Many webmasters overlook the fact that easy website navigation can increase your conversion rates substantially.
Making sure that your website is easy to navigate, should be a no brainer to all webmasters these days, however all you have to do is surf the Internet to find that many sites that are sorely lacking in good web design.
Most website visitors searching for a specific item, will decide whether or not they want to remain on your site within the first 30 seconds after they get there.
If they can immediately locate the term they were searching for, and if the products or services on your website are logically laid out and can be easily accessed; it’s very likely they will stick around long enough to take the “action” you want them to.
The longer your visitors stay on your website to access information such as product descriptions, prices, frequently asked questions, or warranty information; the more likely they are to either purchase a product, subscribe to your website, or return to your site after they leave.
The key to everything is to provide easy website navigation.
Here is how easy website navigation can increase your conversion rates and retain more visitors on your site.
- It’s important keep your website simple. Plan out your website design long before you begin loading it up with content.
- Keep the appearance of your individual web pages uniform, and give them all the same navigation options.
- For easier access, develop a logical progression to your website, and use drop down menus to organize your content by topic.
- Provide an easy to locate search box, so your visitors can quickly and easily locate products, services, and topics on your site without getting confused.
- Make sure that visitors to your site always have the ability to quickly return to your home page to find what they need.
- Every page should have either a “back” button or drop down menus so visitors can easily click back to the previous pages they visited.
- When you are positive that your visitors can easily locate what they need from any page of your website, you should test your website in the major web browsers to ensure that everything works as planned.
With some logical planning, easy website navigation can increase your conversion rates, retain more visitors on your site, and provide them with an enjoyable viewing experience that will get them to return.
Testing your website makes it easier to increase the effectiveness of your site, to determine how satisfied your visitors are, and to convert more website visitors to get a better return on your investment.
What if there were a magic way of knowing which images, headlines, and website copy are the most effective for getting your visitors to convert? 
Instead of losing your visitors shortly after they come to your site; what if you could find the magic words or images that could entice them to stay?
We all know that greater customer satisfaction, leads to higher conversion rates.
Instead of buying into one of those gimmicks that supposedly convert more website visitors on your site; why not just go to Google, and make use of their free website testing and optimization tool.
Google’s Website Optimizer, can help you increase traffic to your website without having to spend a single dime.
It virtually eliminates guesswork from website design, by letting you test different variations of your web pages.
Plus, you don’t have to be an Internet marketing guru to increase the return on your investment, or substantially increase the worth of your website, using the Website Optimizer.
You can start testing and optimizing your website’s design, and content, in just minutes after you sign into your Google account.
First you select the web page content that you want test, and then select a conversion goal.
Your goal can be a web page you want your visitors to click to, an opt in form that you want them to fill out, an affiliate link you want them to click on, or anything like that.
You must then provide Google with your alternate content such as headlines, images, layout variations, or text design alternatives that you’d like to try out with your visitors.
Website Optimizer will then show your content and design changes to your visitors, and monitor the combination that lead to the best conversion rates for you.
This way you can determine which changes convert more website visitors and drive the most conversions.
Website Optimizer is easy to set up, and once you have developed some alternate content, you can launch a test in under five minutes.
All you need is a web browser and a website to begin using the optimizer.
You can use Website Optimizer directly from your AdWords account, or if you don’t have one, you can use any related Google login account like gmail, or Google analytics.
Once you try it, you will find Google’s free Website Optimizer will convert more website visitors and improve your website better than any other program you can spend your hard earned money on.
Basic search engine optimization will not necessarily get your website ranked first in the search engine queries; but it will enable the search engine robots to crawl and index the content of your website much easier.
Over the long haul, basic search engine optimization will gradually have a positive impact on your website users experience, and your performance in the organic search engine results.
First, you should always base your optimization decisions on what is best for visitors of your website.
You always need to remember that your website visitors are the main consumer of your content, and that the only reason they are using the search engines, is to find your specific information on the Internet.
When you focus too heavily on tweaking your website to improve your ranking in the organic search engine results; the engine itself may not provide you with the targeted audience that you are looking for.
Basic search engine optimization optimizes your website for the search engines, but the real objective, is to get the maximum amount of visibility on the Internet for your specific niche product, or service.
Basic search engine optimization starts with the naming of your website.
It should be targeted, and niche specific. For instance “Tom’s Antique Fishing Lures”
Select a domain name that incorporates your business or website name.
In this case it could be named “tomsantiquefishinglures.com”, or if the domain is already taken, use “toms-antique-fishing-lures.com.”
Your website description should be focused on antique fishing lures, articles or antique fishing lures, fishing lure prices, rarity, and newsworthy content.
Create a unique, very specific page title for your main page, and every additional page you later create on your website. Make sure that the title explains what the page is all about.
Use brief titles, or the search engines won’t be able to display it all on the search results page.
Basic search engine optimization practices also include making your website easy for users to navigate. It’s also a good idea to place a sitemap on your website.
The most important thing you can do for basic search engine optimization, is to always provide quality content on your website.
Your website visitors will always know quality content when they see it.
So more than anything else, the most important thing you can do to increase the visibility of your website on the Internet, is to create compelling, useful content for your visitors.
Organic, word of mouth dissemination is what will build your website’s reputation with both your visitors, and the search engines.
Promoting your website through social media sites, forums, blogs, or even emails, will over time increase your presence on the Internet.
However, without first providing quality content to your users; no amount of basic search engine optimization, or word of mouth promoting will do you much good.
