Increasing conversion rates

[leeg]

I have a website that I use to promote my products and I am looking for any advice that on how to increase the number of people who in get direct contact with me, below is an overview of the number of visit I have had in the last 30 days. Out of these I have had a total of just 6 potential client who have contacted me and I am looking to try and attract more.

Any advice, my site if you want to look at it is shuttersbydesign.co.uk

609 Visits

508 Absolute Unique Visitors



1,790 Pageviews



2.94 Average Pageviews



00:01:37 Time on Site



48.93% Bounce Rate



76.19% New Visits

Many thanks

Lee

 

[fisicx]

6 out of 600 is a 1% conversion rate which means there is something not right with the site that is putting off the other 99%.

You need to dig into your analytics and find out where they land, where they went and where they left the site. Identify the top exit page and work on that to keep your visitors on site for longer.

Any further advice would need the domain name - there may be something fundamentaly wrong with your content/navigation/call-to-action/produts that is preventing you from being successful.

 

[Toni Anicic]

First of all I wanna say you have a beautiful design.

Conversion rate of 1% is not so bad since we're talking about general website traffic here, not really targeted ad campaign landing on a keyword specific landing page. Basically, you're doing pretty good. At this stage I'd advise you to concentrate on increasing the volume of visitors rather then conversion rate itself.

With such a low visitor volume, any conversion rate optimization effort would take ages to complete.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

The copy isn't very good and isn't remotely compelling. A line like "There is simply no better technique for window dressing to suit the modern passion for clean, bright interiors." is just a lot of sales spiel which doesn't actually mean anything and doesn't relate to the visitor.

Your front page at least should have:

-A large, compelling headline
-Copy which explains what you sell, the features of your blinds and the benefits of buying your blinds

It should be plain, simple English, and immediately hit the visitor with the information.

Your entire site is also somewhat confusing and unfocused. When you click to view 'shutter ranges' you just get a lot of copy about shutters which doesn't really do anything in-terms of selling. It doesn't talk about the reader and doesn't compel them to buy anything.

The copy also waffles on a bit. You could condense a lot of what you've said on some pages into just a few sentences. Visitors will not read most of the copy on those pages because they simply don't have a reason to.

You need to simplify everything. Simplify the website structure, simplify the navigation and simplify the copy to explain exactly what you do.

 

[matt.chatterley]

6 out of 600 is a 1% conversion rate which means there is something not right with the site that is putting off the other 99%.

You need to dig into your analytics and find out where they land, where they went and where they left the site. Identify the top exit page and work on that to keep your visitors on site for longer.

Yup.

Then look into increasing the strength of calls to action and if possible, engaging with the visitor so as to start a little bit of relationship building.

Be prepared to do a lot of testing!

 

[Toni Anicic]

fisicx, matt.chatterley,

Do you have better overall traffic conversion rate at your websites in signatures?

1% is pretty good. Once again, it's overall site traffic, not a targeted ad campaign (or targeted organic SEO) landing on conversion rate optimized landing page.

 

[fisicx]

Doh! Missed the link first time round.

It might be a pretty site but it fails as a sales platform in so many areas. Take your gallery for example. Lots of pictures but not one description/name/price. If I wanted to buy one of the blinds there is no way of knowing the name, price or how to order.

I had to look very closely to see the shutters, most looked like a wooden vention blind type thing which I can buy from B&Q so I'd need a lot more information before shelling out £400.

Other pages leave me similarly confused. You describe the range but have no images illustrate the words. You have a range of shades but I have to hover over each to see the name.

You also make me work to get in contact, adding your telephone and email to each page make the whole process so much more effective.

So whilst it looks nice it doesn't sell shutters so that's why your conversion are so low.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

1% is pretty good.

It isn't that good. With professional knowledge you can get a much better conversion rate for most sites.

 

[fisicx]

fisicx, matt.chatterley,

Do you have better overall traffic conversion rate at your websites in signatures?

No but the sites I build for clients do a lot better. One is acheving nearly 15% and another who uses PPC exclusivly gets 60% on a good day.

How do you know the OP isn't getting targetted visitors? For all we know every visitor could be the result of a marketing campaign.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Any advice, my site if you want to look at it is shuttersbydesign.co.uk

You've got usability problems.

Sit a friend down in front of your homepage and set them this task: "go find a venetian blind you like and then contact me to tell me you're interested in it".

Watch what he does and you should see how complicated your site is making it.

