Visitor Sales Conversions Depend On Site Layout

You can have all the visitors to your website in the world, but if visits are not converting to paying customers what is the point? There are a number of important factors to consider in your approach to get the highest conversion rate from your visitors and your sites layout needs careful consideration. Two key elements are: does your site have a clear call to action? and is it clear what your site is about? Part of the SEO process on site, should be to ensure that these two key elements are addressed as a matter of priority.

I have lost count of the number of website owners who have approached me not realising that their visitors have not got a clue what the point of their website is! It might be clear to them, but it certainly isn't to anyone else. Such sites have really high bounce rates. A bounce rate is a measure of the percentage of visitors who 'click-off' the site in a short space of time. A high bounce rate is a characteristic of a site that doesn't fit what the visitors need - if they don't know what your site is about, what you are selling, where to find it or even why you exist; visitors will simply 'click-off' and find a site that have got this nailed.

Secondly, a well structured website has a clear 'call to action'. A 'call to action' is basically a means of getting your customers to engage with your website as a way of getting them to do what you want - to take the path through your site that best suits you. Consider a visitors thought process when they land on your site........ where is their eye drawn?, how can you use this to convert into a sale? This might be 'take a tour', 'try our demo', 'sign-up now' etc etc You are basically dictating how they browse your website and what route you want them to take through it. An excellent example of a clear call to action is www.cpd-online.com If you visit that site, I have configured it so your eye is drawn to 'take a tour' and to a lesser extent 'sign-up now'. From analytics installed on that clients site, I can see that around 70% of visitors click on 'take a tour' and 20% on 'sign-up now'. As this site has a clear call to action it has a very low bounce rate and thus a very high conversion rate. But why am I wanting them to click on 'take a tour' and not take them straight to 'sign-up' I hear you ask? By taking the tour, the visitor is subjected to the clients sales pitch, at the end of which is the 'sign-up' process anyway. This is preferable as at the end of the tour the visitor is sold on the product - if you take them straight to sign-up they may bounce at the checkout.

If you need help converting visitors to customers contact me.