Have the Site, Have the Visitors, No Sells, Now What?

[JulieO]

Can anyone give me some suggestions on where I can go to learn more about website layout and conversions?

I have a wordpress site recently converted to a datafeeder site hoping it would help. I have plenty of hits but no sells. I'm sure it's just the website layout.

Right now this seems to be the only place I am falling short on most of my sites.

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Julie,

Well it's good you're getting the hits. That's half the battle!

Not sure about a good resource for layout, but for conversions FutureNow's GrokDotCom is the converstion rate optimization blog and has great info.

Have you thought about requesting a site review? I don't know if it's the site in your sig or another, but we can't talk about your site here. It needs to be in the site review forum. But maybe if we can see the site, we can give you some feedback.

Anyone else know some good resources for layout and design?

[JulieO]

Thanks Linda,

I'll check out the website you suggest and see if I can pick up any ideas there.

I'll also try the site review forum and see what people think.

[sylviad]

Usually, if you are not making sales but have traffic, you need to do something else other than layout. Layout is probably the least of your problems. There are some pretty ugly sites out there that make a killing.

Do you know how long they are staying on your page? Do they go beyond your home page? If so, where do they go?

If they don't stay more than a few seconds, it's very likely that your headline and first few paragraphs just aren't grabbing and holding the reader's attention.

• You might want to start by making changes to your headline.
• Make sure your content is not heavy text. White space is great, so keep paragraphs to 2-3 short sentences.
• Use eye-catching sub-heads so people can scan and be drawn into reading more in-depth.

Try these things first and test. Depending on what you see, make adjustments one at a time so you can tell what changes are working and which are not. So for instance, change one word in your headline and see if it helps. Then change something else.

Be sure your content focuses on benefits - not features. When people land, the first question on their minds is: what's in it for me? Answer their needs and you should see significant improvement.

Hope this helps.

Sylvia

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much for the great tips Sylvia!

If you or anyone else wants to take a peak at the site in question to give more direct feedback,
Julie posted a site review request here.

[Niche]

Originally Posted by JulieO

I have plenty of hits but no sells. I'm sure it's just the website layout.

First congrats on managing to get the traffic thing going. That's usually the stumbling block for online marketers

With regards to conversions you need to take a look at a few things

Is there a clear call to action on your pages. Things like buy here, click here for more information etc.

People like images. Images they do not have to squint to see. The pages I looked at on your site had images but they are really small.

The text is all together on some of the pages I looked at. I think if you try and use bullets to highlight the benefits of the product to the potential buyer, each point stands out.

Are you getting the right sort of traffic? I have a website on movies of a certain genre. [Nothing naughty I hasten to add ] If my traffic is mainly people who have no interest in that genre, I'll get no conversions. Same with your site.
Get some form of traffic analysis on your site. Google analytics is a good free one. And see what keywords your visitors are using to find your site

Okay I'm done but someone else can pick up here

[Bompa]

When they click your CLICK HERE button, they go to amazon and
see a price for hundreds of dollars.

You expect them to spend that now?

Furniture? People buy furniture online?

What do you mean "plenty of hits"?

What is that 100 unique visitors per 24 hour period?

Maybe if you had 1,000/day you might convert 1 or 2 per week.

Probably half your traffic is other webmasters