Why do we need good navigation? When the reliable research company Forrester reports that approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because users can’t find information and that 40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience, we should feel a strong call to action to make sure which side we are on.

Good navigation is more then just the navigation (nav) bar. It covers all the link elements on the site including:

Graphic links
Footer
Site map intended for human users
Calls to action
Text hyperlinks
Well-organized information architecture

This last point — a well-organized information architecture — is the heart of good navigation. Good information architecture is characterized by sensible categorization of items and information, and logical sequence of purchase steps, easy access throughout the purchase to necessary information. At its simplest it answers the question: “If I wanted to make a purchase, could I readily access all the information that I need to make the buy decision?” If you answer without having done some simple tests, my guess is that you are among those sites losing customers.

Over the next few articles we’ll outline a systematic approach to (a) test your current site navigation, (b) determine what needs to be improved, and then (c) offer guidelines for how to make the improvements.

If it were easy to build a site with good navigation, then Forrester Research’s recent review of 1,200 web sites (including e-commere sites) would have shown more then the very meager 3% passing the firm’s usability test.

Todd Follansbee is founder of WebMarketingResources.net. He is a usability and persuasion consultant who has been testing user behaviors on web sites for over 10 years. His methodology for improving conversions recently won a top ten award in Entrepreneur Magazine. For a limited time, Todd is offering a special small business one hour site review and consult for only $125. Improve your user experience and your bottom line. For more details visit here. http://www.webmarketingresources.net/reviewoffer.html

List of CPA Networks

I have listed the top ten CPA affiliate networks that I work with below.  I have
included a redirect through my affiliate link because it may better increase your
chances of getting accepted.  These CPA networks all know me and may give
you preference knowing that you have learned about CPA marketing from me.

Revenueloop

http://www.payperclickformula.com/revenueloop

CX Digital

http://www.payperclickformula.com/incentaclick

Neverblue Ads

http://www.payperclickformula.com/neverblueads

CPA Storm

http://www.payperclickformula.com/cpastorm

Filinet

http://www.payperclickformula.com/filinet

Flux Ads

http://www.payperclickformula.com/fluxads

Affiliate.com

http://www.payperclickformula.com/cpaempire

Hydramedia

http://www.payperclickformula.com/hydramedia

Affiliate Fuel

http://www.payperclickformula.com/affiliatefuel

Ad Valient

http://www.payperclickformula.com/adval

Despite AdWords tips and guidelines, shoppers are unique and your well written masterpiece may not pull the click-throughs you’d expect. Some trial and error is inevitable. Remember that this is direct marketing and the better you understand your customer’s impulse purchase behavior, the better your response will be.

Start your bids high to see where the traffic is and to generate a few click-throughs so that your ad will continue to be seen. You have to be in the top eight bids in order for your ad to be shown appreciably. If you start your bids low, your click-through rate will be poor and your ad may be cancelled.
Vary your bids. If your click thru rate is getting down too close to .05 %, up your bids for a short period of time to get some click throughs and that will keep your ad active.
Bid on position three or position eight and you may have receive better ROI in these ranks.
Additional Google AdWords Benefits

Easy account management.
You can check your Google AdWords click through stats online at any time. They’re updated within a few minutes.
Google has an automatic bidding feature that keeps your bid high enough but only one cent above the nearest competitor.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dashboard

You need to create a sitemap in .xml format for your web site in order to submit it
to Google Sitemaps (http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps).

I use a program called GSiteCrawler that automatically crawls your web site and
creates a complete .xml sitemap for Google Sitemaps.

You can download a free copy of it by going to:

GSiteCrawler

http://www.gsitecrawler.com

Another is Google Sitemap Automator that creates a sitemap and also links you to your Google webmaster account for seamless sitemap updates.

Some of the best resources for learning more about natural SEO are:

Kurt Melvin’s Big Page of SEO

http://www.tuelz.com/big-seo.html

Aaron Wall’s SEO Book

http://www.seobook.com

Brad Callen’s 58 Week SEO Mini Course

http://www.seoelite.com

(wait for the pop up window to appear)

Search Engine Forums

http://www.searchengineforums.com

CapeCod SEO

http://www.capecodseo.com

SEOMoz.org

http://www.seomoz.org

BruceClay

http://www.bruceclay.com