• Hey everybody–Rich here, and that’s a question I was asked recently by CNN…

    Take a look for yourself:

    Check out the CNN article here

    In the Small Business section of CNNMoney.com, they profiled a furniture store in Virginia that wanted to be more competitive in the marketplace.

    So they contacted me to have a look around their website. And man, the things I found…

    I’m going to highlight a few of them here, followed by some changes I would suggest and how you can immediately add more selling power to your own website:

    Problem: They’ve made it extremely hard for prospects to find what they’re looking for.

    Solution: Step inside your prospect’s shoes and walk around the website in their frame of mind. Are you finding what you want? Or are your frustrated beyond belief? Then make the appropriate changes.

    How You Can Benefit: This problem is a plague upon internet businesses everywhere. So many businesses fail because people can’t find what they REALLY want on their website.

    The key here is to make it as easy as possible. Have all of your “hottest buttons” front and center. Make your best offers in plain sight. Don’t make your prospect work for it, because they won’t. They’ll just go to your competitor’s website, which is easier to navigate.

    Problem: They were losing traffic due to not taking advantage of misspelled search engine inquiries.

    Solution: Adding the misspellings to the meta tags could increase their traffic by 20% or more.

    How You Can Benefit: Here’s one I see a lot, yet few take advantage of it. If your URL or product is something that’s misspelled frequently, make sure you do some keyword research and see how many searches are actually entered incorrectly.

    You’ll be surprised at what you find. There could be hundreds–or even thousands–of people looking for you. But if they get one letter wrong, they’ll never get to your site.

    That’s why it’s important to include ANY and ALL spellings in your meta tags. By doing this, you’ll substantially increase your chances of being found by those who are “grammatically challenged”.

    Problem: There’s a page inside advertising their interior design services, but nothing to show us their talents in this area.

    Solution: Show us your work–don’t just tell us–with some before and after photos. Or better yet, some video.

    How You Can Benefit: This is CRUCIAL to any service provider. In order to highlight your skills. you must show your prospects what you’ve done in the past. That’s why testimonials are so important to your business.

    And don’t just throw anything up there. Make sure they’re GOOD. Talk about how you’ve changed their lives, made them more money, gave them a better future, etc (much like the before/after photos I suggested above).

    And here’s a tip: write the testimonial FOR them. Word it exactly the way you want to, then simply ask for an approval. It’s fast, easy, and most of the time you’ll get exactly what you want.

    Problem: The first hour of interior decorating consultation was free, but they had this perk buried at the bottom of an inside page.

    Solution: Put your strongest selling points front and center on the top of the page or even on the main page.

    How You Can Benefit: HELLO! Major selling point alert! If you have something that offers value and separates your product or service from the rest, make sure your visitors know about it.

    And don’t just mention it in passing–put it in plain sight on your main page. These are the types of things that can swing a decision your way instead of your competitors’. So take advantage of it!

    That’s just a few of the suggestions I made. There’s lots more great tips and insights in the article, so make sure you take a look:

    Check out the CNN article here

    In the meantime, give your website the once over this week. Take a closer look at the offers…the copy…the design…the meta tags…anything that could be improved.

    You might be surprised at the money you’re leaving on the table…money that can easily be yours with only a few easy tweaks.

    To Higher Profits,

    Rich

    P.S. What about you? Did you see anything else they could improve on?

    Check out the CNN article here

    Let me know in the comments below. I know all of you have very sharp “marketing radar” and I’d love to see if there was anything I missed.

    So make sure you give it a once over and let me know what you find!

    Check out the CNN article here

    Liked this article? Read another similar article.

    Popularity: 10% [?]

    Related Internet Marketing Posts:

    Tags: , , , , , ,