I wanted to share a case study about a new home page design that helped a client in the estimated tax business improve conversions. The results have been great so far – up 83%.

First, let’s get the background info on the client (Easy Estimated Taxes) out of the way. Easy Estimated taxes is a site that allows taxpayers to manage their quarterly estimated tax payments. Taxpayers can pay their estimated tax payments out of their bank account, keep record of their payments, and they get reminders of when their next payment is due.

Probably the most important thing to know about the business is that it’s seasonal. There are four payment periods per year and their traffic peaks during those four periods. That means those four periods are super important to them – it’s how the business sustains itself for the entire year. By now you’re putting 2 and 2 together and realizing that their site needs to perform during its peak period. If not, then they have to wait 3 months for another peak to come around.

The client had the following goal: get more of the existing traffic into their sales funnel. Put another way, get more of the people that visit the site clicking on the right call-to-action.

Accomplishing this goal goes beyond making the call-to-action button larger. There are some subtle details we had to address to make people comfortable with clicking that call-to-action. In other words, not only should people click it, but they have to want to click it because they were confident that Easy Estimated taxes would provide the services it claims to provide.

Here’s the design before we got our hands on it:

Here’s what we noticed needed to be adjusted to help accomplish the client’s goals:

1. Above the fold was actually decent. There is a clear call-to-action with fairly easy -to-understand text. There is always room for improvement, however.
2. Everything below the fold looked inconsistent with the rest of the page. In the tax-related industry, it’s incredibly important to convey a strong, professional, and trustworthy appearance. Users in this industry are highly skeptical of sites that don’t appear to be run by the government.
3. It wasn’t clear to the user how much the service cost.

After some iterating, here’s the design that we launched for the client in time for the last peak period (September 15, 2011):

We focused on conveying more trust, tweaking the text to better educate potential customers, and increasing the perception that the site is a legitimate, trusted way to pay estimated taxes online.

The results were all very positive:
When compared to the previous quarter, 83% more customers completed the signup for the site. Most importantly, the client was psyched!

Thoughts, comments, or questions? Let’s discuss i the comment section below.

The new IRS.com layout - optimized for revenue generation

Last month we completed a project for IRS.com. I just finished writing an SEO case study (it may be better classified as a white paper) highlighting the process we went though with our client and ensuing results.

The entire case study is fairly lengthy, so I’m including just the summary in this post.

Just five months of working with Tax Center produced extremely positive results. The website is now better positioned in the search engines than it was before and it is receiving more traffic because of that positioning.

This project was different from most for a couple of reasons. First, it was shorter. Most content strategies are at least 12 months in length. Second, we began working with Tax Center at the beginning of their most important months of the year (as opposed to implementing our plan in the offseason for taxes).

This means that we needed to implement a strategy that did all of the following:
A) Got results without adversely affecting current search engine positioning,
B) Resulted in accelerated returns (meaning immediately), and
C) Laid the groundwork for long term performance beyond the scope of the project (future tax seasons).

We began the project by performing an in-depth audit of the site. The audit pointed to several key areas of improvement – basic SEO fundamentals, a more trusted user experience, and more high-value content. We based our strategy on those key areas.

The results were quick, and significant. First, the site was better positioned in the search engines:

• The number of pages on the site that come up in search results went UP 686%
• The number of pages on the site that are on the first page of Google search results went UP 175%

Second, more people visited the site in the 2011 tax season than in 2010:

• 49% more people visited the site
• Traffic coming from the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) was more than 4 times higher

The content created yielded an immediate return. The ROI for the more than 250 pieces of content we created and posted was better than 127%. That means the client more than made their money back for the cost of the content in less than 5 months.

The positive results don’t necessarily end with the passing of the 2011 tax season. The groundwork laid for the client will continue to bear fruit in the offseason and in future tax seasons. All of these numbers may increase in the future as the new content gets more inbound links.

Here’s the full case study.

What are your thoughts? Any feedback? I encourage you to participate in the comment section below.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the title tag in the search snippet for one of our clients completely changed. Well, that doesn’t sound too horrible or harmful you say. Normally that’s right. Sometimes titles in snippets can be altered by the search engines and in rare cases can improve click-thru rates (I still recommend controlling all information in snippets with custom META data for every single page on your site).

