Conversion Rates: What you need to know for you business
Conversion is arguably the most important measurement for business website success. It is what defines whether your business actually benefits from the website.
Perhaps you realize you need a "good conversion rate," but you may not understand exactly what that means. That's okay. Here's what you, as a business owner or marketing professional, need to know.
Definitions: Conversion: A user of your website completes a desired task (such as making a purchase, initiating contact, signing up for an eNewsletter, leaving a blog comment, etc). The desired task is completely relative to your business website. Here's an offline example: A customer walks into your store and makes a purchase.
Conversion rate: The percentage of ALL website users who complete the desired task. If your conversion rate is 5%, this means 5 out of every 100 website visitors have completed your desired task. You may have multiple desired tasks; each will have a unique conversion rate.
Bounce rate: The percentage of all website visitors who immediately leave your website once they arrive. If your bounce rate is 30%, this means 30 out of 100 website visitors saw your one page of your website and left immediately.?My favorite way to illustrate this concept is with the bouncy ball. A user is a bouncy ball. Your website is the wall. Unless your wall is permeable and friendly, the ball bounces right off.
How do I track conversion rates? Your analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) must be set up to accurately track conversions. Website developers typically do this for you when installing the analytics tool, though you must define what counts as a "conversion."
How do I impact my conversion rate? Qualified traffic: Driving traffic is often a large part of the online marketing budget; it is completely for shame if the traffic being driven doesn't convert. Ensuring your website visitors are actually relevant or interested in your business website's content is critical to success. Do not waste time blindly pushing people to visit your website. Understand your target market, know where to find them, then work on traffic building.
Information architecture: The way the content on your website is organized needs to intuitively make sense to users. If it's confusing, they'll probably just leave. (As a bonus, your information architecture also impacts your search engine visibility.)
User experience: The way a user interacts with your website is essentially the "user experience." Things are laid out and designed in such a way to create a seamless, easy interaction. An offline example is interior design.?Creating a product experience online isn't easy. In fact, it takes a lot of work. Once a user has become aware of your website, they either bounce (leave) or consume information. If your user experience is planned and implemented well, they might progress into participating, converting or even advocating on your behalf.
Perhaps you realize you need a "good conversion rate," but you may not understand exactly what that means. That's okay. Here's what you, as a business owner or marketing professional, need to know.
Definitions: Conversion: A user of your website completes a desired task (such as making a purchase, initiating contact, signing up for an eNewsletter, leaving a blog comment, etc). The desired task is completely relative to your business website. Here's an offline example: A customer walks into your store and makes a purchase.
Conversion rate: The percentage of ALL website users who complete the desired task. If your conversion rate is 5%, this means 5 out of every 100 website visitors have completed your desired task. You may have multiple desired tasks; each will have a unique conversion rate.
Bounce rate: The percentage of all website visitors who immediately leave your website once they arrive. If your bounce rate is 30%, this means 30 out of 100 website visitors saw your one page of your website and left immediately.?My favorite way to illustrate this concept is with the bouncy ball. A user is a bouncy ball. Your website is the wall. Unless your wall is permeable and friendly, the ball bounces right off.
How do I track conversion rates? Your analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) must be set up to accurately track conversions. Website developers typically do this for you when installing the analytics tool, though you must define what counts as a "conversion."
How do I impact my conversion rate? Qualified traffic: Driving traffic is often a large part of the online marketing budget; it is completely for shame if the traffic being driven doesn't convert. Ensuring your website visitors are actually relevant or interested in your business website's content is critical to success. Do not waste time blindly pushing people to visit your website. Understand your target market, know where to find them, then work on traffic building.
Information architecture: The way the content on your website is organized needs to intuitively make sense to users. If it's confusing, they'll probably just leave. (As a bonus, your information architecture also impacts your search engine visibility.)
User experience: The way a user interacts with your website is essentially the "user experience." Things are laid out and designed in such a way to create a seamless, easy interaction. An offline example is interior design.?Creating a product experience online isn't easy. In fact, it takes a lot of work. Once a user has become aware of your website, they either bounce (leave) or consume information. If your user experience is planned and implemented well, they might progress into participating, converting or even advocating on your behalf.