Conversion Rate
You designed and built your website for a reason. You wanted to communicate your brand or drive sales. Furthermore, maybe you wanted to convince people to visit your brick and mortar location. Conversion is part of digital marketing’s complex landscape, and conversion rate helps you measure whether your website has achieved its objectives. The bottom line is that Google Analytics delivers data and insights that can increase conversion.
1: Understanding User Groups
The Google Analytics dashboard is an overview of your website. Most users will have access to these metrics:
- Sessions
- Users
- Pageviews
- Pages per Session
- Average Duration of Visit
- Bounce Rate (number of visitors who visit your homepage then exit the website)
- New Sessions / Unique Visitors
From these metrics, you can understand your website’s effectiveness, popularity and if users are engaging with specific content and functionalities. Google Analytics lets you recognize your most frequent visitors, where they came from and when they like to visit your site. You can determine who your most engaged users are based on low bounce rate, pages/session, and visit duration. Most importantly, these insights allow you to track conversion. Review the habits of your most frequent users because this will help you gauge your website’s ability to convert. In general, understand your users so that you can tailor your website to convert more successfully.
2: Fix your Landing Pages
Landing pages are an important tool in a digital marketer’s toolbox, and they need to be conversion-oriented. Google Analytics tells you when a landing page isn’t working. Let the data reveal if users are finding your landing pages (often from links on other sites), and are then visiting the right pages based on your goals. If they’re not, then you need to rework your landing pages to optimize their effectiveness.
3: Audit Content for Quality, Clarity and Purpose
If metrics show that users are spending very little time on a certain page, or avoiding it altogether, then don’t be afraid to rewrite content. Content is king in digital marketing. Therefore, important pages should have content that is clear, compelling and actionable. Some tactics to consider are to add a call-to-action or reduce the copy to highlight main points.
4: Set Goals in Google Analytics
Google Analytics lets you set goals for your website and then chart how many are completed. Typically, goals are user interactions that drive conversion (form submissions, downloads, live chat conversations, order checkout, etc.). Every website has pathways and pages designed to track conversions. Under “Admin”, set goals for specific pages that are designed to convert. Also, determine how many visitors should interact with certain functions. Ultimately, this will give you an idea of your website’s conversion success.
Your website is the digital version of your business. As a result, even if you can get people through the door, you don’t want them leaving without engaging with your business first. A website that doesn’t properly convert can undermine efforts and pile up missed sales opportunities.
