5 Simple Ways to Retain Website Visitors

Art — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:37:31 +0000

Whether you’re a seasoned website designer or a novice web developer with the hopes of launching an impressive web presence to make your competition envious, it’s quiet easy to fall into the trap of making careless mistakes that could potentially cost your online business venture loss profits but also your company’s reputation.

Issue #1 – Missing Contact Information

Perhaps one of the most annoying experiences when visiting a website is not being able to locate the relative contact information. Whether an e-mail address, physical address, driving directions or a toll-free telephone number, information should be readily available to share with website visitors. Doing so could potentially mean the difference between a strong sales lead and an actual purchase. Ideally, contact information should be placed above the fold in a conspicuous location with at least three different methods of contacting the company for various inquiries.

Issue #2 – Slow Server Download Time

In today’s fast-paced world – time equals money. Ask anyone viewing a website connecting via a 56k modem that takes longer than 10 seconds to download pages and see exactly how long they will wait around for the rest of the site to download at the speed of molasses.

When developing a website, it’s important to keep in mind that every website visitor may not have access to high-speed Internet connections, therefore, it’s always a good idea to keep graphics and data files small so web pages have the ability to download at a much quicker rate. It’s easy to test the download speed of your website by simply connecting on a 56k modem, and then start your stop watch to determine exactly how long it takes for the entire site to download.

Issue #3 – Usability

Along the lines of efficient webpage download speeds, website visitors also appreciate usability features incorporated into the website. Features such as skip navigation, title bars, site maps, Contact Us page, driving directions, hours of operation, and so on and so forth goes a long way when accommodating an array of needs for various website visitors seeking pertinent information.

Other useful information that you may consider advertising is product or service guarantees, customer support features, and a website privacy policy. Although such usability features may not seem much on the grand scheme of the overall website, however, website visitors are sure to appreciate the extra time and devotion spent addressing their individual needs.

Issue #4 – Requiring Website/Newsletter Subscriptions

As a website owner, keeping track of a subscription base is considered a good way to keep website visitors in the loop as to special promotions, discounts and other exclusive offers. On the other hand, website visitors being prompted to first subscribe to a site or newsletter before actually turning the golden key to access what lies beneath the cyber gates of splendor is a sure bet of turning away the masses of visitors and potential sales leads. Although some website visitors may not mind subscribing to your website, however, the choice should always be left up to the individual as to whether or not they wish to divulge personal contact information. Leave the reigns of control in the hands of the website visitors.

Issue #5 – Hassel-Free Checkout

Just as shoppers in a grocery store expect a quick and speedy checkout when purchasing items, online shoppers don’t expect anything less when making an online purchase transaction. The online storefront should be neat and clutter free, with no more than three or four up-sell items in the attempts of trying to sell a related item a shopper has dropped in the shopping cart. Shoppers shouldn’t be bombarded with non-relevant items or services just in the hopes of making a sale. Additionally, all items and services should be described in great detail along with any money back guarantees, preferred payment methods, shipping and handling charges, sales tax, special promotional discounts, return policies, and any other relevant information beneficial to the customer.

Conclusion

With a little thought and consideration when developing your website, it’s simple to implement strategies to help retain website traffic and keep them coming back to visit often!

Viewing Your Web Stats Through cPanel

Art — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:18:06 +0000

As you probably know, having a website is the best way to establish your presence online. However, though you might hit a few bumps along the way, actually building the site is the easiest part. Generating traffic is an entirely different story. If you are in the midst of promoting, it is crucial to know how many people are visiting your site and where those visitors are coming from. Because traffic is so critical to your longevity, analyzing website statistics should be a practice you incorporate into your regular routine. This will help you better determine the popularity of your site, figure out what search engine visitors they are coming from and much more.

cPanel’s Website Analyzation Tools

There are a number of programs that will allow you to view and analyze your website statistics. Believe it or not, some of the best tools are included free in many of today’s web hosting packages. You are sure to find a nice blend of applications in any hosting plan that offers cPanel, the most popular control panel on the market. cPanel generally offers these three web stat programs: Analog, AwStats and Webalizer. While they all help you analyze web traffic, each has its own unique features and capabilities. Best of all, each application is incredibly easy to use and provide in-depth insight on your statistics.

Webalizer

The Webalizer program delivers your site stats in comprehensive graphical form. It shows you information on the people that visited your site on a month by month format. Though very useful, these are basic statistics and just a quick way to analyze web traffic. If you want more detailed information on your visitors, utilizing the other statistical programs is highly recommended.

Analog

Both Analog and Awstats offer different presentations than Webalizer. Many view Analog as the more complex of all three, mainly because it is a text-based solution that requires you to visually process a considerable amount of data. Analog provides a lot of information about your site so on first glance, it can be a little intimidating. On the other hand, this application provides essential details about your visitors. More than likely, the stats that could help you the most can be found with Analog.

Awstats

Awstats is perhaps the most popular and user-friendly of the web stat applications in cPanel. This program gives you tons of information about your visitors, such as where they originated from in host terms and country, the amount of time they spend on your site, what browser they used and other important details. You can also learn how many hits your pages received, how many times your files were accessed and much more. Although it may take a couple of minutes to get familiar with the interface, finding the information is made easier by the colorful graphics and simplistic layout.

cPanel has many great qualities and this suite of web stat programs is just one of many. By utilizing the applications mentioned in this article, you can gather valuable insight about your promotion tactics, and find out what is and what is not working. When it comes to gauging site traffic, cPanel is an extremely valuable tool.

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5 Simple Ways to Retain Website Visitors

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Viewing Your Web Stats Through cPanel

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