Attaining Better Website ROI

The problematic question of website ROI is one that almost all companies with a web presence face. Without the right programs working for you, your website can be resigned to online anonymity. While your site may be listed in search results, if it is not on the first page, your traffic and conversion rates will suffer dramatically.

How do you attain better website ROI? Search engine marketing provides you with tools you need. A professional partner is the best option for implementing the disparate aspects of this form of marketing. A specialist firm can utilize SEO procedures, link building campaigns, PPC campaigns, Internet PR methods, article directories and more to enhance your traffic flow.

The single most important aspect of realizing high website ROI is your conversion ratio. While blindly driving traffic to your website will result in a higher number of visitors, these results can be less-than stellar. The best option is to drive targeted traffic to your website. This means that your visitors are predisposed to purchase the products, services or programs that you offer.

Targeted traffic is the only means by which you can increase website ROI; however, driving targeted traffic where you need it can be a troubling conundrum. A skilled partner online can help take the mystery out of search engine marketing, increase your targeted traffic flow and help you realize the high ROI that you demand.

Increasing Your Conversion Ratio
Your conversion ratio (CR) is the percentage of visitors who become customers, calculated as follows:

If you are a plastic surgeon or dentist and you sell one elective medical/dental procedure for every 115 visitors to your medical or dental website. Your Conversion Ratio (CR) is 100 divided by 115 (to get a percentage value). That would be 0.87 in this example. That means you're turning 0.87% of visitors into new patients. Note: This is brand new patients and any repeat business, upsell opportunities and referrals from your patients is icing on the cake!

For a decent looking website, the average conversion ratio is about 1%-2%

There are of course many factors impacting your conversion ratio.

No matter what kind of web site you have or what you sell, your conversion ratio can probably be improved.

Here are 7 common techniques we have used to increase our client's website conversion ratios:

1. Stress the benefits of their services first. This is important. If a warm and fluffy mission statement is on your homepage, you can say goodbye to your visitors.
2. Do not use your offline sales brochures for your website. The theme can be the same for branding purposes, but the copying and pasting content from the brochure to the website does not work.
3. Do not mention price for your services without convincing your visitors of your unique value proposition. Why choose you?
4. Give your website visitors something for free such as a complimentary consultation, internet only specials or even knowledge if you are an expert in your industry.
5. Give your website visitors choices! Here is a little psychology for you... people love to buy, they do not like to be sold! If possible, offer different product packages, boundled plans, different payment options, etc. This seems obvious but few people do it. Don't hurt your conversion ratio by not being flexible!
6. Do not mix technical specifications into your sales effort. People buy with their hearts (benefits) and afterwards justify it with common sense (specifications). Sell to their emotions and link to technical specs.
7. Encourage feedback. Make it easy for them to ask questions.