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How to get on the first page of Digg in less than 4 weeks. 
We’ve all been there … when a client thinks they know your job more than you! We’ve experienced clients that argue that he or she want a specific element or application on the site even though your research has proven that it has negatively impacted conversion. The site visitor in this case is the decision maker. Do site visitors decide everything on the site? No, that’s impossible. But if I know the visitor well enough I can determine what will trigger interest, confusion, etc. and make certain to address all the concerns throughout the site.
There are a few key factors that a client must understand if they want to truly create a client-centric, visitor-focused site:
1. You are not the site visitor: Yeah, yeah, you may think you know it all: what works and what doesn’t for your website. But we’ve seen and worked with companies that spent millions of dollars on a platform only to get 1 or 2 conversions a month. Why? Because they never considered the user’s perspective. Like millions of companies out there who are failing online, they have a whole bunch of designers, companies, executives, and engineers building this great ecommerce site; but after the failed launch someone is held accountable and eventually fired. Don’t get to that point. You have to understand that you are not the site visitor. And what may work for you will not work for your client.
2. It’s about satisfying the customer: “the customer is always right,” that’s what any great salesman brands their business with because you can’t make a penny without a buyer. The same thing applies to your site; it has to address and meet the needs of the site visitor so they can get in and get out quickly! Your site must be easy to navigate through, understand the motivations behind your potential customer’s visit, and avoid distracting them from the purchasing process.
3. The power of personas: you need to get to know the customers at a very deep level. Sometimes details that otherwise may seem insignificant can really impact results on your site because they allude to greater personality traits. Personas are hypothetical individuals that represent the various market segments you are targeting.
4. Make certain that you can act upon the information gathered: Heck, information is great, but there is such a thing as too much information. If the information cannot be used to create implementable actions, it’s useless! You want details that truly tell you information about your visitors’ personality traits, their buying triggers, etc. In other words, it has to be relevant information.
But how can you take put into practice what I’ve just said? Well you can ask us for help, or you can simply start by gathering your site visitor’s information through surveys, usability tests, analytics data, etc. Once you have that information you have to sort through and see what data is significant and can be used to improve your site.
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