Jul 21 2011

Why Conversion Rate is an Important Metric for Your Site

Imagine you own a shoe store. It is a small property with four or five isles of shoes. You employ a few salespeople. It costs money to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running. You had to purchase the registers and computers, and the shoes are paid for before they’re even sold.

Most customers come in, look around and then thank you and leave, having not bought anything. What does this mean?  Your shoe store has a low conversion rate.

What Is Conversion Rate?

Conversion rate is the percentage of people who come into a store, physical or virtual, and buy something. Everyone that walks into a store is “just looking around,” but a few people actually take out their wallets and make a purchase.

Simply put, conversion rate is sales rate.

Why Is Conversion Rate Important?

When it comes to a website, where the isles are in the computer and the customers are invisible, conversion rate is crucial. It tells you how many people are actually doing what you want them to do.

Conversion rate is one of the most important metrics, a measurement of a website’s efficiency. It is a way of gauging how many visitors complete an action you have set for them. That action can be filling out a survey, signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product.

Whatever you would like your visitors to do, conversion rate is the best way to determine if they are successfully doing it.

Improving Conversion Rate

Just like with a physical store, improving a website’s conversion rate requires a few simple adjustments.

Catchy headline: The headline of a webpage is like the headline of a newspaper article: the catchier it is, the more likely people are to stop and pay attention to it. Write a headline that captures the essence of the webpage in just a few small, powerful words.

Free gift: If you offer your visitors something free, you initiate the supplier-buyer relationship. You are telling them that you appreciate their interest and would like to reward them for it.

Call-to-action: If you want your visitors to be converted, they need to know how to do it. Give clear directions that explain what needs to be done. If a form needs to be filled out, simply state, “Fill out the information below for a free estimate.”

You can’t force a visitor to do something they don’t want to do. But if you pay attention to the information above, you can seduce, entice and persuade them with proper website metrics.

Eric Wyatt writes on internet marketing and social media, specifically on conversion optimization and landing page optimization.

7 Responses to “Why Conversion Rate is an Important Metric for Your Site”

  1. xinamae says:
    July 21, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    Hi,

    I agree with you about the importance of conversion rate in every websites. This post is very helpful especially to the beginners.

  2. monel says:
    July 22, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    thanks so much for the info…

  3. Timothy says:
    July 24, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    Thank you for your such a wonderful article. this is very useful cos I was thinking the other day of what’s really important of conversation rate. I am a newbie i’m still in learning process about internet maeketing… thanks a lot!

  4. dream says:
    July 28, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    thank you so much for this information. haven’t got enough knowledge of conversation rate before. good thing i was able to read this post.

  5. Markus@Badrumsrenovering says:
    July 29, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    I agree with you. The CTR should be high so the owner of the site can earn a passive income. I had heard from some people that they have uggly wordpress themes and get high Conversion Rate. The visitors buy more from then, then.

  6. patriciasingson01 says:
    July 31, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    Thanks for the wonderful information.
    And I do agree with you about that importance of conversation rate in every websites.

  7. Dewane Mutunga says:
    July 31, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    Paying attention to converting incoming traffic leads to an actual business via your blog. I convert on my blog using my email list. If you aren’t actively working to convert your traffic in some capacity then you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.