1. Your perceptions are different from those of your customer's about your site's appearance and their experiences. First-timers will trust your business and your website conversion rate will increase if they see a real company on your website, toll free numbers, a physical address, photos,, logos of VeriSign, Thawte, PayPal or ScanAlert etc. You should also consider using a secure site if you sell products for protection of your customers' private information. Allow customers to print a copy of invoices as proof of sale.

2. Not all customers are Internet savvy nor are they aware of your products. In order to increase your website conversion rate, you need to keep things simple. Add FAQs and "buy now" buttons. Try placing the "buy now" buttons inside colored tables. Replace paragraphs with bulleted points for features/benefits of purchasing your products/services. Removing multiple steps from the shopping cart and checkout process will assist in ease of buying and will definitely help increase your website conversion rate dramatically.

3. Your best defense against shopping cart abandonment is to convince them to buy before they get into the process. Your website conversion rate will increase if you pre-sell your product emphasizing good quality, using clear language, explain benefits using bullet points, etc. Give the cost upfront with clarity, including any bonuses that you are offering.

4. Inundating products page bores your customers. Selling too much of too many things in a page confuses them. To increase your website conversion rate, you must make your product pages clear and simple.

5. Poor site performance is deadly! You will never see an increase in your website conversion rate if you don't keep all links working. Proofread pages at least three times. Good fonts/sizes, short page lengths and easy navigation and menus really impress customers and make it easy for them to buy. Refrain from using pop-up gimmicks, as these really tend to annoy customers, especially first-time visitors to your site.

6. Keep contact forms short and simple. More than 2 pages drives customers crazy. There is no need to have them longer than one page anyway.

7. Thank customers for their purchases by email. Use this opportunity to increase your website conversion rate and to sell more products. (This works depending on several factors.) Don't forget - once a customer, always a customer, unless your site is unreliable.

8. How about adding a caption like "most popular product" with genuine statistics? Using testimonials from real people with addresses or telephone numbers is key in helping to increase your website conversion rate. List your important customers prominently.