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The winner takes it all: how to survive three
rounds to get the sale
One of the main problems in Internet marketing is that it
is often a "the winner takes it all" game. That
means that the best website will get the deal and all other
websites will get nothing, no matter how good they are.
Suppose someone wants to buy a green widget. He searches
Google, takes a look at the top 10 results and then decides
to buy something on one of the sites. That means that one
site gets the sale and the other sites get nothing.
You can dramatically increase your sales by being just slightly
better
The above has an important implication: you just have to
be slightly better than your competitors to get many more
sales.
If you make the change from being one of the discarded sites
to the site that is chosen by the searcher then your sales
will increase dramatically. You'll make the change from getting
nothing to getting everything.
Three rounds: how to be better than your competitors
Your website has to survive three rounds in the fight for
the customer:
1. Choose the right keywords to survive the first round
Being better than your competitors starts with choosing the
right keywords. If you target keywords that aren't used by
the people who want to buy then you might get a lot of visitors
but no sales.
Your web pages should be optimized for keywords that attract
people who are looking for the products and services that
you sell on your website and who are ready to buy.
IBP's keyword tool can help you to find the best keywords
for your website. Further information on different keyword
types can be found in the IBP manual (PDF).
2. You must be in the top 10 results to survive the second
round
While it is important to target the right keywords, your
website must also be found on the first result page of Google,
Yahoo and Bing to attract customers.
Most people only take a look at the top 10 results on the
first result page. If your website cannot be found on the
first result page for your keywords then potential customers
won't find your website.
Use IBP's Top 10 Optimizer to optimize your website so that
it will be listed on Google's first result page for your keywords.
This is crucial if you want to get the sale.
3. Your website must be convincing
It's not enough to be listed on the first search engine result
page. Your website must also be convincing. It should give
the customer what he is looking for, it should have a professional
design and it should make it as easy as possible to buy.
That is why it is so important to work on improving the conversion
rate of your web pages. By improving your conversion rate,
you can generate more money "out of thin air" from
your existing rankings.
A trustworthy and professional website with a good conversion
rate also has positive side-effects. Your customers probably
will stay longer with your company and people are more likely
to link to your website.
The winner takes it all
It takes some time to optimize your web pages, but it is
worth the effort. Even small changes can have a huge impact
on the number of sales that you get. Make the change from
being one of the discarded sites to the site that gets the
sale and your sales will go through the roof.
Remember that your competitors are also working on their
websites. Even if you are better than your competitors you
have to continue with the optimization to stay ahead.
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