Website Conversion Rate – Are You Leaving Money On The Table & Not In Your Pocket?
First, let’s start off by understanding what conversion rate is and what it means in the marketing world.
We are going to discuss the conversion rate of a website or the place that potential customers visit before they contact or make a purchase from a business.
Conversion Rate Explained:
A conversion is an action that you want someone to take when they visit your website. Example: They contact your business, schedule an appointment, or make a purchase from you.
The rate at which the traffic that visits your website converts, is expressed in a percentage as your website’s conversion rate. You may be a local business that wants someone to request an estimate (call or fill out an estimate form) or you may be an e-commerce or online store that wants someone to purchase from your site. It is important to define the action that you want them to take when they land on your website, so you can focus on getting people to take more of that desired action.
The conversion rate is the number of visitors divided by how many of those visitors actually take the desired “action”. Example: You want people to fill out a form to get an estimate for service when they visit your website. If 100 people visit your site and 10 people fill out the form, you have a conversion rate of 10% or 10% of your visitors “converted”
Now that we understand what conversion rate means let’s get into why a website’s conversion rate matters…like SO much!
The short answer is money. Poor conversion rate = wasting money! If you increase the number of people that convert or engage in the action that you want them to take, you can instantly increase your revenue and really just get a bigger bang for your buck.
The statement above is especially important when you’re spending money, like on ads and even on a company handling your SEO (search engine optimization), to acquire potential customers or traffic to your website.
Let’s look at an example.
Let’s say you spent $200 to get 100 visitors to your website. If your website converts at 5% and 100 people visit your website then 5 people will “convert”. If it costs you $200 to get 5 new leads or customers then the cost to acquire a lead or someone to purchase from your website is $40 (200/5) . This number is your Cost Per Acquisition or CPA.
Now let’s assume your website converts at 10%. You now have 10 new leads or customers, meaning that your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is $20 (200/10). Just by your website converting better you cut your lead cost in half and doubled your revenue or potential revenue.
In other words, a leaky, poor-converting website equates to lost money.
Before we get into what you can do to improve your conversion rate or make more people do what you want them to do, you have to actually know what your conversion rate is. To learn what it is you should have google analytics installed on your website. While this article is not about how to set up analytics, you can learn more by visiting https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/. (tip: install it on your site AND set up goals)
What Is A Good Conversion Rate?
It really depends on your industry, but regardless it is good to always look to improve. I am going to provide you with percentages based on industry benchmarks mixed with experience and specifically if you are a local business or e-commerce store. The percentages outlined below take into consideration cold and warm traffic (organic, paid ads, social media)
- E-commerce: 3%-5%
- Local businesses: 10%
- The top 25% of websites convert at over 5% while the top 10% convert at rates of 11% and higher!
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): 3 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Sites Conversion Rate
The Secret To More Money Starts Now…So Read On!
Ok so you get it, conversion rate matters so let’s get into the gold!! What can you do to improve your conversion rate?
- Think Like Your Audience – Speak to their specific needs – What type of information does your audience – the people that you want to buy from you – want or need in order to help them on their buying journey? This includes helpful content, understanding what sets you apart from the competition, images, testimonials or reviews. Create the path of least resistance: Layout the information they want in an easy-to-read manner to increase their motivation and make it easy for them to take the action that they desire.
- Clear Calls To Action (CTAs) – What types of action do you want your website visitors to take? If you are a local business you may want the traffic that visits your website to call you or fill out a form on your website to get an estimate or schedule service. If you are an e-commerce store you will want them to purchase or even at least sign up to receive emails. PRO TIP: Make it easy for your visitors to call you, buy from you, or fill out a form. And make sure it’s easy from a desktop and mobile phone. Most traffic comes from mobile devices. Having a call to action before they scroll on a mobile phone, provides the opportunity for immediate action. Have CTA’s spread out throughout your site so that they can easily take action without having to figure out how to. Estimate Forms or “Get A Free Quote Forms” really increase conversions, so if you are a local business and do not have one, add one! Collect info that matters to you (Name, phone, email, project description) BUT do not overdo it. Be mindful of too many form fields.
- Page Speed – A faster page speed will result in a better conversion rate. If people cannot get to what they want in a timely fashion, performance will be affected. A slow-loading website or page speed (how fast your website shows up when someone visits it) can wreak havoc on your conversion rate. Visitors will leave as quickly as they came if your site speed is slow. You can check out your page speed for free on Google’s PageSpeed Insight Tool
Bonus Recommendation:
Make sure that the right traffic is visiting your website. Sometimes all the right things are in place on your website, but the wrong traffic aka “not your ideal audience” is visiting it. Why might this be? You’re marketing to the wrong audience or you’re showing up for the wrong keywords in search (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc).
Major takeaway? A website’s conversion rate matters if you want to create a profitable digital asset and put more money in your pocket!
Does your website need help?? Contact us!