search engine optimization is to attract new visitors to a company’s website. However, much can be done to improve the likelihood that this incoming traffic will result in sales.
For professional web marketers, a site’s “bounce rate” describes the percentage of visitors that leave after only viewing one page. When you wish to promote products and services online, a high bounce rate could significantly reduce your return on investment.
For this reason, it is critical for entrepreneurs to hire search engine marketing experts that offer conversion rate optimization.
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Each website has its own objective for the end-user. If your company specializes in the generation of opt-in email leads for insurance companies, the goal is to entice the visitor to submit his or her email address.
A sleek look and clear purpose will establish credibility in the mind of the user. In this specific type of example, conversion rate optimization techniques can be used to help visitors feel more comfortable about relinquishing their email address.
Since the incoming traffic must often be paid for using funds from a company’s marketing budget, a high conversion rate will improve the organization’s return on investment.
For the proprietor of an e-commerce store, conversion rate optimization is equally crucial. To reach the point of sale, consumers must trust that your online storefront will safeguard their personal information.
Furthermore, the attention span of the average web visitor is limited; various techniques can be employed to communicate more effectively with the end-user.
A Low Bounce Rate Leads to an Improved Return on Investment
Search engine marketing experts have developed a wide range of methods by which conversion rate optimization can be accomplished. Detailed statistics can be analyzed to test the effectiveness of various design schemes.
In some cases, minor tweaks to your landing page might have a dramatic effect on your return on investment.
However, efficient web design is a complex art form. With limited funds to spend on advertisements, it would be wise to consider hiring a search engine marketing consultant that offers conversion rate optimization.
Incoming traffic is of little value when users do not reach the point of sale. By improving your company’s return on investment from pay-per-click advertising, the consultant’s fee fits neatly into an efficient marketing budget.
Conversion rate optimization will establish credibility with new users. In the end, you will be handsomely rewarded for helping them find the products and services that they need.
Article by John Britsios
Information Retrieval & Social Semantic Web Consultant
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
CRO is an absolute must for landing pages.
As you mentioned, minor tweaks hold the key to increased conversions.
And, of course, split testing is the key to testing minor tweaks to progressively build a higher and higher CR.
Great article Webnauts!
Can you recommend any good Wordpress ST plugins???
Mark
Success isn’t going to come with just traffic. Do all the SEO you want, if you don’t have rich and high content, its all useless.
Thanks.
Usama recently posted..Who Are You Outsourcing Your Self-Worth To
SEO guys just need to remember what’s the point of SEO if conversion is not there!
Twitter: profitmc
September 8, 2010 at 4:53 am
This is a topic that you hardly hear bloggers talk about. There is so much about traffic generation and comments but as you rightly said traffic conversion is truly the most important.
The secret is knowing your most wanted response, that is, what you want your site visitors to do once they visit. It could be signup for your email list, post comments, download a free gift or even click on an affiliate link. It is only when you know this that you can truly optimize your site or blog to achieve that conversion.
“A Low Bounce Rate Leads to an Improved Return on Investment”
I will have to disagree here: if you have a simple yet effective landing page, the visitor will easily and fast find what he needs, complete the registration process and leave. High bounce rate, yet high conversion rate.
Twitter: bbrian017
September 3, 2010 at 10:15 am
I was using adwords about a year ago and spent a lot of money initially marketing my social network blog engage. I wish I would had read this post before I wasted my money not even knowing if I was getting a return on my investment. I would had been tracking the signs up click which would of helped me determine if I should had continued marketing.
This article can be helpful for many people and not only bloggers but professional businesses.
bbrian017 recently posted..Top articles at blog engage week of Aug 30 – Sept 03 2010
You can have a lot of traffic without any conversions. Many beginners think success will come with traffic, but that is only part of the equation. Your website/blog has to be optimized for conversion which includes having a nice sleek design as you mentioned. I use Clicktail to monitor user navigation and it’s an invaluable tool.