The issue in this case was that the title tag now included information referring back to a really old (and outdated) sponsor…like years old. Even though the META data and the code said one thing (and keep in mind hadn’t been touched for at least a year), the title tag said something completely different.

Check it out. Here’s a screenshot of the source code:

And here’s a screenshot of what a users would see on Bing (and Yahoo) when searching for “holiday bowl”:

Notice anything strange? Hint: the title tag in the search results does not match what’s in the source code. In fact, nowhere on the Holiday Bowl home page does it even mention the word “Culligan”.

So what gives? And more importantly, how can it be fixed?

I had heard that sometimes the search engines pull META data from DMOZ and use that in snippets – overriding what a website has in its source code. So I checked DMOZ to see if that was true in this case.

Here’s what I found when I did a search for “holiday bowl” on DMOZ:

There it is! There’s the source of our pain. Bing and Yahoo are pulling “Culligan” from DMOZ and using it in the snippet.

After a quick search, I was able to find and install the following script into the home page code telling the search engines to ignore the META description in DMOZ and use what’s in the source code:

<meta name=”robots” content=”noodp”>

After about 4 days the title tag was back to normal:

Hooray! It’s fixed. Bing and Yahoo are pulling from the right source and “Culligan” has disappeared from the snippet.

Whenever you see this problem with one of your sites, just use this simple-to-implement fix and you’ll see results very quickly.

Have you ever had this problem? Did you use this method to fix it? Let’s discuss in the comment section below.

Here’s a quick client success story in-the-making that I think is worth sharing with you: the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl is a client of ours. For you non-sports fans out there, the Holiday Bowl is one of the post-season bowl games held annually in college football (aside: it’s one of the best bowls year in and year out). We’ve had the pleasure of working with them for the last few years.

After last year’s game, the Holiday Bowl said they wanted more organic traffic for the 2009 game (being held at the end of December).  Although the site gets decent traffic all year long, it gets an overwhelming majority of its annual visitors in December (when the game is played).  So December is very important. It’s their entire year. The vent is once-a-year, so the better the webiste performs in that month, the higher they can charge for ad deals, partnerships, etc.

We did a few basic things to help improve their overall search profile. And so far, those things have paid huge dividends. Traffic for December of this year is way up when compared to last year (stats listed below) and the year before (which is as far back as we have traffic stats for the site).

Here’s what we did:
1. We looked at the last 18 months of data about how the site was performing organically. As you might guess, the site dominated searches for “holiday bowl”. But we noticed for searches like “holiday bowl tickets” (a really popular search), the site was getting beat by ticket dealers and brokers. We saw a huge opportunity to gain substantial traffic just by improving on 10 searches similar to “holiday bowl tickets” – ones that had high volume and low/”beatable” competition.

2. Here’s where we addressed the fundamentals: for all of the pages we wanted to rank in those 10 terms, we rewrote the URLs and meta data using the most valuable keywords.

3. We checked out any pages that were listed as “not found” in Webmaster Tools and redirected to existing pages. This saved them a bunch of wasted link juice.

That’s it. That’s all we did. I’m not saying that took us 5 minutes to do, but it wasn’t like we had to come up with come kind of extravagant plan. We just stuck to the fundamentals.

Here are the traffic numbers so far for December 1-9 (as compared to December 1-9, 2008):
* Traffic is up just over 82%
* Pageviews are up 70%
* Average time spent on the site is up 10%

That’s all great, but what about organic traffic? (what they asked for):
* Traffic coming from Google organic search is up 120%
* Traffic coming from Yahoo organic search is up 24%

The best, and most telling, number might be this one:
* Last year people visited the site as a result of clicking on the search result for just over 2,400 keywords. This year that number is 5,200 keywords! So the net that was cast out in the search engines was twice as big this year than last year. That’s a huge difference.

And finally, traffic from the term “holiday bowl tickets” is up 180% thanks to be ranked #1 in Google.

