Last updated on June 28th, 2009
Your site’s conversion rate is defined as the number of people who took an action you wanted them to divided by the total number of people who could have taken that action. Looking at conversion rates this way begins to help you understand how to optimize them.
FutureNow co-founder Brian Eisenberg provides a step-by-step process for optimizing conversion rates for your site.
Step 1 – Understand the “number of people” visiting your site. Different who people visit your site arrived there through a variety of means. They vary by demographic, what stage they are in the buying process. Some get there by simply typing in your URL. Others arrive through a search engine results page or a social media network like Twitter or Facebook.
This is why an average conversion rate is meaningless. There is no average person when we’re talking about search engine optimization and analyzing conversion rates. Calculate the conversion rate for each demographic AND marketing effort you employ to get an accurate figure.
Step 2 – Understand the action you want visitors to take. If you’re in retail, you want them to buy something. If you’re into lead generation, you want them to become a lead. If someone does not buy or doesn’t become a lead, try to understand what may be holding them up. If they’re simply bouncing away, what is causing them to do that?
These different micro- and macro-actions you take have to be analyzed individually to get an accurate conversion rate. Some visitors may not buy or become a lead immediately – they may need more time to build trust that your products/services are what they need.
Step 3 – Understand total number of potential people who could have taken that action. Use the hierarchy of optimization from FutureNow to understand why site visitors did not convert. Did they land on your site by mistake? Did something go wrong when they tried to purchase? Do they not trust you? Did they leave with unanswered questions?
Using the hierarchy system, there are thousands of improvements to choose from. Prioritize these based on the maximum impact you can get for the resources you have.
Optimize conversion rates by first focusing on things that encompass as many as your customer segments as possible. Then, focus on smaller issues to further optimize conversion rates.