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Five Ways To Increase Your Website Conversion Rate
By Cari Haus, Sat Dec 10th
Copyright 2005 Log Cabin Rustics Though it’s wonderful to get all those hits to your e-commerceweb site, hits don’t mean much unless you convert them intosales. This is especially true if you are paying for, and notconverting, clicks. If your website is suffering from the “Conversion Rate Blues”,consider the following steps for improving sales and ultimately,profits:
1. Make sure your website is optimized to attract people withthe highest potential to buy When I first designed my log website, Log CabinRustics, I unwittingly targeted an audience that wasn’t theperfect one for my site. As things turned out, I didn’t evenrank for my two top key phrases, log and log beds, inthe search engines. I managed to get pretty high on the scale,however, for log cabin related searches. People who build log cabins are a target market of mine, sincemany of them eventually purchase log to go with theirhome. The most likely immediate customers, however, are thosewho actually searched for the term “log furniture” rather than“log cabin”. When I re-optimized my site for the search terms Ithought would bring the highest conversion rate, visitors to mysite were more likely to buy because my site was selling whatthey were searching for. My efforts paid off, when my conversionrate (and sales) doubled in the month or two following mychanges. 2. Add a personal, trustworthy touch to your site I don’t personally care to have my picture posted on the frontof my website, although many people do. I do have my nameprominently on the site, together with information about why Isell log and my business background as a CPA. I havefound that a personal touch goes a long way towards selling logfurniture. Many of my customers spend $2,000, $3,000 or even$4,000 on their log order, and some of them havewaited years to get the they want. They didn’t find what they wanted in their local area (they mustnot have many white cedar trees in Texas), but they found it onmy site. There’s just one problem, however. They wish they couldtouch the furniture, slide the drawers in and out, look fordrips in the finish, and generally evaluate the quality beforethe drop that kind of money. I have had people drive 4-6 hoursto visit my store on more than one occasion for that veryreason, and frankly, I don’t blame them. I’m pretty picky aboutmy too. This is where I can help my customers. I use primarily localsuppliers, and finished that I sell is finished rightin our building. I can and do inspect much of the furniturebefore it goes out. Our finishing department does a pretty goodjob, but if I see something I don’t like, I have them sand itdown and get it right. Some people I sell to place their order online or withone phone call, but many of them talk to me several times beforethey place their order. They start to feel like they know me,and I start to feel like they are my friends. The last thing Iwant to do is ship a suite of log from Michigan toCaifornia and have it come back because the customer isn’thappy. And I don’t want to let down my friends. When customersunderstand this, they trust me to deliver what my site promises,and that translates into sales. There are many ways you can build trust in your website. When Irealized my conversion rate was not what it could or should be,I went out and researched the topic on the web. By reading anumber of SEO articles on the topic, I came up with a checklistof things to do on my site. My list included: • giving name and contact information for the owner of the site• telling a personal history of the business • showing picturesof your factory, office, semi-truck or anything else that makesyour business real. If possible, give an online office orfactory tour. • getting a secure security certificate andposting it on your site, and • posting a privacy policy,warranty information, and product testimonials 3. Include a detailed FAQ on your site A detailed FAQ that answers just about every conceivablequestion can do much to improve customer confidence in yoursite. Many people are quite methodical in their productresearch. They may be looking at my site at 3 in the morning,have a question, and want an answer NOW. Otherwise they willmigrate on to a competitor who has both the information andproduct they are looking for. I am continually tracking the questions people ask and modifyingmy site to make sure it answers those questions. That way peoplecan
get answers to the most common questions right away, and Idon’t spend time answering the same questions over and overagain. While a good FAQ is a great time-saver for the person who has toanswer those questions, it also gives site users the impressionthat your site is well-thought-out, that you care about theirquestions and will take time to answer them thoroughly. You canbuild trust in your website by having relevant product-relatedcontent throughout the site as well, but there’s nothing like awell-planned FAQ to assist in answering questions. 4. Make Your Shopping Cart Easy to Use I’ve had a little trouble with my shopping cart from time totime. It seems that if I modify the header for my site, and putin a link that says “http:” instead of “https:”, the secure partof my shopping cart pops up an error message with every click ofthe mouse. Take it from the voice of experience—this is notconducive to sales. If your sales are clicking right along, then suddenly drop intothe abyss, it’s a good idea to go out and place a test order.I’m embarrassed to say that in my busy-ness, I’ve had to have acustomer inform me of how very difficult it was for them toplace an order. Upon investigation, I have found several timesthat something had gone wrong on my site. In addition to making sure your shopping cart is fullyfunctional and doesn’t return error messages, it pays to have ashopping cart that is easy to use. I am not an affiliate forClickbank, but whenever I buy an e-book from someone who isusing their service, I am always impressed with how smooth andquick the online transaction is. There have been other timeswhen I really wanted to purchase something, but some littleglitch in the shopping cart wouldn’t let me proceed with theorder, and nearly drove me to distraction. As a customer I always think to myself, “if these people can’tget their website to work, how do I know they can ship me anorder?” As a webmaster or mistress, you certainly don’t want tobe on the receiving end of such thoughts—and you can prevent itby making sure your website shopping cart is easy to use, andtesting it every now and again to make sure it’s workingproperly. 5. Give Free Shipping or Make a special offer This might seem like a no-brainer, but it really does work. Iused to give away a free rocking chair to anyone who bought asuite of log bedroom furniture, and you’d be surprised how manycustomers I had say to me “I just love the idea of gettingsomething free!” At the moment, I give a 5% discount for thepurchase of multiple items. That might not sound like much, butits $100 on a $2000 order and many people are glad to have it. I also include free shipping in the continental 48 states. Thismakes it much easier for people to know the exact cost of thefurniture. I used to have people people contact me to see howmuch shipping would be, then I would estimate the cost of thefurniture they wanted, contact several freight companies for aquote, re-contact the customer, etc. Free shipping makeseverything so much easier, and it really seems to appeal to mycustomers too. In conclusion I’m sure there are other quality ways to build people’sconfidence in your site—thereby increasing both conversion rateand sales. Some of my friends have Better Business Bureau sealon their sites, or participate in BizRate or other ratingservices. I haven’t tried any of these yet, so I can’t speak forthem. But I have learned from experience that people want toknow you are a real person with a real business. They want toknow that you care enough to answer their questions, they want asmooth shopping process, and they really do like special offers. In these days of security breaches and privacy concerns, manycustomers will need extra reassurance about the care you take insuch matters. You can accomplish much in that direction byspelling out company policies on your site. If you think the conversion rate on your site could be better,why not make a to-do list of items mentioned in this articlethat might not be all they could be on your site. And oh yes, ifyou have a website selling “widgets” but the only people findingyour site are those who are searching for “bridges”, you reallyshould change your keywords. About the author:Cari Haus has been successfully selling rustic log andbeds on the Internet since 1997. Copyright 2003 by Cari Haus,website http://www.logcabinrustics.com/. Permission is grantedto reprint this article, either online or in writtenpublications, as long as the copyright information, thisparagraph, and a link address or a link to the Log Cabin Rusticswebsite is attached at the end of the article.
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