Steve

 

First of all I wanna say you have a beautiful design.

Conversion rate of 1% is not so bad since we're talking about general website traffic here, not really targeted ad campaign landing on a keyword specific landing page. Basically, you're doing pretty good. At this stage I'd advise you to concentrate on increasing the volume of visitors rather then conversion rate itself.

With such a low visitor volume, any conversion rate optimization effort would take ages to complete.

Quite agree 1% on a high end product is pretty good.

600 visitors a month is scrapping the floor.

Conversion is not the major problem, but traffic sure is.

Earl

 

[webpromoterservice]

set up a statistics program like google analytics or statcounter.com.

This will help you to identify your top exit pages and also see which are your most popular pages.

You can also set up goals and funnels in google analytics to track lots of information

 

[Toni Anicic]

set up a statistics program like google analytics or statcounter.com.

This will help you to identify your top exit pages and also see which are your most popular pages.

You can also set up goals and funnels in google analytics to track lots of information

Where do you think he got the stats from? If you look at the source code you can see google analytics javascript already there.

 

[david64]

I'd agree with Toni and Earl, a 1% conversion rate is quite good. Small companies often struggle to get more than that.

If you want to increase it, you need to carry out multivariate testing on your site. This is when you make changes to the site and see if any of the changes help increase sales/enquiries. These are usually small changes. Like change font, font size, font colour, add a bit of text here, remove this, add that and so on.

I'd say its pretty good from a usability POV, although it definitely hasn't been produced step-by-step with humans and conversion in mind, which is the norm because most developer don't know or clients can't afford.

Main comments from me on usablity are the size and font colour. Also, your logo could link to the homepage.

From an SEO POV, you need to canonicalise your URLs and remove the default.html from the link to the homepage. That should link to your domain name.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

The 1% conversion rate isn't that good because I can personally see many ways of improving the website. The improvements are there to be made and the conversion rate will increase.

The websites copy isn't very good, the navigation isn't that good and the websites structure/focus is poor. There's plenty of room to improve the site and thus improve the sales conversion rate.

Just because some people would be happy with 1%, it doesn't mean you should chuck it to one side and focus on traffic when there are plenty of improvements to be made.

 

[sjr4x4]

agree with David's comments.

Your not that far off, a bit of content tweaking, use Steves idea, get someone to go through your site, preferbly someone who will be honest and not blow smoke up your bum.

Bit of SEO, and then its traffic traffic traffic

Assuming you didn't run any targeted campaigns in the last 30 days, 6 enquires from 600 visitors for a luxury product in a recession is all right.

But 20 visitors a day isn't really worth the effort so get marketing!

Aim for 100 per day, then 500, 1000... Experiment with PPC, most cost effective form of instant result marketing on the planet.

Join lots of forums, get on freeindex, gumtree, write articles, become an online window blind god. Spend a couple of hours a night and watch the traffic roll in

 

The 1% conversion rate isn't that good because I can personally see many ways of improving the website. The improvements are there to be made and the conversion rate will increase.

The websites copy isn't very good, the navigation isn't that good and the websites structure/focus is poor. There's plenty of room to improve the site and thus improve the sales conversion rate.

Just because some people would be happy with 1%, it doesn't mean you should chuck it to one side and focus on traffic when there are plenty of improvements to be made.

You can not be serious.?

He hasn't got any traffic.

untill he has 600 visitors a day .The sites not even a runner.

Earl

 

[fisicx]

untill he has 600 visitors a day .The sites not even a runner.

It's a pretty niche product in a small geographical area so the chances of over 200,000 people per year being interested in bespoke shutters is pretty slim.

Because it is a lifestyle product (and quite expensive) the number of visitors are always going to be quite low but as long as the conversions are good then the online business will remain quite viable.

 

[Toni Anicic]

It's a pretty niche product in a small geographical area so the chances of over 200,000 people per year being interested in bespoke shutters is pretty slim.

Because it is a lifestyle product (and quite expensive) the number of visitors are always going to be quite low but as long as the conversions are good then the online business will remain quite viable.

His main keyword (window shutters) has 22,200 searches per month in UK alone.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

You can not be serious.?

He hasn't got any traffic.

untill he has 600 visitors a day .The sites not even a runner.

Earl

Yes but people seem to be saying that despite the obvious places for improvement, the conversion rate is 'good enough' and traffic should be focused on instead.

If it can be improved then improve it, and then get the traffic coming in which converts much better.

