Entries Tagged 'conversion' ↓

When you market your business on the internet, success is all about traffic.

With traffic come customers.

With customers comes money.

So, if you want to be a success on line you need traffic and customers.

But how do you go about achieving that? What can you do to boost your traffic and persuade your traffic to buy from you?

Here are 4 ideas to help you.

1. Keywords

You know your market; you know what they’re searching for. So by using those keywords, you’ll attract more of your target market.

By incorporating the keywords within your SEO website content, articles and blogs you are increasing the chances of your content appearing within your market’s search results.

But make sure you use specific terms that are relevant to your products and services. A shed load of traffic is no use if it’s not looking for what you offer.

2. Video

Video marketing is very popular. People love to research and watch them online so make the most of it by incorporating them on your website.

Produce short videos displaying your products – they can be ‘how tos’ or video case studies about how people have benefited from your product.

3. Pictures

Selling online has one major disadvantage to selling in a shop—your customers can’t come in to your store and see what they are buying.

People don’t like ‘buying blind’ so remove that obstacle by adding pictures of your products to your website.

4. Email marketing

Email marketing gives you a way of maintaining regular contact with your customers and prospective customers.

You can use them to give tips, advice, news and special offers all of which will lead the reader back to your website and encourage them to buy.

These four simple ideas can make a huge difference to your traffic. If your website isn’t attracting visitors it won’t sell anything.

It could be the most beautiful website ever seen but unless it pulls in visitors and converts them into buying customers it’s not worth the money you paid for it.

One of the hottest debates in the SEO copywriting world is word count.

As a freelance copywriter, I have worked on many SEO copywriting projects. Many are direct with my clients others are for SEO web designers and companies. Most clients realise that I know quite a lot about SEO copywriting and in particular how it works. I have written copy for many sites that rank on the front page of Google for their chosen keywords – not least my own website which is on the front page of Google for ‘copywriter’ (out of about 6 million results). So as SEO copywriters go, I’m pretty good – even if I do say so myself.

Of course, that’s not to say my clients’ success is totally down to my writing. Obviously it plays a big part in it, but other off page factors such as link building are also a major contributing factor.

But anyway, back to SEO copywriting.

Most of my clients leave me to it when it comes to writing copy for them. They know I’ll come up with something that will not only help them rank well, but will also convert visitors into sales.

However, many SEO companies that I work for are fixated on word count. When talking about SEO copywriting, phrases such as density and word count probably impress clients, but I have a real problem with them, especially word count. There is a saying in the copywriting world that basically goes:

Copy is as long as it needs to be

As soon as you start placing limits on its length problems start.

Word Count Won’t Affect Your Rankings

I’m about to make a bold statement – there is no evidence whatsoever to support the thinking that more words will result in greater ranking success.

Despite this, I am often asked by designers to produce a specific number of words per web page (usually in the realms of 500 to 600 words). The copy may well call for that number of words but, if it doesn’t, imposing a limit on words plays havoc with my creativity.

The truth is the copy has to be led by the product or service it is to sell. There are web pages with as few as 70 words that rank just as well as pages with 600+ words. There is no rhyme or reason to it. But what matters is that I am not forced to work within strict boundaries.

If I have to write 700 words, but the product or page subject matter only calls for 300, the remaining 400 words are just going to be padding. And that’s bad.

Every word on the web page has to be there for a reason, and that reason is to sell. As I mentioned earlier, your rankings are not going to be just down to words, there are many other factors that will determine how well your site performs (site navigation, META tags, ALT tags, link building…).

Plus you have to think about the reader. How many people are really willing to sit and read a web page that is 600+ words long? Not many. For most people, if you haven’t convinced them within 200 words you’ve lost them.

So what I’m saying is don’t commission me to write a certain number of words for you; commission me to write fantastic SEO website copy that is interesting to the reader, sells the product and converts web traffic into sales – because….

It’s the quality that counts

As with many things in life, it’s the quality that counts, not how much of it you’ve got.

It’s very rare to find a web page that contains mountains of text that is actually interesting all the way to the very end.

Time is a rare commodity these days so people don’t want to be reading the equivalent of ‘War and Peace’ just to find out whether your product/service is for them. They need to find answers quickly – something short copy is very good at.

The effectiveness of the copy must be measured by its conversion rate. A niche market will mean low levels of traffic, but if that traffic has a 100% conversion rate you’re laughing. Your web copy is there to target a specific audience. If it does it’s job, the traffic it brings will convert. After all, what’s the point of having 1000s of visitors a day to your website if your copy doesn’t convert them?

