You’ve read up on web analysis and you’ve tossed around the buzz words: bounce rate and conversion rate. But are you really becoming BFF (best friends forever) with these metrics?
In order to derive the most benefit from your conversion optimization tracking, you’ll need to make friends with these metrics by moving beyond the name-dropping stage and into a deeper, more meaningful relationship.
Testing forms an essential part of your overall landing page optimization strategy, because only through testing can you determine which changes will effectively increase your conversion rate.
But on a website that includes thousands of pages, knowing which pages to test first can be a challenge. Let’s take a look at some analytics that will help you make that important decision.
For many sites, trying to improve the landing page conversion rate is like riding a bicycle with no pedals. You might be able to make the bike move or even attempt to ride it, but that’s not a very efficient way to accomplish anything!
Many online business owners are unaware of “missing pieces” that could really make their conversion rate improve. Let’s take a look at several oft-neglected things that could easily improve your landing page conversion rate.
Your website’s bounce rate is an indicator of how your website impacts viewers at first glance – do they stay or do they go?
If your bounce rate is high, take a closer look at your website design, content, and usability in order to improve your user experience. As you make changes you’ll likely be rewarded with increased conversion rates as well as reduced bounce rates.
Have you taken a good look at your website lately? Not just by uploading new content or adding products. I’m talking about really looking at your layout, navigation, and content as though you had never seen them before.
Increasing your conversion rate requires a pleasing website visitor experience that will easily lend itself to finding information and taking action.
Many online business owners exert lots of energy trying to get more clicks on their websites. They spend time, money, and creative effort learning to attract attention and earn higher search engine rankings in order to increase the number of unique visitors each day.
While these steps can be an important part of your overall marketing strategy, don’t overlook the power of converting more of your present visitors into customers.
Use these four conversion optimization tips to turn your website into a selling powerhouse.
Is your bounce rate too high? Is your conversion rate too low? These are just a few of the website issues that can be solved by not forcing your website’s visitors to think.
The single most important thing to keep in mind when designing a webpage is that your audience is typically in a hurry, busy, and doesn’t have time to think. The more your website requires the visitor to stop and think, the less effective it will be.
Anything that serves as a distraction—this can be difficult navigation, hard-to-spot links, or a confusing search bar—will force your busy audience to think, and to become frustrated. When a visitor is frustrated, they aren’t going to be able to focus on how great your new product is. All that they will be able to concentrate on is their frustration with your website.
The solution is to focus on creating a webpage that will make people feel welcomed and confident. The first step in being able to do that effectively is to observe how people actually use the internet. As a designer, it is easy to get wrapped up in your own artistic conception of the website and forget about the users.
The most basic concern of internet users is speed and efficiency. People don’t want to read long essays, and they don’t want to have to struggle through difficult navigations or obscurely worded links. Rather, they will scan a page and look for keywords relevant to their interests and needs.
If a page does have a lot of text, this will only make the user wary that they might be missing out on something important. Why frustrate your visitors with several long paragraphs when a well crafted sentence or two will accomplish your purpose? Every design choice it needs to be made in the context of what a web user actually wants. They want a website where what to do and how to do it is easy and obvious.
Want to learn more about making your website more useable? Pick up a copy of Steve Krug’s best selling book “Don’t Make Me Think” and join the discussion at our book club Conversations on Website Conversion on GoodReads.com .
The B2B (business-to-business) conversion problem (opportunity) is a bit of a greased pig. The Nielsen Norman Group in their B2B Website Usability book state: “Because B2B sites don’t close sales online, they can turn away the vast majority of users and never know how many sales they’ve lost.” This is the conversion rate improvement opportunity.