Email or Bookmark This Page

Are They Unprofessional?

[jim_w]

I never was one that liked putting a ‘email this page to a friend’ or a ‘bookmark this page’ any place on my site. I always thought that it looked unprofessional. But with G doing whatever it is they are doing and with Y showing results from x sometimes and then y sometimes, and only GOD knows what MS is doing, apparently at any point in time people looking for your site may not be able to find it in the search engines. Are these items that should be added to pages to insure that visitors can indeed find you again?

As near as I can tell searchers are lazy and human, meaning they are very habitual. They use the search engines as bookmarks by entering only one or two keywords and expect to see the same results every time.

Does anyone else think these look unprofessional?

[txbakers]

If they are done tastefully they can be professional.

I'm getting ready to add a "Tell a Friend" program to my site so people can email right from the site. I'll be offering incentives as well. But it has to look like the rest of the site.

[hannamyluv]

I couldn't resist. I found this when doing a search. Three years old! Brett asked nearly the very same question!

I don't know if this is worthwhile as it is so old, but it was an interesting read.
[webmasterworld.com...]

[jim_w]

>>If they are done tastefully<<

Well that leaves me out ;-)

>>Three years old!<<

Over 3 years, and times they have a changed. 3 years ago, I was #1 in G and they were using text off of ones page for a description instead of a directory description. Mine happen to end up telling people not to spend hundreds more for a widget. That generated a lot of traffic.

Well, I don’t think it is the best ‘marketing’ tool, but I’m concerned with falling out of the SERPs for no reason or getting buried because of people with big bucks. I’ve seen some pretty strange searches over the past several months by people looking for our site and trying different things to find us, including –numberoneserp.com and quoting what they could remember off the page they were looking for.

[keyplyr]

I got rid of the "add this site to favorites" or "bookmark this site" a couple years ago. All browsers offer that feature very clearly and I feel that is one of the very first skills aquired by new users. They love to gather up their favorite websites.

As for the "tell a friend", I have that sort of utility on each and every one of my pages with the same look-feel as my site design. I think that copying the webpage address, opening an email client (or leaving the site to go to a web-based email account & then logging-in) then pasting the address and sending it to a friend... is more than most newbies are willing to do. My logs show a nice number of users referred by some email client due to the "tell a friend" feature.

[dougie]

I'm trying to do a professional tell a friend thingy - does anyone have an example any where?

[keyplyr]

dougie - check your sticky mail.

[eWhisper]

I think both can be tasefully done, and useful depending on your site. The email to a friend is great for spreading content around. I think everyone knows how to add a bookmark, but often they don't think of it while they're looking at a lot of pages for info - and a subtle reminder could improve the ratio.

I would make it very subtle, DO NOT use pop up boxes when someone closes a page asking them to bookmark the page.

I've been thinking of adding these features to a couple pages recently, look forward to more opinions on this subject.

[Reflection]

Ask yourself this, if a user does not know how to bookmark your site how are they going to find your site in their bookmarks after they click your 'add to bookmarks' link?

[eWhisper]

I don't think it's about people not knowing how to bookmark, so much as it's a reminder todo so.

[too much information]

I added one to my cart system and the number of visits has gone WAY up. Seeing as it is not the type of product that would result in additional sales, the benefit to me is that more people see my work and the potential client base grows.

I also think that it is more effective to have people e-mail the URL directly from the page because telling a friend how to find the page by e-mail usually results in the frind replying with something like, "that was cool" and not taking the time to navigate.

I didn't make the link obnoxious, but it is very simple and straight forward. "Tell a friend about these widgets" and that's it. I think it works well, and so far I have had no complaints.

(My cart system is also available to subscribers in my industry and none of them have complained either.)

*added: I set up my form so that the person who is sending the link can type in their own message, and must provide their own e-mail. That way it does not appear as spam. (even though it gives a small plug to my site) ;)

[txbakers]

Yeah, my advantage is that when a person is using my site I know their email and name, so when they open the "tell a friend" form, they don't have to enter it, but it shows up in the email they send, as if it's from them!

I'm working out an affiliate plan which will track who they send it to, and if their friend buys I will send them a gift certificate for something useful.

I have high hopes for it.