Conversion Rates
Conversion Rate: A conversion rate is measured by the number of potential visitors performing the desired action, such as the action of buying a product.
This document will go over why it is critical to have a high conversion rate, what qualifies as good, great, and amazing when it comes to conversion, and how to help improve your clients site to this point.
Table showing various conversion rates
Why do Conversion Rates Matter?
Conversion rates matter for one main reason. It tells you, the SEO expert, if the traffic you are getting is converting. 10,000,000 visitors a month doesn’t mean anything if they all bounce or hang around and don’t buy the product your client is selling.
Increasing your conversion rate isn’t our primary job as an SEO consultant but without providing meaningful conversions the client could think they we aren’t doing our job as effectively as we should be (even if organic traffic is rising).
What is a good conversion rate
2.35%. That’s the average across all industries. Not very good when you compare to the top 25% and top 10% of sites that convert.
The top 25% converts at 5.31%
The top 10% converts at 11.45% and if you think that is incredible and what you should be shooting for the top 5 sites convert between 15%-30%!
Our goal is to make sure our clients convert in the to 25% in their industry (see chart below).
Conversion rate chart for individual industries.
Offer Something Unique
If your client is selling software a free week trial isn’t going to be any different than what their competitors are offering. Make sure that you have a unique opportunity for your potential clients. Selling PPC services? Offer an Adwords performance grader. Selling copy? Offer a free copy checker that can run for their site’s individual pages.
Make sure that you provide something unique when it comes to your pop ups, landing pages, etc. An apparel company offering free shipping over $150 has been done before. An apparel company offering a free program that pairs their clothes with basics visually would be unique and client’s would love this.
Make Sure the Flow Is Right
Are you making it hard on potential customers to buy from you? How easy is the site to navigate?
Site Navigation
Having a proper hierarchy set up and implemented is crucial in making sure that your client’s site is easy to read and navigate.
Another important facet is making sure that you have breadcrumbs installed and set up properly. Customers use breadcrumbs to know exactly where they are and how to get back to where they want to be.
Checkout
How easy is it for a customer to check out? Does the site have a 2 page checkout system or a 9 page system? Making it easier on the customer will result in higher conversion rates.
Remarketing
Viewers come to the site and leave all the time. That’s why the average conversion rate is 2.31%. You should be retargeting these viewers with PPC. They have become familiar with your client’s company and should be reminded of that. Sales can and do come days weeks and sometimes a month later. Remarket and Retarget those who have come and gone without purchasing.
Less is more, you don’t need 100 different landing pages but you do need to try out 10-15 different landing pages to find out which one is going to be a top performer. 80% of the converting traffic comes from the top 10% of landing pages. Find out what works, then scratch the rest.
Then start over with a new landing page create 10-15 pages to test, find what works and get rid of the underperformers.