Website Conversions
6 Web Design Strategies That Turn Your Website Into a Sales Machine
There are a number of strategies you can use to turn your website into a sales machine. Let’s start at the top.
1. Where Is Your Phone Number?
We may be deep into the internet age but the age of the telephone has yet to go the way of the dinosaurs. So, where is your phone number positioned on your website? If you say anywhere other than top right and on every single page then your website is performing like a V-Dub rather than a Ferrari.
Let’s make it easy for people to contact you. Sounds simple doesn’t it? And hey, often a chat with a potential customer can make all the difference in the age of email… it’s been proven time and time again to be effective.
2. Navigation
How easy is it to navigate your website? At a glance does a potential customer know exactly what to do or what you do? How much thought is behind the words used in the navigation and how descriptive they are?
What Is A Good Conversion Rate?
As an online marketing agency that develops websites we often get asked the question ‘what is a good conversion rate?’. And while it may seem like a simple question, the answer is a little more complicated.
There are 6 factors that define what a good conversion rate is:
- Source of the traffic
- Cost of the traffic
- Type of conversion you are measuring
- Maximum amount you can afford to spend for a conversion
- Sales conversion rate
- Number of sales you want
Now let’s take a look at each of these factors in a little more detail…
1. Source of the Traffic
Different traffic sources produce different types of traffic. One source may produce higher quality traffic than another. And the higher the quality of the traffic, the higher the conversion rate. For example, running a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google Adwords is one of the highest converting advertising channels because you can choose to only show your ad when somebody is actively searching for your product or service. Banner advertising, on the the other hand, is a much lower converting advertising channel because you are advertising to prospects that are not actively searching for your product or service.
10 Easy Ways To Improve The Performance of Your Website
Your website is the most important part of your online marketing strategy because it is responsible for converting as many of the people you send to it into leads or sales for your business. Whether you use search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click (PPC) advertising, banner advertising or email marketing, your website holds the key to your profits – the better your website performs, the more profit you will make.
Over the years we have tested many different areas for improving the performance of a website – some of them easy to implement, some of them difficult. Here are 10 easy ways to improve the performance of your website…
1. Write better headlines - you would be surprised at how many websites still say ‘Welcome to XYZ company’. When a prospect visits your website for the first time they are looking for something specific so make sure to say what you offer in the headline of each page. Write in terms of the benefits to your prospects.
How Much Money Are You Really Making Online?
You probably know how much you make from one sale – but do you really know how much it costs you to make that sale?
The businesses that make the most money online know how much it costs them to make a sale and they are continually working to improve the performance of every part of their online marketing strategy to reduce this cost.
When performance goes up it costs less to drive sales, which means more money in your pocket and more sales from the same advertising budget.
Let’s walk through an example…
Say you have an e-commerce store that sell basketballs online. You buy a basketball for $30 from your supplier and sell it on your website for $55. This means you have $25 to play with to make the sale of the basketball, or a $25 margin.
Marketing the product to get targeted consumer traffic to the website will bring your costs up and reduce your margin, but so long as the cost to get one sale does not exceed your margin of $25, you’re making money.
How To Use Google Analytics To Increase Sales
Google Analytics is one of the best tracking and analytics software packages on the market. Most of the biggest sites on the Internet use Google Analytics to track their visitors. Look at the top ranked sites in Google and most of them have Google Analytics installed.
Don’t let the fact that the software is free to install and easy to use detract from the level of reporting that is available. Used correctly, Google Analytics can provide you with the information you need to take your website from ordinary to extraordinary.
While Google Analytics has an astonishing number of reports available, you can use the following reports to increase the performance of your website and, in turn, your sales and profits.
Split-Testing : The Secret Weapon of Experienced Online Marketers
Since the early 1900s, the best direct marketers have used some form of split-testing to improve their sales messages. Marketers like John Caples split-tested with coupon codes to tell which of a number of separate ads produced the best response, changing one item at a time until they found a winning formula. Split-testing is how direct marketers continually increase their profits over time.
With the ease of tracking on the Internet and the advent of low-cost or free software programs, split-testing is something that all online business owners should be implementing each month. It is an ongoing process.
The Psychology of Web Design
Good website design is noticeable to almost everyone that will visit your website, not just web designers. For people that use the internet frequently it is easy to identify valuable websites from the rest. When you see a website for the first time you make an instant judgement on its quality and relevance. Even if it is done subconsciously, we are able to take a fairly accurate impression very quickly. In fact, in 2006 the BBC News website reported on a study which showed that the brain makes decisions in just one 20th of a second of viewing a webpage. This first impression is then carried over to other parts of the website, like content and professionalism. So you can see why it is essential to make a good first impression.
