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As a website owner or manager  you may have figured out  that DRIVING TRAFFIC to your site is a critical  element  to getting  the success that is so important  to your business . But if your site has  reached a respectable  level of success with this first step, then you are also likely  aware that TRAFFIC by itself  is not the answer  to your websites success.  It's equally important  that you convert your traffic into leads or actually sales .  Let's talk briefly about ideas that YOU can use  to find success in both of these steps.

First let’s look at how you can drive more traffic to your site.  What is it that would cause someone to really WANT to come to your site in the first place ?  The answer is INFORMATION!  Regardless of whether you are a car dealership, a non-profit, an art gallery, or a pet store , the reason why people will end up on your site is because they are searching for information.  But it’s not JUST information that they want .  The Internet has tons  of information!  More than that, they are seeking a source of information that they can trust !  It's just like any other professional  or personal interaction.  We desire  to work with people that we trust .   To  pull traffic into your website  you must first fill it with good  information that your targeted customers are searching for.  Then you must present that information in a manner  that helps your site visitors to begin to trust you .  

Wouldn't it be nice if that was all you had to do  !  Unfortunately this, 'Build it and they will come" strategy  is NOT enough anymore for most websites.  The Internet is simply TOO full (and growing exponentially) of information for your prospects to locate  you and find you trustworthy  without some help.  To truly drive sustainable traffic to your site you need  to grow your own  network of online 'references' that will  authenticate your site as a trustworthy authority .  These 'references' act a lot  like job references that you might give someone who is looking to hire you but wants to authenticate your experience first .  In the Internet marketplace these references take the shape of 'links', from other respectable  sites back to your site .  Notice the referring websites  must be relevant, trustworthy and respectable.    This is critical  as it helps the search engines and your future website  visitors to authenticate you as  a website they can trust  .

So as you work on step #1 of DRIVING TRAFFIC to your site, think about all of your efforts in this way.   Consider  what you do on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube and other social networking sites.  Make sure that your content and  your activity on those sites is working to  authenticate your business and helping  people trust you and your information enough to buy  from you.

Next, as your site picks up traffic  , it is important  that you convert those visitors into REAL BUSINESS. This aspect of website conversions is often overshadowed  in favor of focusing on driving traffic.  But this is often a fatal flaw .  If you consider this strictly from a financial perspective, it often costs 10-20x more time and money to GET visitors to your website  than it takes to convert your existing traffic into actual customers.  In other words , the time and tools needed to improve your website conversion ratios is often MUCH  LESS expensive than those needed to get the traffic on  your site in the first place.  So focusing on your website conversions is often an important  place for you to realize some quick and valuable ROI  if you have not focused much attention on it previously  .

Just like 'driving traffic', there are also MANY strategies that you can implement  to improve your website conversions.  The two most critical elements that will give you the greatest initial improvement on website conversions are the 'First' and the 'Last' impressions that you give  your site visitors. This time during their visit is when  your site visitors are most impressionable and when you have the greatest opportunity to help  them to become customers or 'take action' in some measurable way. Be sure to not be pushy, but make sure that your landing pages and your contact pages have specific language  of what benefits you are providing  to each of your site visitors.  And finally, be sure that you make it simple  for them to take action on  those specific benefits. As you work on  these strategies  you may also find it useful to have  some website conversion tools to embed in your site that have proven success with increasing your website conversions and driving more business and more leads for your organization.

Author: Roland Graham, Founder, Leadcrafters