If any of these issues applies to your website it is probably wise to start thinking about Conversion optimization. Where SEO, SEA and Bannering are all offsite channels, Conversion optimization is purely to increase the conversion Onsite. By increasing your Onsite conversion rate, you will get more from conversions from your website.

Conversion optimization, what is it?

Conversion optimization (CO) is the trajectory that will be entered to improve the conversion rate of a website. It should be noted that conversion optimization is not the same as usability, where the main focus is on improving the user experience. CO looks at which pages show possibility of improvement, then tests alternate pages using a tool like for example Google Website Optimizer. This allows both A/B (two different pages) and multivariate tests (multiple variants within a page) to perform. After the final test phase there will be determined which pages actually have performed better. The final goal in mind is to raise the conversion rate, by so allowing more site visitors to turn into real buyers/leads.

How does Conversion optimization works?

After having determined to start a conversion trajectory, there will be a number of steps that have to be taken to achieve a final result.

• Persona Creation: What does a number of average users of the website looks like, what are their needs and how are they developed in their internet skills?
• Analyze bottlenecks using Webanalytics: Here the goal funnel (ordering process) will analyze the content of the pages, what pages are popular, important pages for the purpose funnel, pages with high bounce rates, etc.
• Personas and Expert Opinions: By using the personas and expert opinions alternative pages for A / B testing and Multivariate testing will be determined.
• Testing Website Optimizer: By using the Website Optimizer the test will be prepared, the script will be placed and the different landing pages will be used.
• Analyze Results: Over time, the Website Optimizer will pick a winner based on statistical significance.
• Implementation winner and testing: Once the page is determined that it has the best performance, it can be implemented and further tested using a multivariate test. Moreover, the choice can be made for a new process in which another part is optimized.

Case Mens & Relatie

Mens & Relatie is an online dating service that brings singles together. The goal is to convert more visitors into actual leads. To achieve this, the Website Optimizer was used which measured both multivariate test as an A/B test with three variants.

A/B/C Test
The A/B/C test has the same approach, to see which side the boxes would generate most conversions. There was also investigated whether a bold text works better than a text which is not bold printed.

The three variants and the original were as follows:

• Original: Boxes right + normal text
• Combination 2-3 Boxes right + bold text
• Combination 3-4 Boxes left + normal text
• Combination 1-2 Boxes left + bold text

The final results showed that in particular the bold text largely improved the conversion rate. Moving the box to the left had some impact but not so much as making the text bold.

De final results show that the bold text in particular largely improved the conversion rate. Moving the box to the left had some impact but not so much as making the text bold.

Multivariate test

It started with a multivariate test on the homepage. Here are two variations for each box created. This gives a total of eight combinations plus the original. The difference with the original text is that the new texts are more similar to the Adwords ads. Important is that your Offsite marketing activities match your Onsite statements, in this case there was a match between a clear call to action text in both boxes and in Adwords.

Eventually combination one proved to be the winner, which was a text that was used in box one in combination with the original text of box two. This was a quite recognizable statistical significance in the fact that the variation would beat the original but not all the other variants. The goal was to improve the conversion rate, and therefore combination one has to be implemented. The results show what the impact can be on the conversion ratio with just a simple test.

For Mens & Relatie the final testing ensured a substantial increase in conversion rate on the site. A single conversion optimization trajectory made clear that they were structurally assured of a higher conversion rate and therefore more leads.

Why invest in Conversion Optimization?

Conversion Optimization is an ideal way to improve the conversion rate on your website. A one-time investment are quickly earned back and the gains are permanent. Even better is to keep testing and fine-tuning in order to achieve an optimal conversion rate which will earn in the long run. Google Website Optimizer can therefore be an ideal tool to improve this in a significant way.

What also must be taken into consideration is that the results do no only improve the website, but benefit all the offsite channels, as the conversion rate on the website increases. This will decrease the CPA within the SEA campaigns due to a higher conversion rate. Result is that besides the initial increase in conversion with SEA there is a further increase in volume terms from SEA conversions. It can be achieved by creating multiple keywords to start advertising. In addition, an investment in SEO now might be interesting since the conversion rate has improved and the changes to your website now can be recouped. In short all channels will benefit with a conversion trajectory.

Conversion Optimization: Must Have For Onsite & Offsite Conversion Improvement is a post from: Onetomarket

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After using Google Insights for the search term ‘financial crisis’ some interesting insights show up. As of 15 September one can see that the search traffic for the term ‘financial crisis’ increases, which is a logical response to the bankruptcy of Lehman brothers on that specific day. This increase in traffic on ‘financial crisis’ remains until the 19th of September. On this day the US government announced that it was working on a rescue plan for the financial sector, which caused a higher closing of Wall Street and above that a certain amount of trust was spread that lead to a decrease in search on ‘financial crisis’. Also the Google news result at [B] refers to this event. What though has to be taken into caution is that less financial searches are being performed during the weekend. After the weekend the worries about the financial crisis rose again as some critical notes were made about the rescue plan. This trend continued until the 26th of September, when the weekend started and President Bush made a statement that something had to be done to cool down the crisis in the financial world (Google News Result A). Now that on Monday the rescue plan was turned down by the parliament, there is no doubt that the increase in searches on financial crisis will keep on rising.

Until the rescue plan is fully approved, it looks like there will be enough rumor and so searches concerning the financial crisis. Next to that one can say that although the fact that it is only an indication, there sure is a certain amount of commotion that lives around the topic financial crisis that can be seen with Google Insights.

Also the Netherlands was hit by the financial crisis in the US. The increase in searches on the term ‘kredietcrisis’ (financial crisis) appears to be the same as in the US. But what is the thing that Dutch people do in the event of a financial recession? They return to old Calvinistic values in which the secure savings account becomes more important compared to the insecurity of investing in stocks. Google insights show that at the moment that the Dutch Economy start showing signs of a recession, the consumer starts looking for security and so searches on savings accounts (*sparen) etc. started to take off compared to risky investments (*beleggen). Anyway this is the time for banks to go loose in the search engine with saving related products as the consumer is now looking for this.

Financial Crisis & Recession: Consumers decide to choose for a savings account is a post from: Onetomarket

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