Improve Website Conversion
Carrie Hill | 10 March 2006 |
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Recently, I attended a Webinar (an online seminar) directed towards improving marketing efforts via tracking software. They had some great ideas about how to use tracking statistics to improve the overall function of a website.
Website analytics are the key to bridging the customer’s confidence gap. Find where the problem areas are, and fix them!
Here are five steps to improve your website’s conversion:
Identify dead-end pages on your site.
Use your tracking software to analyze why people are leaving your site and then address the problem pages either with new text, new photos, or a feature that will draw them into the booking process. Remember, your homepage isn’t always the landing page, so you’ll need something to engage visitors on each page.
Use content groups to your advantage.
Categorize pages and understand which content your visitors are most interested in. For a lodging website, these would be your rooms pages, activities pages, and specials and packages pages. Invest efforts in the areas that are leading to bookings. Find which areas are not as interesting, then diminish resources or revamp them to bring interest to the booking aspect.
Update your “Zero Results” pages.
If you have a specials page, but aren’t offering a special that particular month, put up the next month’s special or make an offer for something else, like a package deal or gift certificate.
Use direct traffic as a branding metric.
People who have accessed your website via a bookmark or by directly typing in your URL heard about you somewhere. Use your “No Referral” traffic numbers from your tracking software to gauge your branding awareness.
Rewrite generic “click here” links.
Use a descriptive statement that motivates someone to click the link and go deeper into your site. Try something that works for your property, like “Start planning your South Padre Vacation today” or “Book a Romantic Getaway.”
Chances are, you’ve put a lot of money and/or energy into your website. Addressing the five items above will help your site fulfill its potential as a solid revenue generator.
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March 16th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Conversion is important… it is often easier and more effective to increase conversion than increase visitors.
I think this is an issue that we will be focusing on more in the future… those 40% of your vistors you lose the first 10 seconds because their first impression is not favorable.