Twitter: imstrategies
August 31, 2010 at 1:25 am
Most sites miss the boat when it comes to navigation, and that often leads to a high bounce rate, so while a pretty design is nice, navigation is much more important in allowing users to easily troll around the site and find the many pages and aspects it has to offer.
JR recently posted..29 Top Video Submission Sites 5 Free Video Creation Tools and More
I am a bit confused about this post…Everything seems so obvious. Asking “Why is conversion rate optimization so important” is like asking “Why should a car salesman know how to sell a car”.
You do talk about bounce rates which is good, but you forgot to mention that a low bounce rate does not always equal higher returns. Take for example a website that only sells products via affiliate programs. In this situation your bounce rates may be very low because people are bouncing over to your affiliate sites – and possibly generating sales.
I think it is a bit funny that just by reading this post I could tell you were the same author from the “search engine optimisation” post. Since this post was once again pretty half-as*ed. I am wondering why your posts are being accepted…
AJ recently posted..Use WordPress For Your Small Business
@wpexplorer-
First of all, all articles aren’t addressed to YOU. And they’re also not all addressed to accomplished SEOs or marketers. Unless you were sufficiently graced to have been born with the vast amount of knowledge you enjoy, you probably had occasion to surf around, and learn from others, at some point.
I’d agree with the fact that lower bounce rate doesn’t necessarily mean higher returns, although in a non-affiliate situation, I think it usually would.
What puzzles me, however, is how you feel you can come into someone else’s blog, and accuse a guest-writer of writing a “half-as*ed” article, and yet it never occurs to you that such might be considered rude, obnoxious, or even… dare I say it… “half-as*ed”!
You might consider being a better commenter, and less of a troll.
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 10:05 pm
I think you are trying an old trick, to gain notariety by controversy. By trolling, and hinting at knowing a lot about the topics, figuring that people will notice, and remember you.
I also consider your statement offensive: “I think it is a bit funny that just by reading this post I could tell you were the same author from the “search engine optimisation” post. Since this post was once again pretty half-as*ed. I am wondering why your posts are being accepted…” offensive, so I reported both comments to the admins of the community telling them the following:
“I do not understand why is this guy “wpexplorer” follows all my posts and adding
harsh comments. For example here
http://www.famousbloggers.net/conversion-rate-optimization-important.html and
http://www.famousbloggers.net/seo-boost-business-search-engine-optimisation.html
Please take into consideration that I am planning to blog more posts on real
estate, business for sale, etc.
If my blog posts are so horrible, please let me know I will continue blogging
elsewhere. I do not want to spoil your brilliant community.
I am concerned because I just posted a new blog post waiting for approval and it
is unique of its nature and I do not want it to get spoiled too.
Your reply would be very appreciated.”
If they advise me to discontinue posting here, I will discontinue posting right way. OK?
None of the above. I actually visit this blog frequently and most the time the articles are pretty good. I had left you a comment on your previous post and never got an answer so I was trying to spark a little more interest this time to see if you would actually respond. Which from the looks of it, it worked.
I actually read every post that is added to famousbloggers, so to say that I am following your blog posts is ridiculous. And to say that I am a Troll…give me a break.
I just feel that your last 2 blog posts did not provide as much value as you are probably capable of. I have checkout your site seoworkers.com and there is some very awesome work there. In fact I have found some posts very useful – I think one time I needed a .htacess fix for https pages and your site provided me with a great guide on how to fix the issue.
So looking at what is available at seoworkers I had higher expectations from you….And since you do work for an SEO company it is not a far off statement to believe that maybe your guest posts here are done for SEO purposes only and not to provide the readers with true value.
I may have pushed your buttons a bit and possibly used some inappropriate language – but hey, if it helps extract your full potential then I would say my comment was a success.
If I believe that the quality of a post is inferior to previous posts on the same bl0g, yes I am going to say something. Why not? I would rather be a “troll” then ignorant.
Hi
Great info.It is another negative effect I came to know about bounce rate.Between what bounce rate is perfect for a blog or website?
