10 Website Essentials to Increase Your Sales
If you are a serious Internet Entrepreneur, your top priority
must be your website. Your website is a direct reflection of you
and your business. Creating a professional website designed to
sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there is much
more to take into consideration than design. You must look at a
much broader picture and specifically design your website to
sell.
1) You must have a professional looking website. Your website is
the most important sales tool you have. Your visitor's first
impression will almost instantly determine whether or not you're
going to make a sale. A professional website should be pleasing
to the eyes, well organized, easy to navigate and load quickly.
2) You must specifically design your website to rank high in the
Search Engines. This involves much more than just including META
tags. Your KEYWORDS, TITLE, IMAGE ALT tags, Text and overall
design, all play an important roll in determining how your
website will rank. You can learn more by reading the
Optimization tutorial at Web Source.
http://www.web-source.net/webpage_optimizing.htm
3) You must use effective sales copy. Your words are the entire
foundation of your business. Most business failures are the
result of ineffective copy. Whether it is your website, sales
letters or advertisements, your words play a major role in
determining your success. When writing your website copy, use
the following formula:
A -Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention I
-Interest - Intrigue interest and create curiosity D -Detail -
Provide details about your product or service A -Action - Call
for action
4) Drive traffic to your site. In order to create a steady
stream of traffic to your website, give your visitors a reason
to visit and continue to visit in the future. You must provide
your visitors with fresh content on a continual basis. Content
comes in various forms, such as news, articles, tips,
horoscopes, weather, etc. and is freely available on the
Internet. Your content should blend in well with the focus of
your website and be updated on a regular basis.
The following websites provide free articles for publication:
http://www.web-source.net/articles/ http://www.mega-success.com/
http://www.marketing-seek.com/ http://www.ideamarketers.com/
http://www.infobot.net/
Syndication services provide free content from a wide variety of
sources. You simply place a small line of code within the HTML
of your web page and each of the following services provide
fresh content for you. The great thing about syndication
services is that once you've placed the code, you don't have to
worry about updating the content, as it is automatically
updated.
Syndicator - Provides free syndicated articles and columns with
photographs http://www.web-source.net/syndicator.htm
isyndicate - Provides free headlines for news, articles, comics,
weather and more. http://www.isyndicate.com/
Moreover - Provides news headlines from over 1500 sources.
http://www.moreover.com/
ScreamingMedia - Provides free headlines from various resources
http://www.screamingmedia.com/
5) Provide free instruction. Your website is the storefront for
your product or service. You must convince your visitors that
they need the product or service you're offering. This can be
accomplished by providing your visitors with free helpful advice
and instruction in the form of an article, tutorial, free ebook
or free autoresponder course.
6) Display your testimonials. You must gain your visitors trust.
By displaying customer testimonials, you are boosting your
potential customers confidence in you and your product or
service. You can either create a web page to display all of your
testimonials or use a script to rotate them on your main page.
You can find a great random text script here:
http://willmaster.com/master/merrygoround/
7) Let your visitors know who you are. Provide complete
information in regard to your company including, address, phone
number and email addresses to request information and support.
8) Tell your visitors about their privacy. Create a page on your
website called, "Privacy Statement," and let your visitors know
exactly what you do with the personal information you collect.
9) Provide a sample or trial of your product or service. For
example, if you're offering a Search Engine optimization
service, provide a free META tag analysis at your website. Not
only will this increase your sales, but it will drive more
traffic to your site as well.
10) Remove the risk. To further increase your sales, you must
remove the risk by providing a guarantee. A guarantee will boost
your potential customer's confidence in purchasing your products
or services.
A professional website specifically designed to sell is one the
most important factors in determining your success. Take your
time and make sure you're looking at the complete picture before
you begin. If you're not secure in your abilities to create your
own website, rather than risk the potential success of your
business, consider hiring a professional web designer. Your
success depends on it.