Focus, Focus, Focus

Does your site resemble an online flea market?

Anytime you decide to go shopping for a specific item, do you head to the nearest flea market?

Do you stroll among the hundreds of booths selling this trinket or that, trying to find the specific item that you have in mind.

Odds are, the answer is no.

When you are in a buying frame of mind, you have a specific idea of what you are looking to buy.

You may not know the exact make or model but you have a general idea of what you want.

You are likely to head to a store that specializes in that particular product. At the very least have a store with a clearly define area or department where you can shop.

That same experience is carried over to people shopping online.

Confusion = No Sale

Unfortunately some people are so eager to have profits, that they post a flea market version of their site online. These sites are easily recognizable by the many affiliate products that they are trying to promote to visitors.

People arrive on the page and they don't know what it is that they should be looking at.

Always remember this: a confused mind will always say no.

Since you only have a few short seconds to capture their attention, then focus on doing just that. Capture their attention.

Tell them up front what that page has that will be of interest to them. Skip any "Me, Our, Us" talk and focus on the "here's why you should pay attention" headlines.

If you have a lot of information to give, no problem. Make sure it is well organized into various separate departments on your site.

Each page should be focused on one specific topic, not a collection of everything you have to offer.

More Focus

What you should focus on...

Here is a fantastic thing to keep in mind with each page on your site:

What is THE one thing that I want people to do when they land on this page? Do you want to catch their interest? Then do so. Do you want to get a sale from them?

Then focus the page on doing that.

Try to sell everything and you end up selling nothing.

Know ahead of time what you want each page to do, and then work towards making that happen.

How I Apply It

I will use this site as an example.

Although it contains a lot of information, I take effort to keep things as focused as possible. Here's how:

• On the main page of the site, I am focused on getting the attention of prospective members. I intentionally put some of my top interest topics on the main page (in the featured articles clump). Anyone clicking on any of the articles is brought to the next step...
• The "barrier" page. The login page reinforces that the information is available to them. They simply need to log in or sign up. They can see all of the benefits of doing just that.
• The "sales" page of the site is www.smallbusinesswebsite.com/public/10.cfm - That is where I send my ppc and online ad traffic. Why not send them to the home page? Because I want to get right to the point about my site. If they landed on the main page from a ppc ad, they may become confused. Instead they land on a page which is very similar in nature to what they were searching for.

The effect of all of this focusing can be pretty substantial.

You will be able to see which pages are working for you and which ones need work. They can't help but become more effective overall.

Focus... and then profit.