When a website has high levels of traffic but limited sales, the low revenue problem often becomes lost. The huge visitor numbers mask the low level of conversions from visitor to customer. The good news is once the reasons for the weak conversion rates are diagnosed, the problem can be corrected. The first step is to find out where things went so terribly wrong.
Often there are only easily correctable problems in website design. However, more difficult issues, like website navigation, and problems with ineffective sales copy, also stand in the way of higher conversions.
With that in mind, the first step toward improving a site's conversion rate is admitting there is a problem with the existing site. Surprisingly, may website owners either fail to understand their site is not converting visitors to sales or won't accept there is a problem.
The reason for not admitting a conversion problem is usually one of two things. The first is usually that the webmaster spent hours creating the site, and is unable to accept that it might not be perfect. The second reason is that the website owner has spent thousands of dollars with an alleged website expert and doesn't want to think that the site was not an effective sales tool. Not to sound like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but step one is admitting there is a problem. Once that hurdle is cleared, improvements to the site can be made.
When you finally decided that things need to change, don't try to do everything wholesale. Each problem then needs to be assessed on its own. Following each change, a test should be completed to determine the effectiveness of the site improvements. In many cases, previous website research supports some design changes as generally effective. The testing in those cases has already been completed by others and proven effective. (What's your competition doing? If they're doing better than you, you'd do well to study what they've done.) Those proven concepts of website design, can be immediately applied to an under-performing site, and achieve improved results.
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