The main objective of the website is to persuade visitors to contact you to generate sales leads for you or your sales team. Is your website generating the leads you need? Pushing users toward your shopping cart or trying to get them to purchase online should NOT be your primary goal. Many of the businesses and services using the Internet today don’t understand the lead generating power of their website design or how it works. But, you ask, Isn’t the web about traffic? Well the short answer is yes, but how you manage the traffic is more important.

Start with your stats. I must say here, that a couple of good web statistic trackers are invaluable. A good package is an important part of your marketing and a good package will give you more than just the number of hits you are getting.

A good stat program will break them down so you know what was bots and unviewed traffic and what were real hits. That is a good place to start, look at your total hits. If you look and see a million hits you might feel really good, but look deeper. If you had that many hits and the stats show only 4 hits went past the index page it is a good indication that there is a problem. This is what we call the conversion rate.

Also, look at the website design itself. I use the word ‘design’ because there is so much more to the ‘design’ of a website than how it looks, though that is important.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You can’t get your message out if you can’t be found. Ensure that the site is easily found online with different search engine optimization techniques. Check your site ranking by searching it in Google or Yahoo. If the site does not appear within the top five or ten sites listed on the results page, customers are not able to find the site and leads will be lost to more easily found competitors.

2. Attractive Content

Include engaging content which provides a reason for site visitors to learn more about the business. The information can work to establish credibility, create a sense of urgency for purchasing decisions and highlight the benefits of a particular organization over others.Simple

3. Navigation

Nothing frustrates a visitor faster than bad navigation, Always be sure that links and buttons are clearly marked and easy to use. Make sure it is clear to the visitor why you want them to click something and what will happen. This is an important rule, link actions with benefits. Clicking this will get me what?

4. Promote benefits. Give facts, but promote benefits.

Basic marketing 101 … benefits, benefits, benefits. What will this product / service do for me?

5. Respond quickly to inquiries.

Whether the contact comes in through the web, phone or email you must respond quickly. Within an hour is the recommended time. It is always best to capture a lead before they change their mind or find a competitor.

6. Make action steps clear and obvious.

Mark things clearly and tell the visitor exactly what you want them to do. Always have a call to action.

Take the time to really look at your website and make sure it is working for you. In tough economic times it is hard enough to generate leads.

Author Bio: By Chris Kaminski. Asheville web design company Lone Bird Studio provides web design Asheville NC services, SEO, search engine optimization. One of the top web designers in Asheville for custom website design.

Category: Internet
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