You spend money and time getting customers to visit your site.
Too often, they arrive. Can’t find or get what they need, and leave.
Regardless of whether you have an online shop or a non-profit web site, ultimately you will want your visitors to do something. Its time to look at how well your site converts.
What’s a conversion?
At the end of the day a sale is the metric that matters.
However, a sale isn’t made in isolation. There are other actions a customer can perform that are valuable to a business, or represent steps towards a sale often called a conversion funnel. These include: -
- Signups
- Page views
- Video views
- Information requests
- Downloads
- A comment (or interaction)
Customer Journey
Between a customer finding your website and actually buying, there are some significant ‘mini’ conversions that need to be made along the way.Analysing, testing and optimising these smaller conversions is at the heart of conversion optimisation.
How do I improve my website conversion?
Improving website performance is a combination of approaches that are tested over a period of time. Although some changes bring about marked improvement there is no quick fix, its more a process of continual improvement and refinement. The techniques include:-
Measurement
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- Analytics – The first step (if you haven’t already done so) is to make sure analytics is on your web site. You can’t test what you can’t measure. Make sure that it is set up correctly addressing any segmentation you already have in mind.
- Ask people – As simple as it may seem short online questionnaires can glean really usable insights
Testing
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- A/B and Multivariate testing – Offer different landing pages (A/B) test and measure the end result. Try versions of copy, using keyword focussed calls to actions.
Customer Experience
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- Analysing the customer journey (not to be confused with persona development). This process involves measuring the progress of a customer through the site to point of conversion, noting which stages people leave at and what are key triggers for abandonement/advancement to the next stage.
Engaging and Targeted Copy
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- A well thought out approach to content and copy is usually last on the list when businesses build websites. This is a shame as optimising copy and content can really help performance. Copy that engages your audience using trigger key phrases and calls to action are keys to a persuasive web site.
Building a new Website
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- ‘New build v Refurb’ Just like buildings in the real world, a ‘new build’ is often more cost effective than a ‘refurb’. Make sure the new build is based around your customers needs and the results of research, testing and analysis.
Acquisition – ‘Filling up the funnel’
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- The ‘Sales Funnel’. Prospects are poured in at the top and continue through the ‘sales funnel’ until a (smaller) number convert to customers – this is your conversion ratio.
- Journey to the site. Conversion optimisation focusses on what happens once people have found your site. Sometimes the problem is that you aren’t providing your site with enough traffic, or even worse, the wrong type of traffic. For example if you are spending money on a search campaign targetting words like ‘free’ or ‘cheap’ you shouldn’t be surprised if these prospects are harder to convert. If your business goal is to maximise list size for affiliate lead generation revenue then the cheap and free tactic begins to make sense.
