Web Hosting, Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Free Website Builder: Essential website features that can help you increase sales Essential website features that can help you increase sales ================================================================================ suisse on 20 October, 2007 08:16:00 ESSENTIAL WEBSITE FEATURES THAT CAN HELP YOU INCREASE SALES Your website is the window through which you are selling your products, and your web design could play a major role in determining whether you succeed or not. If you are into ecommerce and are directly selling a product or service, this is obvious. Even if you are not selling a product or service, most of the time you are still selling something to the visitors to your site. It may be an idea or a principle or a good habit. Whatever it is that you are selling, a good web design can help your sales, and a bad one can spoil it. What are the web design features that will help you increase your sales? PRESENTATION A good presentation is at the heart of every successful sale, and your website is no exception. You can make your website attractive by not only improving the physical aspects but also the content. *Professional web design: Undoubtedly the most important aspects of the presentation of your website are the physical ones. Your web design should take care of the following: *Pleasing website design: This includes the use of sober colors that are pleasing to the eye, fonts that are easy to read and contrast with the background well enough to permit easy reading, and well laid out having enough free space. It’s very easy to get a website cluttered with too much information or fill it with too many colors that don’t blend with each other. *Easy navigation: One of the most important aspects of a good web design is to provide any user with the capability to navigate easily within the site. *Performance: Another important aspect of good web design is the performance. This means that the home page should load quickly and navigation should be fast. If your web design includes too much of graphics or animation, for example, the loading will become slow. *Copywriting: Selling on the net is done through the content that you write and display. It is this content that is going to convince your potential customer to buy your goods or services. Very few people have the time to go through a piece of literature on your website. People who want to read Shakespeare will read his works. For the rest of us, it is simple, direct communication that appeals. Moreover, you need to stimulate and sustain the interest of the visitor. This can be done through a catchy headline. Marketing gurus also recommend a specific call for action (Buy Now by clicking here) and offering an incentive for doing so. Your web design should ensure good abc copywriting. GETTING THE TRAFFIC Important as your presentation is, it’s of little use if no one visits your site. So you must take action to drive traffic into your site. What’s web design got to do with it? *High Search Engine rankings: You know that this is very important to get traffic to your site. Search engine ranks depend on a number of factors including keywords, META tags, title, website design and content. *Attract traffic: A sizeable proportion of the traffic to your website is from returning visitors. Visitors return only if there’s something fresh that they can look forward to. New visitors can also be attracted if the word spreads that you have an interesting website. BUILD CONFIDENCE No one’s going to buy your products if they don’t feel confident about who you are or what you sell. Web design can help you build this confidence in many ways. *Information on your product or service: Your web design should take care to provide relevant information to the visitor. Let your customers know your USPs. You can also educate your customers in general about the products that you sell so that they appreciate what you offer. *Testimonials: If you have some letters of appreciation from your existing customers or have won some awards or other recognition, you should display them. Your web design should provide for displaying testimonials prominently. *Guarantee: Speak specifically about the guarantee that comes with your product and show how the customer is assured of good quality. *Contact Details: Make sure that the web design includes a provision for displaying information about the company and contact details. Give details about the company and contact details so that your organization ceases to be a nameless and unknown entity to a new customer.