Recently I was reviewing the keyword specific conversion rate data of a consulting client of mine. I have been working with this client for a few months now, helping her improve the sales conversion rate of her website and we have had very good results, taking average conversion rates at her site from below 1% to just over 4.3%.
(Your sales conversion rate is simply the number of unique visitors your site receives vs. the number of sales you make. If you have 3 sales for every 100 visits your conversion rate is 3%.)
Now, one of the keys to improving conversion rates is to continually test and measure every detail of your website, marketing and traffic. While reviewing the data from one of her Google Adwords campaigns I stumbled across a few hard to explain results that perfectly illustrate the very large effect small differences can have on conversion rates.
The keyword "piano lessons" had a conversion rate over the last 30 days of 5.09%. The keyword "piano lesson" had a conversion rate of only 1.64%. Both of these keywords had the exact same Adwords title and description, the same average position in the search results and the exact same landing page on my clients website. The only variable is one letter in the keyword? an "s". Lesson vs. Lessons. That's it! Yet the plural version of the keyword (piano lessons) out sold the singular version (piano lesson) by over 300%!
Another key phrase that had an even larger variation was "how to play the piano" vs. "how to play a piano". Common sense would say that these two phrases would convert almost identically? Wrong.
Again, with identical titles, descriptions and landing pages, "How to play the piano" converted at 5.92%, while "How to play a piano" only converted at 1.42%. That is a whopping 417% difference between "a" and "the"!
Short-term variations and fluctuations in the conversion rates of individual keywords or landing pages are common. However, the data on both of these keyword pairs was measured over a full 30 days and several thousand clicks for each keyword. I don't have any easy answers why adding an "s" to a key phrase or changing an "a" to "the" caused such a difference in conversion rates.
Sure, you can guess at it and draw a few conclusions such as "plural keywords convert better than singular keywords" or "using 'the' in a key phrase is more specific and targeted than using 'a'". However, these conclusions are just guesses. The only real conclusion you can draw from this case study is that you have to test EVERYTHING!
If one word or one letter can have that big of an impact in an Adwords campaign, then a similar change in your main headline or guarantee can have an equally significant impact.
The lesson here is to test, test, test. What should you test?
Now, when you are testing a change, only test one item at a time. This part is critical. Testing only one change will help keep your results as accurate as possible. If you change 4 items at once and see a 1% boost in conversion rate, it is possible 3 items are helping and 1 is hurting, so your conversion rate boost would have been greater with just the 3 changes.
The bottom line is this?
If you really want to take your website's sales conversion rate to the next level, you must absolutely commit to a focused and long-term campaign of testing and optimizing every aspect of your site. You never know when a small change is going to give you huge results!
Copyright 2004 Eric Graham
Want to improve your conversion rates? Eric Graham is the CEO of several successful online companies. A top authority on eCommerce & Internet Marketing, he's an in-demand speaker & consultant. Visit http://www.web-site-evaluations.com today for an in-depth evaluation to boost YOUR websites conversion rate!
About The Author
Eric Graham is the CEO of several successful online companies. A top authority on eCommerce & Internet Marketing, he's an in-demand speaker & consultant. Visit http://www.web-site-evaluations.com for a FREE subscription to his eCommerce Mastery newsletter.
residential cleaning services Lincolnshire ..Mini Websites are the most powerful and cost effective solution... Read More
Designing and creating your own website does not have to... Read More
It is an undeniable fact that not everybody is keen... Read More
Build it and they will come is not always true;... Read More
Even though the Internet has been around for a long... Read More
Today it seems everyone is jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon,... Read More
Right after the thought, "I need a website," people usually... Read More
You've decided to create a website to market your products... Read More
Simply ensuring your website is accessible to screen reader users... Read More
How do you decide on the content, products and or... Read More
You have seen those web pages where they have the... Read More
An interesting eCommerce success factor that isn't precisely overlooked, but... Read More
Creating and maintaining an effective presence on the Web has... Read More
Customer service questionnaires can help your clients better understand their... Read More
Although designing a great web site is an important part... Read More
You don't believe in astrology but you check your horoscope... Read More
Is Your Web Site an Expense or an Investment?Why don't... Read More
When I set up my website I felt paypal was... Read More
So what do you do if need to get a... Read More
When used to describe a web site, the term "sticky"... Read More
Yahoo has long offered email, an online calendar, notes, bookmarks,... Read More
I'm one of those people that always wanted a website,... Read More
What is CSS?CSS is a simple file which controls the... Read More
Just like all things in life, the ways to run... Read More
Q. Hey, Cathy: I'm just setting up a website. What... Read More
best cleaning company Highland Park ..Are you, like many other website owners, frustrated at the... Read More
"'Page Not Found' on this Server. Check the URL and... Read More
There are several reverse bid freelance sites out there. Beyond... Read More
The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must... Read More
One of the most important parts of establishing a new... Read More
The first thing you will have to deal building your... Read More
Making a web site is easy. Making a good web... Read More
So you have a good idea for a business and... Read More
If you have your own business website and you are... Read More
A lot of people these days are interested in getting... Read More
Build it and they will come is not always true;... Read More
Your site is fast and getting traffic, but conversion rates... Read More
Analyzing traffic to a site is a key factor in... Read More
1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and... Read More
SummaryHere's the scoop on what you must know when designing... Read More
When you consider the billions of individuals and companies on... Read More
Whether you have your own business already, or are looking... Read More
The first thing my business consultant (read brother-in-law) asked me,... Read More
So you want to have a website. You have gone... Read More
Some left shoes are in isle 5, while the right... Read More
Although there are significant differences among the various types of... Read More
So your prospect, Mary, is sitting at the computer reading... Read More
I've heard several prominent web marketers mention in their classes... Read More
If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More
Cost Effective Advertising. Online selling. Increased geopgraphic range. Wider... Read More
Web Development |