Web site conversion is a methodology designed to improve your web site visitors' experiences on your web site and, in so doing, generate desired results for your company.
While search engine optimization has become an established method of marketing to potential customers, the newer and potentially invaluable method of web site conversion has not received very much attention. In these days of technological innovation when you can order your groceries online, find a date over the Internet, and even most fifth graders have an e-mail address, most people would agree that having a company web site is, at the very least, one of the costs of doing business in the 21st century.
However, having a URL and a home page is more than just another line item on the list of ways to demonstrate that your company is legitimate - and it's also more than just another pretty, sparkly marketing brochure. The Internet is unique in that it offers one of the only advertising mediums that is actually interactive, requiring web site visitors to engage in your marketing message. This interaction means that, whether you want it to or not, your company's web site acts as a virtual sales person, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, convincing potential customers to buy - or, sometimes, not to buy - the products and services you have to offer.
Ensuring that your web site communicates the right information to these potential customers can be a critical component of your company's success in terms of both revenue and exposure, and web site conversion is intended to do just that. You may have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars creating a state-of-the-art, eye-catching web site, but without measuring web site conversion, how can you know what your typical visitor's impression is of your company and its products?
Some graphics-intensive web sites can be slow to load or so light on content that visitors jump ship after just one or two page views to find one of your competitors who might be better equipped to give them the information that they need. Conversely, some web sites contain mountains of content but lack the structure that can help prospects locate specific information they need to make an informed purchasing decision.
And the problems web site conversion aims to address are even more complicated than that. Your customers may have very different needs. They probably think of your products in different ways and probably have different problems they are trying to solve. Hank might want a vacuum cleaner that lets him get the job done more quickly while John wants a vacuum cleaner that offers the most cutting-edge vacuuming technology. Of course, your web site probably doesn't sell vacuum cleaners - in fact, you probably don't sell anything directly on your web site at all. But whether you are selling high-end banking software and want visitors to take a free demo of your product or selling outsourced IT services and want visitors to register to read a whitepaper about firewalls, your customers have the same problems. How can you create just one web site that addresses the needs, desires, and buying habits of all of your customers, all of the time?
The key to creating a web site that addresses all of your customer's questions while balancing information and content with navigation and aesthetics lies within the emerging science of web site conversion. Like search engine optimization before it, web site conversion uses a combination of scientific metrics, algorithms, research, and good old-fashioned marketing instincts to boost your web site's effectiveness as both a marketing and sales tool. However, while search engine optimization aims at pulling more prospective customers to your web site, the goal of web site conversion is to get those prospective customers to take the action that you want them to take once they are there.
Of course, no one, not even a web site conversion expert, can force visitors to take an action, no matter how many algorithms he or she might try in the process. But web site conversion can help your web site to engage each and every visitor in such a way that he or she will continue along the buying path, asking questions and getting answers. If your web site does its job, you'll probably get exactly what you want - and, perhaps even better, so will the customer. At its heart, web site conversion is simply about getting into the minds of your customers, figuring out what their questions are likely to be, and giving them clear directions to those answers.
When a human sales person encounters a potential customer, the customer can ask his or her questions directly. The sales person can decide what tone to take or what type of information to give the prospect based on the interaction. The human sales approach can change completely based on the customer's needs and personality. However, when an Internet user enters a search query in a major search engine and lands on your web site, your content is the potential customer's introduction to your company and your products, and the hyperlinks on the pages are what help the visitor move through your web site to answer his or her questions. Since it would be very difficult to generate a web site that could determine each visitor's needs and personality type and change its content and architecture accordingly, your company's web site has to try to address all of the possible needs and personality types that a visitor to your site might have, all without ever exchanging even a word.
This doesn't mean you have to cram every single piece of information you have on every one of your product offerings into a one page web site to be sure that no one will miss anything - in fact, you would probably be hard-pressed to find a single visitor who was interested in every piece of information you could offer. When companies display all of their information on one page, the content often becomes difficult to scan, making it just as cumbersome for your prospects to get their questions answered as it would be if you hadn't given them any information at all. Web site conversion allows you to pick out which pieces of information are vital to moving prospects down their buying paths and place them on the pages where they will be needed.
If you know that John is looking for cutting-edge vacuum technology, mention within the page content that your vacuum cleaners are the latest in cutting-edge vacuum cleaning technology. Now, make "cutting-edge vacuum cleaning technology" a link to a separate page that goes into all the detail anyone could ask for about the technology that powers this vacuum cleaner. John can click on this link to get the answers he wants, and Hank can continue reading without getting bogged down in specifications and technical terms that mean nothing to him.
Hank is only looking to cut down the amount of time it takes him to clean, so your next sentence might explain that this new technology increases the vacuum's cleaning power, allowing you to spend less time cleaning and more time doing the things you really love. If you make "spend less time cleaning" a hyperlink to a page with testimonials from satisfied customers who have cut down their cleaning times, Hank can click on that link and decide that your product is the answer to his problems. By harnessing the power of content, organization, and well-placed hyperlinks, web site conversion techniques help you to answer all of your customers' questions without leaving anyone feeling left out.
Every answer that you leave for customers on your web site is a point of web site conversion. These are the points during a web site visit when the visitor can decide to either move further down the buying path or leave the web site entirely. If you can get your visitors to stick around and keep moving through the web site, you are doing pretty well. However, what do you really want them to do? In the case of Hank or John, you might want them to find a retailer near them that carries your vacuum in order to make a purchase. Or maybe you want your customers to sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper, or take a free demo. This is your primary point of web site conversion - the next step that you want all web site visitors to take, no matter who they are, what problem they are trying to solve, or how they arrived at your web site.
In order to improve your web site conversion and get your visitors to take that next step, you typically have to do two things: show them how that action fits in with their own needs and objectives, and give them clear directions. If you've organized your content so that it answers your customers' questions, you're more than halfway there. But some customers need more reassurance than others, so you can never be certain at what point along your selling paths any given customer will be ready to commit to taking the next step. Hank might read the home page copy and feel fully convinced that your vacuum cleaner will save him time. Or, he may want to know more and read through the customer testimonials before deciding to purchase your product.
At whatever point in your web site that he makes his decision, he needs to be able to quickly and easily identify what his next course of action should be. This generally means that every page of your web site needs to have a clear and obvious link to your primary point of web site conversion, telling Hank that he can purchase this vacuum in a store near him. By making sure that the next step in the buying path is always available, web site conversion techniques allow your customers to move easily through their buying processes once they are confident that you can offer them a great solution to their problems.
In general, people want to feel confident about their buying decisions, and a web site that tells them what they want to know and answers any questions they may have can go a long way towards getting your potential customers to feel confident about your products and services.
By blending science, usability, and marketing principles, web site conversion can help your company's web site become one of the most profitable members of your sales team. Web site conversion is not magic. It can, however, significantly increase the number of visitors who leave your web site feeling satisfied and likely to return, which will probably make you feel pretty satisfied, too.
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About the Author Erin Walker is the vice president of Products & Services and resident website conversion expert at Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. Erin applies the art and science of website conversion to client websites, influencing visitors to take the next step. She has a degree in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and her articles have been published on numerous websites, including ISEDB, WebProNews, SearchGuild, and MarketingNewz. Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld in 2006 and 2007.
