It doesn’t matter what kind of whiz-bang special effects you have on your site if traffic isn’t arriving or, if it is, they’re not staying around long enough to convert. There is an infinite amount of ways for websites to either underperform or simply do nothing but avoiding these five mistakes can go a long way toward pushing your website higher in search engine rankings and converting the traffic that arrives from them.
A “build it and they will come” mentality – Having a great, functional site is only half battle in terms of maximizing its performance. The site needs to be search engine marketed as well. Starting with keyword research to determine the most cost effective keywords and phrases to focus on, developing a search engine marketing strategy is absolutely mandatory in order to get this targeted traffic.
Landing pages that aren’t relevant to the keywords which drive traffic – First time visitors typically take between three and seven seconds to decide whether to stay on the a site or leave because they haven’t found what they’re looking for. Putting relevant content on a the landing page so that it’s the first thing a visitor sees greatly increases the chances that the visitor will stay because the site is going to provide information that he or she is trying to find.
Ecommerce sites that have an unclear path to conversion – Potential consumers can get scared off a purchase if the process is too confusing. The highest conversion ratios are found on sites with a clear call to action and a process of making a purchase which is clear and easy to follow.
Using keywords and keyphrases that are too broad – High traffic numbers which are bouncing off of the site quickly can be an indication that a search engine marketing campaign needs to be re-focused to narrower and perhaps longer keyphrases to deliver specifically targeted traffic. This issue can usually be resolved during the keyword research phase.
Building a site that doesn’t build trust – A high bounce rate out of a site’s shopping cart can indicate that purchasers are changing their minds due to the perceived danger of providing their financial information in order to make a purchase. Consider adding a secure socket layer (SSL) which encrypts the consumer’s information.