Why you need to know this

Imposing word limits is counter productive. It will either force your copywriter to pad with unnecessary words or they’ll have to ruthlessly cut their text which could seriously damage its impact. Either way it will lead to ‘unnatural’ copy that, however good your SEO copywriter is, will read strangely having a detrimental effect on your conversion rate.

A good SEO copywriter will understand:

• Conversion
• Keyword usage
• The importance of tags
• The optimum places for keywords

Trust their judgement and leave them free to produce the copy for your website. They naturally arrive at a word count that suits your product or service.

Usain Bolt’s coach wouldn’t impose a time limit the runner isn’t allowed to break, so why clip your copywriter’s wings with word count?

Do you have a website? If so, how is it performing?

I’m not talking about its load time or looks but rather how many of your visitors go on to become customers – i.e. we are talking about its conversion rate.

As a copywriter I frequently come across websites that look pretty, have a lot of content, even rank well and yet the owners are at a loss as to why it doesn’t convert its visitors into sales. Even scarier is when people state:

Client: “My website’s working really well – I get about 500 unique visitors every day”

Copywriter: “Great, so what’s your conversion rate?”

Client: “My what?”

There is a simple way to boost your conversion rate, although this post is entitled the Number 1 secret to websites that convert; it’s not really a secret, it should be common sense.

How to make your website convert

First off I want to look at the behaviour of people searching the internet.

If they are looking for a specific product or service they will enter their search term into Google and then open a new tab for each website that takes their fancy. The idea behind this is that they can compare what each company is offering.  They’ll want to know what’s in it for them if they buy from your company.

Have you guessed the number 1 secret to website that convert yet?

That’s right – you have to identify your unique value proposition. But not only identify it, make sure it is the first thing your potential customer sees.

Your UVP is going to be the main benefit you offer. Something that is going to set you apart from your competitors,

It could be a free bonus item, price reduction, guarantee – something that is of real value to your reader.

That is the secret behind the biggest converting websites.

If you hide your UVP within your text, do you really think the reader is going to take the time to read the entire content of your site to find it?

No, they won’t. The one thing people have very little of these days is time. So make their job easier by announcing your UVP immediately and clearly. And make sure it is on all your pages – after all, there is a chance they’ll land on a page other than your Home Page. A simple banner across the top of all your pages announcing your UVP will do the trick.

Make it big, make it bold, make it seen.

So, now you know what to do if you want to boost your conversion rate. Take a look at your website, identify your UVP and shout about it. Then watch what happens to your conversion rate.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

First off, when I say “The Importance of Telling Your Reader What to Do” I don’t mean that your copywriting should become prescriptive and demanding. That would just be silly. After all, a copywriter is supposed to build rapport with her readers; she’s supposed to get to know them, work out what makes them tick. She’s not supposed to shout at them and give them orders.

Or is she?

Softly at first

If you want your copy to work, you’ve got to build a realtionship with your reader. You must immediately show them that you understand what they are looking for. By telling them how your product/service will benefit them will show them that you care, you are willing to listen, and you’ll make their life better.

Aren’t you great?

By the time they’ve finished reading the inital paragraphs of your website they’ll be your best friend hanging on your every word.

Then what?

Well, now’s the time to build on your new found friendship. By now your reader trusts you and is ready to be lead by you to the next stage of the relationship.

But there’s a problem. You’ve told them how you’re going to improve their life. They love your product/service and realise that it is exactly what they’ve been looking for. But now, after doing all the hard work and convincing them they need it, you’ve left them high and dry.

They’ve read to the end of the page, ready to do whatever you ask, but there’s nothing. Zero. A big fat zilch. Just empty space.

Now they’re confused. They panic and hit the back browser and go to another website in the hope that will tell them what to do next.

So what did you forget?

You forgot one of the most important sections of your copywriting. It may only be a few words, but they could be the most important few words on the entire web page.

What’s the point in creating superb copy that has convinced your reader to buy if you forget the call to action?

“But they know they want to buy the product, why should I have to tell them to buy it?”

A very valid point, but if you don’t have a line at the bottom of your page that says Click here to buy now, or perhaps Call us today on 123 456 78 and book your appoinment, your reader won’t know what to do. Why should they go hunting round your website trying to work out what to do next if you can’t be bothered to tell them.

It might sound laughable that people forget to add a CTA but it happens all the time. I’ve lost count of the nimber of websites I’ve seen without one leaving the owner wondering why their conversion rate is so low.

Go and take a look at your website now – do you have a CTA? If the answer’s “no”, before you do anything else today add one to every sales page. Don’t leave anything to chance, if you want your reader to buy, tell them.