Web Analytics: Optimizing your Online Presence for Conversions

Brandon Goldstein - 1.24.2013 2:34 PM

Across the marketing world, two developments have trumped all others in recent years. One is the explosion of Social Media Marketing as a method to engage customers. The other is Big Data. This term has proliferated across industries as businesses seek to harness the incredible volumes of information to make smarter decisions. The field of web analytics, in particular, has burgeoned recently, as companies attempt to make the most of their online assets.

In my last post, I briefly explored some of the common “analytics traps” that await us as we dive into the vast oceans of web analytics data now at our disposal.  I would like to continue this discussion by now focusing on a couple of web metrics that reveal just how well websites are performing, specifically by evaluating how they contribute to the bottom line.

At the end of the day, it is great to have lots of website visits, but this metric means nothing if these visits do not turn into actual business. As a full-service marketing agency, Webolutions® is tasked with making the best use of our clients’ web presence and leveraging this to drive conversions. Depending on the website, a conversion can be the completion of an ecommerce transaction, or the generation of a lead for the client. In this post, I will focus on the latter.

A common metric to focus on is conversion rate. This is the percentage of visitors to a landing page or form who then fill out the form and convert. This conversion metric is important, as it can offer insight as to whether the form page is designed properly. Further A/B or multivariate testing can then reveal ways to optimize the page for conversions. This is a fairly common approach, but I feel like it misses the mark a little bit.

By no means do I recommend ignoring or even discarding this conversion data. However, the goal of a website, as mentioned above, is to drive conversions (customer engagement is another important goal of any website, but I will discuss this in greater depth in a later post). In this light, we should also focus on how many website visitors actually make it to the conversion form in the first place. If only a tiny percentage of visits end up seeing the form at all, this is a clear indication that the website itself is not optimized to drive conversions. 

Every company wants their website to generate conversions. From on online marketing perspective, this is one of the truest ways to directly impact the bottom line. Therefore, it is useful to measure not only the form conversion rate, but also the rate (%) at which website visitors make it to the form. Going further, it is simple then to calculate how many website visitors actually convert. This conversion data strikes me as critical to understanding how effectively an organization’s website presence is creating business opportunities. From this point, further A/B and/or multivariate testing can be executed to optimize the website flow leading to conversion pages.

How to use this Information
It is important to continuously acknowledge the reasons that we create an online presence in the first place. We want to drive visitors to our websites and Social Media pages in order to engage with our brands and to create additional business opportunities. By focusing on conversion data, it is easier to measure just how effective our online presence truly is.

If you are trying to optimize your website for conversions, Webolutions® offers in depth web analytics, including ROI tracking. Give us a call or contact us online to see how we can help you make the most of your online presence.
 

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