The SES conference covered more than just search (in fact, most of my posts from the conference will cover topics other than search).  Ethan Giffin, CEO of Groove Commerce shared some great tips on optimizing your site to maximize sales.  While these tips were designed for commerce sites they can probably be applied to any site that has a clear objective or call to action for their visitors.  If you have a website read these tips and think about how they apply to what you are trying to achieve.  What is the objective for your site and how does your site design and process enable visitors to achieve this.

1) Design for Success

• Good design is key
• Important for both SEO and conversion
• Follow Web Standards
  • Unique page titles
  • Proper meta tags
  • Headline text in <h> tags aka your product and category names
  • Paragraphs in <p> tags
• Every page is not one size fits all
• Don’t forget the mini cart
• Always be testing….
  • Use the google optimizer for a/b testing

2) Don’t neglect your site search

• Good internal site search is not an option – it is a requirement!  
• Guided navigators
• Refine results
• The no-results page matters – talk about your best sellers!  Try to drive them down a path where you can get them back in to the sales process.

3) Shop with Confidence

Make customers feel confident and secure throughout the sales process.

• Guarantee customer satisfaction
• Inform them of your shipping policies
• Let customers know that their shopping experience will be scure

4) Have a Bullet Proof Checkout

• Typically the #1 way to a big increase in sales
• Show customers their progress
• Eliminate distractions
• Proper Error messages
• Reduce shopping cart abandonment
• Attention to detail

Check out NOW – most important button on your site – it needs to standout.