Did I Just Order Pizza Online?
Well we all know Alex is the power house of the Web Profits blog space. A lot of great content, value, and insight that I am sure we have all enjoyed.
My name is Jason May, and I have been meaning to contribute in here for a while now, simply offering my own experiences and perspective on the big wild world of online business.
I consult for online business strategy here at Web Profits, and in general style up the place! I hope I can give some value, and I respect all feedback and welcome comments.
And so there is never a day that the Internet does not impress me these days…
And I know, that come 10.30pm in the evening, I should already have eaten dinner. Something nice, healthy, green. But I am male, I am single, and I do not like supermarkets.
So what can a guy do?
How Important Are Graphics On A Website?
We always hear that the content of a website is the key to its success. Without good articles, news, blogs and similar items, a website is doomed to fail.
But what about the graphics? How important are they to the overall success of a website?
Let’s look at an example. When you are surfing the internet and you come across a website, what makes you decide whether to stay or carry on surfing? If a website uses neon colors and flashing banners to try and catch your attention, the chances are you will click away quickly. But if that site is well presented, with a good mix of graphics and text, you may well stay for a closer look.
How To Dramatically Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate
You may have heard the term before, but you might not be aware of what it means – especially what it means in terms of you and your business.
It will have the greatest impact on website conversions, yet it is the one thing that most website owners neglect when designing their website.
The ‘call to action’…
All good websites have at least one (usually several) calls to action, and they generally prosper because of them.
Writing Content That Is Credible
It certainly helps to have the big wow factor in your sales copy, but it’s a fine line between making the most of the truth and extending it into fiction. The latter can also get you into trouble, so it’s vital that you write your content carefully and double check every aspect of it before putting it on your website.
A good starting point is to spend some time thinking about the product or service you are writing copy for and making a list of all the benefits it has. The golden rule that lies behind all good sales copy is that it doesn’t promote the product itself – it promotes its benefits. Consider how your customers’ lives could be improved if they had your product, and tailor your copy accordingly.
Creating A Profitable Website
In order to compete in today’s marketplace, your website must be of the highest quality. Several elements must combine in order to present a persuasive website that is capable of raking in the profits.
To this end, you must start with a headline that is targeted towards your customer base. Concentrate on presenting the best benefit of your website in a single sentence. Don’t promote your site – simply tell your customers how they will benefit from staying on your site. Keep the headline short – according to research you have about eight seconds to capture their attention and prevent them from surfing elsewhere. Use those eight seconds wisely and make every word count.
You also need to ensure your website is easy to navigate. Everything should be geared to the fact that people online have a short attention span, so don’t expect them to search for information. Ease of use is vital – make sure your website has an accurate site map and menu to allow them to explore easily.
Developing A Trusted Website
The first impression a person has of your website will very likely determine how long they will spend looking around it. Trust is a big issue on the internet, and it is your responsibility to make sure every concern a potential customer may have is resolved before it has a chance to even arise.
The main question to ask is – how professional does your website look? If it looks like it’s been designed by someone who has just left college, it’s time for an overhaul. Hire a professional designer to create a site for you – the money it costs will more than be paid back in the extra sales it will generate.
Tips For Improving Your Website
What’s the most important aspect of your website? A few things probably spring to mind, but content is by far the most vital to your success. The more relevant and up to date content you can provide on a regular basis, the more reasons you will give surfers to revisit your site.
People come to the internet looking for information. If they get what they need from your site, the chances are they will bookmark you for future reference. Not only can this lead to more potential clients, they may also recommend you to others.
Don’t cram all your content into one solid lump though. Break it into easily readable chunks and use graphics to draw a surfer’s attention to specific areas of your website. Overall each page should have a balanced feel, and it may take time to achieve the best results.
Which Words Not To Include On Websites
In a recent poll taken by more than 2,000 UK computer users, Internet words like ‘netiquette’, ‘blook’, and ‘wiki’ were found to be the most annoying and caused users to leave certain websites that included them. While you can’t possibly know all the words that are despised by the Internet community, you should pay close attention to the keywords and phrases that are being used most often so you can increase traffic to your website by including them in your content.
Choosing the right keywords to use in web page titles and headlines is one of the most difficult steps when creating a website because they are cues that tell visitors what to expect as they are reading your content. Using the wrong words can mean the difference between making a sale or losing one.
