Conversion Rate Analytics

There are a couple of answers to this question, most of which are contingent on the goals you set while configuring your analytics. But some of the most important data you need to watch has to do with your conversion rates. What are conversion rates you ask? Well, the conversion rate is the percentage of people who, upon coming to your site, download or purchase your products. This makes conversion rate one of the most telling indicators of how well your website is working, since it is directly related to your ability to sell your ideas. Whether your intentions are to make a profit selling through your online store, or to sell visitors on an idea, getting them to download your brochure, attend your conference or subscribe to your newsletter, conversion rates can tell you how well you’re doing.

Although conversions are not the be all and end all of eCommerce, they are certainly essential data. This is because conversion rate provides you with concrete evidence that your campaign is working (or not), and a general idea of how well it’s doing. After all, knowing our conversion rates before and after you start buying ads on a certain site can allow you to calculate how effective your advertising budget is, and if they go down when you decide to switch your ads to a different site, you’ve acquired yet another bit of hard, useful data. And while there are several reasons why you shouldn’t obsess over conversion rate, with enough micromanagement, it can help you improve the website experience for those who prefer to do their buying on the internet, rather than just research or job hunting.

What Effects Conversions?

However, in the process of not obsessing about it, it helps to remember that there are a number of concerns on your website that might effect conversion rate. It must be remembered that the internet is a land of misclicks and distractions, a factor which once computed in, can provide you with a great deal more confidence in that 2% conversion rate. Keep in mind that sometimes people click accidentally both to your site and away, that some people haven’t figured out tabbed browsing yet, and will use your window to check their back accounts before returning to buy, and that more than ninety percent of conversions happen offline. I know, this can be frustrating for those of you without brick and mortar retail stores, but don’t let it become discouraging. In the process of setting goals, remember to include micro conversions as well. If macro conversions are things like downloading your programs and purchasing your products, micro conversions can be used to measure how many times “contact us” was clicked, or “about us“, or jobs were applied for, or “print this page” was clicked, and the other signs that your site is being used for research, even if nothing was purchased. Someone interested in your site enough to research it is likely to come back, especially if you were convincing enough with your web copy, which will help you calculate your conversion ROI, which is every bit as helpful as the conversion data itself. After all, if you aren’t measuring the metrics that matter, you’re wasting time that could be used on more valuable metrics.

I’m sure at this point things are starting to feel a little complicated (and if they aren’t, congratulations!), but don’t worry. While tracking the various conversion rates can be difficult, it’s not any harder than following your favorite team. All it takes is a bit of time and practice before you’ll get it, and keep in mind that the web is a large, scary place, and if you keep in mind that even a 2% calculation can lead to a great deal of profit, depending on your average order value. But the obvious follow up question is, assuming I’m not obsessing, and have discarded extraneous metrics while incorporating necessary ones, how do I improve my conversion rates?

Improving Conversions With Web Analytics

Well, as we’ve already mentioned, web analytics is all about data. And now that you’ve got your conversion rate practices refined, you can start thinking about how you wield that data. Using this data, you can refine the processes on your websites, particularly when it comes to leads and the sales process. Consider that you check your data, and you find that an odd amount of people start the checkout process, but never finish (abandon the checkout). This could be a problem with your security loading speed, trust, your density of text, or even your safe words display being unreadable so they can’t checkout. Once someone has made the decision to buy, they’re close, but not roped in yet, so you need to make the checkout process as smooth as possible, and your analytics data should provide plenty of opportunities and insights towards improvement.

But if they’re not even getting to the sales page, then maybe the problem is with your sales copy. Thanks to your analytics and conversion rate, maybe your strategy for making a simple website with less professional copy, so as not to scare away the old ladies, is hurting your business, and it’s time to invest in someone to write better copy for you. Sometimes the right data can mean the difference between finding out whether you’re capable of being a one person band, or if what you really need is a slightly larger team. Checking the ROI of your analytics can tell you whether or not your investment in a copywriter will increase sales enough to cover the position.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

And after you’ve streamlined your checkout process, and written stellar copy thanks to a few late night courses on speech writing and psychology, if you still want to improve your conversion rates there are a few tips and tricks you can try. After all, you’ve found out that information is beautiful, and there’s no reason your customers won’t either. Show them how your products and ideas will improve their life, then assign them their own metrics, and study their conversion rates to see which charts, graphs, and graphics are the most effective. Save those, build more in their style, and use them in your advertising campaigns, where they can spread their impact across the entire internet. As you can see, the potential of an entrepreneur wielding a solid set of goals and data is limitless. And if you get stuck in the process, you can always come back to refresh your knowledge. Or just because you feel like there’s always more to learn, and places to improve.

