Among the most obvious factors to consider when planning the SEO of a site under construction are the tags. Specifically each page should have title tag, meta description tag and image alt tags all created with your keywords in mind. This is not a suggestion to spam these fields with keywords and keyword variations, rather you should develop a plan with your content creation team on how to tag all your pages creatively, accurately and with the appropriate keywords. It’s important to keep in mind the idea that every page should vary slightly in it’s tags as Google tends too look unfavourably on multiple pages with duplicate meta and title tags, but more importantly this is the first step in establishing a strong deep-linking strategy. By making sure each page is tagged properly and accurately you can take advantage of your secondary and tertiary keywords and keyword combinations as well as exploiting long-tail niche marketing.

When it comes to the actual content creation there are a number of highly effective strategies which are frequently over-looked by web-developers. Among the most neglected SEO strategies is the proper use of Headings. Google looks to text tagged H1 as being representative of the content found on a particular page. Therefore it is extremely important to include at least one heading (labelled H1) which contains your primary keywords. To fully exploit this opportunity you can go on to include text tagged H2 – H5 for secondary and tertiary keywords or niche keyword combination. Proper use of the heading strategy not only allows search engines to correctly index your site and give you credit for your deep links but it also helps increase unique instances of your keywords which benefits your overall site page rank.

Images are another, often ignored source of SEO benefit. Starting first with the naming of your image files themselves, be sure to use complete descriptive phrases in your file names (I.E. red_keyword_example.jpg) instead of the space-saving shorthand many graphic designers favour. Once the images are embedded in the page (or while you are doing the embedding) make sure to use the same descriptive, SEO-minded keyword approach by labelling images with Alt tags. It’s important to be accurate and not just throw in inappropriate keywords either in the Alt tag or the filename. Remember, although you may feel like you are trying to put one over on the search engine your ultimate goal is to benefit yourself by helping visitors find you via true, valuable information.

The textual content of your page is an area ripe for enrichment with SEO content. Many companies now employ copywriters versed in SEO writing for the intent purpose of making certain their text contains just the right keyword density. While no SEO Agency claims to know the exact formula of Google’s keyword density algorithm most SEO experts agree there is such a thing as going too far. A good rule of thumb is readability. If your text appears ‘stuffed’ with keywords it will be obvious to a casual reader. A good SEO copywriter will know how to keep this stuffing under control but not neglecting opportunities to introduce the right words and phrases. Some experts go as far as suggesting a low, but safe keyword density count of somewhere between 4% and 6%. The logic being a low-ball density ranking is still better than being blocked (or punitively reduced in rank) for appearing over-optimized.

Internal links can be a very effective method of increasing overall keyword density. By changing link text from innocuous phrases like ‘click here’ to a more appealing call to action such as ‘more keyword here’ you not only influence the ranking of the page you are creating but also the page you are linking to. However you should be careful to avoid the overuse of links in the body text itself as it appears clunky and too much of it can cause negative ranking from the Google spider.

One of the main difficulties facing Adobe is convincing web developers to continue developing flash-based web content in an increasingly SEO (Search Engine Optimization) oriented marketplace. For years SEO experts have rightly advised their client against reliance on Flash content. Particularly prone to SEO failure are sites whose home page and menu is composed in Flash. The crux of the problem was the method by which search engines explore and catalog websites. Search engine spiders and robots (as the programs used for such purposes are commonly referred) for years have ignored SWF (ShockWave Flash) movies simply because they have not been sophisticated enough to recognize the content in a manner appropriate for cataloging.

In other words even if a search engine spider were to look at a SWF movie it would only recognize the components as images, and not actually ‘read’ what the images represented. Simpler still, the robot would ‘see’ a button, but never realize the button says ‘start here’. Therefore even if the robot loaded an SWF file it might never figure out how to access the deeper levels of content.

With the increasing importance being put on Search Engine Optimization in the past few years both Adobe and Google have begun a concerted effort to help bridge the gap between SEO agents and Flash developers.

