Turning Web clicks into purchases
(Fortune Small Business) — Dear FSB: I have a statistics counter for my Web site oceansofchange.net and although people visit, they are not browsing or purchasing. I am on a very limited budget and am concerned that the layout and text are the problem, yet I don’t know how to improve them. Your suggestions are greatly welcomed and appreciated.
- Karen Burke, owner, Oceans of Change
Dear Karen: Our experts agree: Your site is a bore. The absence of colors, features and high-quality photos leaves a lot to be desired, so it’s hardly a surprise that the people who make it to you accessories retail site don’t stick around.
"When I arrive on the site, I first see a lot of white," says Geeta Punjabi of Raleigh, N.C., Web marketing firm 123Triad. "There is generally too much space on the pages. On the homepage, there is a big scroll, but if it were organized better, it could all fit in one view."
The key to keeping viewers on a Web site is interactivity. The first interactive link on your page takes viewers off of your pages to the Web site of Newport Life magazine (which, by the way, is a site that doesn’t load correctly.) And if they don’t click that link, vistors are left looking at credit card logos, even though you haven’t shown them any merchandise yet - not a great way to build user trust.
"The credit cards are a distraction," says Ryan Menzer, president of FireThread Studios in Glenville, N.Y. "Instead, on the homepage, you should Flash-rotate your bestsellers so that the users can start to see items right away. That will draw them in so that they won’t leave as quickly."
Menzer adds that the grainy photos on the top right corner of your homepage give the page a rigid, boxy feel - they’re not crisp enough to entice the audience to search for more. If you don’t have the technical chops or budget to integrate Adobe (ADBE)’s Flash, you may want to try a scoll-through gallery of merchandise photos.
As for your color scheme, our experts aren’t crazy about the purple.
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