Going back to 1993, when I first started building websites, I knew nothing about
Internet marketing. I was a graphic and layout guy. I was not an expert on marketing online. The websites that I built had the usual left sidebar with links and a header across the top. In many instances I would make two sidebars filled with hyperlinks, one on the left side and one on the right side with content in the middle.
One day I received an email from a business owner who had paid me $650 to make a beautiful looking website:
"Dear Lance,
Your website design looks fantastic but a strange happened after I put it up. My sales dropped by 20%. I don't understand it. My website looks so much better than it use to. Why are people no longer buying my products?"
I was totally mortified. The issue was the number of links on the website. I had taken areas that were blank and replaced them with all the hyperlinks that my client wanted. We added links like: About Us, Awards, Books, Magazines, Press Release, and so on.
I put the old website back up and sales, quickly, improved.
KISS (Keep It Super Simple)
The lesson I learned in website design is to keep it super simple. Visitors to the website had too many options presented to them which is another way of saying the website had no focus. There was no instruction on what we wanted prospects to do. In 1993, we did not even know the single action we wanted visitors to take, other than to add items to a shopping cart. The web logs showed that very few people even visited the new links we added.
Marketing taught me that people do not care about your company. They don't care to know more about you or to look at all your awards. The only thing that your visitor wants to know is if your product will meet her need and how much does it cost. It is as straightforward as that.
Most companies make the mistake of hiring a web designer to make their web site. The end result is an artsy website, that can't convert prospects into customers.
You have about 7 seconds to grab your prospects attention. If your prospect is befuddled by 6, 14, or 20 various options, she will simply click the back button on her browser and pick the next site listed in Google. If she has so many links to choose from that she can not find what he wants quickly, she will click the back button on her browser and pick the next site listed in Google.
A focused, attention getting headline with well written sales copy, and a single call to action that you want her to take, beats layout and design when it comes to converting prospects into paying customers.
You must use the precious seconds you have to grab your prospect's attention and present them with only one option, the ONE option that you want them to take.
By Lance Jepsen author of
Internet Marketing: Profits That Lie Hidden In Your Website - How To Triple Your Web Sales In 25 Days