Since 2008 Google and Adobe have been working on improving Google’s search algorithm so that it can now recognize the text elements of embedded SWF files on the web. As might be imagined while this is a huge development for the advancement of Flash and SEO it is an imperfect solution. Google and Adobe are encouraging Flash developers to follow new text standards to help assist the algorithm in it’s work, but the word is spreading slowly. Also the adoption of new standards by developers does nothing to help with the search of most of the millions of previously existing SWF objects currently online, though both parties are optimistic that as the algorithm improves, so will the search options for older SWF files.

Adobe has independently established an SEO for Flash advisory site, which gives examples of not only the new standards best served by the newest Google algorithms but also tips on SEO marketing for developers who use Flash content. Much like SEO for HTML content Flash developers are encouraged to make strong use of Metadata and Alt text. Fields unseen most of the time by users but very useful to search engine spiders.

Recently renowned technology book publisher O’Reilly has released the long-anticipated title SEO for Flash which is written to cover all aspects of Search Engine Optimization for sites with light, medium or heavy Flash content usage.

Sadly, all of the parties involved regret that while great strides are being made in educating developers on how to get the most SEO value through text-based search algorithms and using traditional methods of SEO such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, there does not seem to be any tool near to being released which will allows the indexing of audio and video content.

—————

Most search engine optimization strategies fail to reach their goals because they only focus on a limited number of easy and obvious steps. To truly make a successful investment in marketing via Search Engine Optimization it is necessary to make a planned, concerted effort using a complete spectrum of proven methods and practices. To get you started we have compiled a list of what we consider the very basic, bare minimum of SEO approaches every company should take.

Create a full and informative site. Search engines are looking to rank the most informative and relevant sites. You want to be listed as the indisputably #1-ranked flexi-widget expert? Make your site the indisputable destination for all information about flexi-widgets. No amount of SEO will help you get a higher ranking more than making your site as exhaustively informative about everything possible to do with your product.

Make sure you build on solid foundations! Too many designers focus all their efforts on a impressive and effective home page. SEO experts know that every page of a well-constructed site will come under the scrutiny of the search engine and there fore deserves just as much focus.

In other words:

•       Every page should be properly titled. The title should not only reflect what is found on the page but hopefully contain a keyword or two.

•       Meta tags may be indispute as to their overall effectiveness in regards to certain search engine algorythms, but it never hurts to add more information and keywords to your page, especially since it costs nothing and is never seen by surfers on your site. That said, less can be more. Focus on your primary keywords and only include those that have direct relevance to the page you are tagging. When filling in the Meta Description tag it pays to be succinct and precise. Don’t overload this tag with a spammy block of keywords. Write one sentence that describes the page and includes the keyword or words most relevant to the page.

•       Remember, search engines rarely if ever resolve javascript tags and can’t see Flash content at all. Relying on either of these to hold your site together be prepared to see a pretty low page rank ceiling for your site.

•       When structuring the text on the page itself use your keywords in powerful and appropriate places, as paragraph headers, text links and in image captions. Do not just stuff keywords into text at random.

•       Make sure all images have proper ALT image tags, which include keywords when appropriate.

Show the spider around your web. Every site should have a sitemap for robots and spiders. They are free and indispensable when it comes to getting the most from your SEO.

Site First, Keywords later. You may think you have a good idea what your keywords are but what you think doesn’t matter much. If you’ve got a robust and comprehensive website, let the experts decide what keywords best represent you. A number of services out there, (including Google itself) will do a keyword evaluation of your site for free. It’s such a useful resource it’ll feel like cheating, but it’s not!

All keywords are not created equal. You’ll need to pick half a dozen of your top keywords and use them as your primaries. Try and think of them as your ‘main characters’ in your SEO strategy ‘story’. Even though secondary and tertiary keywords are still important (and necessary) it’s the primary keywords that the ‘audience’ really wants to get to know the most about. Use secondary and tertiary keywords in concert with your primary keywords to help create interest in the lower rand keywords as well as providing variety in the instances of your primary keywords.

