January 11, 2006

Google Analytics is a phenomenally powerful tool, and every tool must be used towards some end goal. It is tempting to assume that the end goal is to get as many visitors to your site as possible, assuming that more people mean more conversions. More is not necessarily better, though!

There are a lot of perks to optimizing your conversion rate. You get more sales from your existing traffic, the cost of acquiring new customers goes down, you increase your customer retention rates, and the effect is permanent!

One key to increasing conversion rate of your site is to allow visitors to quickly and easily achieve their goals (buying your merchandise, filling out a form, etc). This includes not requiring they register up front, limiting information fields in your checkout forms, and clear call to action links or buttons. Once they are ready to check out, for heaven's sake let them check out!

One Google Analytic reports to watch would include 'Top Exit Points', because a high abandonment rate for a single page could indicate something is frustrating visitors and keeping them from completing their goal.

Another Google Analytic report would be ' Entrance Bounce Rates', which can point toward an ineffective landing page. Make sure that the pages through which people enter your site provide clear cues that they are in the right place. A great way to do this is to include key words in headlines and subtitles. So if you are selling paint sprayers, the headline on your landing page is "Hi-Power Paint Sprayer Clearance" instead of just "Clearance".

Interested in learning more about Google Analytics?
Attend our LIVE Google Analytics Seminars for Success training in Atlanta, GA Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 and Thursday, April 15th, 2010 or get the latest tips and tricks sent to you via our free, twice-monthly Google Analytics newsletter.

Posted by Meredith Smith at 12:36 PM

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