Effective Website Strategies

To make your website into an effective marketing tool you need to apply the basics of marketing strategy – and just as with any marketing tool, your website requires research and planning.

You have just five seconds to get their attention when they land on your home page. To successfully convert them into customers, your homepage has to focus their eye path and draw them into your site to a revenue-producing click, in part, this is what goes into making especially effective website strategies.

If it doesn't immediately answer their question - 'why am I here and can they solve my problem' - they leave. Your competition is one click away. 66% of all sales are lost right on the home page.The Web has moved from being a new technology information medium to being a sales channel. Your marketing department should be intimately involved with your website and they should know exactly who is coming to the site and why.The measurements you keep have to fit your business and your audience.

The days of just getting a website up and counting eyeballs and hits is long gone. You need to know where they come from, what they came for, how long they stay, which pages they visit, what their click path is and if they ever reach your "goal page." And you should know which page they leave from. Now is the time to update your Web measurement strategy with new metrics and tools that can help analyze customer behavior and improve your site's business success.

ROI from your website
There is no one metric that a company can rely on for its website," said Brian Williams, an Internet speaker and consultant. "Metrics will be different from company to company."

Your metrics will depend on what you are trying to do with your site. Before you do a revamp of your site, do your research and formulate a strategy for the site. If you have an e-commerce site you should be focused on conversion ratio (number of visitors to buyers), while a business-to-business site might be measuring visitor response to information. The number of reaches into the company as a result of the website will still be of prime importance.

One mid-size, family-owned company in California revamped their website recently and started to keep track of their visitors. Analyzing user behavior led to website tweaks and they just got their first million dollar deal as a direct result of their website.

Tracking Your Visitors
Measuring a website's success is becoming vital as e- business spending has to be defended. "Until the recession hit, there wasn't much urgency around Web metrics," says Forrester Research's Souza in the interview with CIO. The focus has shifted to getting business results, and quickly. Jupiter Research estimates that by 2006 annual spending on site analytics will reach $1 billion.

Once your site has been researched and user tested install a reliable, simple to use traffic tracking system. Clicktracks is one that any entrepreneur can afford. In my opinion it is one of the best in terms of value and information. It is visual and interactive and can be put on any website. It allows you to tag different visitors and to see exactly where they click on your site. It will give you all the data you need to see where your visitors came from, where they are going and how they get there.

Marketing Departments and Information Technology Managers are starting to work together to take control of their website content and visitor click streams. With this valuable data on visitor behavior, it is possible to consistently improve results from your website.

Computer eCommerce can help you develop your web site. We'll help you define your objectives and establish your presence. We can design the strategy that will make your website effective. Do you need to select a domain name? We can help. Do you want to sell a product? Do you need to share information with a select audience only?