Your domain should be contain your primary keyword. Sure, Google, Apple and Yahoo don’t have to deal with the hassle of doing this but YOU aren’t them, so if it’s flexi-widgets you are trying to sell flexi-widgets.com is the best domain name for you. Don’t overdo it though, flexi-widgets_flexible_widgetry_widget_outlet.com is not only clunky but it runs the risk of you getting slammed by negative keyword ranking!

Make sure you have a top level domain for your geographic target market. When selling your services in foreign markets it is essential that you have representation in that country’s geographic TLD. E.G. If you want to be highly ranked in Sweden you had better have a .SE domain that resolve to your main page.

———-

It’s easy to sit back and think that once your site is designed your work is done, but it’s far from the truth! The following are some overlooked or otherwise ignored proven and tested methods for making sure you get the search engine ranking you need to make a profit!

1.     Flash movies are impressive, versatile, high tech and completely utterly useless when it comes to online marketing. Search engines can’t see that expensive flash movie that introduces your website, or any of the content it contains. Do yourself a favor and save a ton of money – ditch that Flash!

2.     Your pages should load quickly and cleanly. If your pages take more than 5 seconds to load research has shown you are losing 10 to 20 percent of your web surfers. Pages that take more than 10 seconds to load can cut your business by 50%! 20 seconds or more? Maybe you should start thinking about standing on the street corner with a bullhorn and a chicken costume, cause that will probably get you better results.

3.  Every website has errors now and then. Make the best of a bad situation by making sure you have custom error pages for 404 and 500 errors. Not only does it look professional it can also help you redirect a confused or angry customer back to a functioning (ergo – money-making) page elsewhere on your site. Check your server logs (you do know how to do THAT, right?) every week to see if there are any consistent errors and address them immediately.

4.     Make sure you keep you sitemap up to date. Think of your sitemap as the map used by search engines to find stuff on your site (Duh – See? This technical stuff isn’t that complicated after all….)

5.     Make sure all the copy on your site is professionally written, or at least sounds professionally written. Not sure what professional copy-writing should sound like? Get a trusted friend (or 10) to read your text before you put it up on your site. This is especially important for product descriptions! Sure a picture of your product may be worth a thousand words but none of those words are sale-making phrases like ‘Quality Guaranteed’, ‘Free Shipping’  or ‘Currently on Sale’.

Do some research and find the top keywords on the internet for your product. Use that list to search and find the top ranking sites using those keywords (AKA – The Competition). Once you’ve got the competition in your crosshairs, do a ‘link’ search on Google and Yahoo to find out who links to your competition. Once you’ve got that list, you can use it as a roadmap to search rank improvement. If you can get links from those very same sites you’ll soon start moving up in search listings against your competition.

Make sure each of your pages has it’s own unique and well written Meta and Title tags. Do not duplicate a random laundry list of keywords on every single page. Not only is it lazy, it can be extremely counter-productive. Search engines quickly learn to recognize and ignore inaccurate and repetitive blocks of spammy Meta text. On the other hand if you take the time to write unique tags for each page with the correct and appropriate keywords included in complete and well-written sentences you will be happy with the results that will be generated.

Find blogs that are relevant to your product and comment on as many articles as you are comfortable with giving your professional opinion. Don’t comment just to comment, rather focus on making a real contribution to the conversation. If you are not sure which blogs are the best for you to participate with perhaps it’s time to consult an SEO company to obtain a list of those blogs that can best help your improve your rankings.

Ask, cajole and beg your customers to write reviews of your products and services on relevant review sites. Look for local and national business listing services, you may not be that familiar with them but if you look your are sure to find a web directory that specializes in customer reviews of pretty much any industry, including yours.

