What Exactly Is a Website Conversion or a Website Conversion Rate?
Let’s first get some definitions out of the way. A
website conversion can be defined as a website visitor performing a desired
action. Now, conversion rate, per se, is the percentage of visitors who take such
a desired action. For purposes of this article I will designate two distinct
types of website conversions. Level one conversions or “revenue conversions”
and level two conversions or “rain check conversions.” Revenue conversions are
actions that are designated as the final goal of the website creators. Revenue
conversions turn visitors into clients or customers. Rain check conversions, on
the other hand, are actions that are used to facilitate a revenue conversion
sometime in the future. A revenue conversion in its most common form is known
as a simple sale that translates into an online transaction. Familiar rain check conversions include newsletter
opt-ins, form submissions, membership sign-ups, catalog requests, e-mails to
customer service, or a call to your awaiting sales department. If nurtured
correctly these rain check conversions germinate into full fledge revenue
conversions at a later date.
Understanding Your Business and Optimal Visitor Actions
Clearly defining goals for your business is not enough to beat your evolving
online competition. You must have clear objectives and an understanding of your
customer for your internet presence to work for you effectively. Before hiring
a web designer or database programmer to build your site, you must have a solid
comprehension of what it is you want your website to do. More precisely, you
must have an understanding of what you want your visitors to do within your
site. Is your product too complex to offer a real-time e-commerce solution? If
so, a phone call might be a better desired action. Are your products too
inexpensive to warrant paying for a customer service department? If so,
e-commerce may be the better choice. Are you receiving dozens of unqualified phone
calls on your voicemail system? You might consider creating a form that both
filters and qualifies potential customers. Are your buyers educated enough to
fully understand what your service provides? A prominent phone number might
help to attract clients to engage you over the phone. Is your target customer executive MBA students
from The Wharton School of business? If so, you might want to write copy that
speaks their language.
Off-Site Conversion Factors
The most common error in conversion analysis is
neglecting factors not contained within the framework of your existing website.
Off-site elements affect the quality of the traffic entering your website. All
things held equal, a high quality visitor converts at a higher frequency than a
low quality visitor. It is commonly held that surfers originating from a Google
search are considered a higher quality visitor than your average web surfer. An
individual clicking on an organic or natural search engine listing is also
considered a higher quality visitor than one who clicks on a pay per click
advertisement. A “direct access” visitor, one who simply types in your company
url as the first step in the conversion process, or a returning visitor,
typically also is considered a higher quality visitor. If someone knows you by
name or actively decides to come back for a second visit, the odds of a desired
action increase. To the contrary, visitors arriving to your site from affiliate
programs, banner advertisements, e-mail campaigns, or blogs, are usually considered
lower quality visitors as their actions are less reliable.
On-Site Conversion Factors
Usability is the term used to define the efficiency of a user interface.
Websites are a form of interface where human beings interact with a host
computer housing a particular website.
Usability is important for us because it impacts conversion rate. Your
website must be efficient. Visitors must be able to perform their tasks
quickly. Long forms, excessive steps in an e-commerce order process, complex account
creating protocol, or an extended webpage load time can bottleneck a visitor’s
desired action. The action must also be easily understood the first time the
visitor enters the website. You’ve got one chance and a brief stint of time to
teach your visitors and limit frustration before they move to the next site. If
you do happen to get a return visitor, can they remember how to navigate the
site the second time around? Your interface must therefore be memorable.
Lastly, are you leaving your visitors satisfied? Does the color scheme, text
font, or images in relation to website content leave your eyes hurting? A
visually unappealing site can and will lead to a mass exodus of potential
conversions.
Trust Us- Won’t You?
Trustworthiness is also a significant on-site factor leading to higher
conversions. What however, comprises a trustworthy website? Clearly defined
privacy policies, frequently asked questions, shipping instructions, order
protocol, and prominently displayed terms of use can be a means to that end.
Industry affiliations, awards, or memberships also give the visitor reason to
believe they are doing business with a reliable corporation. Eliminating broken
links, misspellings, broken images, coding or design errors can also serve to minimize
visitor skepticism.
Persuasive Website Writing
Individuals tend to read newspapers, magazines, or books, while internet users
scan web page content. They scan to grasp bits of information and quickly move
on from page to page, topic to topic. Quick and efficient delivery of your
message is a necessity to improve the stickiness of any website. Headlines
should be used frequently with crisp, eye-catching, and prominent wording to
give your web surfers the main idea and objective promptly. Your core topic
areas should be displayed above the secondary or tertiary subject matter. The
flow of content within a website’s inner pages should be intuitive and easily
accessible. Websites that are content rich should have pages that are easily
downloadable in pdf format or offer printable versions. Fonts, colors, and
themes should be consistent throughout the website. Examples of fonts that are
easiest to read are Verdana and Arial, while Times New Roman tends to be the most
difficult.
Calls To Action
A call to action in a website sense refers to the active copy that
compels or persuades a user to take action. This call to action can lead to
either a revenue conversion or a rain check conversion. The key to calls to
action are treading the line between pushing and persuading. A prominent “Act
Now!” button might be too openly aggressive for the average web
surfer’s taste, while an indiscreet “click here” might be too gentle to nudge
your visitor towards the desired destination. A happy medium typically yields
the most favorable results. Subtly pulling your visitors to your end goal is
more effective than attempting to bully them around. After all, they decide
what, where, and when they click on any given link to a deeper page within your
site. Descriptive text links can and should be used at the end of every text
paragraph to help persuade a visitor to make the desired move. The clearer the
description within the link, the easier it is for the surfer to make up his or
her mind.
When In Doubt- Test, Track, and Analyze
Having the ability to track your website visitors in real-time is
essential in understanding what your website is doing right and what your
website is doing wrong. Click path analysis, or exposing the travel patterns of
your visitors as they click from one page to another is critical. Uncovering
the common pages that visitors are leaving from will offer clues as to where
your potential conversions are escaping. When testing different pages it is however,
vital that you drive enough traffic to the site in order to make a sound
decision on what works and what doesn’t. Don’t be tempted to jump the gun by
changing a particular page that only received half a dozen hits or unique
visitors. See how the pages perform over a longer period of time to ensure you
have a critical mass of data to analyze.
Conversion Rates Still Got You Down?