As a website manager or owner  you’ve likely determined that DRIVING TRAFFIC to your site is a critical first step to getting  the success that is so important  to your business . But if your site has  reached a reasonable level of success with this first step, then you will certainly be keenly aware that TRAFFIC alone is not the secret to your websites success.  It’s equally critical that you convert your traffic into leads or actually sales .  Let’s briefly discuss some ideas that YOU can implement to find success in both of these steps.

First let’s look at how you can get  more traffic to your site.  What is it that would cause someone to really WANT to come to your site in the first place ?  The answer is INFORMATION!  Regardless of whether you are a car dealership, a non-profit, an art gallery, or a pet store , the reason why people will end up on your site is because they are searching for information.  But it’s not JUST information that they seek .  The Internet is FULL of information!  More than that, they are seeking a source of information that is trustworthy  !  It’s just like any other business or personal interaction.  We desire  to work with people that are trustworthy  .  So in order to draw  traffic to  your site you must first fill it with good  content  that your targeted customers are looking  for.  Then you must present that information in a way that helps your site visitors to begin to trust you .  

Wouldn’t it be nice if that’s ALL there was to it !  Unfortunately this, ‘Build it and they will come” strategy  is NOT enough anymore for most websites.  The Internet is simply TOO full (and growing exponentially) of information for your prospects to find you and learn to trust you without some help.   For this to happen,  you need  to grow your own  network of online ‘references’ that serve to authenticate your site as a trustworthy authority .  These ‘references’ are much like job references that you give to a prospective boss who  wants to authenticate your experience before hiring you  .   On the Internet,  these references take the shape of ‘links’, from other relevant and trustworthy sites back to your website  .  Notice the sites must be relevant, trustworthy and respectable.    This is very important as it helps the search engines and each of your prospective site visitors to prove that you are   a website they want to do business with .

So as you work on step #1 of DRIVING TRAFFIC to your site, consider  all of your efforts in this way.   Consider  what you do on all of the  social networking sites.  Make sure that your content and  your activity on those sites is legitimately helping to authenticate your business and helping  people trust you and your information enough to purchase from you.

Next, as your site picks up traffic  , it is important  that you convert those visitors into REAL BUSINESS. The  aspect of website conversions is often overlooked in favor of focusing on driving traffic.  But this is often a fatal flaw .  If you think about  this strictly from a financial perspective, it often costs 10-20x more time and money to GET visitors to your site than it takes to convert your existing traffic into actual customers.  In other words , the time and tools needed to improve your website conversion ratios is often FAR LESS expensive than those needed to get the traffic on  your site in the first place.  So focusing on your website conversions is often a great place for you to gain  some substantial ROI very quickly if you have not previously focused much attention on it . Track everything, track your calls, track your leads and your sales.

Just like ‘driving traffic’, there are also MANY things that you can do to improve your website conversions.  The two most critical elements that will give you the greatest initial improvement on website conversions are the ‘First’ and the ‘Last’ impressions that you give  your site visitors. This time during their visit is when  your site visitors are most impressionable and when you have the greatest opportunity to help  them to become customers or ‘take action’ in some specific  way. You don’t want to  be pushy, but make sure that your landing pages and your contact pages have specific language  of what benefits you are offering to each of your site visitors.  And finally, be certain  that you make it easy for them to take advantage of those specific benefits. As you fine-tune these efforts you may also find it helpful to use some website conversion tools to embed in your site that have proven success with increasing your website conversions and creating  more leads and business  for your organization.

Author: Roland Graham, Founder, Leadcrafters