Improving Visitors

Many sharp business owners are taking advantage of what the web can do for their business. They have developed a good looking website and many are even devoting part of their budget to online marketing strategies like pay-per-click campaigns, natural search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, and newsletters. Each one of these strategies can be effective in increasing the traffic flowing to your site. After all, without traffic there would be no sales; a website without traffic is about as bad as a non-existent website.

So what if you have all the traffic in the world but still no one is buying anything? Converting a website visitor into a buyer is called a sales conversion in the web world, and that is exactly your next step. Imagine you spend a bunch of money on marketing and noticed your traffic increases a significant amount. Let's say that of all the visitors to your website, 1% of them will make a purchase. This is not bad and with increased traffic you would expect your monthly sales to be increasing a bit as well. However, if your site is not very compelling to buy, you are going to be stuck at the 1% mark for too long, and essentially wasting marketing dollars.

Now let's imagine you change some aspects about your website to make it more appealing to a buyer. Now is when that increased traffic gives you the opportunity to make additional sales. Even if you only increase conversions to 2%, you just doubled your revenue without spending any more money on marketing. So here are three smart ways to increase online sales conversions:

1. Use Efficient Navigation. Think like you were the customer. Can you find all of the links you need to make a purchase, or does it take some searching? Things like shopping cart buttons should be very visible and found on any applicable page. Do not make a customer go searching for a way to spend money on your website, instead make it easy for them!

2. Take Visitors Where They Want. We know that the fewer clicks it takes to buy something, the greater the chance someone will complete their purchase. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this and as a result lose out on business. If you are advertising Nike golf equipment, make sure the link takes the customer directly to the Nike golf page, instead of the general home page. This way the desired goods are immediately in front of the customer and no searching is necessary. This same strategy holds true for email marketing or any other links pointing to your site.

3. Make sure your basic information and offers such as free shipping are on every page and easy to spot. Especially with natural search engine traffic, you cannot assume that everyone comes in on the home page and logically progresses through the site. The potential customer can come in directly to any page, even a detailed product page. Your online security symbols, offers, even your basic slogan or unique selling position should be easily seen and understood.

These are three basics that every website must have to compel visitors to buy or sign up for something. There are analytics programs available to tell you exactly what people are doing on the site and where problem areas might be occurring. Analysis professionals can help pinpoint causes for these in general and also go to the next level in providing better conversion for returning customers, new customers, those who came in from pay per click offers, etc. using sophisticated A/B and multi-variant testing techniques. Since conversion rates are so important, you should always be testing for improvement.
Alison Lindemann is an Internet business consultant with WSI, a leading firm for helping businesses succeed online. As the owner of her local franchise, she provides services of Santa Clarita ecommerce conversion improvement, web design, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more for Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles based businesses.

Many sharp business owners are taking advantage of what the web can do for their business. They have developed a good looking website and many are even devoting part of their budget to online marketing strategies like pay-per-click campaigns, natural search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, and newsletters. Each one of these strategies can be effective in increasing the traffic flowing to your site. After all, without traffic there would be no sales; a website without traffic is about as bad as a non-existent website.

So what if you have all the traffic in the world but still no one is buying anything? Converting a website visitor into a buyer is called a sales conversion in the web world, and that is exactly your next step. Imagine you spend a bunch of money on marketing and noticed your traffic increases a significant amount. Let's say that of all the visitors to your website, 1% of them will make a purchase. This is not bad and with increased traffic you would expect your monthly sales to be increasing a bit as well. However, if your site is not very compelling to buy, you are going to be stuck at the 1% mark for too long, and essentially wasting marketing dollars.

Now let's imagine you change some aspects about your website to make it more appealing to a buyer. Now is when that increased traffic gives you the opportunity to make additional sales. Even if you only increase conversions to 2%, you just doubled your revenue without spending any more money on marketing. So here are three smart ways to increase online sales conversions:

1. Use Efficient Navigation. Think like you were the customer. Can you find all of the links you need to make a purchase, or does it take some searching? Things like shopping cart buttons should be very visible and found on any applicable page. Do not make a customer go searching for a way to spend money on your website, instead make it easy for them!

2. Take Visitors Where They Want. We know that the fewer clicks it takes to buy something, the greater the chance someone will complete their purchase. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this and as a result lose out on business. If you are advertising Nike golf equipment, make sure the link takes the customer directly to the Nike golf page, instead of the general home page. This way the desired goods are immediately in front of the customer and no searching is necessary. This same strategy holds true for email marketing or any other links pointing to your site.

3. Make sure your basic information and offers such as free shipping are on every page and easy to spot. Especially with natural search engine traffic, you cannot assume that everyone comes in on the home page and logically progresses through the site. The potential customer can come in directly to any page, even a detailed product page. Your online security symbols, offers, even your basic slogan or unique selling position should be easily seen and understood.

These are three basics that every website must have to compel visitors to buy or sign up for something. There are analytics programs available to tell you exactly what people are doing on the site and where problem areas might be occurring. Analysis professionals can help pinpoint causes for these in general and also go to the next level in providing better conversion for returning customers, new customers, those who came in from pay per click offers, etc. using sophisticated A/B and multi-variant testing techniques. Since conversion rates are so important, you should always be testing for improvement.

Alison Lindemann is an Internet business consultant with WSI, a leading firm for helping businesses succeed online. As the owner of her local franchise, she provides services of Santa Clarita ecommerce conversion improvement, web design, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more for Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles based businesses.