Thanks For Sharing
-Abhishek
Abhishek recently posted..Best SEO Tips And Techniques For Blogger
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:46 pm
If you have for a web site or blog lower than 40% you are doing well.
Bounce rate is always a serious matter for bloggers.
Low bounce rate means that your visitors like your website and they want to see more and more.
ZK recently posted..How To Implement An Awesome Website Design For Under 87
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:47 pm
I agree. But bounce is most critical when it comes to e-commerce sites.
Exactly,- like ours. We REALLY need folks staying awhile and looking at properties on our website. What we really like are folks who look at all sorts of pages on our site, then return to look at all sorts of pages!
Colleen recently posted..Kayaking Tour on the Columbia River and Dinner at Anthony’s Restaurant
A low bounce-rate is not related to improved conversion rate. Both rating are percentages of visitors. So 1000 visitors with bounce-rate (leave within 10 seconds or only visit 1 page) of 50% gives 500 that can enter the conversion path. Lets say conversion rate is 2% so of 1000 visitors 20 convert.
Now lower bounce -rate to 20% you have now 800 persons entering the funnel and still 20 coming out. Since bounce-rate and conversion rate are calculated on the total unique visitors and your not changing that with a focus on bounce-rate.
Of course if you make the page more attractive to convert (so focus on conversion and not on bounce) then the bounce-rate goes down (people go deeper into funnel path) and good chances conversions go up. So in another way your right. But do not forget the focus. Focus should be conversion/revenue not bounce-rate.
Dennis van der Heijden recently posted..86 Ways to Increase Conversion- Part 4
Excellent points, Dennis. I agree that conversion rate and bounce rate are not necessarily related, in many instances. Personally, I think that if proper SEO techniques are well employed, then a good conversion rate optimization strategy will handle the issue, without being concerned with the bounce rate. To me, a high bounce rate indicates one of two things: poor SEO (misleading the search engine to serve up irrelevant pages) or a poor design/low quality content. A dynamite conversion page won’t help, if the user immediately wants to escape an unusable site.
Without analysing and optimizing conversion rates, marketing and advertising efforts may be wasted. Optimized conversion rates mean more profit which can be added to the marketing and advertising budget.
Conversion…I dont know it before reading this post.THanks
pumama recently posted..Protect Your Blog from Spam Comments with Akismet Plugin
I use clicktail, it helps me know what is happening on my site and its heatmaps and videos show me i can increase my conversions
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:49 pm
That is an excellent tool!
Hi John Webnauts,
One of the biggest problem I see on many e-commerce sites is they try also get combination of incomes from ads so the whole page look like a Christmas tree. A clear, friendly a and easy site is a winner.
Bang on this one. Even myself when i do a search for a product and find it in google and then go to that site. If that site can’t give me exactly what I want in first go and I have to find my way out I reject that site outright. If a site is user friendly as well as it serves the purpose in the sense that it is all clearly documented and easy to work with, the chances are that I might go to that website again and again.
So no matter how much SEO u do to drive in traffic, One should be equally careful about what the website looks like. And what i would suggest is always use the formula of KISS
abhishek recently posted..Commonwealth games theme Song
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I think I would pose it as I did in my article here: http://www.seoworkers.com/seo-articles-tutorials/search-experience-optimization.html
when i check my bounce rate at google analytics it’s show 73.33% bounce rate and i have 82.96% for new visitor and lastly is time on site is 00:01:31
so using with the data i’ts maybe can count for conversion rate to generate a sales
darrius recently posted..HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER AND CCTV SECURITY SYSTEM
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Those numbers are not impressive at all to be honest. You should look into that as I see you are most losing a lot of profits.
Twitter: marketingcanban
August 28, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Conversion is important for sure.
Regarding to Bounce rate, how much percentage can be accepted?from 35% to 50%?
