Your Website Conversion Rates: The Big Traffic, Little Sales Challenge

Business owners usually realize they need to attract traffic to make a website profitable. Consultants and copywriters typically use keywords to attract visitors.

However, getting visitors is just the first step to generating revenue from a website. Revenue doesn't increase until you increase website conversion rates. In other words, your website copy has to persuade these visitors to make a purchase or at least sign up for a free offer.

First, let me explain how to calculate website conversion rates. If you get 1000 unique visitors to your website in one month and 500 sign up for your ezine, your opt-in conversion rate is 50%. That's huge! More likely you will get 2% to 30% depending on your product, audience and content.

You calculate sales conversion rates the same way. If 1000 unique visitors arrive on your site in one month, and 10 of those visitors buy, you have a 1% conversion rate.

Are your conversion rates high, low or average? The answer is, "It depends." Your market, product and even your own reputation in a market will influence your conversion rate.

When it comes to solving the mystery of the crumbling website conversion rates, business owners need to avoid these two traps.

(1) Many online marketers get so focused on traffic they don't think about conversion. if you get 10,000 visitors a month but nobody buys, you've got good statistics but no revenue.

(2) Others create a strategy that's a two-step process. They say, "First I get visitors. Then I will hire a copywriter and work on conversion.'

There are two challenges here. First, you can't be assured that visitors will come back again ... and again. In fact, some of your juiciest prospects come when your site is new because you've got novelty working in your favor. Additionally, when you beef up the content of your pages, you will see a jump in traffic as well as conversion.

Copywriting on the Internet has two audiences: human website visitors AND search engine crawlers. Your website copy needs to target both groups. Human visitors will grow your opt-in list and (hopefully) buy from you. Search engine robots will deliver search engine ranking so your site appears quickly when a prospect types a search term.

When you get frustrated with having lots of visitors but low website conversion rates, here are 3 clues that your copywriting is the culprit.

Clue #1: Process, process, process... everywhere.

Look for sentences like, "First I'll complete an intake form. Then we have a meeting..."

Can you rearrange to say something like, "My unique start-up system will help you move faster than..."

Clue #2: Emotional temperature of the website is cool. Your challenge is to create some fire. It's no accident that we frequently use the metaphor of "sizzing" copy.

Bring on the fire! Anger, hurt, regret, desire... go for it! Dig up the basic needs: health, money, and love. Fan the flames.

Clue #3: Missing calls to action.

Remember Sherlock Holmes and the dog who didn't bark? What's absent here? Yes, instructions to the visitor. Create a very specific step or series of steps.

Recognizing these 3 clues is a good way to get started on your quest to solve The Case of the Website That Isn't Working.