Selling online can be tricky. You're not afforded the same opportunities to explain the features and benefits of your products or answer questions potential customers have like you'd be able to in the offline world. If you provide too little information on webpages about your product your offering can seem vague and lack credibility. On the other hand if you provide too much information you risk making the buying process overly complex and confusing. Anything that could potentially impede your prospects from completing a purchase with your company should be considered friction. Here are 5 ways you can remove friction from the buying process and increase conversion rates.

1. Don't focus on security. 

Security is important to your website and it's also important to your clients but when additional security measures interfere with the buying process customers get frustrated and conversion rates suffer. While it's a good idea to use secure technologies like SSL to process customer transactions things like CAPTCHA may be running away droves of legitimate customers. CAPTCHA are those funny looking letter codes you're asked to type into a field in order verify you're human.

2. Limit the number of options. 

Too many options can overwhelm would be customers. The more options you add to your sales process the more questions are likely to arise in your prospect's mind. Try to limit  your offerings to be centered around only the most popular and necessary options. If you have a phone number you may be able to get away with a little bit more simply because many potential customers will call and ask questions. Keep in mind however the internet is open 24 hours a day, so unless you're prepared to spring for a 24 hour a day call center it's probably best to simplify the offers on your website.

3. Keep pages loading fast. 

One of the biggest causes of friction in the sales process is simply slow loading pages. Slow loading pages are annoying to your site visitors. In a world where there are likely hundreds of other websites selling the same thing you have to get them where they want to go quickly. You can ensure your pages are loading fast by limiting the number and size of images on the page. If you're using other technologies like flash you should remove them completely.

4. Have a clear call to action on each page. 

A "call-to-action"  is the thing you want your prospect to do next on each page. This can be a button, a phone number, a form, whatever you want your site visitor to do next. The call-to-action should be the most obvious thing in each step of the sales process. Be sure it's easily readable. If it's a button or a form it should be a bright color or highlighted.

5. Take as many forms of payment as possible. 

A lot of small businesses think accepting Paypal for their online transactions is enough. However many online shoppers view merchants who take only Paypal as being small time, risky, or unprofessional. Having a traditional merchant account and accepting all the major credit cards is a must. Be sure to accept at minimum Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. If you're able to accept others like Google Checkout or Amazon those are a plus.

By ensuring your sales process is fast, simple, and requires as few decisions as possible you're bound to see more people opening their wallets and doing business with your website. If you haven't already created a website you can sign up to create a free website at WebStarts.com