What is conversion?
A conversion can mean almost any event where a website visitor does something desired. A typical example of a conversion is an order from an online store, but it can also mean sending a request for a quote, contacting us, subscribing to a newsletter or even following a company’s social media channel.
Conversion optimization, on the other hand, means making it as easy as possible for the customer to do this desired thing. When the usability is smooth and the right things can be found in the right places, there are relatively more conversions on the website.
The most common reasons why conversion optimization is done on a website:
- A bad conversion rate means that you lose euros invested in marketing
- A customer-friendly and good website can increase the frequency of purchases
- You can turn one-time customers into loyal customers
- Higher average purchase and turnover
Conversion optimization goals & metrics
Like all other things in digital marketing , conversion optimization should also start by setting reasonable goals and thinking about which metrics best describe success. If you would like to increase, for example, the number of orders received in your online store, you would want to monitor how many people who have added items to the shopping cart complete the purchase.
Other optimization goals could be, for example:
- Number of requests for quotations
- Participating in a competition or subscribing to a newsletter
- Additional sales and increasing the average purchase
How is conversion optimization done?
Conversion optimization is practically testing, where you find out what works best. Optimization can be done either as a “one-shot” or as a continuous measure, which depends a lot on the stage the company’s website and business are at.
A couple of typical situations where optimization can benefit:
A) The new online store wants to improve the site’s usability before large-scale marketing.
- Analytics installation & monitoring
- Identifying problem areas
- Corrections based on collected data
B) The company wants to develop site conversion in the long term
- Analytics installation & monitoring
- Continuous A/B testing of landing pages
- Continuous testing of elements, calls to action and content at different stages of the conversion pipeline
There are several useful tools for conversion optimization. Typically, Google Optimize , Google Analytics and Visual Website Optimizer tools can be used to optimize the page. However, there is no machine for conversion optimization that takes care of things by itself, but the right tools and the necessary changes are always case-specific.
Attention!
If it is possible to perform several different things on a website, then the conversion rate is not necessarily worth calculating for all website visitors. For example, if you sell both car maintenance as a service and tires from an online store on your website, take into account in the optimization especially those users who have already started the desired thing (such as navigating from the front page to your online store).
Since conversion can mean very different things on different sites, the components to be optimized may also vary greatly.
Here we listed a few examples of what the things done in conversion optimization can mean in practice.
Navigation
The navigation of the service naturally affects everything. If it is not possible to navigate to the right page at the right time, the event is also significantly more likely to be left unfinished.
Correspondingly, if there are too many navigation options available at a critical moment, they can at worst act as a distraction for the customer.
Landing pages
The landing page has only one task, that is to get the visitor to perform the desired action. For this reason, it is important that he finds there only relevant information that affects the conversion.
This information should also be in an introductory order, with unnecessary distractions removed. For example, it is possible to remove all extra navigation bars from this page.
Product descriptions
Product descriptions are the best proactive customer service, but in addition to that, they play the role of a good seller in online stores. Does the description contain all the necessary information that the customer needs to make a purchase decision?
If not, the customer will probably continue the comparison and may end up on the competitor’s website, where the purchase will also be completed. Conversion optimization can also be changes to product descriptions if other things are already in order.
Editing names
In this context, modifying the names means, among other things, the names of categories, products and different menus, with which the customer can navigate to the desired page.
Common problems are, for example, unclear or English names of products, which can make buying more difficult. Every small detail contributes to whether the purchase is completed.
Heading and calls to action
Informative headings and precise calls to action are together the most important elements of a page when you want the customer to take some action. The content and benefits should be clear from the heading as well as possible, and the call to action should be added once to the part of the page where you want the customer to make a decision.
At worst, continuous calls to action only lose their effectiveness, while at best, adding one call to action can significantly improve the conversion rate.
Power colors
Together with calls to action, strong colors have a great impact on what is done on the website. The point on the website that catches the eye the most, also usually attracts customers the most.
For this reason, it is very critical that the customer finds at least the buttons you want them to click on within seconds.
Technical changes
Typical technical changes in terms of conversion optimization are different contact forms, fine-tuning of navigation bars and functionality check. The contact boxes here mean the placement of various request for quotation, contact and competition forms in the right place and their editing.
Is this found in the part of the page where the customer is ready to give their information? Or, correspondingly, do the boxes only ask for the necessary information?
Site-specific fine-tuning
Site-specific fine-tuning often means, for example, observing where visitors normally go after the page and where you, as a merchant, would like them to go. In addition, we can observe, among other things, how far visitors normally browse the page and thus take measures to promote trade. For example, if customers invariably change a page when it has been scrolled 60% down, it is likely that it is necessary to make changes to that section.
Conversion optimization usually becomes relevant for the company at the latest when larger sums are to be spent on marketing. Even for smaller operators, good results can be obtained with one-off measures. If you want to discuss more about conversion optimization or how it could be useful for your company, you can contact us by email or via the online form.
How can we help your company with conversion optimization?
- You want to find out the biggest stumbling blocks of the website and get ready suggestions for fixes
- If you want to develop the website in the longer term and need help with web analytics and/or using conversion optimization tools