Have you ever looked to see which search terms your visitors are using whilst on your site?

Using Google Analytics can ensure that you know what people are looking for whilst on your site.

Perhaps you sell a product or brand that is hard to spell, or is know by what it does as well as a specific brand or model. Think about generic terms, such as Hoover, Sellotape, Post It Notes, Kleenex, Band Aid and the many others.

What about sizes, quantities or colours? What about model names, or equivalents?

Ensuring that you know what your visitors are looking for will help you to have the right products or information available, and how else you can meet the needs of your target audience.

Depending on how popular your website is, its purpose, and how well your site is designed and built, you might be spending a fortunte on hosting.

If you are, it might be worth seeing how you can reduce the amount of bandwidth used.

Here’s what you can do:

• Are you using huge images and then resizing them?
• Have you got your CSS rules in your html pages?
• Have you got your Javascript in your html pages
• Are you still using tables for the layout of your website?
• Have you got too much content on each page?
• Have you got videos loading on your homepage?
• Have you got a Flash welcome screen movie?
• Is your site, or a particluar page  likely to become popular suddenly, or benefit from the “Digg” effect?
• Is your site seasonal, or likely to be busy on certain days of the year, or at holiday times?

By thinking ahead, and opimising your code and making your sites quick to load and easy to use, you’ll find that the amount of bandwidth used can be dramatically reduced.  Yhis means that as well as providing your visitors  with a better experience, and a more efficient way of finding what they want, your hosting costs will be less too.

If you’re an ecommerce site, you’ll need to make sure that you’re using the most appropriate hosting package. You won’t be able to afford the loss of business if your site goes down for a couple of days.

If you’re expecting lots of traffic on your website, perhaps you’re a news or fan website, or a technology site that reviews the latest gadgets, or a social networking site, or a company that’s in the news, you’ll need to make sure that your site can handle the traffic.  You won’t want visitors and potential customers or clients to get the wrong impression of your company.

It really does make sense to get the best hosting.  If you’re not sure what you need, or what it all means, then ring up the hosting company and talk to someone.

Why not take five minutes and make sure that your hosting package, and pricing structure is right for your visitors?  You’ll find all the visitor and page view information you need in Google Analytics.

The well known car lover and presenter Jeremy Clarkson once went to a boat show in order to buy a boat.  He was bombarded with information,  specifications and prices, as well as pushy sales people trying to impress.

He commented that it must be how people who aren’t “into” cars feel when they go to buy a car.

I was thinking, that it could apply to websites too.  If you’re wondering how visitors feel when they’re trying to buy from your site, why not try buying products or services that you know nothing about from a site that you find in the search engine results.

For example:

If you sell cars, why not try buying a boat or a caravan?

If you sell clothes, why not try buying sports equipment?

If you sell insurance, then choose an architect, or a solicitor

If you sell computers, why not buy a bike, or fishing tackle.

By having to choose something that you know nothing about, you”ll have to do some research, and ask around, in the same way that your potential customers do.  You’ll be finding that every other word is jargon, and you’re expected to know what it means.  You might not know the difference between 2 fishing rods, or what size frame your bike should be, or whether your can tow the caravan you’re interested in.

You’ll be able to learn lots from this sort of activity, and  make your site easier to use, and more approachable for people who don’t know what they want, or how to choose what they want.

If you find looking for fishing tackle hard, and there are lots of options, and essential accessories you need, and brands to choose from, as well as fishing bags, reels, bait and waders, how do think a first time computer buyer feels when looking on your website?  Not everyone knows about hard drives, broadband, RAM, graphics cards and so on.  People don’t want to buy a laptop, they want to be able to use websites.  They’re  probably not bothered about bus speeds, they want to know if there’s a web camera, or how easy it is to install a printer, and how many songs or videos the computer can hold.

If you find a fishing tackle site, with a “rod finder” guide, that asks lots of questions about what you’re fishing for, where you’re fishing, and how much you want to spend, you’re much more likely to be able to find your perfect fishing rod.

