Do Your Website Visitors Buy or Bounce?

by Mark Bloom | Mar 21, 2022 | Website Content

Do your website visitors buy or bounce?

What’s a Bounce?

Before you can discover whether your website visitors buy or bounce, you have to know what a bounce is. In terms of SEO and search engines, a bounce is what happens when:

A person types a question, term or phrase into a search engine, like Google.
Your website appears in the list of the search engine results page (SERP, and yes, that’s a real acronym among SEO aficionados).
The person clicks on the link to go to your website. So far, your SEO efforts are paying to drive traffic to your site.
The visitor takes a quick look at your landing page and realizes that you don’t have the answer to the question.
The visitor hits the Back button, and you’ll likely never see them again. This quick “visit” is called a bounce.

Although it still technically counts as a visit to your website, it’s really a bounce that does not further your goal of adding customers and fans. While bounces don’t hurt your website’s rankings in SERPs, they are often point to other issues.

Why Do Website Visitors Buy or Bounce?

When people use search engines, they’re seeking answers, information, products, services or news. Sometimes, what they type into the search engine — or more frequently, say into their device — is a full-sentence question, such as: “How can I get visitors to stay on my website?” Other times, it may be just a word or short phrase, such as: “Website bounce” or “buy or bounce.”

If your website shoes up on the SERP, especially if it’s high on the list, that means your site has been optimized for the keyword the person has used in the search. That’s what SEO is supposed to do: rank your website for relevant keywords to attract people looking for those terms. But when people visit and bounce, the causes may include:

Your website had too many distracting bells and whistles when the visitor just wanted to get to the information.
The keyword that brought the visitor to your site has other meanings, and yours wasn’t the right one. For example, perhaps the person looking for “how to stop bounces” wanted to know how to get their kids out of the bouncy house at a birthday party.
Your website has made it difficult to find the desired information through poor navigation choices.
Your SEO is targeting the wrong keywords for your business. If you’re seeing a lot of bounces from your site, make sure you understand your audience and the terms they’re using to find your business.

How Can I Stop Bounces?

You won’t be able to stop all the people bouncing from your website for the same reason you can’t please all the people all the time. But you can take steps to make it easier for visitors to make their buy or bounce decision. It takes a combined effort involving your website design, your SEO and your content. Steps to take include:

Refine your keywords to better attract visitors who are looking for your products or services. For example, Ray Access wants to attract businesses who want to hire us, but we recognize that people visit our site to get tips on writing website copy. As a result, we often include keywords our target clients use, like “content delay” or “newsletter tips.”
Streamline your website design to make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Employ a clear navigation menu and include links to interior pages in your copy. For example, Ray Access makes it easy for people looking for blog writers by including an obvious link to our blog writing page from our landing page.
Revisit your website copy to make sure it clearly states what your company offers. Website visitors want reassurance — you may even call it instant gratification — that they’re on the right website that provides the information they’re seeking. Don’t make them think too hard. Provide easy-to-read information.

As experts in online content, Ray Access can help you with the last tip. Once your SEO has directed a visitor to your site, it’s up to your website design and content to help that visitor decide to buy or bounce. Which does your website encourage?

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Keep Your Hands to Yourself!

by Elle Ray | Feb 7, 2022 | Website Content

Search engines penalize websites that rely on stealing content, called online plagiarism. Clean up your act.

How Online Plagiarism Ruins Your Reputation

Some years ago, we had a client who had an enormous, in-depth website. It was a medical practice that provided readers with a page for every possible condition they treated, as well as a page for each of the treatments and services this practice provided. The site was larger than 100 pages. But you couldn’t find it on a search engine unless you knew the exact name of the practice and searched only for that name.

Why, if so many important medical topics were covered, didn’t popular searches turn up any results for this large practice? How is it possible that not a single entry in the first 10 pages of a Google search pointed to this practice for an answer? It’s because every page was an exact copy of other pages posted elsewhere online. It was pure theft that our client thought was OK, as long as it was online plagiarism.

Google Hates Plagiarism

Google and other search engines — like Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go and even YouTube — not only penalize websites that rely on online plagiarism for content, but they also often kick you out of the search engine universe altogether until you clean up your act.

