| Converting Web Site Traffic to Sales |
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  It's amazing how little attention small business website owners actually pay to their conversion rate. It's talked about but few people ever take action. Contrast this with the obsession most have with driving more traffic. Obviously traffic's important, but if you're focusing on only traffic generation, you're losing a lot of potential clients. Traffic is only of use if it converts into something that benefits you in some way.
Think of a bricks and mortar retail business where for every 200 customers who pass through the door, only one made a purchase. The proprietor would be in despair! The profits would hardly cover the wear and tear on the carpet. Yet, that same person would accept those figures without raising an eyebrow if they related to their website - why? A slim one percent of surfers converting to buyers is accepted to be the average for websites; better than the example above, but there's still a stack of room for improvement. When you think about it, the reasons for the relatively low conversion rate of web sites are obvious. Say you're selling antique clocks. Having visited your shop, a prospective customer would have a long journey to find another. Because of this he is more likely to make compromises and try to find what he wants from you. Ask yourself, how often have you bought, say, a pair of shoes that weren't quite what you had in mind, but you bought them because you couldn't be bothered to go looking for another shoe shop. For a web site, a click on the back button and a quick scroll down the search engine results take the surfer to another business to look at, all within seconds. This is why your site must, so far as is possible, present itself as precisely what someone in need of your services is looking for. Estimates vary on how long you have to capture a visitor's interest, but all agree, it is measured in seconds. No doubt you can guess where this is leading. Pat yourself on the back if you're thinking "Headline". Yes, the headline is the most important thing that makes the difference between looking at what you have to offer and moving on to another, more interesting site. This assuming there is no other reason such as a website that takes forever to load in a browser. The best way to discover a headline that will work for your site is to look at other web sites in the same business as you. Measure your reaction to them and try to think like a prospective client. After viewing a few you will notice a pattern emerging of a style that works in your market. You'll eventually find one, or maybe more, that you find appealing. Now you get creative, you cannot just copy someone else's headline, but if you find something that you feel can work, then adapt it to use yourself. Re-write it over and over until you feel it's right. Often, whilst trawling through other sites, you'll get a "Eureka" moment and think of the perfect line. You may also spot other ideas that could make your web site more interesting. Just don't get carried away with all the bells and whistles!
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