Online merchants should have been carefully monitoring their website’s traffic, since the last Holiday Season.
“Web traffic” is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages visited. Web masters and SEO officers monitor incoming and outgoing traffic, to determine which portions of the web site are most popular; and if there are any visible trends. The data collected can reveal a specific page or product that is viewed most often; by people in a particular geographical area or other such demographic.

SEO for Small Business provides valuable information, that allows you to:

1) structure your website,
2) adjust your marketing campaign,
3) target motivated consumers and
4) encourage conversions.

Consistent monitoring is necessary when identifying your potential customer and further addressing important marketing issues, such as; Merchandising, Tools, Visuals, Guided Navigation and Customer Engagement.

Visit your own website and appraise the perceived value to the consumer; based on these “six (6) benchmarks of functionality”.

Merchandising: The most popular items should be clearly visible when consumers enter a page.

Tools: The checkout process needs to be effortless and without distraction. A consumer should never be shown a similar product or service that may cause them to question their original decision to purchase. Under no circumstances should visitors be given a link or similar opportunity to leave the checkout process. If you provide a Search option on your website, ensure that it is properly set-up and displays reliable and prudent results. A discouraged consumer will leave immediately; and likely not return.

Visuals: Make certain that your website has a professional design. PLEASE do not use blinking text, funny animations or flashy banners. These are distractive and often offensive to consumers. Again, they will likely leave and never return.

Guided Navigation: The fewer choices the better. Simplicity is the desire of most Internet consumers. To facilitate this, I would recommend incorporating a well-developed Search feature into your website. If that isn’t an option, consider a handful of top level categories, leading to a few sub-categories; to assist visitors in refining their search. Too many initial choices will overwhelm your consumer.

Customer Engagement: In the first paragraph of your Home page, you should include who you are and what benefits the consumer can expect. Furthermore, you need to clearly display links to your About, Contact, Privacy Policy and Refund Policy pages. If you have Testimonials, I would highly recommend displaying a link to that page as well. When addressing your “word of mouth” campaign, Social marketing needs to play a prominent role. “My-Face” provides an ideal forum to share discounts, coupons, product reviews, current news and testimonials. Furthermore, by encouraging visitors to “add (you) as a friend” for example, you are provided with a unique opportunity to stay in contact with your clients and customers; on a more permanent and regular basis.

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