Don’t foget to join up with social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Don’t over do it by plastering the pages with keywords and hard-sell phraseology – keep it social. All you’re really looking for is to give your customers an avenue for keeping informed and in contact with you, not to mention the link value bump you will get almost immediately

——————-

Though many businesses are anxious to hire a professional to handle their search engine optimization there are a number of simple website design changes that you can do without professional help. Though keep in mind any good professional is going to recommend you make these changes anyway, so if you start now, by the time you do hire your SEO specialist you’ll be that much farther ahead of the game!

There are a number of important considerations you should keep in mind not only when promoting your website but when you begin to design it as well. Many of the more elemental of the design specifications should be common practice for professional web designers but if your site is not up to the following standards we suggest you get a web design professional to help re-engineer your infrastructure as soon as possible.

Think Like a Robot
Your main audience, from an SEO perspective, is the search engine robot crawling your site for relevant information. Now of course the computer script that is actually evaluating your web pages is not a robot in the classic theatrical sense, but it is called a robot because it behaves very much in the way we have learned robots do from TV and film. Basically it is a simple, autonomous being that makes observations and performs repetitive tasks with precision. When we say simple we are referring to the robots inability to make complex conclusions about what it sees. A robot can categorize those things laid out simply for it (EG, red_circle.gif, yellow_square.jpg or orange_triangle.tif) but it cannot make logical conclusions that a human observer might make such as planet_earth.jpg could also be interpreted as blue/green ball. As such when naming, titling and creating the descriptions of your HTML pages it is important to keep the simplicity of the robot in mind. 

The same holds true for images and links where you can use the ALT tag to clearly specify those important details which you want the search engine to be able to find later on. HTML page titles such as con_frm_pg.html, while perhaps appearing more streamlined, provides no information in and of itself to a robot while contact_form_page.html is straight forward. Now many of you designers are thinking, “Hey, that’s what the page description and title are for!” but it can not and does not hurt to cover all your bases when dealing with robots. For example tool_catalog.html with the description “Find our best value tools in our catalog” and titled “Best Value Tool Catalog” is one more reference than saying simply tcat.html. 

A small difference perhaps but then again one could also say there is only a slight difference between being on the first page of search results and the second as well….
Now of course the robot scripts used by Google and the other major search engines are more complex and robust than the example mentioned here, but what’s important to remember is that they are all basically doing the same straight-forward job: collecting information. While many things about your website may seem blindingly obvious to you it is extremely important to keep the blunt, unthinking logic of the robot in mind in all aspects of your web design. 

When labeling pictures, naming links, entering descriptions and so on make sure you are providing for the robot all the necessary information it will need to properly crawl and classify your site. This means keeping all considerations in mind, for example, when considering SEO UK companies need to make sure that they not only use terms to indicate “England”, but “United Kingdom”, “Britain” and “UK” as well. While it’s an easy intuitive leap for you and I to make, it’s not something the robot will discern immediately. While you can rely on the search engine algorithms to sort such distinctions out later, can you ever really be sure? Best to cover your bases, and cover them early on in your site design!

———–

Like the proverbial double-edged sword the internet has proven a mixed blessing for therapists. On one hand patients now have a handy tool for quick and private contact and communication with a variety of therapists who might have been previously unknown to the general public. As an added bonus prospective patients can, through a therapists website, learn about the therapist before making an appointment or scheduling a session. In this way both patients and therapists benefit by making what is hopefully the ‘best match’ before a session has even begun.

On the other hand patients can be overwhelmed by the vast numbers of available providers the internet gives them access to. A person seeking therapy may find the decision-making process of choosing a therapist in and of itself stressful and off-putting. At the same time the relatively ‘democratic’ nature of the internet may draw prospective clients away from licensed and or otherwise highly qualified therapists with false promises and bogus credentials. A patient who suffers from a bad experience at the hands of an internet quack suffers twice; once by not getting the assistance he or she is seeking immediately, and again when they choose not to attempt to find the appropriate therapy through another avenue, having been discouraged from one bad experience and left to doubt the entire practice of therapy.

