Conversion optimization is all about collecting data, interpreting it and taking the proper strategic decisions. If you prefer a “do it personally” approach, then here are some great conversion optimization tips for you
Check the Duration of Visit
A good site not only brings visitors but retains them for a long time. The longer users stay on the web pages, the better chances you have to convert them into customers. Google Analytics provides “Length of Visit” report, but unfortunately, most webmasters only check the “Average Visit Duration”. The average data is highly confusing and may never reveal the truth. You need to know exactly how many people visited your site and for how long they stayed.
The “Length of Visit” report shows an accurate duration. For example, if total 1000 users came to your site then it will show how many surfed for “less than 10 seconds”, “31 to 60 seconds”, “61 to 180 seconds” etc. So, if the data shows 600 out of 1000 visitors left the site before 10 seconds, then there must be something wrong with the content.
Assess Behaviour Flow
People take actions when you help them find the information faster. For instance, if someone comes to your site for buying a book, then a search tool can help him find the exact book without going through the dozens of sub-pages. Take a look at the Google Analytics Behavior Flow graph to inspect users behavior during navigation. For example, Flo website came across an unusual pattern in Google Analytics report. The report showed that people are going from homepage to an internal page and then coming back to the homepage again, then it showed that there is a navigation problem and they fixed the problem and they saw a noticeable increase in the conversion rate of the website.
The users wanted to move forward, but since they did not find the option, then came back to the homepage. This is one of the common problems faced by e-commerce businesses. The solution is pretty simple. Just optimize the navigation process and customers will start buying.
Pay Attention to Bounce Rate
Bounce rate tells you how well your business is meeting the expectations of the visitors. If it is low, have fun, but if the bounce rate is high, you must do something to make things right. If your bounce rate is high, then it means that you are not fulfilling the expectations of the customers.
Let me tell you how small mistakes can lead to a huge blunder and increase the bounce rate. When you hire a PPC company, they give ads on search engine result pages and bring web traffic to your site. However, keywords used for ad optimization plays a big role in conversion. If the agency targeted a keyword that matches with your business but does not suit the type of service you provide, the bounce rate is bound to increase.
For example- “car repair” is a good keyword for a car repair company. However, if you provide your service only in the “New York” area, then when people from rest of the states in the USA will click on your PPC ad, they will be disappointed after visiting your site. So, in that case, you need to change the keyword in your ads and be more specific. “Car repair service in New York” is a good keyword for your PPC ads and can significantly boost conversion rate.
Take Feedback from Customer Care Team
Your customer care team handles the emails and phone calls of the customers every day. They listen to the complaints of the customers. Therefore, you should take their feedback to know which things need to be improved to boost the conversion rate. Ask the customer care team to make a list of the pages customers love and the pages customers hate.
Create a Hypothesis
Once you know the problem, you can write down your hypothesis. The hypothesis should describe both the problem and the solution. For example- “My contact form is not working because people said it is too lengthy and they can’t read the captcha. So, I need to make the contact form shorter and provide easier captcha.” Increasing the font size of captcha is also a good idea.
Start A/B testing
When you have a great hypothesis for the A/B split test, you can run the test as per your hypothesis. Your conversion rate may increase immediately, but don’t get overconfident. If you are testing multiple pages, make sure that you get at least one hundred unique visitors per page. Run the test for a minimum of 14 days to see whether the conversion growth rate is steady or unstable. If it is steady, then you are successful, but if it is not, then you failed to understand the problems your visitors are facing.
Optimize the Landing Page Considering your Target Customers
People visit a website from all over the world and their preferences are not the same. For instance, Chinese web users love to see lots of information about a business on the landing page. On the contrary, the USA and Europe based internet users like clean and minimalistic landing pages. So, if your customers are mainly based in the USA and Europe, your landing page should have a strong headline, a couple of sub-headlines, benefits of your products/services in bullet points and a powerful call-to-action.
