Ideas For Your Site
        By Lisa S. Lawless, Holistic Wisdom C.E.O.

For those of you who have or want a web site to promote your holistic products and/or services, there are some things that you need to keep in mind. While a beautiful design may make your site look wonderful, you may be losing potential customers because of it. The task of any expert web designer is to craft a site that is beautiful to the eye, yet downloads quickly. Because most people surfing the web do not have fast connections it is very important to stay away from large picture files that take a long time to download.

If a web page has a lot to download before it is completely able to be viewed, people who come to view your site may become impatient and leave. You have only a few seconds for your home page to quickly download and capture the interest of a potential customer. Your site has to be functional, direct, easy to understand, and should present an image of your business that is professional as well as welcoming.

Also make sure that you clearly outline your products or services on your home page. Too often practitioners bury their valuable services within the site, and a potential client may leave never fully knowing what it is that you offer.

Don't be afraid to tell a potential customer what you can do for them. It is not a "cheesy" sales tactic to want to let potential customers know how beneficial your services can be for them. If you don't tell them, who will? How are they going to know?

In addition, make sure to follow the rule of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). If you overwhelm a potential client with too much information on your home page you will potentially lose them from sheer exhaustion of looking over so much information. Let them know where to find information on your site should they desire to know more. Don't feel you have to cover everything on your home page.

Don't be afraid to use technology such as Flash with moving pictures to remind clients of a good deal, or to join your e-zine (newsletter). Also get a good autoresponder to send out e-zines to your clients. This can be a good way to let your clients get to know you and earn their trust. You have got to let your clients know that you are worthy of doing business with.

Did you know that the average conversion rate of web surfers that visit your site (traffic) and become your customers is 1-2 percent! That is average! So if you get traffic to your site, and you are not selling them the virtues of your services or products within the first few seconds they visit, then you will have forever lost them... unless you have a way to contact them again... such as an e-zine (newsletter), or other sign-up offer that will allow you to have access to their e-mail address.