Conversions 101
Today we will introduce you to the topic of conversions. Conversions are the standard on how a website’s success is measured. SEO and internet marketing firms use this result to determine how well an internet marketing campaign is working. A conversion occurs when your website gets a visitor to take an action that you want them to take. A conversion can be a sale, a download or a lead. A conversion can also be as simple as getting a visitor to visit a specific page.
Conversions are measured in percentage points. Simply divide the number of conversions by your total visitor count and presto conversion ratio. A more advanced conversion ratio is measured by dividing the number of conversions by the number of unique visitors.
The Importance Of Conversions
Conversions are important because they can clearly show you which web pages on your website work and which don’t. Follow this example. You have a website which features information on say your home town. Your website is populated with information about your home town like its location, things to do and see, bars restaurants, schools, its history etc. You also have a contact form on the website that a user can fill in and get additional information, a brochure, or stay updated on happenings in your hometown. This website can turn into a money making machine with the right marketing plan or it can remain a pet project for you to play with. In either case you will at some point want to know how well its doing, and how many people are actually seeing your website.
A simple way to do that is to get a Google Analytics account. Use their tracker on your web pages and you will start generating stats. Google’s Analytics is excellent for giving you this information and best of all it is FREE. SEO and internet marking firms like ours use more sophisticated software for tracking and reporting website activity.
No matter which form of tracking device you put on your web pages understand the stats generated is more important. We are interested in the number of visitors to your website but believe me when I say it is not the most important figure. We want to know how well the site is working, by determining what works and what does not.
Complicated Forms
Let’s go back to our example about your home town. Your site provides info and your goal is to get people to sign up to receive updates or a brochure or request additional information. As anyone can tell you generating leads by getting the user to input their email address is very valuable because then you can use this email address to launch a good email campaign.
Now getting that visitor to perform that action requires them to fill in that form and click submit. That form’s action is your conversion. Depending on how you structure that form will measure its success. Long complicated forms, requiring tons of information, don’t work. Remember you want the visitor to act. You want their email address. So designing a short, concise form is important. All you really need from your visitor is their first name and their email address. And most users will not hesitate to give you that information.
Tracking Software
Good tracking software can get other information from the client without them even knowing. Tracking software can register their IP information which can then tell you which country the visitor is from, what time they landed on your site, which pages they viewed and a lot more. If your form is too complicated the user will hesitate to fill it in and will leave your site. Examining the visitor exit rate on that page can easily tell you if that page works. If it works then the exit rate will be low which means they clicked through and you got an email address thus getting a conversion.
Getting Visitors To Convert
Design your website in a clean, clear manner. Your homepage is your biggest weapon. In previous article we talked about landing pages. Treat your home page as your landing page. Give the visitor all the information they require on that page. You may all recall the movie “Field of Dreams” and the line “build it and they will come” it also applies to your website but modify it a little, “build it right and they will convert”. Remember the Big Three. Remember to keep it simple. Remember what your goal is.
Conversions 101
Let’s summarize this article. A conversion is measured when a visitor to your website performs the action you want them to perform and in our example that action was to fill in the contact form and submit it to your website. This gives you a contact lead and your visitor gets info, updates or a brochure. It is a fair exchange.
Your form will not be complicated because you’ll have good tracking software. Get Google Analytics.
Your home page will be clear clean and focused in such a way that all roads will lead the visitor to the contact form and on their way there you will provide them with ample information, so that when they get there it will be easy for them to act.
Easy enough. Not really but you now have a basic understanding of conversions, how we measure them how to get them and how to track your website.
Internet marketing professionals are paid to get high conversion ratios. In this instance ROI (return on Investmen)t is important to the client adding another chapter to the complexity of SEO services and Internet marketing.
Tags: Conversions, Internet Marketing, ROI, SEO Services Bangkok
July 5th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Great information guys. Just like to know if there will be more on the subject and some advanced stuff?
I have a specific question. If you assume that I have done everything right but users are not clicking through to my contact form what’s wrong?
July 8th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Could be a number of things but I will wager that your “call to action button” is weak. What’s a “call to action”. Well you will have to read my next article describing “call to action” as it will contain the answer to this very complicated question.