What’s the big deal? This reinforces what we tell potential clients when we talk about our strategy to help them. You have to get the fundamentals of search engine optimization right first.

We frequently talk to companies who are eager (rightfully so) to change their search profile. They are in a big rush to get aggressive with massive PPC campaigns and the like. That’s great.  We can do that for you, we tell them. But often times, as is the case here, we can deliver huge ROI just by making sure the basics are done right. Page titles and URLs are underrated when it comes to SEO, but they make a big difference.

Granted, the Holiday Bowl has the best domain name possible. That’s super valuable for them. That being said, the way the URLs were built didn’t leverage that domain fully. So now what we are seeing is improved performance in the long tail of keywords. And that’s where any website, regardless if they have the perfect domain, can see a serious improvement in traffic.

Thoughts? Comments? Any similar experiences? Share them in the comment section below.

We got a really nice letter from Rudy Castruita, President of the San Diego Bowl Game Association, thanking us for our work developing new websites for the Holiday Bowl and Poinsettia Bowl.

Here’s a small excerpt from the letter:
“Your creativity and professional approach to our new websites is greatly appreciated,” said Castruita. “You helped bring our organization to the next level with premiere Bowl websites. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.”

Both Bowl games (held in December) were a huge success. Check out some of these numbers provided by the San Diego Bowl Game Association:

• The Holiday Bowl played in front of their third largest crowd in history (64,020 fans).
• The Holiday Bowl was the second most watched game on the ESPN schedule, reaching over 4.2 million households.
• The Poinsettia Bowl had their best attendance ever with 39,129 fans.
• TV ratings for the Poinsettia Bowl increased by more than 38% compared to 2006.

It’s always a great feeling to be appreciated by our clients. We loved working on the two Bowl websites. The fact that the committee is so pleased is a testament to our team’s proven strategy: this business is all about being dedicated to hard work and service.

We launched a Facebook Page (membership required) for our client, Matt Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck is the All-Pro quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks.

What’s exciting is that this is the very first page to be created for an NFL player and possibly the first for any US professional athlete from the four major sports (we are still trying to confirm that last fact).

What exactly is a FacebookPage? Here’s how Facebook describes it,

“Every Facebook Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers.”

We are proud to be on the cutting edge with this. Facebook is the hottest thing going right now. It is truly the ‘killer app’ of 2007. With nearly 60 million members and growing, it makes total sense for every brand to get in front of Facebook users. Facebook, moreso than any other social networking website out there right now, facilitates connections amongst its users with similar interests (in this case the popular leader of the Seahawks).

Facebook is incredibly viral. Without any marketing or fanfare whatsoever, nearly 60 users have become a fan of Matt’s page already.

We just finished developing a logo for one our newer clients, Marble Key. They are pleased with the way it came out, so we are pumped.

“Brand5 did a fantastic job with our logo effectively capturing our brand essence and vision for growth,” said Managing Partner Shlomi Ron.

Marble Key is an exclusive professional network of leading experts specializing in wide range of marketing disciplines. They create marketing value that serves companies interested in developing richer customer experience for their products and services.

This is a great client. We really enjoy working with them.

We are scheduled to begin developing their website right away.

Back in early April we announced the deal to redesign FitnessQuest10.com. Since then we have been working on the project and today are proud to announce that the new website is up-and-running.

This was a fun and extremely rewarding project for us. Todd Durkin and his team at Fitness Quest 10 are so passionate about their business that you can’t help but get caught up in it. We worked hard to deliver a vehicle for them that will effectively serve their loyal customer base while acting as a sales tool to acquire new business.

Here are just some of the key functionalities we developed:

• Content Management System, that gives them complete control over managing the website.
• E-commerce – full back-end capabilities to manage the sale of all of their product.
• Dynamic site mapping to produce XML feeds to search engines.
• Social bookmarking widgets to help spread the word around the web about their great content.