PS: I don't have many more visitors than that every month on my own site and I'm very happily busy.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

You can not be serious.?

He hasn't got any traffic.

untill he has 600 visitors a day .The sites not even a runner.

Earl

So, what's he to do? Wave a magic wand and make them turn up?

Let's assume he doesn't know SEO, then he'll either have to take a gamble and hire one or he'll have to buy traffic.

Now, what's the point in paying to get traffic to a site with poor usability? Isn't that like betting on a one-legged man in an arse-kicking contest?

Get the conversion problems sorted out and he can buy the traffic. That's the way to do it.

Steve

 

[fisicx]

Exactly!

In the last 30 days they have had 6 POTENTIAL clients. Double the number of visitors and that's 12 POTENTIAL clients.

But do some work on the site and all of a sudden those potentials convert into actual clients. They don't need any more visitors, all they need to do is convert the ones they already get.

 

So, what's he to do? Wave a magic wand and make them turn up?




Steve

No actually he is going to pay you to wave your magic wand,untill such time as he can sort out a decent SEO.

I would imagine PPC would not be to heavy in his niche market.

Taffic is all ,a shop with no shoppers is dead.

Anyone who thinks anything else is a fool.

Earl

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

No actually he is going to pay you to wave your magic wand,untill such time as he can sort out a decent SEO.

I would imagine PPC would not be to heavy in his niche market.

Taffic is all ,a shop with no shoppers is dead.

Anyone who thinks anything else is a fool.

Earl

600 visitors isn't nothing though. It really depends on your market and your product. Just because your particular websites make a lot of money with a lot of members, it doesn't mean every other site falls into the same template.

Actually, with PPC, you could make a fortune from only 100 visitors per month if all of them are highly targeted prospects from Adwords.

 

[Matt1959]

Taffic is all ,a shop with no shoppers is dead.

Anyone who thinks anything else is a fool.

Earl

far from being an expert in this, that surely is a bit or a blanket statement? Its like saying it doesn't matter about the products, presentation or price - just open a shop in the busiest shopping centre you can find and stuff will sell anyway. I'm not disputing you'll get massive footfall but will they BUY?

Regarding the site - it looks beautiful, swish, expensive and elitest - I guess IF this is where the business is (because you're reseacrhed it), then thats great but in my experience, its easy to get consumed about the better you make it look, the more will buy. Myself, supplying a niche service for householders - maybe a parallel here - I get 120 visits a month, average 15 enquiries a month and am now fully booked till Christmas. I intentionally make my service come across as popularist rather than exclusive and still do work for the wealthy living in £500K homes whilst many of my competitors with posh looking websites are sitting there with nothing to do....

Earl, so the blinds site is ok then? and all they have to do is up the visitors??

 

Earl, so the blinds site is ok then? and all they have to do is up the visitors??

No idea .

But if it has a 1% conversion on that traffic,remembering that half the traffic from those figures is likely to be US network stuff.

There probably is not much wrong with it.

to investigate the potential market for a product takes intensive research and should be most peoples first port of call,long before a website appears.

Earl

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

No idea .

But if it has a 1% conversion on that traffic,remembering that half the traffic from those figures is likely to be US network stuff.

There probably is not much wrong with it.

to investigate the potential market for a product takes intensive research and should be most peoples first port of call,long before a website appears.

Earl

There are things wrong with it though. 1% conversion isn't that good and if you look at the site you can see for yourself that it's far from perfect.

An increase of 1% will double the amount of clients no matter how much traffic he receives. That's well worth the effort involved and should be a priority.

 

There are things wrong with it though. 1% conversion isn't that good and if you look at the site you can see for yourself that it's far from perfect.

An increase of 1% will double the amount of clients no matter how much traffic he receives. That's well worth the effort involved and should be a priority.

well I suppose it comes down to the price for a bit of conversion work verses the cost of a bit of SEO.

Earl

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

well I suppose it comes down to the price for a bit of conversion work verses the cost of a bit of SEO.

Earl

Any sensible person will do both. Conversion is only a one-off payment to optimise an average site and achieve a conversion rate which is far higher. How someone can't invest money to peak their conversion rate and get more sales out of their traffic is beyond me.

I suppose many people don't realise just how much of a difference can be made.

 

Any sensible person will do both. Conversion is only a one-off payment to optimise an average site and achieve a conversion rate which is far higher. How someone can't invest money to peak their conversion rate and get more sales out of their traffic is beyond me.

