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    "Book Now" button - the wrong way, and the right way.

    Mark Demicoli  19 June 2013 08:14:54 PM
    Your website and ClickBook's "Book Now" widget are the key bridges between your customers and confirmed appointments. All it takes for you to truely understand this is to consider your own behaviour when you visit your service providers' websites. In 50% of cases, customers are ready to book an appointment immediately.  Do you like digging through a website's menus just to get this simple task done?  Ofcourse not.

    A good website should take visitors straight to the highest value action as quickly as possible.  In your case, this means making an appointment. In internet parlance, we call this a "Call To Action".  This is normally a visual button of very high prominence, designed to attract you immediately without thinking.

    The ClickBook "Book Now" button is the "Call To Action" on your website!  So where should you put it? The answer is EVERYWHERE, especially at the top of your homepage. All too often we see our Book Now button buried in menus or down the bottom somewhere.

    A picture does indeed tell a thousand words, so I'll stop talking and show you a great "Call To Action" on the website of Angela Simpson Physio in Canada. Browse this website and notice that the Book Appointment button is always there waiting to be clicked.  A new visitor wanting to learn about your business before committing, is constantly (and gently) heckled by the button, because it's stands out so much.  When they're ready, there's no thought of "OK how do I book?" - the next step is as plain as day.

    What is striking about this particular site is the use of a custom Button (yes, ClickBook allows you to do this, see the Help section for details), and the great contrast between the yellow button and purple background.  Apparently, yellow and purple are known to contrast beautifully together (we didn't need scientists for that one).  The effect is so attractive, it's hard not to make an appointment!


    Image:"Book Now" button - the wrong way, and the right way.
    Comments

    1Mark demicoli  24/06/13 4:02:27 PM  Custom Book Now button

    @Mathew: Sign in to ClickBook if you are not currently, then go to the Help tab. Scroll down to:

    Option 1 - "Book Now" button widget (script)

    In this box there is a field labelled "Do you have your own button? Enter the URL below and click Refresh.".

    2Matthew Earsman  24/06/13 3:57:25 PM  Book now button blog

    Can you please give some information about exactly how to make a button, so that when prompted ' do you have your own button' I can honestly and usefully answer yes!!

    cheers,

    Matt Earsman

    3Mark Demicoli  24/06/13 12:35:13 AM  Not a Bounce or an Exit

    @Doug: The Button is a script which does not navigate away from the current page but instead loads content from ClickBook.net in an IFRAME. Therefore it is neither an exit nor a bounce. The Google Analytics code registers this action as a click on your page.

    Whether or not the bounce rate effects search results placement is arguable. This is the best article I found to the contrary:

    { Link }

    The bottom line is whether it makes sense to focus on search engine optimization at the expense of paying appointments?

    4Stuart  21/06/13 7:40:58 PM  Bounce rates

    Doug,

    Are you sure that what you are describing wouldn't be classed as an "exit" rather than a "bounce"?

    For what it is worth, I'm not very sure that bounce rate is a key identifier of natural search results. My own main site has had a bounce rate of almost 80% for years. Everyone tells me that is terrible, but the site still generates hundreds of visitors per day and ranks nicely for a number of target keywords.

    That said, I think that in years to come bounce rates will become more important in the algorithm, but I'm not convinced that they are all that important right now.

    Best wishes,

    Stuart

    5Doug DeRosa  21/06/13 5:35:43 AM  "Book Now" button - the wrong way, and the right way.

    While I agree with the premise on the "call to Action" aspect of your blog. I have to strongly disagree with having the booking button on the top of the home page. If a person enters a site and clicks on the book now button right away....they never leave your home page which in turn generates what google and other search engines classify as a Bounce. Bounce rate are one of the key elements in determining your organic placement on any search engine. While I think it's good thing to have the link on every page of your website...on top of the home page is a no no!

    6Mark demicoli  20/06/13 3:23:35 AM  Customize Book Now button

    @1: The Book Now code generator which is displayed when you click the Help tab in ClickBook has a field at the bottom labelled as follows: "Do you have your own button? Enter the URL below and click refresh".

    The URL is the full internet address of your button image. eg: http://www.mydomain.com/images/booknowbutton.jpg.

    On clicking Refresh, you should see your button appear in the code genreator Preview.

    At this point, your code is ready to go.

    7Sarasota Home Computers  20/06/13 3:07:37 AM  How do you customize?

    I can't seem to find anything in the help file or blog archives about how to customize the Book Now button. Could you provide a link?