A website’s conversion rate tells you how good your site is at turning visitors into customers. It’s the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Once you have customers coming in from your ads, the next most important focus should be conversion rate optimization. For example, if 100 people visited your online store last month and 5 made a purchase, your conversion rate is 5%.
Tracking this metric helps you estimate how well your website performs and identify areas for improvement. Because who doesn’t want more customers and sales, right?
Picking the Right Goal to Track
The first step is deciding what counts as a conversion on your website. Common conversion goals include:
1. Scoring Sales
Ecommerce sites care most about purchases. A retailer might view a conversion as anyone who adds items to their cart or completes checkout.
2. Gathering Subscribers
For publishers and bloggers, conversions often mean email signups or downloads. So if 100 visitors landed on a lifestyle blog last month, and 10 signed up for the email list, it’d have a conversion rate of 10%.
3. Getting Commitments
SaaS companies want users to start free trials or submit contact forms. Their conversion goal is getting potential customers to commit to a next step.
4. Seeing the Bigger Picture with Micro Conversions
You can also track “micro” conversions for smaller actions that lead to eventual sales. Like visitors who:
– Click CTAs
– Watch videos
– View specific pages
– Share social content
These give you a broader picture of engagement.
While industry averages provide a baseline, tracking historical site performance gives better context around growth. If for instance, Zappos’ conversion rate this month rose from 3% to 5%, that 66% jump would be great news even if still under peers.
Picking the Right Tools to Track Conversion Rate
Besides analytics software, specialized tools provide further insights into your website’s conversions:
A/B Testing
Compares different versions of web pages to increase conversions by determining which option better persuades visitors. Retailer Argos might test adding customer ratings and reviews on its product pages.
Popular A/B Testing Tools: Optimizely, VWO
Session Replay
Records real visitor website sessions to identify usability issues impacting conversions. Car insurance broker CoverHound could use session replays to see why its online quotes form has high abandonment.
Popular Session Replay Tools: Hotjar, Mouseflow, Smartlook
Surveys
Gets candid feedback directly from visitors about holes in their site experience via pop-up widgets. If for example SAAS platform Mailchimp noticed via surveys that users don’t easily understand the pricing tiers differences, it could tweak its plans comparison page.
Popular Survey Tools: Qualaroo, SurveyMonkey, Typeform
How to Calculate the Conversion Rate Formula?
The basic formula for calculating the conversion rate is:
Conversion rate = (Total conversions / Total visitors ) x 100
So for an e-commerce blog with 10 email signups from 100 visitors, it’s:
Conversion rate = (10 conversions / 100 visitors) x 100 = 10%
Chart a clear path With seamless website navigation. Visitors who struggle to navigate your site won’t convert. Ensure users can easily find what they need through.
10 Ways to Boost Website Conversion Rates
Here are 10 proven tactics to increase conversions:
1. Cut Down Navigation Confusion
When visitors struggle to find relevant content, they lose patience and leave. Ensure users can easily discover what they need through:
Predictive Site Search
Visitors should be able to instantly locate products by typing in a few keywords. Retail giant Target incorporates auto-suggestions and relevant images right within search results to accelerate discoveries.
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Intuitive Information Architecture
Content should be logically organized in keep with user expectations. Outdoor brand The North Face groups jackets under useful categories like “Waterproof”, “Down” and “Windwear” to simplify browsing.
Sitemaps
A sitemap allows easy access to deeper pages not directly linked from main menus. Given financial services provider Vanguard offers hundreds of specialized fund options, its sitemap is key for investors researching specific assets.
2. Accelerate Mobile Page Speeds
About 53% of users expect pages to load within 3 seconds before abandoning them. For ecommerce, every 1-second delay beyond 3 seconds leads to a 7% sales conversion drop.
Common tricks to accelerate page loads:
- Compress Images
- Minify CSS and JS Code
- Enable Browser Caching
- Use Content Delivery Networks
3. Get Ratings and Reviews
Consumers rely heavily on product ratings and peer experiences before purchasing. Displaying testimonials builds trust in quality and experience.
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Global retailer Amazon finds star ratings highly persuasive – items with over 100 reviews sell 5x more often.
4. Spotlight Limited-Time Offers
Timed promotions indicating expiring savings opportunities see 30% higher conversion rates over regular prices. Daily deal site Groupon uses encircled countdown timers alongside each coupon to convey urgency.
5. Reduce Form Field Requirements
Lengthy web forms overwhelm customers. Streamline signups by:
- Making select fields optional
- Allowing users to save entries for future logins
- Adding inline validation to enable easy corrections
Financial services firm Wells Fargo saw loan applications rise over 10% after reducing its form fields through the above tactics.
6. Show Specialized Product Page Content
Enhanced product pages to better inform purchase evaluation, lifting conversion rates by over 20%. Useful elements include:
- Promotional Callouts
- Materials Specifications
- Expanded Sizing Guides
- Customer Ratings and Reviews
Athletic footwear brand ON Running publishes shoe tech specifications like exact midsole foam type, sock liner padding and rubber outsole hardness – catering perfectly to detail-oriented joggers.
7. Offer Live Chat Assistance
Chatbots provide real-time answers to visitor questions which builds confidence to progress towards conversion versus needing to hunt for information.
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Lego’s chatbot Ralph did 25% of its social media sales.
8. Follow Up with Abandoned Visitors
Remarketing to visitors who previously showed interest counteracts distraction drifting them away.
Luxury merchant Burberry regained 8% of high-intent shoppers into conversions by emailing them forgotten item reminders post-session.
9. Localize Global Experiences
Visitors shown pricing, shipping times, languages etc tailored to their geography convert over 50% better.
Microsoft surfaces software download options matching detected user countries across product pages to simplify access.
10. Let A/B Testing Select the Best Variation
Regular experimentation using page format variations determines what exactly motivates your audience. Categories to test include:
- Sales copy tone
- Calls-to-action
- Page layout
- Visuals
Software firm Route Mobile tested checkout page revisions – adding upgrade cross-sell offers increased average purchase value by 10%.
In Closing
Rising above the competition means relentlessly boosting website performance. Monitoring conversion rates is step one – letting you diagnose site issues strangling sales. Next, using tips around navigation, speed, trust-building and personalization avoids losing customers through preventable missteps.
With a conversion-focused website that seamlessly guides your visitors to transact through relevance and convenience, your cash registers will keep ringing louder.
Need website assistance? Contact us at sellspell and let your growth make the talk.