and I hope these tips help you sell more books and get more subscribers.