In a perfect world, the answer would be a resounding “NO!” and that would be the end of the discussion. Chances are however, that you’re still on the lookout for things you can do and ways you can approach your online activities to really help your business grow through visitor to customer conversions.
As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, you should certainly focus on your website’s appearance, its content, the data produced by your analytics provider, and of course the technical bits that keep things running smoothly behind the scenes.
You can also give some attention to providing ways for your visitors to take action on your website – sure, you might have calls to action in place, but is there anything your visitors can do to act upon them? More importantly, how are you making those actions easier for your visitors?
If you’re addressing each of the things we’ve mentioned so far, then you’re already on the path toward optimizing your website and making every effort to capture each visitor as a lead, and hopefully one day soon, a customer!
Just to be sure, let’s go over a few of your most important considerations:
Calls to Action
A call to action is something that encourages someone to take a specific action. An example would be a brightly colored “Buy Now!” button on a shopping cart page, or a few lines of text at the end of a blog post asking readers to leave a comment. You want to take care with these as they can be very powerful, but also easy to overuse. We discuss calls to action in more detail in this post.
Compelling Copy
What does the text on your website say about your business? More than you might think! Having too much text on a page, not having the right images, and leaving out important information are some of the content concerns you need to be aware of. Ideally the spotlight should be first on visitor experience, and then optimizing for search engines. We’ve written in more detail about how compelling copy affects your conversions.
Analytical Data
Your website is probably already tracking and recording information about your visitors, and if it’s not, now is the time to get that going! The data you can extract from analytic provider reports is nothing short of invaluable – it can offer insight into which pages on your site are most popular, helping you in all sorts of areas, including design and content. Check out this post for more information on what your analytical data is telling you about your customers.
Website Performance
Chances are you’ll be leaving all of the technical matters to a professional web developer, but there’s no reason why you can’t at least be aware of the terminology and the basic of how your website behaves at its heart. From the code that supports its structure to the code that drives it and makes it function, the way your website is set up can have a definite impact on its overall performance. Remember, as we discuss here no one likes a slow and/or broken website!
Opt-ins
Opt-ins are very valuable if they are approached from the right angle as we discuss in more detail here. Sometimes they go hand in hand with calls to action – there can be a call to action directing visitors to fill out your website’s contact form to request a quote on a project, and then the form itself would be at the end of the equation. You can also have an opt-in to sign up for your newsletter, a way for people to add your business on their social media accounts, etc as a part of your shopping cart experience.
Next Steps
The possibilities really are endless when it comes to the potential improvements you can make to your website. With a little bit of research and knowledge, you can soon be on your way to true internet marketing mastery!
If you’re not the tech-savvy type, but love what you’ve seen so far, be sure to get in touch with us! We’d be happy to provide you with a quote, schedule an appointment, or just answer your questions and concerns about our site and our business.
What are you waiting for? Set your website on the path to greatness today!
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