Conversion rate is the number of people that visit your site and actually do what you want them to.  For example, if you get 1000 visitors on your site each day, and 20 of them purchase your product, your conversion rate is 2%.  As a website owner, knowing your conversion rate is highly helpful.  It helps you to determine the level of trust that your visitors have.  Anything over a 3% conversion rate is considered good, but generally conversion rates range from 1-3%.  Many people overlook their conversion rates because they are concentrating on getting new customers to their site.  It is good to have new visitors, but don’t forget about the ones you already may be getting, or you will be losing more sales.

There are many ways to increase your conversion rate.  As mentioned above, trust seals are a really great tactic to get more sales.  Because you have been verified by a third party, and you have the image posted on your site to prove so, you will gain more trust from the visitors of your site, which in return means more sales, and an increase in your conversion rate.

Another thing to consider for improving your conversion rate is SSL digital certificates. SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, certificates provide encryption for transferring information over the internet.  Having an SSL certificate helps to prevent hackers from stealing private customer information during a transaction.  You must have SSL encryption pages when asking for information such as credit cards or social security numbers.

If you want to increase conversion rates, consider split testing.  Split testing helps you determine the best area on your site to put things.  You can purchase split testing programs that will automatically change content on your site, or that will report the results to you.  It will test to see that your site is set up the best way possible to attract more visitors.

The last thing you should consider to increase conversion rate is that you need to display contact information and a privacy policy.  Customers are more likely to shop on sites that have their contact info and privacy policies displayed, so they know your business is legitimate and safe.

So when looking to improve your conversion rate, consider companies such as McAfee Secure. They can help verify your business and help you to know what things you need to do to be the best online company you can be!

Because there are so many people on the internet all the time there is a lot of private personal information floating around in cyber such as credit card info, names, addresses, etc. Everyone knows that information is out there, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who find a way to get that information and use it for their own personal gain. Those hackers have made it necessary for us to use site security. It’s a pain that we all wish wasn’t necessary, but we need all the protection we can get against these hackers that are too smart for their own good!

If you have an online business, it is not only beneficial for you to have site security to protect yourself and your information, but it is a big plus for your customers as well. When they come to your site and know that you have site security they know that you will also be protecting their personal information. This could make the difference in their decision to buy or not to buy.

It is up to us to take care of our own site security so be sure to do lots of research on the type that you will use. There are many different types of site security out there so be sure to pick the one that will best meet your needs, and in a lot of cases you might want to use more than one type to increase your site security.

Anti-virus Software:  This is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses. Such programs may also prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware. This can be purchased or downloaded via the internet.  Special care should be taken when choosing your anti-virus software, as some programs are not effective as others.

Manage Your Website Over Encrypted Connections: Make it a habit to use proven encrypted protocols like SSH to securely access resources and transmit data. When registering new customers for your site, always use maximum encryption.  You must give your customers a guarantee that you won’t share their data with any third parties.

Verify That Your Website Is  A “Legitimate” Business – Display Trust Marks: Some things that a website should included that show security and trust, are a privacy policy, terms of use, refund policy, testimonials, FAQ/sales support section, digital certificate/data security page, copyright statement on every page, well written “about us” page, and address and phone number contact page.  Also, display trust marks or trust seals on your website showing that the site has been verified by a third party. It is important for your customers to know that your website is legitimate and can be trusted.

Have current vulnerability assessments and PCI scanning performed: You should have your website scanned by an approved scanning vendor at least quarterly, but preferably daily.  This is important to do, so that any vulnerabilities that are found on your website can be corrected quickly and you won’t suffer any security breaches or downtime, which means lost sales.

Be Proactive and Keep Your Website Updated With New and Changing Security Solutions: Even the most well maintained and antivirus solutions packed into a small business website can have a problem or two from time to time.  Protect important information by hosting data backup systems.  Keeping your business website secure requires a certain degree of diligence. You may even want to consider hiring a company to help you.

These are just a few of the most important website security measures to get you started.  There are more you should think about. Some of these tips make seem like commonsense, but you would be surprised at how many small business owners neglect some or all of them, if for no other reason than just because they are so tied up in the other business priorities.  Just remember it is super important.  Hopefully this checklist helps.