G. V. Ingles - 2010-03-08
A lot of money is spent on Internet
marketing. This can take the form of website design, search engine optimization and
more. Conversion optimization for small businesses should be one of the most
important parts of any marketing effort.
Of course, you do need to get traffic to your website. And, having a professionally
designed website is also vital. However, if the visitors to your site do not become
your customers, you have wasted time and money.
Conversion optimization is the art of converting as many of your website's visitors
as possible into either a sale or a lead. The process of converting customers into
sales or leads involves much more than a good website design.
Whenever someone visits your website you want them to take an action of some type.
There are a number of ways to get them to do this. One key element is having a clear
message.
You probably have a lot of things you want to share with customers. It can be hard
not to include absolutely everything you want them to learn about your product or
service on a single page. Doing so however can cost you sales. Break up your
information into small chunks. If there is too much to read through, potential
customers can lose interest.
Streamlining the message, therefore, can be a key way to convert visitors. Figure
out the key points you want to get across, and emphasize those points. Make sure
that every page on the website is compatible with every other and that each page is
just as clearly written as the homepage.
Take a good look at the navigation on your site. It needs to be easily understood
and effortless move visitors from one page to another. If the navigation is hard to
understand, they will just try a different website.
People need to have a sense of confidence in a company before they make a purchase.
They should feel that the company is knowledgeable and reputable.
Ordering from the site should be secure and the privacy policy should be easy to
find. You may want to offer a customer guarantee which should also be clearly
stated. Security certificates should always be kept up to date.
Cross selling and upselling are important on an e-commerce website. Visitors like to
know which items are the most popular, or which items are the newest/latest or which
items have the best reviews.
You need to track both the people are coming to your website and the number taking a
desired action, in an web analytics program such as Google Analytics. Taking a
desired action is called a conversion. This action could be making a purchase,
downloading a brochure or sending an email. You need to be paying attention to the
numbers so you can track how the changes you make to your site affect the conversion
ratio.
You may find it helpful to hire an expert in conversion optimization for small
businesses to advise you. It is
