Tips for Improving Your Website Conversion Rate

Establishing a website is an important step to launching an online marketing campaign. However, a website alone does not guarantee success. A successful website requires strategic advertising. How do you intend to draw visitors to your site? Without a strong marketing strategy, your website will merely serve as an online "WE ARE IN BUSINESS" sign.

If you anticipate many users utilizing your site to perform a function (e.g. fill out a form, purchase a product, etc.), then your site needs to be operating at its peak efficiency. First, however, you need to determine how well your site is performing. A great indicator is the number of visitors your site is receiving. I typically use a bad month's #s as my baseline. Then, I compare the baseline to the current month.

Nevertheless, realize that just receiving numerous visitors does not mean that your site is indeed successful. If all the visitors are logging on for 5 seconds, and then leaving for another site, you aren't really accomplishing anything. Typically, you want a visitor to perform a function (as was previously mentioned). The best way to measure site success is by determining the number of visitors that actually do something relevant on your site, such as purchase a product. This ratio is known as a website conversion rate.

To calculate your website conversion rate, you need to weigh the number of visitors against the number that performed a function. For instance, suppose you had 1,000 visitors, but only 35 users chose to buy a product. You would divide 35 by 1000, which equals .035. Change that to a percent, and you have a 3.5% website conversion rate. 3% is considered an average conversion rate, whereas 7% or more is viewed at as extremely well.

If your conversion rate is too low, you will need to change your advertising and marketing strategies. You need to either drive more traffic toward your site, or do something that convinces users to purchase your product. One way to increase traffic is by search engine optimizing your website. This involves loading your site with articles full of relevant keywords. If you are selling dog shock collars, for instance, then you may consider writing 40 to 50 articles about dogs and shock collars. It is tedious work, but it works. It will increase your website's Google ranking, and therefore drive more traffic to your site.

Another factor to take into consideration is simplicity. How easy or difficult is it for a user to perform an action? If you are trying to sell a product, for instance, it should be readily available and easy to purchase. It is a fact that web users are impatient people. When they come to your site, they have usually already decided that they need this product. But, if they have difficulty figuring out the checkout process, they will quickly leave your site and purchase it from somebody else. It's a fact!

Lastly, you should seriously consider hiring a professional to evaluate your website. It may be expensive, but it could make the difference between a profitable vs. a non-profitable website.