Will a title like this get some attention? We shall see, we shall see 🙂
But it is a good question, don’t you think? This question is one I asked myself over and over again, even now at times, for my first website that sells new and used clogging shoes. It’s a question you have to asked yourself as an eCommerce business owner. Getting traffic to your site is one thing, but if the traffic doesn’t do anything…
Here are some answers, in the form of questions, I recently gave a client:
- Have you tried any promotions?
- Are you getting people to sign up for something or getting visitor information?
- What do the visitors do when they come to your site?
- How are they finding you?
- Are they coming back?
- If so, what do they do when they come back?
These are questions you have to be able to answer. Google Analytics or Statcounter.com are tools I use to answer some of these questions. A first time visitor isn’t always that prone to buy until they have a bit of trust with the company. How can you gain their trust?
Other questions might include:
- Do you have testimonials or feedback on the site to help build credibility?
- Are you answering questions you feel visitors may have?
- Is your site easy to follow?
- Are you focusing primarily on visitor friendliness, search engine friendliness, or both?
There are probably even more detailed questions that you can ask about traffic. Some others that come to mind would be “What is the path a visitor takes – home page, then ______ page, then back to home page, then ______ page, then CHECKOUT!”
You need to know what path you want the visitor to take; then make it as easy as possible for them to get through that path. Maybe even give the visitor multiple ways to get through that path (ie. side navigation links, context links, footer links, pictures, etc.)
So, this is a start. Visitor conversion is an ongoing maze all online business oweners have to figure out. The bad news is, there really isn’t a “perfect answer” that I’ve found. Test! Test! Test! Then record the information, look it over, and decide what’s working best. Repeat what’s working and stop doing the ineffective stuff. It’s really about that simple! 🙂