20 Quick Tips for a More Profitable Website

When the World Wide Web began about 20 years ago, it opened up an amazing world of opportunity for people to make their own success and realize their dreams. More people than ever were able to start their own home business. Unfortunately, about 95% of the people who start their own online business will fail. People are led to believe all they have to do is throw up a website and the money will start pouring in. This is definitely not true!

Building a website now is much easier than it was 20 years ago but you still need to know how to make your website efficient and profitable. The following quick tips will help you streamline your website and hopefully make it more productive.

1. Call-to-Action – To substantially increase your number of sales, your site will need a call to action. This is when you tell people what to do next. For example: Order Now, Supplies Limited or Click Here for Special Offer, Today Only.

2. Annoying Features – Leave out intrusive music, flashing lights, animated banners, slow-loading pages and other annoying features. These things do not say welcome!

3. Add a Blog – Blogs are extremely popular and search engine friendly so if you don’t already have a blog you definitely want to start one.

4. Site Search – Be sure to provide your visitors with a site search box. You can get one for free at Google Site Search.

5. Interactive – Make your site interactive by adding message boards, surveys, comments. This will bring your visitors back for more.

6. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Do some research and make your site search engine ready. Add relevant keywords, get as many backlinks as possible, add content, etc.

7. Site Map – Having a site map on your site can help you with the search engines and it will help your visitors find things on your site as well. You can make one for free with GSiteCrawler.

8. Analyze Your Traffic – Be sure to study your site stats so you can find out when you get the most visitors, where you get the most visitors, how long they are staying, what pages they are visiting the most and so on. This can help you tweak your site for maximum performance. If your host does not provide your stats you can use Google Analytics.

9. Content – Always be adding new and relevant content to your site to keep your visitors interested and the search engines as well.

10. Trust – You must build trust and credibility with your visitors. You can do this by using testimonials, posting any rewards you may have received and letting people know of important clients you have had.

11. Affiliate Programs – Adding good solid affiliate programs to your site can help raise your profits. Be sure to check out the programs before you join and if possible, personally recommend the products and/or services.

12. User-Friendly – You want your site to be easy to navigate; not like a maze for your visitors to try to find their way. Make all pages the same basic layout.

13. Collect eMail Addresses – Building an email mailing list is very crucial for keeping in contact with your visitors and building the foundation of trust. Be sure to put a sign-up form on all your webpages and put it on top for easy visibility and access.

14. Sell Advertising – Don’t overdo but selling a few choice spots on your website for advertising can raise your profitability.

15. Stress Benefits – Be sure to let people know how they can benefit from your site. Let them know how you can solve their problems with your products/services.

16. Contact Info – ALWAYS have your contact info on every page of your site. If people don’t even know your name, there surely are not going to trust you.

17. Fresh and New – Always be adding new and updated content to your site. Keep up on SEO and always be tweaking your site for more ranking. Do not let your site get old and stale!

18. Professional Design – Your site should be clean, sharp and easy to read. Do not clutter it with junk. Make it look professional!

19. Color – The color of your website can be very important. Certain colors can trigger psychological responses and you want to be sure your site triggers the right one.

20. Social Networking – Be sure to add all your social links so people can connect with you on multiple levels. Social networking can do wonders for your website if used properly.

Developing a profitable website takes time, research and work but it certainly can be done. Don’t give up too easily. Put in the work and be committed. You CAN be a success!