Conversion Rate

Improving Conversion Rates

Conversion rate is so intimately linked to the Landing Page concept that articles about landing pages usually discuss what are really factors that boost conversion. The assumption in each case is that there is a link or links that the page designer intended for visitors to click. A high click rate is "success." Not all landing pages have that goal, but some of the factors important to getting people to click a link are also important for other goals.

Conversion rates depend on off site factors and on-site factors. Off site factors include the localization and focus of advertisements and link placements. On site factors include content and page design. Visual layout as well as wording can make a big difference in click-through rates both for advertisements and for on page links.

Here are some of the most important factors:

1. Visual "landscape" - Links that are in the top half of the screen and on the left hand side are more likely to be clicked. This can be varied somewhat depending on what is on the page. For example, visitors may be drawn to unusual graphics, or

  Large Red Text on a Yellow Background

However, in general the map below is valid. Keep important material "above the fold" - in the top half of the screen, though not necessarily in the banner area, which may be ignored.

Here is a false color mapping showing where visitor's eyes tended to alight and spend the most time  on a page. The left upper quadrant and the right are the most prominent. Put the important messages and the links you want people to click on in the red areas:

The results of such tests will vary, depending on page content, but focus on the upper left quadrant seems to be a constant.

2- Content - Of course, the content should be about the product. But sometimes it is better not to have too much content about the product, as visitors will get distracted reading your interesting page. Language should be simple and direct. Avoid passive voice. "With Whizzbang, your conversion rates are improved" is not as good as "Whizzbang improves your conversion rates." Involve readers by talking directly to them. "Whizzbang solves your problems" is better than "Whizzbang can solve one's problems." Make sure the visitor sees "what's in it for them" at a glance: "Whizzbang can Increase your profits 300%" in large type at the top  is better than "Studies tend to show that our Whizzbang system can increase profitability by as much as 300%" in small print at the bottom. 

3- Style - Here the guidelines are less clear. Simple, direct sentences are good, but "soft sell" ("You probably will want to buy") may or may not be better than "hard sell" ("Buy Now").

4- Organization - Make sure people know what your page is about. That's important for search engines too. The heading should tell people what the page is about and should be easily identifiable.

5 - Use of Colors - Red buttons are supposedly better than other colors, but not always.

6 - Link Text Content - Writing "Click here" in a link is said to increase the chances people will click on a link.

Asking a question in a link is supposed to increase click-thru rate. What is the secret? should attract more clicks than "Here is the secret!"

7 - Getting the right visitors to your page - Advertise free laptops or free sex and you probably will get a lot of visitors to your Web site. Most of them will not be interested in buying your product however. The page, and the advertisements for the page must be about the product. The page description and the advertisements have to be directed to bringing the sort of visitors who will really buy the product or take the intended action. A page with a kiddy cartoon may draw a lot of children, but if you intended that they should vote for a political candidate, you probably won't achieve your goal that way.

Deviant wording in an advertising and spelling errors can actually increase click-thru: Lady's Shoes is said to attract significantly more clicks than Ladies' Shoes. Of course, the extra visitors may not be buying shoes, and are just attracted by the anomaly.

8 - Eliminate Steps - A one page "process" where people click and buy on the same page is better than a two or 3 page process, because the likelihood that visitors will click the next page is never more than a few percent.

9- Clutter - If a page has a lot of messages, images and choices, there is less change that visitors will choose a particular link, if that is what you want them to do. An optimal page from the commercial conversion point of view should have one goal, and give visitors a single option. Navigation links detract from message - you want them to click that button.

10 - Payment - If you are selling something, include as many forms of secure payment as possible, including ACH (Automated Clearing House) check payments.

Conversion Rate Optimization Tradeoffs

The factors that make for good Web design for conversion are often opposed to those that make good Web design for Search Engine Optimization, and these tradeoffs must be taken into consideration. The idea entry page, landing page or main page from the standpoint of conversion is a page that has one screen full of text and a single link or multiple links to the same page, which is the page where the transaction is concluded. If the visitor clicks on any link, it is going to be that product page link. The ideal main page from the standpoint of search engine optimization is a page that is at the hub of the Web site. It is the focus of all links in the Web site or one of several foci, but it is also the origin of a lot of links that go to other key pages, each of which may be a landing page for visitors seeking a term through search engines. Such pages are terrible from the point of view of conversion.

The likelihood of a visitor clicking on any one link when there are many links is very low. Therefore, for a paid advertising campaign, or even in an organic SEO- designed site we may want to make separate landing pages that are NOT portals. These may have one or two links only to the page where we "make the sale."

The optimization tradeoffs are not necessarily straightforward. For example, Acme Widgets has $10,000 to spend on optimizing its site. At present, 1% of visitors buy widgets from their online store. Should they spend this money on simply increasing the number of visitors, or on increasing the conversion rate or both? The answer is not straightforward. If visitors are abandoning products in checkout, they may be leaving when they learn the price of the product or the shipping terms. No amount of optimization will improve the conversion rate, and therefore the best SEO strategy may be to increase the number of visitors, provided that Acme is not already reaching most of its prospective customers.

Here is the ultimate example, a real one evidently, that illustrates the absurdity of over-emphasis on conversion.

Source: marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/conversion-rate-optimization.html

Do you understand? Order Path B is the "New improved" version, which got 0.69% conversion as opposed to 0.49% conversion. More is better right? A 41.8% increase is "what you need to understand" say the experts. But because Order Path A attracted many more visitors, the "improved" path resulted in precisely the same number of orders! It seems that what you really need to understand is that you would have paid money for someone to do this makeover, and you would have had a Return On Investment of zero. Maybe that's not what they meant, but that is what they show.  

Conversion Rate Assumptions

Conversion issues are less straightforward for sites that do not engage in online sales and those that aren't selling anything. For example Whizzbang Systems sells telephone exchanges and voice mail services to large telecom corporations. They use their Web site to recruit personnel and for general advertising. It is very difficult to determine what the "conversion rate" is for such sites. How likely is it that a telecom executive who read a White Paper at the Whizzbang systems Web site will choose Whizzbang's proposal in the next Request for Proposals?  The numbers of such transactions are too small to make a serious estimate from survey data. Whizzbang can, for example, increase the number of visitors they get by investing in a huge online telecom industry glossary. That glossary may attract telecom industry engineers and executives, but it also may attract a large number of curious people who just want to know about Voice over IP standards, the intricacies of broadband transmission or the SS7 standard, and are never going to order a telephone exchange. On the other hand, by including such pages and optimizing them, Whizzbang is building its brand reputation and its credentials and prestige as an industry leader.

Conversion rate models and other metrics often make assumptions that do not really apply to all websites and businesses and therefore their utility is limited. For example, it is usually  assumed that there is  one or more "Landing Page(s)" - a page or pages that visitors get to from advertisements or because the site is optimized that way, and from which they should be navigating to product purchase pages. In Whizzbang telecom's Web site, there may be no such page other than  the main page or the most popular page.

10 Factors to Test that Could Increase the Conversion Rate of your Landing Pages - This is exactly what it says - an excellent article by a real literate expert (Sumantra Roy), with no hype.

Landing Page Tutorials and Case Histories- Again, this is about Conversion rates - with a very large number of links to guides and case studies. 

Copywriting Maven’s Landing Page Makeover Clinic #1: SEOmoz.org - Another page about conversion. The joke is that SEOmoz is supposedly a conversion "expert" - but here is an expert's expert who fixed the expert's Web page. 

All materials are copyright 2008, 2009 by Ami Isseroff. All rights reserved. These pages may not be reproduced in any form in electronic or printed media without express written permission from the author.