We are pleased because our client is happy with the final result. Here’s what Todd had to say about the new site, “Brand5 has been absolutely awesome to have on my Fitness Quest 10 team. I am proud of my new site because I feel it provides our user-base with the content, look, feel, and emotion that I desired when originally planning for my re-design. Their customer service was outstanding, their team was great to work with, they met all their deadlines, and I feel they truly thought out every decision very carefully for what was in the best interest of my organization. ”

Thanks, Todd. We love being part of your team and look forward to working with you more in the future.

Besides the redesign, Fitness Quest 10 will host their website with Brand5 and is also signed up for a monthly support package that ensures we will answer any questions they may have while we ensure that the content management system stays up-to-date and secure.

We are proud to announce that we launched a brand new website today, suitelogicoffices.com.

If you check out the website, you’ll notice that Suite Logic is based up in Portland, OR. The Great Northwest has been very good to us over the years. We have been lucky to work with several clients up there, namely Julie Wells, Matt Hasselbeck, and Jason Hink. This is not our first time working in real estate, either. We built a website for Rossi Properties a couple of years ago.

Suite Logic had a simple mandate. They wanted a website to help sell their beautiful, brand new facilities. Ultimately, selling their services has to be done in person because, understandably, most companies won’t rent space without seeing it first. So Suite Logic wanted to make sure that they had a simple, clean design with small amounts of powerful content–just enough to tempt local businesses to come take a look at the facilities.

In addition to building the website, we are also hosting and mainitaining it as well.

Congrats to Suite Logic for entering the exciting world of websites. Good luck!

Here’s some more client-related news to report: we are pleased to announce that we were chosen to redesign the website for a prominent local dentist, Dr. Albert W. Nottoli.

Dr. Notolli’s current website has been in a state of disrepair for several years. He and his team decided it was high time to make his website a more true reflection of his thriving business. We are glad that he and his staff have chosen us to build them a website they can be proud to show to their loyal base of customers as well as people looking for a new dental care provider.

Work on the website will begin right away. We expect a launch most likely in the early part of July. Out of all of the small business websites Brand5 has built, this will be the first in the medical industry.

Dr. Notolli and his staff have some really smart content ideas for their website – things that are surprisingly not being done by their competition. To balance their eagerness to launch a new web presence, we have scheduled a phased approach for delivery of their content. The first release will start with basic information (who, what, when, where, why) about the practice. Future releases will feature interactive elements that will be designed to make the website a resource, rather than just a place for people to check to make an appointment.

In addition to the development, Brand5 will also be hosting and maintaining the website for Dr. Nottoli. Maintenance means that any time the client wants to make changes to the website, all they need to do is call or email us and we will make it happen.

We are proud to announce that we will be working with local fitness and health experts Fitness Quest 10. We got the word today that they have chosen us to redesign their current website.

This is really exciting news for us here at Brand5 because we really enjoy working with Todd Durkin, owner of Fitness Quest 10, and his team. We have been working with them for almost a year now since we redesigned Todd’s other website, todddurkin.com.

Todd is a visionary in the fitness industry. He is nationally renowned and very well respected. His Fitness Quest 10 facility is growing by leaps and bounds, so much so that they are opening a brand new facility sometime in the next 4-6 weeks. If you are reading this and live anywhere near Scripps Ranch, you need to go check out the operation over there at Fitness Quest 10. Everyone who works there is a pro and they make you feel welcome. They truly are experts in getting people healthy and pain free.

The specifications are being finalized, but as of now the website is scheduled to include the following:

• A brand new look-and-feel to match Fitness Quest 10′s new brand
• A content management system
• An online store to sell product
• Multiple video players for a wide array of video content
• A syndicated news section
• An educational library of articles and helpful hints

Work will begin on this project immediately. The goal for a public launch is early June.

We just received some exciting news from one of our clients: John Matich, the owner of the Kicking System, was recently signed by the San Diego Shockwave.

We can’t help but be reminded of the baseball movie The Rookie-a true story about Jimmy Morris’ rise to the major leagues from relative obscurity. It’s not totally the same since John’s not exactly a nobody. He’s a former Division 1 kicker and successful business owner. But you can see the parallel, right?

We’re looking forward to seeing John make his debut on Saturday night. Congrats and good luck to John.

Follow John’s adventures on his blog.