I suppose many people don't realise just how much of a difference can be made.

Quite right I was allowing the guy was going to chose one or the other.

Improving Conversion does not work in every case ,as it may well be down to the product as in the case of our Can Am Spyders which have flown out the door with just good images and descriptions.e.t.c.

Earl

 

[fisicx]

But if it has a 1% conversion on that traffic,remembering that half the traffic from those figures is likely to be US network stuff.

But he hasn't got a 1% conversion rate. He has had 6 potential clients out of 600 visitors. This means he is getting the visitors but no-one is buying. Increasing the visitors isn't going to suddenly make them start buying. Priority therefore should be to change the site to increase the chances of converting those potentials into paying customers.

 

But he hasn't got a 1% conversion rate. He has had 6 potential clients out of 600 visitors. This means he is getting the visitors but no-one is buying. Increasing the visitors isn't going to suddenly make them start buying. Priority therefore should be to change the site to increase the chances of converting those potentials into paying customers.

OK right people were saying he had sales.?

In that case there probably to expensive for your average punter.

So back to the drawing board.:|

Earl

 

[leeg]

Wow where do I start!

Firstly thanks for all the reply's they've certainly given me plenty to think about.

The site is predominantly aimed at promoting plantation shutters within a fairly small geographical area with the intension of attracting clients to get in contact with us. I feel that this isn't happening enough from the number of visitors, but as shutters are very much a high end product they will only appeal to certain people.

Since the site went live about 18 months ago it has generated a reasonably steady income over that period purely from organic searches, but this seems to have now platoed. I now want to push this on and try and increase both the number of visitors and the number of direct enquiry's.

It is interesting that the copy and navigation has been mentioned, I've felt for a while that something wasn't quite right but couldn't put my finger on it.

I havn't yet tried PPC but may look into this.

Thanks again for all the advice

 

[david64]

The site is predominantly aimed at promoting plantation shutters within a fairly small geographical area with the intension of attracting clients to get in contact with us.

Have you ever had anyone do any good keyword research on it? I'd imagine there are some relevant phrases you could target like [luxury blinds]. Alos, if you are getting generic traffic but only operate in the Lancs. area that is obviously going to be a big conversion tanker.

 

[voiceswf]

Hi,

Very nice site; just a suggestion - why not let your visitors download your brochure without having them fill in a form?

I would also have the Brochure Request link plotted throughout your site, as its quite easy for visitors to miss out on it; just located on the top-right.

Some testimonials wouldn't go astray either. Can't beat a little Social Proof

Kind Regards,

Voiceswf

 

[ORDERED WEB]

Easy one this.. How on earth do you buy anything.

The obvious "goals" of the site are squirreled away out of sight

Get an online store added to the site, make the prices VERY obvious, allow people to buy and order things

Define this in 5 bullet points:

WHAT DO YOU WANT THE VISITORS TO ACTUALLY DO? what is the aim of the site

Give me a call, I will happily run through things with you on a page by page / site basis

 

[fisicx]

Get an online store added to the site, make the prices VERY obvious, allow people to buy and order things

Not going to work. The OP sells bespoke shutters, each one hand made to the customers requirements.

 

[Ali-v-8]

But he hasn't got a 1% conversion rate. He has had 6 potential clients out of 600 visitors. This means he is getting the visitors but no-one is buying. Increasing the visitors isn't going to suddenly make them start buying. Priority therefore should be to change the site to increase the chances of converting those potentials into paying customers.

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=127623

I think i was trying to make the same point on this thread

 

[Pro Marketing B/S]

I have a website that I use to promote my products and I am looking for any advice that on how to increase the number of people who in get direct contact with me, below is an overview of the number of visit I have had in the last 30 days. Out of these I have had a total of just 6 potential client who have contacted me and I am looking to try and attract more.

Any advice, my site if you want to look at it is shuttersbydesign.co.uk

609 Visits

508 Absolute Unique Visitors



1,790 Pageviews



2.94 Average Pageviews



00:01:37 Time on Site



48.93% Bounce Rate



76.19% New Visits

Many thanks

Lee

have you tried video on your home page. Also, get testimonials from real customers. Think you need a stronger call to action... with a cracking deal getting them to call up for a "irresistable offer" . Also notice that people only go on your site for just over 1.30mins... that tells me people are "switching off" think on your home page... you need to talk to them more... hope that make sense.