But when you recovered, as the serious eCommerce entrepreneur you are, you got online with the goal of looking the term up. And now you’re here, you’re interested, and you’re a little confused. What are web analytics? Are they really worth investing in? What are they going to cost me? How much time do they take?

Don’t worry, all these questions have answers. And I’ll make sure to direct you towards the experts capable of helping you have the best possible experience with analytics.

What are Web Analytics?

Web analytics are any system of taking the information about your website visitors and using it to improve your website. Simple enough, right? Unfortunately, most people who own their own website are unaware of the tools and definitions that make this field useful. How many times have you sat down and wondered why your visitor count never goes up? Or wondered which pages on your website are visited the most?

Sound like exactly what you need to help improve your site? I thought so. But now the obvious question is, how do I use them?

Well, maybe you want to start simple, test this mysterious new system out before you really dedicate yourself to them. If this sounds like you, then I would suggest starting your own Facebook Analytics page, just to see what’s up. Even the website will give you a crash course on how to use their program and why it’s useful for those businesspeople trying to reach a larger audience via Facebook fan pages. For those of you more interested in taking a direct plunge into the deep end, you can try Google Analytics, or the Webtrends Data Extraction API.

But maybe you’re still nervous, checking your payroll to see if you can afford to add web analytics, and the personnel to manage it. This is understandable, after all, how can you be sure these programs will help you improve your traffic enough to help cover their costs.

The good news? They’re free. And you won’t even need to hire an extra webmaster to manage them. Like any other part of your business, so long as you know your goals, analytics will provide you with all the information you need.

However, like anything else, analytics has its dark side. Due to the nature of humans to misunderstand and underestimate things, some programs have gotten a bad reputation they’re still trying to overcome, often due more to mistakes made than any sort of deficiency in the program itself. However, since everyone reading this blog is interested in being informed consumers, that’s nothing you have to worry about.

It sounds time consuming, doesn’t it? Before you go leafing through your accounting book again, trying to figure out whether you can afford a second webmaster, or even a temp, just take a moment to breathe and gather your thoughts. You may find that it will take far less effort than you first thought, and in no time at all, you’ll be turning your website into a highly efficient, customer pleasing machine.

Well, that seems like enough for now. Even if you were all bright enough to find this site and read this article, we have to be careful, analytics are a powerful tool, and while even a beginner can use them, there are plenty of depths left to master, such as conversion rates and cross program compatibility, as well as plenty more experts willing to lend a hand. But for now, your best bet is to go out, get an analytics program, and plug it in to start gathering data. Take some time to really see how the innards of your website work. Then, you can come back here and learn some advanced methods for using the information you’ve gathered.

Two eRetail Analytics Success Stories:

The first eRetailer, Bath and Body Works, recently implemented a new analytics and tracking program into their website using LIVEmark technology and services by Coremetrics. LIVEmark basically collects data from more than 400 eRetail brands and is designed to shed light on the most important areas that an eCommerce store can enhance or make better. Bath and Body Works was able to track and identify several important areas across their site which need improvement including product page design, site search, navigation and landing pages.

The new implementation of Coremetrics analytics solution has helped Bath and Body Works increase 13% of visitors who reach a product page, a 31% increase in site search visitor conversions and the overall average order size increased ten-fold.

“The tools helped us identify key growth opportunities,” says Shannon Glass, director of Internet operations at Bath & Body Works.

The second eRetailer, C28.com, reports that their recent implementation of Web analytics has helped them to keep more shoppers on their pages for longer periods of time compared to past years. C28.com specializes in Christian themed clothing, apparel, shoes and other products for teens and young adults. Web analytics has helped C28 choose the best images that their shoppers hope to see upon entering and navigating their site.

C28 uses Google Analytics, a free Web based analytics and tracking software by Google. Through the use of Google Analytics, C28 was able to determine that some of their landing page images were causing a 25% abandonment rate on some products and over 30% increase in page abandonment on other items.

