Could a Few Minor Tweaks Stand Between You and Doubling Your Revenue?

There is no faster way that I have found to literally double your online sales “overnight” than by tweaking your website to make it more usable and persuasive to your prospects.

Each year billions and billions of dollars are spent on driving qualified traffic to websites that have lousy conversion rates of 2%. In other words, two people took action on your website, and 98 did not.

While everyone is biting each other for more traffic, it’s time to realize that one of the highest producing ROI comes from the art and science of converting visitors into profits (this could be leads, sales, subscribers…etc).

Does This Sound Like You?

You probably have a website online. A beautiful website that you’ve spent thousands of Internet marketing dollars on.

Then you quickly realized that you need traffic in order to get some leads to your site. So you probably hired a marketing firm to help you with SEO, PPC or Social Media.

This investment has proven to increase your site traffic…but out of all of the visitors coming to your page- very few are converting. WHY?

The answer to this question leads to the “golden goose” of Internet success.

An Intro to Conversion Rate Optimization and Landing Page Marketing

Conversion optimization, sometimes called conversation rate optimization (CRO), is a method of establishing user experience when reaching the landing page or the Web site. The primary objective is to raise the ratio of visitors to customers.

Where did Conversion Optimization originate?

CRO was developed in the early 2000s as Internet marketers needed a measuring tool to gauge the performance of their strategy. As a result, Internet marketers started to test on their Web site design, content, layout, text, and images with the purpose of boosting their conversion rates.

Why is optimizing my website for conversions important?

One of the problems that Internet marketers encounter is that the response rate from online marketing campaigns is very inconsistent. The rates can change significantly within an hour between different segments.  They started employing the haystack process which posed a great deal of limitations – it was not possible for them to study and draw conclusions with the amount of data that was provided.

And that is the importance of CRO – a method that can be used to examine events and behaviors. The CRO evolved using real-time data which eventually improves the scope and success of online marketing tactics.

How does CRO work?

CRO methods results to improving the collection of leads and sales from an online marketing campaign. Most of the time, CRO does not require too much budget to catch the attention of your Web site visitors. There are CRO methods that allow administrators to check which Web site component convert visitors to leads or sales. It can be the headline, images, or the content.

While there are several CRO methods, there are two methods that have been prominent recently.

The first one is centered on testing as the method in understanding the best method in raising the conversion rates. Another method focuses on the pre-testing phase. In this method, the bulk of the work that has to be done is on trying to understand the target audience and coming up with a message that attracts and influences a specific audience. The team can only move to the testing phase until such work is done.

Elements of Test-Based Method

Information gathering is a key element of this method. That includes pre-screening and post-screening, where data is evaluated as relevant or redundant. Data can come in several forms; it can be based on location, context, frequency, demography, behavior, and others.

Optimization is officially defined as the “discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to make better decisions.” That being said, the business goals should be consistent with decision-making. CRO has been proven to be successful in several facets of business, including telecommunications, logistics, supply chain management, financing, and airline scheduling. As a business, the major goal is to take full advantage of conversions to gain profits.

Business rules should also be adapted in optimization. Some notable examples of best offers include bundled offers, eligibility for offers, exclusive offers, and others.

When the models are established, the content servers employ a screening method to identify visitors according to segments and choose the offers using real time data. The business objectives are optimized as business rules are implemented. The models can be evaluated and modified should there be any changes in the business objectives.

Finally, it is important to make sure that the results are consistent. To do this, several statistical methods should be employed, such as control groups, simulation, validation testing, and variable selection. The effectiveness of results is guaranteed when the team is able to examine a huge amount of data and preserve historical data.

Google Places is an online platform where businesses are connected to their local communities. This service is free, and it is a great way for a business to build an online presence. Customers can write reviews, give ratings and make recommendations for the companies they interact with. Companies should be aware that Google Places ranks them according to a number of criteria. This ranking will affect where a business appears when a customer runs a search for a particular type of company. Since higher ranking means more traffic, it is important that a business do all it can to increase its ranking.

One of the biggest factors in determining rank is the number of citations that a company receives on the Internet. Each time a company is mentioned on the Internet is a citation. Citations can occur in places like directories or forums; they also occur every time a company is listed in a review. Citations lend credibility to a company and help Google Places to establish the fact that a business is indeed real and in operation.

The most obvious thing a business can do to increase its ranking on Google Places is to make sure that its profile is complete. If a business is listed in different online web directories like Yelp or Yahoo! Directory, it should verify that its contact information matches. A unique business description with keywords is also important, but make sure that it is an actual description and not simply one keyword after another. Google will penalize businesses for doing this and may ban them from Google Places.

Having customers write reviews of products or services is another way for a company to increase its ranking on Google Places. Google uses algorithms when figuring how a company ranks, and every review that a company has figures into that equation. Google also has the ability to index any reviews that a business has on external websites and can then place them in the Google Places business listing. The more reviews a business has, the more citations they get, translating into a higher ranking.

Utilization of social media can also help boost a Google Places ranking. Websites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide businesses with an online forum to interact with customers. Business owners can also encourage customers to leave positive reviews on social media sites, thereby increasing the number of citations they have on the Internet.

Businesses have many opportunities to build an online presence, and choosing to do that through Google Places is a smart and savvy move. A business will further enhance that presence by doing all it can to increase its ranking. As more and more consumers turn to the Internet for business listings and information, it becomes imperative that a business do its part to make sure that its ranking is as high as it can be.

Sit back, relax, read on. Bounce rates aren’t difficult to understand, but they are crucial to your site’s success.

What is Bounce Rate, anyway?

Simply put, a bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on your site and exit it without clicking through to other site content. This percentage reflects the number of potential clients your site attracted initially, but who weren’t interested enough to stick around for long. It doesn’t matter if they closed the tab or window, or if they manually typed a URL in at the location bar, clicked on a link which led them to a different site, or simply let the session “time out” through inactivity. They came, they saw, they left, all without engaging with any of the content on your site.

How can I find my site’s Bounce Rate?

If you’re using a web analysis tool to track these kinds of things, now is the time to get serious about it. There are many sites that offer this kind of tracking and most of them offer their basic services free of charge. Once you’ve set up your account and the software is tracking every click to and on your site, start paying attention to Total Page Views and Number of Visitors. Your site’s bounce rate is the same as the number of visitors who only viewed one page.

Can I improve this somehow?

Yes you can and yes you should! According to Avinash Kaushik, who is a Google Analytics’ specialists in the field, a bounce rate over 35% is not good. If it’s over 50%, you should be worried. He also says it’s hard to get a site’s bounce rate under 20%, which gives you something to strive for.

Fortunately, it’s also relatively easy. Here are some simple, effective steps you can take right away:

• Keep your site’s navigation clear and easy to understand. Use “breadcrumb trails” or sidebars with relevant links in easy reach.
• Your site should load FAST. Don’t lose visitors due to slow loading pages.
• Make the title of every article or section engaging to keep the visitor’s interest.
• Customize your 404 Error page so that the link the visitor clicks takes them right back to your site.
• Blog posts should be as interactive as you can make them. Reference other relevant articles on the site, refer to earlier posts or comments on the same topic, give your visitors lots of reasons to keep clicking.
• Use few tags and keep them relevant to the content.

It’s Like Monitoring the Pulse of Your Website

The longer a visitor stays on your site, the better chance you’ll have of keeping their business. Tracking your site’s bounce rate gives you a way to know what content keeps your visitors engaged and puts you in position to provide more of that. They’re encouraged to become clients with every click that takes them deeper into your site – not so mystifying at all, is it?