Give Your Audience What It Wants
Too often web designers make a web site that only contain fluff. The problem is, visitors don't come to your site to wast time, but usually have a distinct purpose. Don't give them what they want, and they are gone!
Its simple in theory to keep your visitors on your site because all you have to do is, "Give them what they want." To do this though you must answer the following question, "What do my visitors want?" To answer this question, you'll need to research the following three sub-questions: Who are your visitors? What attracted them to your site originally? What do they want when they come to your site? Knowing more about your visitors, what attracted them to your site and what they are looking for on your site makes it easier to retain them and keep them coming back for more.
You can learn more about your customer in two ways, by just asking them and by installing analytic software like Google Analytics. Both are highly recommended because both provide information that the other cannot. This information is like gold because it becomes a catalyst to providing quality content that keeps your visitors coming back for more.
Attract More Visitors
Once you have created a reason for your visitors to stay on your site you need to learn how to attract more visitors to your unique content. You have many options to build a constant flow of traffic to your site. We discuss two of the most important tactics to build traffic in this section.
If your not using PPC Advertising (Pay Per Click) then your missing out on what could become a website goldmine. With all PPC campaigns it is important to start out with a low budget, to improve your results before you unleash this method. Although there are many services that offer PPC Advertising, we suggest to start with Google Adwords. Not only is Google Adwords one of the most powerful systems, but it also can be connected to Google Analytics for very helpful tracting. By targeting the right traffic you'll be increasing your profits in no time.
If you like free relevant traffic, your going to love SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is about optimizing your web pages to become more search engine friendly, adding valuable and unique content and providing trusted links from within and outside of your website. The better ranked you can get your website in the search engines, the more free and relevant traffic you will receive.
Monetize Your Website
As mentioned earlier, you want to make it quick and easy for your visitors to get what they want. On the other side of the coin, you need to make it easy for your visitors to do what you want them to do. For example, why make them click through endless pages to sign up for a membership or newsletter? The easier you make it for your visitors to do what you want, the more they will do it.
You can make it difficult for your visitors to make you money in many ways. Give them too many options to nonprofitable actions, making your navigation confusing and cluttering your web pages with random text and graphics. Get your customers attention to a profitable action by using varying degrees of contrast, color and font choice. When in doubt use different approaches on different pages and measure the results.
The number of methods you can use to increase customer action seems enless. A few of the many worthy mentionables are branding, cross promotion, A/B testing and improving your call-to-action. Remember, the higher the rate of visitor to customer conversion the more revenue your website will receive.
Hire an Expert
Like trying to do your own plumbing, Trying to do web design and marketing by yourself can lead to more bad than good. Sure, if your dedicated and take time to get the proper experience you can do fine. But if your serious about turning a higher profit for your website right now, you'll be better off hiring a professional.
Too often web designers make a web site that only contain fluff. The problem is, visitors don't come to your site to wast time, but usually have a distinct purpose. Don't give them what they want, and they are gone!
Its simple in theory to keep your visitors on your site because all you have to do is, "Give them what they want." To do this though you must answer the following question, "What do my visitors want?" To answer this question, you'll need to research the following three sub-questions: Who are your visitors? What attracted them to your site originally? What do they want when they come to your site? Knowing more about your visitors, what attracted them to your site and what they are looking for on your site makes it easier to retain them and keep them coming back for more.
You can learn more about your customer in two ways, by just asking them and by installing analytic software like Google Analytics. Both are highly recommended because both provide information that the other cannot. This information is like gold because it becomes a catalyst to providing quality content that keeps your visitors coming back for more.
Attract More Visitors
Once you have created a reason for your visitors to stay on your site you need to learn how to attract more visitors to your unique content. You have many options to build a constant flow of traffic to your site. We discuss two of the most important tactics to build traffic in this section.
If your not using PPC Advertising (Pay Per Click) then your missing out on what could become a website goldmine. With all PPC campaigns it is important to start out with a low budget, to improve your results before you unleash this method. Although there are many services that offer PPC Advertising, we suggest to start with Google Adwords. Not only is Google Adwords one of the most powerful systems, but it also can be connected to Google Analytics for very helpful tracting. By targeting the right traffic you'll be increasing your profits in no time.
If you like free relevant traffic, your going to love SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is about optimizing your web pages to become more search engine friendly, adding valuable and unique content and providing trusted links from within and outside of your website. The better ranked you can get your website in the search engines, the more free and relevant traffic you will receive.
Monetize Your Website
As mentioned earlier, you want to make it quick and easy for your visitors to get what they want. On the other side of the coin, you need to make it easy for your visitors to do what you want them to do. For example, why make them click through endless pages to sign up for a membership or newsletter? The easier you make it for your visitors to do what you want, the more they will do it.
You can make it difficult for your visitors to make you money in many ways. Give them too many options to nonprofitable actions, making your navigation confusing and cluttering your web pages with random text and graphics. Get your customers attention to a profitable action by using varying degrees of contrast, color and font choice. When in doubt use different approaches on different pages and measure the results.
The number of methods you can use to increase customer action seems enless. A few of the many worthy mentionables are branding, cross promotion, A/B testing and improving your call-to-action. Remember, the higher the rate of visitor to customer conversion the more revenue your website will receive.
Hire an Expert
Like trying to do your own plumbing, Trying to do web design and marketing by yourself can lead to more bad than good. Sure, if your dedicated and take time to get the proper experience you can do fine. But if your serious about turning a higher profit for your website right now, you'll be better off hiring a professional.
About the Author:
Matthew Henage is an expert web marketer and Owner of Superior Design Inc, a Utah website design and web marketing firm. Visit his website now and you can get an expert website consultation.