Have you ever gone to a website, looked around at it and thought you were a kid in a candy store? This is all too often the case when you visit a website. You are not really sure whether you should sign up for their membership, visit other linked pages on the site that are beckoning, or take the opportunity to look around more. You may even be tempted to visit another site that catches your eye, off in the corner in the form of a Google AdSense ad.

Whatever the case, it is as simple as this, from a visitor’s point of view, they don’t like too many options. If you provide your visitors with too many choices and too much to consider, they will become confused and are likely not to make any decision at all. Even worse still, they will most probably leave your site, leaving you without taking any action such as a sale, subscriber or a request for further information.

Webmasters take heed...

From the perspective of a Webmaster, consider for a moment that each page on your website needs a purpose, unless of course, you want your website looking like a dogs breakfast. Each page should be dedicated to one particular thing. For instance, if you have a landing page for potential customers or subscribers, the trick is just to have that. A clean-cut page that the visitor can see is only meant for one thing that may be a newsletter sign up, to enter you email address or buy a product or service.

The same thing is needed for a sales page. Keep in mind that you have drawn a potential customer to your sales page with only one thing in mind, to make a purchase. If you offer the potential customer a myriad of options along the way, they will soon become disorientated and wonder if they really do need what you are offering them. Maybe they will wonder to themselves whether some other link you have added to your sales page may be what they are searching for.

It is very clear that, by adding a host of other links and options to your web pages, it is likely that you will lose the visitor to something else that catches their eye. Once a visitor has left your landing page or sales page, chances are, if you haven’t already got their details, you won’t ever see them again.

The mistake of many webmasters is that they make their websites like a leaky bucket. They have holes all over the place where precious, targeted traffic can seep out without leaving them with anything for their troubles - no sale, no email