Since making the appropriate changes to their landing pages, images and replaced the ones that hindered performance, C28 has noticed an increase in the number of pages viewed per visitor. They credit being able to spot these issues with an analytics program and by implementing more user-generated content onto their products pages (user reviews and comments).

eCommerce Web Analytics & Adwords:

Besides being able to help you improve your page design, layouts and other factors that effect how visitors interact with a site, analytics tracking tools can also help eCommerce merchants to improve their ad spend and conversion rate from sponsored listing programs like Google AdWords.

One merchant, Golfballs.com, has recently found that by being able to properly analyze what happens when an AdWords referred visitor arrives on their site that they were able to double revenue generated from AdWords visitors. Golfballs.com uses an analytics tracking program by Omniture.

Golfballs.com indicated that by analyzing their visitors “bounce rate” that they were able to build better landing pages, make their pages more relevant and increased conversions by redesigning their checkout button appearance and placement.

If a page has a high bounce rate we see if the ad copy needs to be revised, if the landing page is right, that is if the data we’re providing on the page is relevant to what people are searching for, and, third, if we’re having a problem with the pricing of the item.

Warnings of Using Free Web Analytics:

So, we have determined that using Web analytics and tracking programs can help merchants improve conversions, increase ad revenue from sponsored listing programs and also improve the overall site design, layouts and appeal to visitors. The question to answer now is, which analytics programs should I use to track visitors on my site? The answer, try to get by with a free one to start with and once you become familiar with the processes then move onto or possibly consider a purchased analytics program like ClickTracks.

However, before you run out and subscribe to a free analytics and tracking program it is wise to know the risks and warning involved with using these free services or programs. Although many eRetailers currently use free analytics programs, it’s often times harder for users to get sufficient value from such tools due to lack of knowledge, help resources or training materials.

Web analytics is hard, and when companies aren’t fully invested in understanding what analytics data mean, they’re likely to make wrong decisions based on it. One person’s interpretation of data can give a thumb’s up or down to an entire project, but that person may not be getting the big picture and making decisions only on what he thinks is important.

The main thing to remember here is that if you are using a free analytics tool it is better to actually understand what the data you are looking at is telling you and how you can best use that data to improve the experience for your visitors. If you have an office manager running your tracking data, who doesn’t know what any of it means, you will most likely not be getting the most from the tool you are using.

Both free and paid analytics programs can be valuable to merchants. Just remember to learn how to use the one you choose and possibly try using different ones to find the best fit for your eRetail business. To learn more about the ins and outs of Web analytics visit Web Analytics Demystified Blog.

Company stats and quotes on Web analytics via Internet Retailer.

There are several key indicators in Analytics that should be paid careful attention to:

• Total Unique Visitors: the amount of individuals who have viewed the site – not the number of page visits, which counts multiple visits by the same user (the more unique visitors the better).
• Average Page Views: the number of page an average user views (the more page views the better).
• Average Visit Time: the time users spend visiting the site on average (the more time spent the better).
• Bounce Rate: the percentage of users who visit the site and immediately leave (the lower bounce rate the better).
• Keyword Tracking: the list of keywords by which users are finding the site. It provides data on which keywords produce how many visits with the average visit time, page views and bounce rates (the more keywords the better).

Keywords that produce long average visits, multiple page views and low bounce rates will be the ones that are the most targeted and effective to use on the site. Make an attempt to focus on those keywords rather than the ones producing short visits, few pages and a high bounce rate. At the same time, the keywords that produce a high bounce rate should be eliminated and used sparingly throughout the site as needed. Replace them with other likely keyword candidates and continue to monitor those results in the following weeks and months. Once you get the idea, repeat the same process. The ultimate goal from all this effort is to increase the absolute amount of conversions, i.e., people who sign up or buy a product.

An often neglected aspect of SEO is that websites need to be optimized for human users rather than just search engines. The proper utilization of keywords will help provide users with useful information about the site before they visit and helps search engines to properly index and list a website under the desired keywords. This includes information in the page title and meta description which users see in the SERP’s.

Next week’s article will start off a new subject for me: links. It will discuss ways to create and improve natural traffic, and how that will also help to improve rankings in search engines as well.