Dont Just Concentrate on Web Site Traffic - Focus on Sales Conversion

I cannot stress the importance of targeted traffic for the survival and prosperity of any web site and the importance increases when this web site is an ecommerce web site. But getting more and more traffic is not always the answer to increase your profits, I am not saying to stop working at increasing your traffic but I am saying that you must also focus on your 'traffic to sales conversion rate'.

Let me illustrate this using an example:

You sell a £50 product, and convert 1% of your visitors to sales. 100 visitors would earn you £50 and if it costs you £40 to get these visitors, you're making a profit of just £10. Therefore, if you wanted to make £1000 a month profit you would need 10,000 visitors/month

Now, if you raise your conversion rate from 1% to 2% for every 100 visitors you would get two sales, so now your sales are £100, but the cost of your traffic remains constant at £40. Your profit is now £60. So without spending any more money you have increased your profits by 500%. Continuing, if you raise your conversion rate from 1% to 3% means your profits have risen by 1000%.

So now if you want $1000/month in profits, you only need 910 visitors, instead of 10,000 which is slightly easier to obtain as you can imagine.

Raising your conversion rate has to be a focus for any web site and the only way to achieve an increase in conversion rate is to offer your customers exactly (or as near to it as possible) what they are looking for when they arrive at your web site. The majority of the work is done for you because these targeted visitors are already interested in the subject of your web site you just have to lcok them into your site using your layout, sales copy, prices etc.

It is hard to say 'do this and do that' and offer a definitive guide to raising your conversion rate because different products offer different opportunities to lock customers in but one of the key factors is to make sure your site is easy to navigate and has good search function support so that your visitors can easily find what they are looking for. The easier customers can find the product, and complimentary products, the greater the chance that they are likely to buy.

Don't put barriers in place to prevent your customers from buying, the easiest way to do this is to conduct usability analysis by communicating directly with your site users and use the feedback to optimise your site for ease of use. This also has the added advantage because it not only allows you to learn about how the users view your site but it can also build loyalty and awareness from customers because you are seen to be caring for the customer.

The best approach to converting visitors into customers is to provide them with all the information they need to make an informed decision which in turn will encourage them to act (ie. buy), with this in mind think about where you are going to send your visitors when they click on a specific link to your web site. It has to be structured so as to maintain the conversion process, for example, when you are 'touting for traffic' you may be advertising a specific discount that is available via your site and when the visitor clicks on the relevant link they should be taken to a specific page that will educate them about the discount and entice them to sign up for your service. If the link takes people to a page without the information they need odds are you'll lose the customer.

Mike - webmaster at Online Auction Trader

Visit Business Resources at Online Auction Trader for comprehensive information on developing a sustainable online income stream.

---

13 Steps to Increasing Your Link Luck

Link development can be an absolute nightmare. It takes up... Read More

A Beginners Guide to Exchanging Links

Reciprocal linking is an effective, free way to get more... Read More

The Most Common Small Business Web Site Traffic Killers

A prospective client asked me to view his web site... Read More

How To Turning Your Online Visitors Traffic Into Buyers/Customers Traffic?

Overview:Many leading search engines and b2b web sites offering online... Read More

Part 2 - Do Not Ever Link to a Site Without Doing This First!

Writing LinksIn the first part of this article we learned... Read More

A 4-Step System for Uncovering Hot Niche Markets

Whether you are an affiliate marketer, a website designer or... Read More

Yahoo Drops Google: How To Flood Your Site With Traffic In The Next 48 Hours

It official Yahoo has dropped Google and will be using... Read More

Attracting Traffic with Banner Ads

Internet is an ever evolving business platform. Doing business on... Read More

A Simple Guide to Analyzing All Those Web Traffic Ideas - Part 4

Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this topic outlined some... Read More

3 Ways To Swarm Your Website With Highly Targeted Traffic For FREE!

Targeted website traffic is the lifeblood of any website looking... Read More

5 Ways To Get Other Websites To Link To Yours

In-bound links from other web sites to yours provide two... Read More

Link Exchanges

Should link exchanges be used? What are link exchanges? Do... Read More

A Disturbing Trend in Reciprocal Linking

In the world of Internet Marketing, and Web site promotion,... Read More

Reciprocal Linking

Do not pay anyone or any service to submit your... Read More

Getting Popular Sites To Link To You

Links are important to you because of two main reasons:Google's... Read More

Marketing Your Website Inexpensively

There are a number ways you can go about marketing... Read More

Costly Link Exchange Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

When you are trying to promote your website, you want... Read More

How to Identify Bad Link Exchange Transactions

Now that more emphasis (to get better ranking in SERPs)... Read More

Optimizing Your Dead Links!

I have been reading, with great interest, all the online... Read More

Using Free Publicity to Build Your Web Site Links and Traffic

So, you have a great product or service, yet your... Read More

Web Site Marketing: Discover 10 Sneaky Ways To Prolong Your Visitors Stay At Your Website

The longer your website visitors stay, the more they will... Read More

The Nuts And Bolts Of Traffic Exchanges

Traffic Exchanges. What are they? How do they work? What... Read More

Build Your Inbound Site Links Without Requesting Reciprocal Links

A funny thing happened to me three months ago. I... Read More

How To Get Links Without Asking

Sending out link requests is a time-consuming business. So wouldn't... Read More

The Art of Link Exchange

Before you start reading this article I must warn you... Read More

Website Traffics: 10 Sizzling Hot Secret Phrases To Ignite Your Website Traffics

For many months after I put up my new website,... Read More

How to Increase Targeted Traffic that Boost Your Income?

To increase targeted traffic is one of the foremost wish... Read More

Get More Visitors to your Website using Free Traffic Exchanges

Trying to get traffic to your new website or to... Read More

Get More Web Site Traffic From Search Engines

Considering all of the money you spend on promotion and... Read More

6 Ways to Get the Marketing-Targeted-Traffic-Machine On the Roll

1__MESSAGE BOARDSIntroduce yourself smoothly, by posting informations and be available... Read More

Traffic Generation: The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow (Part 1 of 3)

If you're feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about... Read More

Got Traffic?

Here's what your website must have to get lots of... Read More

About Google PageRank

PageRank (PR) is Google's way of measuring the quality and... Read More