You can convert More of Your Traffic into sales without having

to spend a lot of money. There are hundreds of ways to improve

your conversion rate and the persuasiveness/stickiness of your

website, many of which can be done very quickly and most will

cost you close to nothing to implement.

1. Use real customer testimonials with authentic customer

photos...no stock photography. Shoppers can quickly tell the

difference.

2. Make sure your marketing effort attracts qualified traffic.

Example, if you sell Digital cameras, don’t advertise that you

sell macro lens just to get more traffic to your site. This may

drive more visitors, but they are visitors with no intent to

purchase, thus decreasing your conversion rate.

3. Get a toll-free number and make sure the placement of that

number on your site is prominent and consistent.

4. Include “points of reassurance” at every “point of action”.

Example – if you are requesting that a viewer provide you with

their e-mail address, clearly state that privacy is very important

to you and that you will not share that information with any

other party.

5. Use SSL (secure server certificates from a well known SSL

authority) and make sure that the user knows you are using it.

Display a prominent "Secure server" note at the top of the page.

6. Build trust, subscribe to a service like VeriSign, Thawte or

ScanAlert and Prominently place these logos to reassure your

customer that you care about the security of their information.

7. Have a clearly defined privacy policy and link to it from all

pages.

8. Include a physical address on your site.

9. Don’t always concentrate on just making the “buy now”

buttons the most prominent on every page, but rather

concentrate on styling the “primary action” buttons the most

prominently on every page. Example – you sell books, and you

provide the customers with the ability to select a few related

books and compare them before they can buy now. Make

that “compare button/link the same style as you would the

“buy now” button/link on a page in which the “buy now”

button exists. This will help herd customers through your

sales funnel.

10. Clearly Define your return policy.

11. Make sure to include an “About Us” section on your site.

The majority of my customers will visit or look for that section

before making a purchase.

12. Make your site load fast, easy to navigate and user friendly.

No need for horizontal scrolling, excessive vertical scrolling,

large animation files or intrusive pop-up windows.

13. Keep your “buy now” button consistently and prominently

placed on all product pages. The closer to the top of the

page...the better. ”Above the fold if you want it sold”

& 2. “Eye level is buy level”.

14. Provide clear good quality images of your products with an

"enlarge image" option.

15. Make your checkout process as usable, intuitive, reassuring

and simple as possible. Losing a shopper during your checkout

process is a CRITICAL loss.

16. Don’t make people type their e-mail address twice. Get the

site to remember and do it automatically.

17. Don’t force people to install crazy plug-ins just to make

a purchase from your site. Stick with JavaScript, Flash and the

other breads & butters.

18. Read your copy, make sure its compelling, yet not

exaggerated and too loud.

19. Identify your unique selling proposition and exploit it. If you

are the only seller of medium-sized green widgets in the UK,

clearly state that and be proud of it.

20. Implement a “site search” box and make sure it is accurate.

Not only it will allow users to find what they want quick, it

will give you an insight as to what they are shopping for and

what terminology(keywords/key phrases) they are using so

you can tailor your copy (and ad campaigns) accordingly.

21. Don’t just focus on the many features of your product, but

rather on the benefits those features will provide you customers

with. Don’t just say “folding ladders”, say “Our folding ladders

will save you valuable garage space”.

22. Display your prices, shipping charges and tax clearly BEFORE

the checkout process is completed.

23. Don’t use a drop-down for the "country" or “state” list over

your order form. Many people are using scrolling mice these

days, many are sure to accidentally scroll off of their correct state.

24. Let customers copy their shipping info to their billing info

if they are identical, with one click.

25. Remove distractions as much as possible from the final

checkout process such as the main navigation that existed during

the shopping portion of your site.

26. Clearly provide a checkout process indicator. If your checkout

process has 3 steps, clearly indicate at the top of the page what

step they are on and how many steps there are to complete the

order.

27. Clearly identify what info you really require during your

checkout process. Eliminate unnecessary text fields/questions.

28. Use easy to understand, friendly error messages.

No “INCORRECT USER INPUT IN STATE FIELD!” messages.

29. If your checkout error messages occur on a page other than

the page with the errors, preserve the information that the

user has already input and get the site to input it automatically.

30. Double check the spelling on your site. And the spelling on

your error messages. "Ers in input filed" would look very

unprofessional.

31. Try and get good reviews from shopping authority sites

(shopping.com, epinions.com, bizrate.com, etc) and from previous

shoppers.

32. Don’t use complex formulas for shipping price calculations,

Example - 'if you buy 13.5 kilograms worth of x", then multiply

that weight by y shipping rate. Get the site to do the calculations

and show the shopper the price.

33. Consider shipping the product free. This is often a very good

selling point with online shoppers.

34. Display the stock status of the selected item and do so BEFORE

the user puts the item in their cart.

35. If you don’t sell or run out/discontinued an item, remove it from

the site.

36. If you are offering a lot of products, users should be able to sort

them by important criteria...price, size, color, etc.

37. Provide an easy way for shoppers to compare details of similar

products.

38. Use a custom 404 not found page to link people back to the

important areas of your site

39. Give a clear estimate of the delivery time.

40. Accept a wide variety of payment options and clearly display

those options.

41. Important information should not look like ad banners. There

really is such a thing as “ad blindness” and people will

automatically skip over this important information.

42. Make sure you have a “first-time visitor” page. This is where

you are going to explain why and how you are different from

your competitors.

43. Update your copyright statements on page footers. Make sure

that the current year is displayed....fix that 2003 copyright

statement.

44. Let customer make a purchase without having to register with

your site.

45. Consider making every link the last part of the statement

“I want to...”. Don’t just have a link that says “the privacy policy”,

but rather “read the privacy policy”. Do you get it... the shopper

wants to “Read the Privacy Policy”.

46. Don’t use too clever names for your shopping cart like “widget

basket” or “widget box”. Call it "My shopping cart" or "My

shopping basket".

47. Don’t make the shopper specify select an option when there is

only 1 “option”. If the product only comes in red, don’t make the

shopper select the “red” radio button or choose “red” from the

drop down. Get the site to do it automatically.

48. Provide clear shopping instructions in an empty shopping cart.

Don’t just say “your shopping cart is empty”.

49. Provide a "special sale” or "special clearance” section. This

will attract the budget-conscious shoppers.

50. The most important golden rule...you must portray a lot of trust

and credibility to instil shopper confidence and get them to make

a purchase. Make sure you do.