Top Five Ways To Make Your Website More Effective

You have around seven seconds to grab a new visitor's attention. To make them count, use images and headlines that compel visitors to click deeper into your site.

The first page your visitor sees (called the 'home' or 'landing' page) should be constructed more like the front page of a newspaper or a billboard instead of the front page of your annual report. When a visitor hits your homepage, they're just driving by. Unless something catches their eye, they keep right on driving. Whittle down your message to it's essence and deliver it in such a way the they'll pull over and spend some time with you.

Too many sites have too much text about their company on the home page. Instead, move that text to an about page and replace it with a good image and brief, bulleted copy about key products and services. Try a news ticker or advertising promotion to draw the visitor in. Look closely at sites you frequent and figure out what made you stop and what keeps you coming back for more.

Once you've engaged a visitor, make sure your site has enough depth to keep them there. Every business, no matter how big or small, can come up with plenty of current and interesting content. Here are a few quick examples:

If you're an attorney, use a "legal question of the day". Also make sure to post articles you've written about various aspects of your legal specialty. Own a restaurant? Don't just post the menu. Use a list of specials to add something current. You could even spice things up with a recipe of the day and user submitted recipes and message boards. Own a shoe store? Check out Nike.com. They've got work out routines, message boards, videos, featured products, an on-line store, custom content for every sport they make shoes for, and the list goes on.

Content is king. The more content you have, the more reasons people have to look around. The longer they stay, the more likely they are to do business with you. Also, the more frequently you update your content with current information, the more reasons people have to come back often.

To help move a person from a visitor to a client, you need to demonstrate your validity as a business or your competency as a service provider.

If you provide services:

Testimonials, articles, lists of past clients, and a portfolio of your work are must haves.

Testimonials are fantastic at enlightening potential clients with all the great things they have to look forward to. They also carry greater weight than anything you could say since they come from a third party. When you say, "I'm great, you should really use me!" people dismiss it as hype. When someone else says, "Dolphin Micro did a great job and helped our business save thousands of dollars a year!", folks are more inclined to listen.

Articles are an excellent way to demonstrate your competence and also give an item of value to potential clients. Nothing demonstrates competence and professionalism like a well written article on a subject in your area of expertise.

If you're a product based business:

Product photos, descriptions, and specifications are key as well as easy delivery and payment terms. Your catalog should be on-line with as many photo's as possible and an on-line ordering system can drive profits through the roof. People need to trust you and your products before they'll do business with you. Good pictures and descriptions of your products help build that trust.

Your website is advertising. Never forget that your website is a medium to connect people with your business. Since we first started trading goods with each other, making those connections has been explored, studied, and improved on. Learn the lessons that advertisers and marketers have been perfecting for decades.

• Pictures are worth a thousand words.
• A well written headline can increase effectiveness by up to 1000%.
• Speak to the clients needs. Show them how your product and services can solve their problems.

For some great books on advertising, sales, and business generation, check out "Getting Everything You Can out of All You've Got" by Jay Abraham, "Positioning" by Al Ries and Jack Trout, and "How to Master the Art of Selling" by Tom Hopkins.

The mere act of tracking the number of visitors to your site makes you think about how to get more of them. Make sure you have software running that tracks how many visitors you get and what they click on.

Once you have a tracking system in place you'll also be able to test ideas and see what users think is more effective. Not sure which headline works better. Try both and see which gets more clicks. Want to know how effective your home page is? Try two and see which leads to more click throughs.

Interested to learn more about tracking? Click Here