If you stumble across a website for a firm of solicitors that puts you at ease, then how could you make your insurance, or financial advice site as easy to use and reassuring?

What aspects of the various sites you look at could you use? What made you click on them in the first place? Did  you just look at sites or brands you already knew? Were the results what you expected?

What aspects of customer service, or the delivery details did you like? How much attention did you pay to the About Us or Mission Statement pages, and why?  What affect did the colours or fonts have on you.  What about navigation? What about the tone of the copy? What about images and  logos? Would having videos describing how to use your products, or what to look for when buying your products be beneficial to your customers? Would your customers benefit from being able to discuss their purchases or hobbies with a forum?

There are many things that you can take from this sort of activity, and by seeing things from your potential visitors and customers point of view, and understanding that not everyone shares your passion for power drills, or is as keen on koi carp as you are, you’ll be able to make your website easier to use, and the  buying experience much better.

Why not give it a try?

Your product images and descriptions are really important on your ecommerce site, so it’s essential that they are compelling and include plenty of calls to action.

Why not make sure that your potential customer know as much about the product as possible?

It’s a good idea to put the product or the price in context.  By showing the product being used, or explaining the features and benefits,  you’re more able to convince cisitors to become customers.

Remember, nobody wants to buy a drill, they want to make a hole.  You don’t  want a £200,00 debt for 25 years,  you want a  nice house for you and your family.

What about showing your patio furniture in a garden on a summer’s day, rather than just on a white background? What about saying that your life or car insurance costs less than a cup of coffee a day, orare less than the cost of a daily newspaper.

Instead of showing a TV, and mentioning it’s technical specification, why not explain that pictures are clearer, meaning programmes are more entertaining, and that wildlife and animal are almost lifelike?

Instead of showing a pair of jeans or shoes, why not show complete outfits, or somebody wearing the clothes, so that potential customers can see what they look like.  It’s also a fantastic opportunity to cross sell products,  and encourage visitors to explore more of your site.

in the same way that some shops will show related products that go together, such as all the camping equipment you’d need , rather than just a tent or a pair of hiking boots, why not see how how you can create environments, or scenes, such as the kitchem, the bedroom, the dining room, the garden, the night out, the wedding, the office  and what ever else will be relevant to you.

As life insurance salespeople might use techniques such as mentioning your family members when explaining policies, why not see how you can use scenes and paly on emotions to make your products more desirable?

If you’re using relying heavily on images on your website, then it’s essential that you use them well so that your visitors can easily see them, and understand their purpose and relevance.

If you’re selling products, then the product image is just as important as the description, specification and price.  You’ll want to make sure that your images are clear, big enough, and relevant.

No matter what sort of site you are, any products that don’t have images, but have an “image coming soon” message instantly reduce the credibility of your website.  Why haven”t you got an image? If you haven’t got an image from the manufacturer, why not create your own image? Surely you can take a photograph, and amend it as necessary, at least until you can get an official image.

For each and every site, especially those selling clothes, or jewellery, you’ll need your thumbnail product images to link to much larger images, so that visitors can see what the product looks like, and can then decide whether or not to make a purchase.  If you have a link that says that it goes to a larger image, then why would you use the same small image on a new page?  A larger image should be just that.

Images need to be in focus, and clear.  If there is any text or specific design, such as a slogan on a T shirt, or feature on the product, it’s important that his can be seen.  Why not have a separate image of the slogan,  so that it can be read.  Why not have the ability to zoom in, or rotate products to make them more attractive to your visitors?

However, too many images or  products on a page, will be off putting, and instead of visitors exploring more, they probably won’t explore much at all.

How could you make your images better for your visitors? Why not see which ecommerce sites images you like? Why do you like them? Which sites would you, and wouldn’t you buy, from based on their imagery?

Remember, your website is helping visitors find what they are looking for,  they won’t want to spend time having to look for product details.  They won’t be impressed with your clever carousel, or lightbox method of showing images, if the images on your website are poor quality and don’t show what they want to see.