Every online business is looking to bring as much traffic to their site as possible, whether it is a service they offer or whether it is a product. In order to be productive, the traffic has to be there and companies are spending thousands and thousands of pounds per month to achieve that goal. They use techniques such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and paid marketing strategies to improve their visibility and hence their traffic.
It is all very well having a lot of traffic and that is always the aim but it is then up to the company to be able to engage that traffic and convert that traffic into sales. Designing for conversion rate optimization rate can be measured by counting the number of visitors to a site and comparing that with the number of sales that have been generated. In order to calculate a conversion rate, the number of engagements are divided by the number of visitors and then multiplied by 100. The higher the percentage, the better the business is at converting visitors to buyers.
People go online for all sorts of reasons, to browse, to find information, because they are bored or to buy an item or service. It is up to the business to be able to convert all types of visitors to buyers and the better they are at that, the more profitable their business will be. Their website has to be attractive, engaging, user-friendly and often companies will look to use video or audio input, they may have carefully designed logos and attention will be given to attractive colours which will appeal to all and not offend.
Traffic is not cheap
Traffic is expensive, so it makes sense for a business to convert that traffic as effectively as possible in order to obtain as much of a return on their advertising spend as possible. Companies therefore spend a lot of time on conversion rate optimisation, looking regularly at their conversion rate and looking at how it can be improved. The software can be obtained to allow a company to view the traffic pattern on their website.
It might be that they notice that visitors are moving from their site very quickly, so they would be considering what would be causing that and re working some of their site pages. It may be that they notice visitors are becoming lost in too much information or that they do not complete the checkout process. Analysing the data allows a company to optimise its processes and build alternative features into their website.
Conversion rate optimisation is essential for profitability as it allows a company to use their traffic more effectively and hence generate more revenue. Some of this revenue can then be used to pay for advertising budgets to allow a company to expand and grow. More sales means more for advertising and bigger advertising budgets can generate more traffic, allowing a company to compete in what is a very competitive marketplace.
Trying to boost traffic and gaining a better conversion rate are both part of what we call today online marketing, Internet marketing, or digital marketing.