Whenever you’re creating a new webize, adding content to your existing site or even just creating regular blog posts, take steps to avoid online plagiarism by:

Running content through an inexpensive plagiarism checker like CopyScape, especially if you hired a writer to create your content or you’re not sure if you copied something you just read
Hiring a professional writing team like Ray Access to create new, unique copy for all your proprietary content, one that runs its copy through the online plagiarism checker for you
Telling your marketing and web design teams that you only accept original content for all your written platforms, including your social media platforms
Checking your site regularly to ensure your copy hasn’t been copied and taking down duplicate copy when you discover it — because search engines only catch duplicate content, not necessarily who created it first

Quality Is the Key

Quality content — meaning valuable, useful information for your online readers — is completely original and contains no instance of online plagiarism. Quality content helps you stand out among the competition. Quality content gets you first- or second-page search engine results. The big search engines like Google reward long-form informative content that involves at least 1,000 words per page. You can improve your website ranking simply by having quality content.

It’s worth a couple of bucks to protect your reputation and your online presence. So just when you think no one is looking, understand that someone is always looking online. And online plagiarism has nowhere to hide. So to avoid paying a big price for getting yourself put in the search engine penalty box — just don’t do it.

Website Literacy

by Mark Bloom | Jul 27, 2020 | Website Content

How to Read Websites from Those Who Write Them

We live in an era when memes spread faster than news, when news become fiction and fiction news, and when you can find sources to corroborate your beliefs online. The internet has become more than a library of all human knowledge; it’s now a purveyor of the most outlandish, most esoteric and most fake information ever imagined.

Learn how to read websites from the pros at Ray Acces

As a race, humans have never before encountered so much information. And it’s all just a tap away. We don’t always know what to do with it. When you consider how to read websites, you have to first consider the website you’re visiting and the search term you used.

All Websites Are Not Created Equal

The idea started with movies, where money creates illusions. The better the special effects, the more easily you buy into the vision. If you’re watching a cheaply made movie, the suspension of disbelief becomes harder. In the same way, if you come upon a website that’s cheaply made, you start reading with a bias toward disbelief already.

As the technology improved, so did the production values of even cheaply made movies. That didn’t level the playing field; it merely pushed big-budget movies (and websites) to even greater heights. So you can’t make a movie like they did in the 1950s (or build a website like they did in the 1990s) and expect to be taken seriously.

Technology today allows even small business concerns to put together beautifully designed websites with ease and speed. That’s good and bad. It’s easier for you to put up a dazzling website for your business, but it’s also easier (and cheaper) for those publishing scam sites. Those sites have become more and more believable.

How to Read Websites

Truth is in the eye of the beholder. And the responsibility for determining the truth rests there as well. In other words, caveat emptor: buyer beware. Social media platforms have begun labeling sites of questionable content or at least sharing the bias of those sites. It’s up to you to figure out whether to believe what you read or not. Further research helps, but there’s so much online about any topic.

The same holds true for business websites. A slick site may try to sell you content writing, for example, with promises of excellent quality. It’s up to you to dig deeper. Look at the portfolio, if there is one. Ask questions. It may be true or it may be a sales pitch. At Ray Access, we not only show you our past work, but share professional advice on effective content creation. Because we’re truly professionals.

Be Careful Out There

When you surf the internet or search for information, be smart by remaining skeptical. Double-check facts before you trust them — including what you read here. You may eventually be able to trust certain websites, but always remember why a website exists. Sometimes, it’s to share vital information. Sometimes, it’s just to sell advertising.

When you know how to read websites, you understand the value of truly authoritative sources. You learn which sites to visit. We hope that you come to trust Ray Access. We provide researched facts and advice. We’re in business to provide online content to businesses. So become media literate; it’s a good way to learn how to read websites. Don’t take anything for granted. And use the internet responsibly.

4 Reasons Plastic Surgeons Need the Best Website Content

by Mark Bloom | Aug 20, 2019 | Website Content

Get Plastic Surgery Content that Attracts Clients

Plastic surgery content makes your patients happy to meet you

Plastic surgery has become more and more popular in recent years, as the procedures have become safer and less expensive. Today, more and more practitioners are entering the field to keep up with the growing demand. And it’s not just for the vain: plastic surgery can be medically necessary. In other words, it’s a legitimate medical practice that also improves people’s appearance.

Plastic surgery is a profession that requires a medical degree as a starting point. Additional years of education and training are required before a doctor can practice plastic surgery. Plastic surgeons are medical doctors (MDs) or doctors of osteopathy (DOs). The best ones also claim the title FACS or Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

While every medical practice benefits from comprehensive and engaging content on their websites and social media, it’s especially critical for plastic surgeons. Presented here are the top four reasons why plastic surgery content matters.

