How to Add Audio to Your Web Site
Maybe you've heard the following phrase: "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
If you decide to add audio, it is important to ensure it supports your overall marketing message and topic.
So, if your website content is sub-par, don't expect the addition of audio to help matters much. However, if you have great content that is focused on profitable keywords, expect the judicious use of audio to help improve your conversion rates.
Audio can be a great way to:
- Improve your ezine registrations
- Encourage visitors to purchase your ebook or other product/service
- Provide testimonials about your products and services
- Help establish trust and create a sense of personal contact
- Increase your content offering as in a podcast
The use of website audio is not a substitute for:
- Generating quality content
- Using keyword focused writing
- Completing all your page META tags properly
- Building link authority
Well known Internet guru Ken Evoy, author of Make Your Site Sell!, has tested audio on a few of his landing pages and has reported an improved conversion rate of 15-30% on every page it was used. My own testing on my newsletter landing page showed an increased conversion of 20% after adding audio. You can view my audio enhanced newsletter registration page here.
Here is an important question to ask before adding an audio snippet to any page of your site:
"Will this audio help increase my page conversion rate and add relevance to my visitor's experience?"
If you can honestly answer 'yes' to the above question, then adding a short audio message may benefit the page.
What pages on your site are best for audio?
- Your homepage
- Your ezine signup page
- Your service summary page
- Profitable product pages
If you decide to use audio on your site, there is some equipment you will need to obtain. Here is a list of recommendations.
The first piece of equipment you will need is a microphone. You must have a way to convert your voice (an analog signal) to a digital signal that your computer can process and edit.
I recommend a USB microphone as virtually every computer these days will have multiple USB ports.
For voice recording, you can find many decent USB microphones in the $20-30 range through Amazon.com.
Once you have purchased your microphone, you'll want an audio editing program so you can edit and improve upon the final sound quality.
My recommendation here is the free program Audacity. Audacity is one of the best-known free audio editing programs around. It has been thoroughly tested and continually improved over the years. There's really no reason to pay for more sophisticated programs when Audacity can do the job and do it well.
Check out the Audacity website and follow the directions for downloading the program. Audacity comes in several versions depending on your operating system and whether you own a Mac or a PC.
The last item you will need is the actual audio player with audio buttons that you will place on your web page.
I recommend a player that was originally developed for Wordpress. It is called 1pixelout and you can Google this phrase in order to download the player. The great news is that this player is free of charge.
Use website audio in moderation and you'll find it can add quality to the visitor's browsing experience and improve conversion rates. Audio can be a great way to build the trust and confidence of your site visitors.
About the Author:
Corte Swearingen is the creator of the Small Business Marketing Tools website as well as the author of several downloadable ebooks including Adding Audio to Your Web Pages. He has been a marketing professional for 18 years.
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