6 Ways To Turn More Of Your Website Visitors Into Pet Sitting Clients

All too often, a pet sitter will build a website then sit back and hope for the best. Without taking an active role in your visitor activity, you may be missing out on new pet sitting clients.

First, define what the goal of your website is. In order to create a successful website, you’ll need to dig deeper than “To get more clients.”

You need to ask yourself this question: “What exactly do I want each visitor to do before leaving my pet sitting website?”

Some logical answers may be:

• To fill out my form
• To send me an email
• To contact me by phone

Once you have your answer, you’ll want to re-analyze your pages to be sure you are making it quite easy for your visitors to take that action.

The percentage of visitors who complete your website goal is called your conversion rate. To grow your pet sitting business, you’ll need to increase your conversion rate.

Getting your website just right and optimized for the best keywords is great. Now you need to make sure you are converting a portion of your site visitors into pet sitting clients.

Below are 6 quick and simple ways to increase your conversion rate, achieve your goals, and gain more pet sitting clients

When possible, resources that offer a free version were listed.

1) Monitor Your Stats
In order to know how well your website is doing in the first place, it would make sense to know how many visitors your site receives on a daily basis. Install a good free stat program and keep an eye on bounce rate.

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors landing on your site without going past the first page. If your bounce rate is 50%, for example, then half of your visitors are leaving after only reading your home page.

You’ll also want to keep an eye on ‘time spent on site’ to get a general idea of how interested your site visitors are with your content.

Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html
GetClicky http://getclicky.com/
Woopra http://www.woopra.com

2) Call To Action
A call to action is marketing lingo for the request you ask of your visitor to take further action. Most typically seen in commercials as “Call Now” or on websites as “Add To Cart,” your call to action needs to be specific and obvious.

This goes back to your website goal we touched upon earlier. Does your website have a clear call to action. In other words, once a visitor arrives at your site and decides you are the perfect solution, is it obvious what she should do next?

Make sure every page has a solid call to action. Try listing your phone number and email address on every single page, not only on a contact page. Try a call to action in the form of “Call me now to set up a free in-home consultation!” or “Fill out my brief questionnaire to get the ball rolling.”

3) Clearly Identify Your Service Area
This may sound obvious but I’m amazed at the number of pet sitting sites I come across that make it difficult to find out what neighborhood, zip code, town, city or state they service.

Do not assume that all your visitors will instantly know who you are or where you pet sit. Listing something as vague as, “Serving Hamilton County” can be equally as frustrating for your site visitors.

Identify your service area as specifically as possible by adding a zip code or state.

4) Offer Live Chat
In today’s fast-paced world, being able to actively engage your website visitors could lead to gaining more clients. Answering a question or two they may have while on your site could be the competitive advantage you need.

Plus, there’s no reason not to grab your visitor’s attention with a ‘Chat with me live’ button. When you are at home in front of your computer, put on your client services hat and answer any questions your visitors may have in the moment.

Volusion http://www.volusion.com/livechat_software.asp
Provide Chat http://www.providechat.com/
ETalk Up http://www.etalkup.com/

5) Client Surveys
Who else better to ask what you did right than your current clients. Set up an easy to use survey to discover exactly what about you and your business they liked, didn’t like and think needs improvement.

You will learn miles more by hearing ways to improve than being pat on the back so appreciate any and all feedback you receive. Ask clients to take a few moments and answer a few questions that will help you improve the service you provide.

You may want to offer a free visit to a randomly selected participant to help elicit user feedback.

Poll Daddy http://www.polldaddy.com/
Question Pro http://www.questionpro.com/
Survey Monkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/

6) User Testing
Want to see exactly what each visitor is literally doing from the moment they enter your site to the time they leave? Yep, it’s absolutely possible. Also called usability testing, you can place a small piece of code on your website and each visitor’s session will be recorded for you to playback and watch.

This may very well be one of the most eye-opening (and outright cool) tools you can use.

User Fly http://userfly.com/
User Testing http://www.usertesting.com/
Feedback Army http://www.feedbackarmy.com/