If you have three brain cells to rub together, you will have gathered that the conversion optimisation of your website is critical to the success of your business. It has a direct impact on your bottom line. That’s easy enough to say, but less easy to put into practice. For those of us who aren’t experts in this lesser known eMarketing tactic (if you can call it that) conversion optimisation can be daunting, not least of all because it is an unending process. The most difficult part often, is knowing where to start and how to identify the pages or functionality on your site that need optimisation. Here are a few suggestions that you could use as a starting point. As you become more familiar with the process, it will become easier and you will start to see your site in a different way.

1. Use Web Analytics to help you identify important pages

Analytics packages offer such a wealth of insight into the way visitors use your site, that this should always be a starting point. Any design and development agency worth their salt will install a package (usually Google Analytics) onto your site. If they haven’t already done so, they should not only be banished to the eMarketing Hall of Shame, but they should correct that oversight immediately.

2. Make sense of the numbers

There’s little point in having analytics if you have no idea how to use it or what numbers are relevant. The videos available from Google’s Conversion University are a great way to learn about their analytics package and its capabilities. But, if you’re looking for some places to tweak right now, start with your landing pages and exit pages. Knowing who’s coming to your site and where they’re coming from will provide crucial insight. In addition, identifying the pages where people leave your site will also reveal valuable information. More specifically, look for pages that have unusually high bounce rates, ask yourself why this is the case and start your work on those.

3. Don’t underestimate the value of the conversion funnel

Again, I am going to assume that when you built your site or had it built, this process was completed with specific goals in mind. (If not, fire your agency. Seriously, call them right now.)  Provided you have defined these goals, you should know how a visitor goes about fulfilling those goals once they reach your website. This progression from entry to fulfilment (sounds dirty but it’s not) is called your conversion funnel. Analysing this funnel will give you a good idea of which pages are working well and which are resulting in hordes of visitors leaving the funnel without buying your product, subscribing to your newsletter or filling out your contact form. Obviously, this provides you with the ideal opportunity to tweak and test your site.

4. Compare your new visitors to the returning ones

How does the behaviour of the new visitors to your site differ from returning visitors who are already familiar with your site structure and navigation? If there is a significant discrepancy, it’s worth examining your content for problem areas.  A user-friendly site with content that serves its intended purpose will not result in visitors that behave vastly differently.

5.  Use Crazy Egg for a click analysis of key pages

Using Analytics makes it easy to determine which are high traffic pages and which aren’t. Once you have this information, you can use a tool like Crazy Egg to assess where people are clicking. This gives you insight into your users, what they are looking for, where you are succeeding and where you’re falling short. You can then adapt your page and its navigation accordingly to better support your ultimate site goals.

Also check out:

• Clancy Childs on Google Analytics