Why the low conversion rate? URL...

[ttmw]

Ok i'm looking for anyones help on why i'm getting such a low conversion rate of around 0.55%?

I've tried a lot of things suggested in many blogs and cant seem to get any difference.

Also because i look at the site on a daily basis it's become very hard to tell what looks good and not anymore so please point out any unprofessional looking areas or bits i could improve.

url is... pets-direct.net

[SFD]

I really like the site.

Two things I would suggest from a quick look around:

Make 'Proceed straight to checkout' the top option above login to account', 'sign-up' etc.

Sort out the star rating guide -This seems to default to 1 star if there are no reviews. As there aren't a lot of reviews everything is rated at 1 star which will be putting people off straight away.

Edit: It seems anyone can change your star rating. I would get this changed or removed else competitors will be popping everything down to 1 star

[ttmw]

really good suggestions, i'll give them a try. I know its probably not good to make multiple changes without testing each and every one but im ust goin to go for it.

Thanks and keep them coming :)

[deniser]

One of the reasons that you are getting a low conversion rate is because you only cater for cats and dogs whereas your title implies that it is for pets generally. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just might explain the figures.

I have rodents as pets so would immediately log out of your site as it has nothing for me.

[ttmw]

Yeah i get what your saying, i was in a bit of pickle though. I didnt want to limit myself long term to cats + dogs but havent got the money for all the stock whilst stating out. I opted for the long term strategy, hopefully it will pay off

[deniser]

In that case don't worry about the conversion rate, just concentrate on getting more traffic. Good luck with it!

[JamieM]

The .net domain could potentially be affecting your conversion also. You should maybe try split testing it.

You could try doing it with a different .com or .co.uk domain.

http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords/domains/

I am not sure how this works once a visitor has got to your website i.e. if they will be on the pets-direct.net url or the other one. Obviously it would be much better if it was the latter but even if its the former an increase in CTR for the new URL might translate to an increase in conversion too.

[paretowasright]

I think its a case of barking up the wrong tree ;)

[directmarketingadvice]

The .net domain could potentially be affecting your conversion also. You should maybe try split testing it.

You could try doing it with a different .com or .co.uk domain.

http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords/domains/

This was good advice. However, Google put the kybosh on this earlier this year. Now you can't have ads in the same ad group going to different domains.

However, if you want to test different domains, you can set up a campaign in Yahoo PPC and run the test there.

As for testing domains, I did quite a bit of this in the good old days and it was quite common to have one domain result in 20-50% more sales than another. It's a shame google now prevent it.

Steve

[MrsPWN]

Nice looking site, one thing I would suggest is on the dog collers page, a small picture rather than just the words would be more inticing.

[ttmw]

Nice looking site, one thing I would suggest is on the dog collers page, a small picture rather than just the words would be more inticing.

Yeah i've been trying to make this page look good but have been finding it really hard to make it look professional. I was planning on going into the code and sorting out something different soon, glad u pointed it out, the bounce rate on them pages is up so its defo a problem.

I've now removed the rating and changed the checkout without account to the top BTW.