One of the most reliable ways to assure that patients reach those therapists who are best suited to their needs is to make sure the websites of those most qualified service providers are accurately and appropriately represented in the major search engines. There are some basic steps of search engine optimization that every therapist should follow when establishing and promoting his or her website.

It’s important that you have a top level domain (TLD) for the country you are practicing in. In the USA a .com or .net domain name is sufficient, but if you are practicing in england (for example) you should have a .uk domain name that resolves to your home-page. This is not just for the convenience of your patients or to show national pride as some may assume, a country specific TLD makes sure your domain gets a higher ranking in country specific searches such as google.co.uk!

Pick the correct keywords for your site. We all know that qualified and experienced therapists can address any number of patient issues, but bogging your site down with an exhaustive list of every possible keyword combination that applies to therapy and therapists can actually hurt your chances of getting highly ranked in the searches that reflect your speciality. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have one list, somewhere on your site (perhaps on your biography page) that does include all the possible issues you are qualified to address with patients, but when it comes to keywords you should pick only those few that reflect on the type of therapy you specialize in. (EG – ‘Drug and Alcohol Addiction Support and Therapy’ or ‘Children and Childhood Trauma Therapy and Support’)

Make sure your site is well constructed. Does every page have appropriate and unique Title tags, Meta Description tags, and Meta Keyword tags? Don’t just copy and paste these so they are duplicated on every page. Make sure the information you put in each of these fields is accurate and reflects your primary keywords. Resist the urge to fill these tags with blocks of spammy keyword lists.

Search engines use programs called ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ to review your site. By providing a sitemap file in your home directory you give these programs a helpful shortcut to finding all the most relevant search info on your site. If you don’t have a sitemap (or don’t know how to make one) simply search online for a sitemap creator. Many SEO services offer them for free online.

——–

While you never know if the anonymous user clicking on your banner is male or female, you can bet that THEY know, and it’s not something they are likely to forget!

Woe to the internet marketing campaign that fails to address the needs and desires of the female shopper. Women consumers are more active spenders then men and make many of the shopping decisions for a family home. If you fail to address your campaign to these important decision makers you’ve just lost half (if not more) of the battle!

Silly as it may seem men and women use the internet in what may appear as almost cliched roles, that one might break down most simply as hunters versus gatherers. Doubtless, that’s the most extreme simplification, especially when you consider the inherent flexibility of the internet,(After all, surfers can access information in countless numbers of ways, many of which can be specifically tailored to the individual, so who is to say of any behavior at any given time is the provence of the hunter or the gatherer?) but intriguingly, statistics point to these traditional understandings.

Women are also more likely to use the internet as a communication and socialization tool then men. This is not to say men generally eschew email or don’t tweet, but rather that women have a tendency to nurture online social contacts and networks in a more in-depth and dedicated fashion.

(This is something important to keep in mind when crafting an overall campaign strategy, particularly if women are your target customers. The recent boom in social networking online has been accompanied by a new trend in marketing which allows a more specific targeting approach when it come to marketing. The opportunities of social network marketing are immense and unparalleled in their abilities to get your message to the exact type of consumer you are looking for. At the same time marketers can compose multiple approaches for the same campaign and control the target audience down to the individual user. There has never been a more salient tool for addressing female consumers with intentionally woman-targeted marketing for general, non-gender specific targets.)

Men are more likely to collect bookmarks and make snap decisions when it comes to where to click next. Women tend to take their time, looking at a variety of options and making comparisons most male shoppers disregard as a waste of time. Men are more likely to browse a few options but home in on one before drilling down on details.

Women are also more likely to be repeat customers, enjoying the convenience of the known and the relative ease of familiar experiences. Men however are always scouting about for the next new challenge to their hunting (searching) prowess, making them significantly less likely to return to somewhere they have been before.

