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Turn_your_website_into_a_workhorse
| Turn your website into a workhorse
Putting up a website is an every day occurrence for businesses
of all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately there are some common
mistakes made on many websites that can detract from the
products and services offered, and often times cause a loss of
income without your even knowing it.
Here are some hard and fast rules for maximizing the
responsiveness of your website:
1. Make the most of your entry page. Be sure the first page on
your site provides a compelling reason for the visitor to
explore further. If your main page is cluttered with links,
banners and ads, it may be too confusing for a visitor to figure
out why they should stay. Conversely, if the main page doesn’t
provide much in the way of benefits or interest, there is also
no reason for your visitor to delve further into the site. So
keep it simple but not bare and be sure it is easy to understand
and navigate.
2. Check your text mechanics. This should go without saying,
however you should double and even triple check the spelling,
grammar and coherency of your pages. Even the most professional
looking pages will loose visitors and sales if there is bad
grammar or spelling mistakes everywhere they turn.
3. Give them some meat. Be sure to provide useful content on
your site that is related to the products and services you
offer. Try to teach your visitors something. Create
informational articles, whitepapers, FAQs or news items that are
related to what your visitor wants. When you teach a prospect
something, you gain respect, trust and credibility. These are
key components in gaining a paying customer!
4. Stay Focused This should also go without saying, however
there are many sites out there that try to be a “catch all” for
their visitors. With this strategy they are hoping that
providing many different links, banners and miscellaneous
information will help them to increase their chances of making
some kind of sale. All this does however is confuse the visitor
- especially if they found your site by typing in a specific
keyword into a search engine.
Instead, strategically focus your content, links and
advertisements on related products and services. Providing
continuity in this manner will help to draw visitors further
into your site, and provide you with many more opportunities to
“sell” them.
5. Use internal promotions. If you must have banner and button
advertisements on your site, then make sure to advertise
yourself as well as others! Having some advertisements that lead
offsite is fine if you make money from them and if it is enough
income to justify both the loss of space and the loss of your
hard earned visitor. Otherwise, use the ad space to
strategically draw visitors to additional pages of your website,
make purchases on your site, or sign up for your mailing list.
6. Usability Consistency Use the same design, layout, menu
system, colors and effects throughout your website. If a visitor
sees one page with the navigation system at the top, and the
next page with navigation at the bottom, they will become
confused and frustrated - thus not bothering to stick around no
matter how badly they wanted your information, services or
products.
7. Focus on the Customer Don’t make the customer work for the
sale. If you have products available directly on your site, be
sure to include a full description of those products and include
a picture where possible as well as the purchase price. I have
been to many sites that have one or two of these elements but
not all. For instance, some sites show a picture and the name of
the product with the price, but they don’t have a description!
Even worse are those sites that do a fantastic job of showing
and telling - but you have no idea how much the product costs
unless you go partially into the ordering process.
If you offer a service then service visitors from the beginning!
Be available for immediate email or live followup and support,
or again, provide useful information that relates to your
services. If you impress them with the information you give
away, they will wonder just how much more they can get by paying
you.
8. Make sure things work! I was at the site of a very well known
and established home products company recently and I was there
to buy. I placed several items into my shopping cart and
proceeded to go through the checkout process. After entering my
shipping information I clicked continue and fully expected to
enter my payment information. Imagine my surprise when instead I
was redirected to the catalog page! I tried multiple times to
place my order and finally gave up out of frustration. Did I
pick up the phone and place the order instead? Nope! It was the
middle of the night and I did not want the bother of placing a
call, waiting on hold, then explaining to the sales
representative what it was that I wanted. So make sure
everything works on your site! Test and retest when first
setting it all up, then make a habit of randomly testing just to
be sure nothing has changed!
Whether you’re just starting out or you are a multi-million
dollar corporation, following these simple steps should be the
rule - not the exception, . In doing these, you should soon see
increased new visitor and customer satisfaction, longer visits
to your website, increased word of mouth, and ultimately -
increased sales.
About the author:
Kathy Burns has been a freelance writer for over 15 years and is
the owner of Electronic Perceptions, an E-Business, Handheld
Computing & Wireless Technology Consulting Company. Visit her
website at http://www.electronicperceptions.com for more
articles and information or contact her through email at any
time. mailto:kathy@electronicperceptions.com
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