Enhance A Website With Audio

Would most viewers watch tv with the sound off? No...audio enhances the presentation. And since most computers have speakers, most websites should enhance their presentation with audio, too.

Given our slumping economy, business owners are looking at ways to improve on what they already have, hopefully quickly and preferably inexpensively. Some are taking articles they've written, or their own website text, and are turning it into audio, either for sale or to exchange for contact information of prospects.

Audio enhances the "stickiness" of a website, helping people to want to stay longer and visit more pages. It also enhances the look of a website, because having audio means those blocks and blocks of text can be shortened or removed, but all of the information is still on the site. Most people are much more willing to listen to a few minutes of good audio rather than read long passages of text. When a visitor wants to know more, they simply click and listen. There is nothing like the sound of a friendly human voice to help form a more personal bond between the prospect and the business.

Many people who visit websites have visual disabilities, so having audio is a great advantage for them. It allows for almost universal accessibility, since those with diminished vision, dyslexia or an inability to read the English language can still have access to the most important information on the site.

By taking materials he already has, a business owner can enhance his website by:

1) adding a produced audio article about a small aspect of his business as an incentive for people to sign up for the e-newsletter.

2) taking 5 to 10 articles on a related subject and using them either as an auto-responder "thank you" for signing up for a seminar, buying an item from the store, providing a physical address, or to sell as an audio e-course.

3) taking the large swaths of text and turning them into produced, on-demand audio, thereby cleaning up the look of the site, and giving the visitor a chance to interact with the site. Research shows that sites with interactive content keep people more entertained and they're likely to stay longer, learn more and become a repeat visitor and customer.

4) offering produced audio books for sale. People view those who have books, e-books and audio books available as experts. They must be experts in their field if they've got books and audio books!

5) taking tapes of seminars he's already given, having them edited and packaged, complete with professional introduction and conclusion, and selling them.

6) adding a "tip of the month" or "tip of the week" or "tip of the day" audio bite. This is particularly effective when an RSS feed is part of it, so people can subscribe to the audio portion and are reminded to re-visit the site each time the audio is updated.

7) using short audio clips to move visitors through a site, especially a large one. Visitors who could be intimidated by an extensive site relax measurably with a friendly human voice guiding them through.

These are just a few of the many ways audio can be used to enhance a website and add to the owner's bottom line. There are as many different uses for audio on the internet as there are creative people to dream them up, but there are a few guidelines that should be followed:

Not everyone is in a private place when surfing the internet, so audio should always be "on demand." The person viewing the site should have to click on a button on the web page before the audio starts to play. Make the audio link very prominent and invite visitors to click for more information. Pages that start to play audio as soon as the page loads are a major turn-off to almost all web surfers.

If the audio can be downloaded and saved, be sure it includes contact information. The job of transportable audio is to not only enlighten the person who saved it, but also to enlighten and recruit those people the finder shares it with. If a piece of audio can become separated from the web page where it lives, contact information must be part of the audio presentation.

It's important that the audio sound as professional as the website looks. Professional audio enhances the site far beyond the cost of production, and amateurish audio will run prospects off, never to return again.

In conclusion, computers have speakers. Websites that don't make use of those speakers are missing a major entertainment and educational component. The era of the silent website is coming to a close, just like silent moves faded into oblivion once "talkies" were developed. Business owners can enhance sites now and get a jump on their competition, or can play catch-up in year or so, when most serious business owners will have web audio.

It pays to be ahead of the curve, especially when an affordable, professional option is available. "Better late than never" may not be an option on this current economy. The stand-out businesses will win, and the losers may lose everything.