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#5.17: The “What You Don’t Need” Issue

Simplify everything for increased sales. Lose the excess baggage that weighs down your business.

1> Google Keeps It Clean
2> Too Many Answers To A Simple Question
3> Lose The Links
4> Check It Out: “Call To Action”

1> Google Keeps It Clean

Did you ever think how amazing it is that Google has kept their home page clean and simple all these years? They’ve built an empire around resisting pressure to clutter up the page. Why does it work? Because the simple page draws immediate attention to where they want you. Everyone notices, immediately, the rare occasions when they add a new link. Which makes each new product launch a big hit. Everyone is overloaded with clutter. When you strip the distractions, you get customers to focus. And it’s not a fluke for Google — their text-only AdWords ads on other sites frequently beat the competing ultra-fancy animated banners.

The Lesson: Get rid of the distractions to drive customers to where you want them.

2> Too Many Answers To A Simple Question

Jewelry site Ice.com learned an interesting lesson when they started testing the search feature on their web sites. Get this: Customer actually buy MORE when they are shown FEWER options after a search. Ice.com realized that they could close significantly more sales by focusing on a few simple suggestions. Results were even better when they highlighted the most popular product and gave it a double-size listing. It makes perfect sense — when we search, we’re often looking for recommendations instead of more options. Give the seeker too much, and they freeze up. Give them strong suggestions, and they move to a purchase.

The Lesson: Start thinking of your site search tool as an answer-finder and product-recommender.

3> Lose The Links

You’ve probably got too many choices on your web site. Extra links don’t always help. Instead, they may be taking people away from your primary sales goal. Start looking at your site traffic patterns. It’s more than just which links get clicked on. It’s the links that drive people where you want them — to information that leads to purchases. Don’t get fooled by your web site statistics — a popular link isn’t necessarily a good one. Are people leaving the shopping cart because you’ve made an unrelated offer during checkout? Do you have a link that everyone clicks — but doesn’t turn into a sale? Strip out all unrelated links.

The Lesson: Focus your visitors — get rid of links that distract and divert.

4> Check It Out: “Call To Action”

Creating a simple web site that closes sales isn’t easy. Check out the new book from the masters at FutureNow. They’ll help you keep it clean and focused.

Check it out here

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