Saturday, January 24, 2009

Building Your Profitable Website: Include These Things

By Angie Sandy

The key to internet marketing success is to attract website visitors and convert them into loyal and paying customers. This is accomplished with a variety of strategies and tactics which all begin and end with your website.

Wow your Customers

A fantastic customer experience is paramount to a great and profitable website. How do you create that fantastic experience? First and foremost, in order to make a decision to buy anything, your customers need to be able to find what theyre looking for quickly and easily. Make sure all your information is right up front and easy to find.

Customers will want to read product descriptions, have shipping calculations be quick and easy and a FAQ page is a great way to take care of all those recurring questions.

A powerful customer experience also includes feeling welcomed and valued " a sense of connection. This can be provided and enhanced by utilizing frequent buyer programs and an about us page to show them who you are and what youre about.

Article Management And CMS

Youve likely heard the term Content is King. Its overused for sure but it still holds true. Content not only provides your website visitors with the information theyre seeking, it helps drive search engine traffic to your site. However, organizing and uploading all of this content can be a full time job if you dont have a content management system to get the job done quickly.

A CMS enables you to create, edit, password protect and delete content without the assistance of a webmaster and without needing any programming skills or knowledge. You can upload and manage a high volume of content quickly and easily.

Secure, Easy To Use Shopping Cart

If you're losing customers at checkout, part of the problem may be your shopping cart system. Theres nothing more frustrating than a system which drops items, makes you jump through hoops and doesn't provide all the payment and cost information right up front. An integral aspect to a customer friendly and therefore profitable website is a secure and easy to use checkout system.

A quality shopping cart system will provide your customers with an easy and secure transaction and you with valuable data and reports at a moderate price.

Search Functions

Include a search function on your site and give your visitors and customers the ability to instantly find exactly what they need. For example, a pet store owner with this search feature on their website makes it easy for a prospect to find that dog coat theyre looking for. Forcing them to search throughout pages of items is a sure way to detract from their shopping experience.

Offering your visitors a search tool tells them you respect their time and value their business and the keyword information the tool provides gives you valuable insight.

Search Engine Traffic

Theres no doubt that SEO plays a critical role in driving website traffic and sales. Finding a website builder with integrated SEO systems is like finding a wining lottery ticket. Imagine being able to link and tag your content and website code without having to jump through hoops or learn a programming language.

If your website builder also comes with a sitemap feature each time you update your website content, the search engines are automatically notified, saving you tons of time and ensuring your website is getting noticed by the search engines and potential visitors.

Branding

In the competitive world of online business, your branding strategy can certainly help set you apart from your competition. While a logo is important, think about the Nike swish or the colorful eBay lettering, for a small business owner your personality is a large part of your brand. Your personality can be reflected in the content and design on your website.

Many website building tools are difficult to navigate, have a steep learning curve and make it extremely difficult to get the look and feel you want to convey. A profitable website, one which provides customers a memorable and enjoyable experience, isnt impossible to create. You just need the right tools and to know what you want the end result to be.

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