Internet Marketing

Website conversion rate is a topic that isn’t discussed too often.

That’s why I didn’t hesitate when Michelle Strassburg offered to write a guest post about the issue.
I’ll let her do the talking.
Enjoy!

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Website conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who will take a desired action which will somehow profit your business.

Although the term ‘website conversion rate’ is normally used in relation to e-commerce sites, it also applies to sites making a living from advertising revenue and those living on lead generation.
In fact, most sites I know of have some sort of website conversion matrix.

Here are 7 factors which will influence your website conversion rate and how you can improve each one.

1. Poor navigation
   Making your site easy to navigate includes having navigation elements in commonly accepted locations on the site.

   For example, visitors will look for a search box on the top part of the site, a log in / register option above the fold and contact us in the footer or header.
   Although you might think it’s oke because your design is unique, it might be so unique visitors will struggle finding their way around.
   Use common navigation elements and if you have any doubts, look how the big players the likes of Amazon and eBay address that problem.

2. Limited browser support
   A few years back, most web users used IE, but nowadays visitors use many types of browsers from Firefox to Google Chrome.
   If your site supports only IE for example (I’ve recently came across one – I know, shocking), you’ll be missing out as your website conversion rates will be low.
   To check how well your site is working with various browsers, you can either install a virtual machine or try the free BrowserShots utility.
3. No call to action
   You really don’t want to leave visitors second guessing what’s the site about. Make sure to use a call to action across your entire site, for example ‘add to basket’ or ‘view more’.

   If you are have the resources, try different call to action messages across the store using A/B testing. To further increase your website conversion rate, I’d recommend giving Google Site Optimizer a try as it’s free and altogether easy to set up.

4. Typos and spelling errors
   The two have a profound effect on the site’s credibility.
   While we all make mistakes and typos from time to time, it’s important to iron-out those and run a spell check before committing any content to the live site.
   A useful tip is to encourage visitors to report typos and spelling mistake.
5. Page loading times
   It is crucial to work on the user experience, particularly how quickly the content is fetched. If your site loads too slow, the visitors might go else where.
   To check how quickly your pages are loading, how to fix it and to read up on best practices try the free Page Analyzer utility or if you’re using Firefox, Google has a neat speed test plug in.
6. No trust signals
   Visitors need to feel they can trust the site because they’re going to hand over their confidential information, be it credit card details or even an email address.
   Check that you’ve display information such as your address, phone number, company registration number, about us, privacy policy, terms and conditions, 3rd party accreditation and so on.
7. Few offers
   The idea behind introducing offers as such is to make your offers more appealing to more visitors.
   Customers come in many shapes and forms, some find free delivery offers appealing, some find sale offers appealing and some are looking for added value offers (for example product bundles).

   Put together a yearly offer road map which can include offers such as free delivery, buy 1 get 1 free, cash back, upgraded delivery method, price reduction, end of line, limited stock, discount over certain amount etc and rotate between them so you always have offers.

I hope you found these website conversion rate tips useful.
If you think of any other factors, list them in the comments section.

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Article by Michelle Strassburg, Head of Sales and Marketing at Wood and Beyond, sellers of hardwood flooring and worktops.
Michelle has over 10 years experience managing online marketing and is an active blogger.
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Case here again.
Well, strong website conversion factors I guess.
Any comments or additions? Post them below

This is a post from Affordable Internet Marketing, http://www.affordable-internet-marketing.com by Case Stevens.

7 Crucial Website Conversion Rate Factors

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This entry was posted by Thom on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.