Hung | JVPRIME recently posted..Google and Twitter Realtime Search
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:54 pm
For ecommerce sites the best bounce rate would be 30% or lower.
in my opinion, conversion rate can be compare with how much sales can be done, if u have high trafic but sales method has been using not good maybe can’t make a sales
mijie recently posted..HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER PART 2
Hi John, In this post you don’t mention if you’re using Google Analytics to track your bounce rate. I’m wondering if you have some other tracking tools you’d like to mention. Also, how do you find a good SEO professional? Thanks for the article.
Ileane recently posted..Matt Cutts Uses WordPress Not Blogger
Twitter: seoworkers
August 30, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Ileane,
- I do not rely to 100% on Google Analytics. I also use as an alternative clicky.com
- Are you asking me how to find a good SEO professional, when I am an SEO myself? Still you can find some tips on my own site: http://www.seoworkers.com/seo-articles-tutorials/
Twitter: MurrayLunn
August 28, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Always Be Testing
Coming from working heavily on the web side of an ecommerce website, we know that the customer acquisition cost is sky-high – if we don’t convert these users than we’re taking a big hit.
So what I personally learned during this time?
- Try your best to always test your pages to improve conversion
- Try to entice visitors to opt-in so you can later market toward them
- Build a customer base through creating a great customer experience
There are literally thousands of tiny things that can create a bounce:
- Landing page design
- Copywriting
- Pictures
- Price
- Shopping cart
- etc
Case in point: it’s impossible to know unless you’re testing.
Do everything you can to convert the visitor up-front but set in systems that can help on the back-end as well
Murlu recently posted..What Do We Get For A Fiverr A-ny-ting You Want
That’s right Murlu, you can’t know unless you test. Did you set up some A/B testing or what kind of methods you are using for testing?
Mike recently posted..Is Market Samurai really worth 97
Twitter: MurrayLunn
August 29, 2010 at 11:44 pm
We try a variety of things:
- Various landing pages
- Segmented email campaigns
- Alternate customer service talk points
Even after years of trying to perfect these items it really shows that you’ll never be spot on but you have to at least strive to be the best as can be – you never know what single little thing can send a visitor or customer away; even down to the tape on the box you’re shipping out.
Murlu recently posted..What Do We Get For A Fiverr A-ny-ting You Want
Hi Murlu,
You are so right on it; there are literally thousands of tiny things that can create a bounce and you must test to find the right way.
My bounce rate is sky high: around 72%. It was as high as 85%, but I’ve managed to bring it down slightly. A standard related post widget along with IGIT related posts which displays thumbnails and more linking has helped somewhat.
Part of the problem for my blog is that I’ve only updated around 4-10 times per month, so I have a super high bounce rate on the homepage from regular visitors. People usually bounce if there are no new posts.
In the past, I used to run a company that sold products online. We did extensive testing with various landing pages. We found improvements with symbols like McAffee secure, etc helped. Testimonials and video content on the landing page also helped significantly. Having a very professional looking design that instills credibility is of paramount importance.
Jarret recently posted..Eat more fiber to combat the metabolic syndrome
If you post 4 times a day and your theory is that you bounce-rate is high because all your regular visitors come often and get disappointed since you did not update yet there are some ways to prevent this problem:
- Put a random post in your right block, an old one that is also interesting
- Install a plug-in to you blog that give people an update when a new post is posted.
- Be super clear when its updated: “Every Monday Updated”
Dennis van der Heijden recently posted..86 Ways to Increase Conversion- Part 4
sorry I mean: If you post 4 times a month and your theory is
Dennis van der Heijden recently posted..86 Ways to Increase Conversion- Part 4
Hey John , great post. Conversion Rate depends a lot on Landing Page. If you have a great landing page then you will have a good conversion rate. You need to have multiple call to action. There should be atleast one call to action above the fold. You can check your call to action position using Google’s browser size application http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ .
“In some cases, minor tweaks to your landing page might have a dramatic effect on your return on investment.”
This is something we need to put much more effort into. Tweaking our landing pages is something on our list of things to do that needs to get done and you’ll put a fire under our arse to get it done. Thanks John!
Colleen recently posted..Bark for Life Relay at Howard Amon Park
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