Increase Website Conversions by Stating the Obvious

Published September 8, 2010 by Doug Mansfield

I look at a lot of small business websites that are struggling to generate leads and sales. Sometimes the reasons are clear even to the owner. Other times a website can look good to the eye but perform very poorly.  And by that I mean convert a very low percentage of visitors into clients and customers.

There is one reason for a low conversion rate that makes the top 10 list I want to share. It’s called failure to state the obvious. The people who commit this mistake on their own business website can be very smart and so well versed on what they sell that they can’t see it.

Being Too Smart for Your Own Good

Business owners are experts on what they sell. They live and breathe it each day. Those same owners often make marginal copywriters but great copywriting consultants for their own website. It is often beneficial to have someone not familiar with your business write the content under the guidance of an expert. They are going to ask the obvious questions a visitor would ask. And if you’re assuming your visitors already know that stuff, please reconsider.

"Corian Countertops Installed"

Ah, so it’s like granite counters but more expensive? ~ No, it’s Corian, everyone knows what Corian is, they’re the biggest solid surface company in the WORLD. Everyone shopping for counters knows that. ~ No, everyone who sells counters knows that. State the obvious.

Educating vs. Selling Your Product or Service

The struggle between educating a website visitor and selling them a product or service is exaggerated by attempts at SEO masked as helpful information that interfere with the sales process. You want a page to rank high in search engines so what to do? Fill it up with paragraphs of awkwardly written, repeating text about said product or service of course. Sure, you’d like to just say “We sell red widgets. Buy one now.” followed by brief useful information, but then you wouldn’t be on page one, said the SEO guru or forum post you read.

Or maybe you’re honestly trying to educate the customer but ending up in a similar place. If you must include buckets of text make certain “We sell red widgets” is at the top. Don't make people question the primary purpose of that page. They might arrive at a different answer than you.

You've been there before, looking at webpage displaying what you want, but you can't figure out if they sell it. There are reviews, lots of technical data, pictures, you scan the page on the verge of making a purchase but leave for the next prospect. You didn't see the Place an Order link in the top corner? Their loss I suppose.

If you already know that paid advertising is going to generate the traffic then the job is easy, get to the point and keep it short. If you’re trying to walk that line between selling and SEO then your challenge is far greater. Pull any Joe off the street and ask them to tell you what the purpose of your webpage is in 3 seconds. That’s just a little more time than you really have.