1. Stay in Front of an Increasingly Competitive Marketplace

Most businesses face competition, but plastic surgery practices present a special case. Often, you can find more than one practicing plastic surgeon or medical aesthetician in nearly every mid-sized population center. But there are actually far fewer of them than there are other medical practitioners. For example, in the United States, there are:

1.1 million doctors
More than 550,000 mental health therapists
Almost 210,000 physical therapists
200,000 dentists
44,000 chiropractors
41,000 optometrists
28,000 psychiatrists
18,000 surgeons
But fewer than 7,500 plastic surgeons

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, plastic surgeons must have a strong presence, both online and offline. Potential patients search online for a “plastic surgery practice near me” more often than not. Practices need to be visible online, and that’s what quality plastic surgery content can accomplish.

2. Persuade Your Audience to Trust You

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, seven of every 10 reviews of plastic surgery practices are positive. But that means three are not. To compensate for negative perceptions of plastic surgeons, you need a website that generates trust. And that’s what plastic surgery content from Ray Access does.

With the right plastic surgery content about the cosmetic issues you address and the procedures you perform — and the realistic risks involved — you can gain a following as a reputable doctor. Your website can’t promise the moon; it has to respect each individual patient’s case. Yet your site has to encourage visitors to contact you. Good quality content straddles that fine line.

3. Other Practices Have Already Jumped on Board

We’d bet that some of your competitors are already jumping into the online marketing arena to advertise their services. If you’re not online, touting your services and results, you’re falling behind. If you don’t stay current, you risk losing business simply because your website is dated or stilted.

The Ray Access principals have experience writing for plastic surgery practices. They understand what your potential patients are seeking. Let them address these points on your website to attract more paying customers.

4. Plastic Surgery Content Makes a Difference

When your website content connects with potential patients, you create a bond that matters. Delivering insight and honesty about your services makes you a trustworthy, likable source of information. When visitors are eventually ready to talk to a professional about their cosmetic goals, your practice is top of mind.

Creating quality plastic surgery content and gaining new patients isn’t a one-to-one correlation. The process takes time to work. You bolster good website content with consistent blog posts and even email newsletters that keep your practice name in front of potential new patients and keep repeat clients coming back.

Specialized Content for Dental Practices

by Mark Bloom | Aug 6, 2019 | Website Content

Quality Website Content Provides You Benefits

As of 2018, almost 200,000 dentists plied their trade in the United States. That works out to 61 dentists for every 100,000 people. Of the total, about 21 percent consider themselves specialists. That represents a competitive environment, even in smaller cities and towns.

Attract lifetime patients with online content for your website

For most dentists, any competitive advantage translates into more patients for their practices. Since many people today search for a new dentist online, it makes sense that dentists need a strong presence to make a positive first impression on those searching for dental services. That’s the difference great content for dental practices makes.

How People Find Your Dental Practice

In years past, dentists relied on advertising in local media, including newspapers, billboards and radio and television stations. It made sense, since a dentist is essentially a local business. It’s rare for a person to travel to a different city for a dentist. While these advertising channels still exist, they cater to a shrinking base as more and more people turn to the internet for information and referrals.

It’s much more common today for people to search online for terms, such as:

Dentist near me
Top-rated dentist in [your city]
Tooth implants
Affordable dental crown
Best teeth whitening

If your website content for dental practices includes and highlights these phrases, your practice is likely to benefit from higher visibility on the search engines. That means more people will find you. The more people who find you online, the more patients you’ll see coming through your doors.

Ray Access Has Expertise in Dental Websites

Ray Access has completed the content for about a dozen dental websites. These satisfied clients include:

Family practices
Orthodontists
Cosmetic dentists
Pediatric dentists
Emergency dental services

All have focused on quality care, and in each case, their website content has reinforced the expertise of the practices. In each case, the practices have benefitted by having content that attracts more patients. And in every case, the patients benefit by having a reliable resource for dental information.

Ray Access performs authoritative research and delivers content that’s guaranteed original. Contact us for an estimate on your website project. Better yet, consider letting the experts at Ray Access conduct a website assessment to determine how your site can be improved.

Six Steps to Better Website Content

by Guest Blogger | Jul 1, 2019 | Website Content

Improve Your Website with Quality Content

Everyone wins when you ensure your website has quality content

Website design isn’t just about making your site look pretty with rainbows and flowers or dazzling with special effects; your business website needs to be designed so that your customers easily find what they’re looking for. While you may think a nice logo and quality photographs of your products are vital, it’s actually your content that’s most important. Content — the words on the page — are often an overlooked factor in determining the effectiveness of your website.

Design alone doesn’t bring customers in and sell products to them.

Now, it’s OK to want a great design, a catchy logo, a memorable tagline and clear navigation buttons. In fact, you can use available tools to design and publish your own website, if you wish. But don’t forsake content for the other components of your site. Content is what drives search engines to you, enabling your site to show up high in search engine results. Good content also helps your customers.

