Web Marketing - Converting Traffic into Sales - Part 5

Home Page

This is the most important page of your entire site. It must catch and hold every visitor. Surfers are very impatient! Studies show that you only have 8 seconds to grab a visitor's attention. Your offer must be immediately apparent! The most important information should be near the top of the page where it can be seen instantly. The home page you must tell the surfer the entire theme of your site and entice them to continue to explore more pages.

Your home page appearance can make you rich OR it can absolutely kill your business! Why is this so? Would you choose a hotel in a seedy building with questionable clientelle loitering about, or an immaculate place with a doorman at the ready to assist you? The first impression has a critical impact on your visitor's perception of your site.

Content

Your site must have useful information that people want. Be brief and direct. Don't use potentially confusing complex terms. Give your site a clear and distinct focus, and ensure that your focus is immediately obvious in your titles and headings. Each page should have at least 100 words of text, and use your most important keyword phrases 3 or 4 times per page. Have someone proofread your text before you put your site online.

Contact Information

Make sure visitors know who you are, and how to reach you. Many sites do not prominently include the company's address and phone number. How dumb is that? Would you place an ad on TV or in the newspaper without this information? Make it easy for visitors to contact you - put the contact information where they can't miss it, and repeat it throughout your pages.

Site Navigation

Use a simple, easily understood and consistent navigation throughout your entire site. It must be intuitive, predictable and highly visible. Navigation needs to act as your visitors' road map, so they know where they are and where they can go from there. When someone finds you in a search and they land in the middle of your site, they must be able to easily navigate their way to other pages. Confusing navigation is the NUMBER ONE invitation to people to leave your site!

Feedback Forms

Make it easy for your customers to communicate with you with feedback forms. A simple "mail to" link which opens up a blank mail message is inadequate. Take advantage of the opportunity to gather information about your visitors' likes and dislikes. This is very valuable information! Use feedback forms to qualify your customers. This is a great source of leads that can turn into sales!

Ecommerce Shopping Cart

Make it easy to buy what you have to sell! Give your customers as many options as possible. (mail, fax, online, etc.) By accepting credit cards you will get many more sales than if you just accept checks and will greatly increase your orders. You need to take credit cards with a strong encryption on a secure server in order to compete - visitors are rightly reluctant to give out identity information without protection.

You need a shopping cart If you sell more than a handful of items. Make sure your customers can add and subtract items effortlessly, and check out easily with as few clicks as possible.

Mailing List or Newsletter

Ssuccessful sites often gather email addresses through a mailing list or newsletter. Offer them a free report, a free monthly newsletter or free updates. When they sign up You Get Their Addresses And Their Permission To Contact Them! This provides you with an effective way to generate profits by staying in direct contact with your customers for free.

In-Site Search

Big sites need a "Search This Site" feature to help visitors find exactly what they are looking for quickly. Smaller sites need a Site Map or Table of Contents that clearly lays out where everything is. If it takes too long for visitors to find what they are seeking, they will look elsewhere.

New Updates Often

Your website content must be Up-To-Date And Relevant to your audience. Why would your visitors come back if there is nothing ever changes? The search engines use the same philosophy! The more you update your site, the more frequently and aggressively search engine spiders will crawl it . Feed their curiosity by updating your site often!

Credibility and Trust

Credibility and trust are essential. If your visitors don't trust you, they're certainly not going tobuy from you! Developing rapport with your visitors is critical to your success. Don't make unrealistic promises or offers that you can't back up. Emphasize Benefits, but also Highlight Facts. Use statistics and give concrete examples. Use testimonials. The more information you give your visitors, the more secure they're going to feel about buying from you.

Guarantee

We've all been burned before and every time it happens, it becomes harder for us to trust anyone. Online, it's even worse. Guarantees help to alleviate any anxiety the customer may be feeling about ordering from you. Offer a no hassle, 100% money-back guarantee and back it up!

Offer Something Free

Offer Something Of Value On Your Web Site Free. It doesn't have to cost you anything. It can be just free information that is valuable to your target audience. Examples; A searchable database, calendar, product FAQ, tech support, newsletter, etc. A realtor site, for example, might offer maps and demographics for local areas. An electrical supply site could offer a free monthly newsletter with wiring projects. This apparent free offer of value works wonders for getting accolades, and valuable links that will build your link popularity, and increase your search engine ranking. Give them something free, it will keep them coming back.

Advertising

Advertise your website. Include you domain name on all business cards, letterhead, and in all ads that you run. Find related sites and ask to swap links with them. Find sites that will advertise your banner and generate more sales/hits for you. Use press releases and radio or television time if possible. Announce your site to everyone, everywhere and whenever you can!

Search Engine Placement

Increasing your website ranking is the most important step to increase traffic. Many "web promotion" services submit your site to search engines and let it go at that. Search engine submission is simply not enough! With today's intense competition for keywords, winning "Top Ten" search engine placement in a competitive market requires optimized content using powerful leading-edge techniques. This will make all the difference in the amount of traffic to your site.

Website Traffic Analysis

Successful web entrepreneurs gather intelligence about their visitors behavior. They use this information to measure the effectiveness of their online advertising. For instance, if an ad campaign isn't working, they try a new one, and analyze their visitors reaction.

Tracking software can show you "who, what, when, where and how" customers visit your web site. These marketing reports illuminate which areas on the site visitors like, how they get to your site, and their demographic profile. You can even analyze what search engines and keywords they used to find you.