In this life there are certain things that just go WELL together. Peanut butter goes well with most things, including bananas and apples.
I enjoy my avocado the traditional Portuguese way: with sugar instead of salt. By themselves yoghurt and muesli are boring, but when you combine them – nom nom nom.
So it also is with driving traffic to your site and your website conversion. You can’t have one without the other (CUE Al Bundy). And the most intelligent thing to do would be to ensure your site converts your existing traffic as well as you can BEFORE you focus on getting more people to visit your site.
10 conversion optimization tips for 2010
Number 1: Optimize page types that bounce
Take a look at your web stats and get a feel for what TYPES of pages are not sticky enough. Plug these holes first.
Number 2: New visitors vs returning
Using your web analytics, split the new visitors from the returning and do separate analysis on these. This will give you a better understanding of metrics like page views and bounce rates.
Number 3: Clever use of email marketing
Don’t spam people but if people do opt to give you their email address, keep in contact with them and let you know what’s going on with your business. You can set up automailers that go out once a week for the first month – but TEST and see what works best for each customer segment.
Number 4: Go social
Learn about social media (Facebook, Twitter etc) and add social bookmarking links to your site (Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit etc). Be involved with our niche community but don’t go out blasting a sales message for you shall get burned. Rather, listen to the conversations and join them where relevant.
Number 5: Images need links
Not only to make your site interesting, but also as links further down the funnel. Use linked images in email and on your site.
Number 6: Use Google Analytics to optimize forms
You can set up virtual pages on your form fields to determine where people are dropping off. This is crucial to understand the breaks in your conversion funnel. Use Google Analytics to create virtual page views.
Number 7: Go for the long tail
There are many “long-tail” keywords you could be optimizing for. These generally convert better than the broad head keywords, so don’t ignore them just because they have less search volumes.
Number 8: Craft each and every page with a benefit and call to action
Make sure that even your long-tail keyword pages have a clear benefit and call to action: what’s in it for me and what do I need to do?
Number 9: Create link bait such as cheat sheets and handy tips
Give your visitors something useful and they will return to your site or link to a page. Create easy to read cheat sheets or fact sheets that summarize information on a page.
Number 10: Internal site search adds value
Make sure you have a clearly identified search function on your site. Visitors will leave if they cannot easily find information. Keeping track of search phrases also helps you understand the motivation and intent of your visitors.
This list, although not exhaustive, is a good start for a conversion optimization to-do list.
In your experience, what’s helped your site convert better?
