Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the big buzzword in Internet marketing, but getting people to visit your website is only half the battle. The other equally important factor, is getting people to buy from you once they are on your site. This is known as Conversion Optimization. Conversion Optimization is the process of maximizing the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action (this percentage is known as your conversion rate). You can easily calculate your conversion rate as follows:
Number of orders / Number of visitors x 100 = Conversion Rate Pct.
The reason that improving your conversion rate is so important is that you can increase your sales with the same amount of traffic just by boosting your conversion rate.
There are a number of ways to improve conversion rates. One of the best things you can do is to copy what the big boys on the Internet are doing. From including policy pages, instant chat, and security seals to copying tactics such as free shipping will all help improve conversion rates. Put your phone number on every page of your website – don’t make it difficult for a customer to communicate with you. If you recall from my last article, your content should be about the customer, not about you. Provide enough content about your products that a customer can make an informed buying decision. Websites often talk about what the company wants to say, not about what the customer wants to hear. This is hard for many small businesses, but it is key to improving your conversion rates.
With web marketing, it is a known fact that word-of-mouth (or viral marketing) is the single best way to get people to visit your site. As it turns out, word-of-mouth, in the form of customer reviews and testimonials is also the single best way to improve your conversion rates. Testimonials should be sprinkled throughout your website, not just on a testimonials page. Product reviews play an important role in increasing your sales. Over 55% of internet shoppers go to Amazon, simply because they have product reviews on their site. Be sure to include both the positive and negative reviews so your customers get a realistic idea of what they are buying.
WebStores Ltd offers a variety of free seminars which discuss these and a number of other tactics for improving your Conversion Optimization. If you are interested, call 877-924-1414 or visit our website at WebStoresLtd.com.
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