Website Traffic, Stats, and Conversions: The Basics

TRAFFIC

Traffic, traffic, traffic. It's what every website needs. It's what everyone talks about.

I like traffic, but you know what I like even better than traffic? Quality traffic. To me, quality is much better than quantity.

Quality traffic is the traffic that converts. They are people who visit your website that are your Perfect Clients (see workshop above). THEY BECOME YOUR CUSTOMERS.

So, before you start going after traffic, you need to get inside the minds of your perfect customers and find out what they are looking for. What problem are you going to solve? How are you going to make their life better? Why do they need/want your product?

This is the beginning of building a great web page. I call this Foundational SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Foundational SEO involves:

• Customer Profiling,

• Keyword Phrase Research,

• Competitive Analysis,

• Collaborative Decision Making, and

• Creating and Building Optimized web pages from the ground up.

This is the first and the least a web designer and client should do together to create the foundation of a great web page - one that gets quality traffic, one that attracts the right kind of visitors - the customers that buy.

There are MANY ways to get website traffic. Starting with strong Foundational SEO is setting the intention of your web page. All other Internet Marketing Strategies complement SEO and build upon it.

STATS

You must have a good Website Statistics program (Stats). I am not talking about a "hit counter". Hit Counters say "Amateur!" on your website and are not providing important information anyway.

I use AWStats. They are easy to read and provide very important information. Like:

• How many Unique Visitors you get in a day / week / month,

• How many pages are viewed per visit on average,

• What are your most popular pages,

• What web sites are linking to you,

• What Search Engines are performing for you, and

• What keyword phrases are being used in the search engines like Google that bring people to your website.

This information is CRUCIAL to understanding what is and isn't working on your website. This information goes directly back to understanding your traffic. If you can't see your Stats at any given moment, you are IN THE DARK. And, you may be wasting your marketing dollar.

An even better statistics program is Google Analytics. I will talk about this in another newsletter.

CONVERSIONS

What is a conversion? A conversion is when a web visitor becomes a paying customer.

One thing AWStats may not tell you is what traffic is converting. (Actually, it might. It depends on how you build your website and what your visitors are doing on it.)

How can you spend marketing dollars (and your valuable time) efficiently if you don't know how people found you? How can you find out?

Ask. Ask your customers how they found you. Was it "word of mouth"? An ad in a magazine? In Google? IN GOOGLE! Say, "Really? How great! Do you remember what you typed in to find me? " Many, many times your customer does remember! It is worth asking!

I might be rambling on a little here. I have been known to be a little too chatty. Oh well. if you made it this far down my page, then I have a quick personal story for you.

I watch my stats almost daily. By watching my stats I was able to determine very easily that I showed up on page 1 of Google for "Beautiful Web Design". I get hundreds of unique visitors every month for various keyword phrases similar to this one. I also learned that I show up on page 1 of Google for the phrase Sedona Web Design. I get about 10 visitors every month for that phrase.

Which phrase brings me more business? Sedona Web Design. How do I know? I ask every potential new client who calls me how they found me. Many, many times it is because of Google. I have never gotten a new client from the phrase "beautiful web design". Not yet anyway.

IN SUMMARY

• Have a strategy to create and build your web pages properly.

• Go after quality traffic.

• Watch your stats.

• Ask your customers how they found you. Don't be afraid to get some details.

• Be prepared to tweak your SEO efforts based on what your website stats are telling you.

• Be patient. Some keyword phrases are harder to get than others.

A GREAT way to increase conversions is by adding or improving your CALLS TO ACTION.

Believe it or not, you DO need to tell your website visitors what to do. And, you need to strategically place these Calls To Action on your pages where they have relevancy with your text.

Here is my TOP 20 List of STRONG Calls To Action that you can use on your website RIGHT NOW!

1. Call us today at 928-204-9015 and ask for a ...

2. See how we are ... See examples of ...

3. Reserve your seat today by e-mailing us ...

4. Get a free report / analysis / estimate / consultation etc ...

5. Watch this video ...

6. Order your copy / book / sweater here...

7. Add To Cart

8. Sign Up for our Newsletter / Free Article /  Special Report ...

9. Start saving / learning / growing... Get started ...

10. Read this helpful ... Read more about this amazing...

11. Learn how to... Learn why ... Learn how you can ...

12. Get your Copies today!

13. Listen to this interview ....

14. Buy 12 get 1 FREE ...

15. Join today and receive a free ...

16. Find out which camera is better ...

17. Use this handy calculator to

18. Book online... Order online safely and securely ...

19. E-mail us with your questions ...

20. Send us your ...

These Calls To Action should get you started. Be creative. Mix them up. Put at least one on every page on your website and see what happens. Look at your Stats and make sure you have prominent, really good Calls To Action on your most popular pages!