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Consumers love tablets – that fact is well understood. The release of the new iPad a few weeks back broke sales records and launched waiting lists right from the get-go. We know consumers are both using and converting on tablets.

But what about users on the B2B side of things? As many predicted, there has been rapid adoption of tablets in the workplace itself. A 2012 AT&T survey found that two-thirds (67%) of small businesses surveyed use tablet computers, up from 57% in 2011. B2B tablet use isn’t just confined to in-office activities, however. These companies are also bringing tablets into their sales process.

When ‘mobile’ first appeared on the scene, the concept was limited mainly to phones, so many still think of mobile sites in terms of smartphone browsers. However, with the debut of the iPad and other tablets, ‘mobile’ quickly began to encompass tablet browsers as well.

To be fair, both tablets and smartphones are mobile – they unhook the tethers and let you take ‘computing’ away from computers. But there are some key differences that designers need to keep in mind.

 By now, it should be a well-established practice to design for mobile. We’ve said before that mobile web traffic is growing at an alarming rate – almost 160% in 2010! But is all mobile the same? Or do you need to pay a bit more attention to tablet shoppers?

Even with highly organized categories and an easy-to-understand nav bar, customers may still have trouble finding products on your site. Help shoppers find what they want with internal site search…

Why?

In 2010, 90% of companies said that search was the number one means of navigation on their site and that 82% of visitors use site search to find the information they need (Google Enterprise, 2010). Perhaps the most telling testament to the importance of search, however, is the fact that 80% of visitors will abandon a site if search functionality is poor. Transform your site abandonment rates by creating an intuitive site search.

Right now, you’re reading a company blog. It may even be the thing that brought you to this site. If that’s the case, our blog has done its job. Is your blog doing its job?

If you don’t currently have a blog, you’re not alone. Only 22% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing blog. However, 86% of Inc. 500 companies now say they consider blogging to be a successful social media marketing tactic.

Alt-tags can be a huge boost to SEO, but before you decide whether or not to put them on your site, you first must understand what they are and why they’re beneficial.

What are they?

An alt-tag (or “alt text”) is exactly what it sounds like – a tag entered into HTML that denotes the “alternative” text that should appear if the element in question doesn’t render properly. These elements include both images and videos. While not as visually pleasing as an actual image, alt-tags ensure that the meaning behind your picture isn’t completely lost.

Were you one of the many children who saved cereal box tops, hoping to mail them in for a “free” prize? Those free prizes never came free, though; you (or your parents) had to spend money on the cereal in the first place, then include $X shipping/handling…eventually, the costs added up to the point where you were essentially paying the original cost or possibly more than the value of the prize itself. But that’s not what you – or today’s modern consumer – saw. What grabbed your attention then, as now, was the concept of “free”.

So you’ve gotten visitors to your site, through email marketing or SEO! Great job. But getting them there is only half of the battle- this is an ecommerce site, so the next step is to entice your customers to purchase.

A common complaint from customers of brick-and-mortar stores is that the cash registers are “too hard to find”. In those stores, however, there are at least salespeople to ask for directions or assistance! On the internet, customers are pretty much on their own, so it’s important to make the ‘cash registers’ (Shopping Cart/Checkout) as accessible as possible.

 In the last post we talked about the benefits of adding customer reviews to your website, or opening the floor to customers on your various social media platforms. Open discussion can be a great thing; however, allowing for open commentary means just that – you’re allowing customers to speak openly, regardless of whether or not you like their opinion. You can hope for the best (“[X] product never leaves my side!” “I can’t live without my [X]!”), but as the adage goes, you must always be prepared for the worst.

 Take a moment to think about why customers come to your ecommerce site. Not HOW they get there (search engine, email, direct traffic…), but what their purpose is in doing so. Are they looking to buy something? Do they want further information on a product before they purchase? Often, it’s a combination of these two goals. And you should be able to meet them both - you (naturally) have the product for sale and copy describing the item. But for many people, that information may not be enough.

 Your customers are not a nameless, faceless mass, and it’s important to treat them as individuals. Online marketing presents a unique advantage to webmasters: based on the specific ad that directed them to your website, you have an idea of what they’re looking for even before they arrive. But to take advantage of this, you need to make sure you’re showing these customers the information they want without making them jump through hoops. This is where landing pages come in.

Many sites direct every customer to the same page, often times the home page. But this doesn’t make sense! If the customer has discovered your site in the first place by searching for “boys’ clothes,” there is little advantage in making them wade through shoes, ties, and princess dresses before they get to the item they want. It’s sad but true: the longer you make them search, the greater the chance that you’ll lose that sale.

Images are flashy and certainly attractive. It’s rare to find a website nowadays that doesn’t use them to showcase merchandise. However, there is a very real risk that comes with relying too heavily on images when designing your website – in terms of search engine optimization, you’re essentially shooting yourself in the foot. After all, search engine spiders index based on text alone, and as someone once said, “spiders still can't appreciate art.” As attractive as your carefully designed images may be, any text you’ve placed “on” them will be unreadable to spiders. 

Industry best practices recommend focusing each page on a single keyword, rather than trying to optimize for several at once. This helps with search engine optimization (SEO) and makes it easy for consumers to find targeted information.

Imagine going to a grocery store and being forced to sign up for the chain’s Super Saver Card before you purchase your items. Don’t want to give your personal information? Too bad. You’ll have to find another retailer.

This scenario seems laughable in a brick-and-mortar store; however, it happens on e-commerce websites every day. By requiring customers to register accounts and login each time they want to make a purchase, many websites ignore key human characteristics: impatience and cautiousness. One of the biggest issues with requiring a password for checkout is that it invites a moment of pause, bringing with it the inevitable questions:

It seems almost everyone has Facebook and Twitter links on their website these days, but how effective are they? If you only have a pretty little icon in the bottom corner of your website, you probably aren’t directing as much traffic to your social network profile as you think you are.

Users are humans after all, so while they respond well to visual objects, they process language commands even better. Try wording your social links with actionable terms like this, “Follow ABC Inc. on Twitter.” Get even more click-throughs with something like this, “You should follow ABC Inc. on Twitter now!” You’ll be surprised to see how many more followers, or fans, you collect!