Holiday Greetings from Karelia Software!
This issue of our monthly newsletter should be especially helpful if you have built a website that demands some sort of action from its visitor — this is called a “conversion.”
If you are new to the Karelia list, check out some of our past newsletter issues for some other useful articles:
We’d love to hear what website-building topics (technical or non-technical) you would like to be covered in the newsletter. Just hit “reply” and let us know!
Turning Website Visitors into Conversions
Which is more important to the success of your website: traffic or conversions? The answer is...yes! They are equally valuable and you must address both issues if you have any expectation that your website will produce quantifiable results.
Obviously you must be able to generate traffic to your site before a conversion can occur. This is achieved primarily by increasing the number and quality of inbound links to your site. How many links do you need? Hopefully more than the site that occupies the number one position on Google’s first page for your search term. If you are number one on Google’s list, you should keep your link-building process moving so you can stay there. You can’t have too many and you never stop increasing that number.
Traffic is also generated to a lesser extent with on-page optimization techniques — keywords properly positioned within tags and content, quality copywriting, internal links, site maps, good html and structure, etc. Sandvox helps you with a lot of this, and we’ve talked about this in previous newsletters.
However, 5000 unique visitors a day aren’t very useful to you if they all hit the back button as soon as they arrive. Your site must be able to convert visitors into contacts, leads, or buyers. If the site’s organization is poor, if there are grammar and punctuation errors throughout, or if the content isn’t interesting, it doesn’t matter how much you put into optimization techniques.
The three primary elements that affect conversions the most are:
- Is there a clear message?
- Do you make a good offer?
- Do you have an effective call-to-action?
Imagine you have landed on your site for the first time after loading a search phrase into a search engine. If you are average, you will take 8 seconds to decide whether to further involve yourself in the site or hit the back button and head somewhere else. Is the initial impact positive? Is there an incentive to stay? Does the content compel you to move towards making a purchase or requesting more information?
One way to learn more about these techniques is to visit the websites of your successful competitors or other organizations similar to yours. They did not achieve their success without employing these methods effectively. Don’t copy them, but spend some time trying to determine how they utilized marketing concepts to achieve their lofty rankings.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a coin; there are two sides. The Internet has become more competitive each year and that will continue to increase. You must be diligent with respect to both traffic and conversions in order to compete today. Happy optimizing in 2011!
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In This Issue
- Visitors to Conversions
- Websites of the Month
Application Downloads
  Sandvox 1.6.8
 iMedia Browser 1.2.3
Other Downloads
(Only for our newsletter subscribers)
 Sandvox Bonus Designs
“77 Ways to Get Traffic” eBook
Sandvox Design Providers
Get the latest updates from all design providers
Sandvox Sites Directory
Examples of Sandvox-Built Websites contributed by people like you
On the Social Networks
 Twitter: Follow @karelia
Useful tidbits posted frequently!
 Facebook:
Become a fan of Karelia and join Sandvox group
Facebook-exclusive Sandvox discount!
 Yahoo Groups:
Join our Sandvox Group
Connect with other Sandvoxers!
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