Your website and online marketing strategy will be an important part of your New Year businesss plans. This guide shows you how to measure your website’s success. In it we provide suggestions on improving conversions and increasing traffic.

Measuring the success of your current website

Just how well your website is performing depends on how you measure its success. Here are a few ways you can measure the website’s success:

  • The number of visitors the site receives each month
  • The number of referrals the site receives from Google
  • The number of website enquiries you receive
  • The number of phone calls generated from your site
  • The number of bookings or reservations generated from your site
  • The number of direct sales from your website
  • The number of downloads from your website

Working out your website conversion rates

A conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action on your site (e.g. they complete an enquiry form or subscribe to a newsletter). A site can have a conversion rate for every ‘action’ on the site. If your website receives 1,000 visitors a month and 10 people complete your enquiry form each month, then your enquiry form conversion rate is 1%. To increase this to 20 enquiries a month you would need to double your visitor numbers or increase your conversion rate to 2%. A typical ‘lead generation’ website will have a conversion rate of 2-3%.

You can increase traffic or improve conversions to get the same result. It is probably a more efficient strategy to increase conversion rate, though getting more traffic to a website is always a desirable goal to work toward as well.

Attracting more visitors to your website (increasing traffic)

  • Search engine optimisation – have your site ‘optimised’ so it ranks more highly in the search engines for your keyword phrases.
  • Add more content – content attracts visitors to the site via search and links so add interesting and informative content to your site such as ‘how to’ guides, freebies, blog posts, articles and so forth.
  • Get more links to your website on website directories and other sites.
  • Advertise the website offline on signage, print adverts and stationery.
  • Pay to show up in Google Adwords (pay per click).
  • Participate in social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter.

Increasing your website’s conversion rates

There are many factors that can affect the performance of your website and how people interact with it. If your website is of a high design standard but is still under-performing, we would recommend making small incremental changes that can be measured independently, rather than making sweeping changes to the website.

Changes you can make to your website include:

  • Increase the speed of your website by optimising images, or removing unnecessary banners or scripts from your site.
  • Keep the clicks to a minimum – don’t hide important information too deeply in the site.
  • Put the most important information at the top of the website – such as contact details and phone numbers.
  • Repeat some of the most important information at the bottom of the website as research shows that many people are paying a lot of attention to website footers.
  • Make your ‘calls to action’ obvious, unambiguous and compelling. A call to action is asking your visitors to do something – such as complete an enquiry form or join a mailing list. A small link at the bottom of your website to ‘join mailing list’ is not going to be as effective as a graphic at the top that includes an inducement to join the list (such as a discount voucher).
  • Your website visitors will not fall into one homogenous group, so make your offer appeal to a broader range of customers by providing multiple options (three options has been found to be optimal).
  • Establish your credibility and reputation with customer testimonials, case studies, accreditations, and awards.
  • Review your website copy. Is it persuasive enough? Does it answer the questions people are asking themselves? Ask an independent person to read your website and provide you with feedback.
  • Check the website’s usability. Just how easy is it to use? Have someone unfamiliar with your website complete a number of goals on the site (such as joining the newsletter, finding pricing and contact details). Watch them interact with the site and note where they get confused.

For more help and advice contact the team at TML Web Design. We can take a look at your current website and provide some suggestions on how to improve conversions and traffic. Give us a call on 03 366 3340 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.