Why Quality Content Is Still King

You may have the best designed website in the world, but if people don’t find it, it’s of absolutely no value to your business. Your website has to be discoverable, and to be discovered, it needs to show up in search results. People conduct searches before making a purchase, so get your site to show up in those searches.

There are many content strategies, but bear this in mind: While it’s important to have an About Us page and product or service pages on your website, consider having an area devoted to content, like a blog. A blog that you post on your site gives you a reason to provide fresh material, which appeals to search engines and customers. And it’s pages, not websites, that are ranked by search engines.

This means content rules when it comes to SEO.

Your content must be well written. It has to be compelling. It has to connect with your visitors. But there are other aspects that are just as important to include in your content so that it rises to the top in search engine results. Follow these six steps to make your content king.

1. Include Keywords

Any content you create has to include keywords — the terms with which your customers use to find your website. For instance, your keywords could be words that describe your product or service. If your business sells glasses, for example, your keywords may include:

Glasses
Glasses in [your city]
Sunglasses
Best glasses
Popular glasses
Safety glasses
Shades
Spectacles
Specs

You get the idea. Use the keywords you choose as naturally as possible so that search engines connect your website to the words you want your business to be known for. If you already have content on your site, review it to ensure it reflects the keywords you want to highlight.

You wouldn’t mind if your site showed up more than once in a specific search, would you? Imagine if someone sees your site pop up several times in a single search. That builds trust for your business. That’s another value of having targeted blog posts.

2. Answer Questions

People have started using actual questions when conducting internet searches, particularly with voice searches courtesy of virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri. Your content should address actual questions that your customers are searching for, such as: “When do I need to wear safety glasses?” A frequently asked questions page can be a great resource for driving search results.

Answer questions your visitors may ask

Search engines sometimes pull answers directly off websites, including a link to the site as credit for the answer. If your site is selected as having the best answer to a query, it may result in your site being found for other types of search queries, too. Using keywords and questions in your content — particularly those that are actual search terms people use to look for your product or service — drives results to your page.

3. Include Internal or Inbound Links

While preparing content, add inbound links. In other words, link to other relevant pages on your site. Internal links tie your website together, both for search engines and for visitors. Internal links also help your SEO. They help search engines find, index and understand your site.

In addition, inbound links provide added understanding and context for visitors. When you provide answers to questions through links, it builds trust. Additionally, internal links keep visitors on your site, which is also good for SEO.

4. Make It Share-able

People tend to share content that they find informative or insightful, so having quality content helps you with the share factor. When your content is shared, it helps increase the visibility of your business. It also ensures more people have access to your content.

Share-able content drives traffic to your website and adds more connections to your business as those shares proliferate. Since social media continues to grow, those shares help you grow your brand presence. That’s why you must have good quality content that people want to like and share through social media and on your website.

5. Provide Value to Those Who Land on Your Site

Once customers and potential customers reach your site — via search engine results, social media or some other route — you have to give them something valuable. When visitors stay on your site, it reduces your bounce rate, the measure of customers who leave your site after arriving. And here’s the kicker:

Bounce rate is bad for SEO.

Having quality content engages visitors and keeps them on your site. They want to read what you have to share, and they may even share it directly from the site. They’ll come to trust your brand. They’ll want to return to your site. Maybe they’ll even buy something when they’re ready. Increased engagement leads to higher traffic, more conversions and exponential sharing, all of which are good for business.

6. Keep It Fresh

To stay engaging, keep posting new content on your site — and that doesn’t mean a new About Us page every day. Provide fresh content on relevant topics. Search engines love that.

For instance, Google figures out if there’s a popular search phrase and then looks for newer content on the topic. That content gets rewarded with enhanced search results. Make sure you’re staying on top of the trends in your industry and keep producing quality content that’s of interest to search engines and customers.

Final Thoughts

Content has become one of the most important components in SEO. That’s true for blog posts, website content, frequently asked questions and social media content. By including valuable, relevant, updated resources on your site, you improve your SEO and increase your brand awareness.

Fresh, quality content builds trust in your customers and potential customers, and it displays your business as an expert in your industry. These six steps to better website content enable your business to wear a content king crown. And that’s worth a little extra investment.

Guest Post Author Bio: Danielle Canstello is part of the team at Pyramid Analytics. They provide enterprise-level analytics and business intelligence software. In her spare time, Danielle writes around the web to spread her knowledge of the marketing, business intelligence and analytics industries.

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