March 27, 2008      (Updated from our Jan. 22, 2003 article)

Having a lot of traffic that is of good quality and well targeted is the whole idea of having a site well optimized. If you do get all of that, it would mean your site brings you a lot of sales and that your online business is successful, right? Well it would be too easy if that were true.

Most experienced and serious business owners that have any kind of presence on the Web will also tell you of the importance of having a Website that converts well.

Compare this to the real world of a physical store, the often-quoted “brick and mortar” example. Say you have a retail store that is conveniently located on an important downtown street, has ample of free parking, is well advertised and highly visible, etc. But, for some reason, prospective customers enter the store, look at some of the products on sale, they might spend a few minutes looking at what is offered, but then turn around and leave the store without buying anything.

If this scenario is repeated time and time again, most of you would probably say there must be something wrong with that store, since nobody buys anything, right?

Turning to the world of the Internet, if the above comparison seem to apply to your website, there must also be a reason why your prospective customers are looking at your site, then click to your competitor’s site without buying anything at yours. In this article, I will shed some light as to the possible reasons why your conversion rate is so low.

The importance of converting prospects into buyers
First, let me start by explaining what I mean by converting prospects into buyers. When a person visits your website, that person is a prospect. Before arriving at your site, he or she has entered a certain keyword or key phrase into one of the search engines, in the hope of finding a particular product or service that is of importance to that person.

If your website is properly optimized for the search engines and offers good visibility, it will hopefully appear high in the results page. Once that prospect clicks on the link, he or she will arrive at your website.

Marketing studies, usability reports and traffic statistics all prove that, when visiting a website, if the average person cannot find the product or service that interests them in less than two minutes, a high percentage will leave a site faster than you can say “goodbye” and click on the next, competing site. I have listed here some of the major reasons that can cause some people to leave without even browsing a site for a minute or more.

What is really surprising is that, some of these problems are often easy to correct and implement.

Sites that need more than 7 or 8 seconds to load
Studies have proven that, to a large majority of people, the maximum amount of time they are willing to wait for a site to load is usually 7 or 8 seconds, MAXIMUM. Some will even tell you it's less than that. As a rule, I always strongly recommend to stay away from any form of Flash technology at all times. Flash technology significantly reduces the speed at which a site will load.

What's more, a new survey done by Marketing Sherpa on November 17, 2003 confirms that more than 80% of consumers hate Flash introduction pages and that they will leave sites that incorporate such useless features.

Websites made with Flash make a heavy usage of large animated graphics that load slowly and make a site appear to be sluggish. Unless you are selling high-glamour high-ticket items, or you are trying to promote Hollywood movies or if you’re in the business of selling tickets to popular rock concerts, stay away from Flash technology at all costs.

If your site does not load within 7 to 8 seconds maximum from the time your visitors enter your site, you will lose more than half of your traffic. Contrary to what most people still believe, about 75% of people today still surf the Web with 56.6k (or slower) dial-up Internet connections and many live in rural areas, where high-speed Internet access simply does not exist in many cases.

Search engines such as Google and most of the others typically "crawl" or spider web sites. They only thing they are looking for is quality content that is relevant to the user. Quality content only means one thing: pure and plain simple text. If you look at the more successful sites on the web today, none are created in Flash: e-Bay has no Flash, nor does Amazon, Microsoft or even Google for that matter.

Sites difficult to read or to navigate
Another major reason why people leave a site as fast as they got in is because it is hard to read. Dark blue letters on a black background is NOT a good idea, even if some people tell you otherwise. Your site should always be easy to read and understand. If you look at some of the biggest, most successful corporate websites, they almost all have a white background and chances are that the text is in plain black. Most usability studies done in the past will tell you that these are usually the best combinations for most people.

Another reason why some visitors will leave a site is because it is difficult to navigate and they can’t find what they are looking for. You should always design your site in a conservative way and place all your navigational links and buttons in a clean and orderly fashion. It’s always best to use common sense. I am still surprised to see some sites that omit or forget to include a “Home” button. When people get lost in a site, usually the fastest way to return where they entered is thru the “Home” (or Homepage) button, yet there are still some site designers who don't include them. This is a big mistake.

Always design your site to be as “user-friendly” as possible. The easiest it is, the better experience your users will benefit from it and the better the chances of them coming back at a later date. Always remember that the first sale is usually the hardest.

Once a prospect has converted into a customer and if he or she liked the way your site performed, that customer will usually return and become a repeat customer. He or she might even tell their friends or business associates, further increasing your sales and ROI.

The call to action
One of the most important reasons why people leave a website without buying anything is often simply because there are no “calls to action”. In its most basic element, a call to action can be as simple as a button that says “click here to buy” or “click here to subscribe” or “reserve today by clicking here”, etc. Again, if you look at many of the successful e-commerce websites today, most of them all incorporate many calls to action.

The click button is still a very powerful button and it is very simple to click for most people. Also, remember that many people like to buy on “spur of the moment” or are simply impulse buyers. The more you make it easy for them to buy, the more they will. It’s just as simple as that.

Conclusion
Significantly increasing your conversion rates can be a lot easier than you think. All it takes is determination and the right techniques. The tips I have shown you here are all important and, if implemented correctly, they could have a drastic improvement in the rate your visitors will convert from prospects to buyers and then become long-term repeat customers.

You might also want to read two important articles I recently wrote that will help you increase your conversion rates. They are:

       How to write a powerful homepage that will rank high

       Twelve steps in writing a truly compelling sales copy

What I strongly suggest is you take a step-by-step approach, similar to what is depicted in this article. Think of this as your roadmap to success.

Isn’t that what e-commerce is all about?

(Updated from our original article published in January 2003)

Article written by Serge Thibodeau,
President & CEO,
Rank for $ales
Copyright (c) Serge Thibodeau 2003

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