Recent studies of women consumers show that they are more persuaded by their feelings and emotions than they are by information. While guys may feel enriched and empowered by long lists of custom features and technical specifics female consumers are more likely to react positively more toward elements of style and nuances of presentation and photography.

It’s very important to remember that women also fall into another traditional role when it comes to shopping online, they are much more likely then Men to use the internet for a family gift purchase. While men are reliable as last-minute christmas shoppers and valentines bouquet buyers women have a much greater tendency to be online shopping for a gift all year-round.

When designing an internet marketing strategy keep both sexes of surfer in mind to maximize your marketing potential. Otherwise you may be wasting your clients money and missing many valuable opportunities!

While the marketing industry itself is fairly well-balanced in it’s numbers of male and female marketers, the upper management of most marketing companies and departments still suffers from an overwhelming male employee bias. When you break that down further to look exclusively at internet marketing companies the high percentage of both male managers and employees is staggering. In many cases decisions on marketing and promotion can are conceived and critiqued through a testosterone filter which blurs the true message of the product as it applies to female consumers. Frequently enough, high-profile examples find themselves under mainstream scrutiny, sometimes with an explosive and unexpected backlash toward both the marketer and the product he is promoting.

How can you prevent your web marketing from making the same gender-insensitive mistakes? A number of high-profile and experienced female marketers have written numerous books and articles on marketing to women, and many assure readers that the principles they promote are as applicable to web marketing as they are in any area. These are some of their major points:

No Pressure.

Women are shoppers. They will want to spend a lot of time reviewing and exploring before choosing to make a commitment. Help them by not using time-pressure tactics that will only serve to make them uncomfortable. Often websites are riddled with high-pressure language that seems invisible to marketers, as it is so frequent in many of our day to day lives. However familiar phrases like “Take Advantage NOW!” or “Limited Time Offer” can drive female consumers to sites which feature less antagonistic sales language.

Be an Adult.

You know the old adage, girls mature faster than boys. What’s true in high school is also true in marketing. What may seem like humor in the male-dominated meeting room can be perceived as childish and offensive to an adult woman who isn’t in a locker room, rather she’s at home with a glass of wine, surfing the web to the strains of classical music. While it is true that you can’t please all the people all the time, keep in mind the more mature and higher educated consumers out there also have the most money to spend.

Don’t Suck Up.

Women are much more aware of the disingenuous nature of false flattery. They perceive overt platitudes as unwanted attention and quickly sniff it out for what it is, naked salesmanship. Treat your female audience with the same respect you would for a close female relative, with honesty and respect. Avoid anticipating women shoppers to react in predictable and cliched patterns.

Get Emotional.

Female consumers are much more sensitive to subtle emotional cues in your advertising. They will respect honesty and reward it, as long as you don’t push the wrong emotional buttons. Pushing the right emotional buttons can benefit you as well, women, as much as any of us want to feel positive about their purchases, and that includes feeling good about the decision to purchase itself. Women will be more likely to repeat an emotionally rewarding shopping experience, making every positive emotional impression you make a double investment.

‘It just feels right.’

As an adjunct to the emotional appeal you can make to women there is an overall impression to be made that appeals to women’s overall sense of trust and respect. Studies have shown that women shoppers will base their decision to purchase as much on an overall positive impression of the website as tangible values like price and convenience. Studies have shown that women prefer to make purchases from sites that have a soothing visual style that is accompanied by a trustworthy and professional design.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Don’t clutter up you point of purchase with unnecessary buttons, overly technical or intricately involved texts or instructions. Women are smart enough to ask for details when they need them and, unlike men, not particularly interested in browsing comparison charts, technical specifications, or detailed instructions when they decide to make a purchase. This is not to say that women don’t use these items, and most certainly they should be available when necessary to all your customers, rather, don’t clutter up pages that don’t need them, particularly your checkout and shopping cart pages.

