That’s right you’re’ not getting any business from your website… you’re getting business through it! Visitors to your website have to come from somewhere before they get there. Maybe be it’s an online ad, a search engine result or even your business card, but they have to come from somewhere, they don’t just miraculously know your website’s URL. That brings up a couple of interesting questions:
• Where is your traffic coming from? and
• Where is your business coming from?
Traffic does not equal business
Where your site’s visitors are coming from is an important piece in figuring out where your business is coming from. Unless you can track the sales back to the source, you really don’t know where your business is coming from. You may guess, but that’s not helpful in knowing where to invest your marketing dollars. So, unless you have a toll booth on your site, where people are paying just to view it, traffic is not a good indicator of business success.
E-commerce or offline sales?
If you make sales on your website, where someone can enter their credit card info and check out, then you may be able to track back to how they got to your site in the first place… maybe. If this wasn’t their first visit to your site then, unless you have cookies, or some other tracking software, you won’t really know what brought them to your site. Even with cookies or other software you may not be able to connect the dots all the way back.
If you make your sales offline, in person or on the phone, you’ll have a much harder time connecting the dots. How will you know how the person who’s on the phone, or sitting in front of you, got to your website the first time? If you’re thinking you’ll ask them when you speak or meet with them, you’re way too late. They’re not likely to remember and the more time that has passed, the less likely they’ll remember at all. If you give them a contact form to fill out, with tracking questions, expect that you’re getting inaccurate information, at best. Most of the forms I’ve seen are biased in the way the questions are asked and, more importantly, the customer doesn’t care. It’s not important to them how they got to you, unless there’s something extra in it for them (discount, special offer, etc.)
Where’s the good news?
The good news is that you have a lot of control over the actions that your site’s visitors take, once they get to your site. You give them the choices. You put the content on the pages. You can direct them to what you want them to do, that is, if you give them what they want. So if you want to get more business through your website, get more of the people that visit to “convert” from prospects to customers. Take advantage of the traffic. You’ve already got their attention, now give them a reason to stay instead of reasons to leave. Then, tell them what you want them to do and make it easy to take that action and reap the rewards.
Does my site need help?
If you’d like an independent assessment of your site and its ability to convert the traffic you’re already getting, contact me for a website review. I don’t make websites so I’m not going to try to sell you a new site. Rather, I’d prefer to help you see the quick and easy fixes you can make to your current site. If you’re thinking about a new website, now’s a great time to consult with me about the design, layout and wording you’re considering. Don’t wait until it’s already launched to find out how to make it better. It’s much easier to do that in the design and building process, than when it’s done.
Need more incentive than just having a better site?
My usual fee for a 60-90 minute website review is $349, but if you’re reading this you can have yours for only $299, if you schedule yours for the month of March 2013. I’m accepting a limited number of website reviews, so contact me today or call 732.422.6362