Listen.

One of the greatest benefits of internet marketing is the ability to quickly gather and respond to consumer impressions, communications and complaints.  Studies have shown that female consumers account for a high number of customer communiques, and respond with high favoritism to companies who show they are open to and actively responsive toward consumer criticism. While customer service and short response times should be the goal of every online business, it’s especially important for those companies hoping to attract and maintain a female consumer audience.

Conversion rates will vary for different kinds of traffic that visit your site and that’s to be expected, what you want to learn is what is your best converting source of traffic and how can you get more of it. Track it back to referral sources, if it comes from organic search find out which phrases convert best and focus on improving the rankings for those phrases.  If it comes from PPC which are your money phrases and conventrate on them for SEO.

The following is a list of Conversion Factors that could be affecting your conversion rate. Scan down the list… do any of these factors affect your conversions? Can you take action on any of these points to improve your Conversion Rate?

If you are not sure where to start consider doing some Usability Testing to get feedback from real people using your website to perform tasks designed to test your specific website conversion goals.

Trust Elements:
- Safe Shopping Icons (hacker safe, BBB)
- Free or Local Cost Phone Number visible
- Address visible
- Quality of Design
- Quality Domain Name
- Money Back Guarantee
- Risk Reversal (We’ll pay the return postage costs)
- Accepts all forms of payment
- Nice Logo
- Testimonials
- About Us prominent
- Contact Us prominent
- Privacy Policy
- Order / Postage / Invoice tracking
- Privacy Policy
- We don’t spam you messaging
- Clear and unambiguous optin/out for marketing & 3rd party marketing
- Ability to get offline help at physical locations

Look and Feel:
- Site is easy to navigate
- Easy to grasp what the site does
- Clear Calls to Action on every page
- Links to further information are easy to find
- Great site search returns relevent results
- Checkout / Conversion process is clear
- Forms are forgiving (e.g. taking dashes, spaces for credit card)
- Forms error handling – clear, concise errors & instructions for correcting
- Does not require registration up front
- Fast Page load times. Adverts render last.
- Pages load consistently (high availability)
- Renders in all major browsers
- Accessibility Issues have been addressed
- Pictures are good quality and highly optimised
- Good quality help / FAQ system
- No Broken links or broken images
- Relationship Marketing, encourage 2-way interaction through Facebook, Twitter etc

Product / Selling Proposition:
- Product / Site Exclusivity
- Compelling Product
- Brand Name awareness and reputation
- Good Product Pictures, quality and quantity
- Compelling Offer / Price / Clarity
- Price easy to find
- Add to cart button is inviting and prominent
- Terms and Conditions highly visible
- Path to checkout is unencumbered with no distractions
- Extra charges (postage) are low and easy to find
- Speedie Postage
- Free Postage
- International Shipping
- Good Comparison Matrix (including competitors)
- Independent Product Reviews
- Good Headline
- Good Tagline
- Supporting Copy
- Supporting resources (buying guides, blog, forum)
- Scarcity (limited Quantity or limited time)

Off Page Factors:
- Time of Day
- Day of Week
- Holidays
- Seasonality
- The weather
- Event Timing (product will be regulated, taxed or discontinued)
- Item / site gets significant press coverage (TV appearances, BBC coverage)
- Relevant Advertising
- Type of Advertising (banner vs PPC)
- Visitor profile of site where advertising appears
- Compelling ad copy
- Ad copy matches landing page
- Click Fraud
- Quality and efforts of Affiliates
- Reputation of your Site
- Size of your Organisation
- Newsletter Quality
- Offline advertising
- Presence of offline locations
- Competitor Offerings and Marketing

The original conversion factor list that inspired this post came from: http://paul.webanalyticsdemystified.com/2008/08/15/conversion-factors/ I have taken the liberty of adding to it and amending it for our target audience.

What other factors would you add to this list?