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[burkhardt5]

Hello all!
Just wanted some opinion's about what is a good or bad conversion rate for a given site. I know that this is a very vague question and conversion rates will very but mine has changed drastically and I don't know why or what I can do about it.

About 10 months ago I was getting about 1 sale per 4000 visits, then about 4 months ago it went down to about 1 sale every 7500 visits. I didn't like that it had gone down but figured in time it would go back up. Now it is all the way down to the point that I haven't had a sale in over 25000 visits.
Any thought's?

Never Give Up!!!
Paul

 

[michellerana]

Conversions depend on a lot of factors like product, salespage, price, source of traffic. About a 1% conversion rate is usual (1 in every 100 clicks result in a sale). That is an average over time.

To improve your conversion rate, you have to keep building traffic, do some tests, track, and monitor.

 

[jmpruitt]

1 sale per 4000 visitors SUCKS! I would have been trying to increase conversions back then....

ok, sorry for the rant, but you have to work if you want to succeed.

IF you have the AB course, I recommend going back to the Week 9 videos, where Mark covers conversions, and tracking. it is the one area 90% of the people I see online fail. Honestly if you aren't tracking what works and TESTING new things to improve your numbers, You probably won't stay in business long.

So, first off, congrats on the sales and traffic you do have. in order to improve it, here are some split test suggestions:

First of all, look at the keywords you are targeting. Are you getting traffic from Buyer intent keywords? the bigger the crisis, the more willing to buy they are by the time they get to your site. This is where product reviews, high cisis keywords, and "the best xyz guides" type keywords are really helpful. they are high buyer intent and generally convert at a really high rate to sales with a decent review, and some good compelling calls to action.

Next look at the content on your pages. is it in depth? is it engaging people? do people feel as if you know what you are talking about, or is it just rehashed PLR crap that they have already seen on 1000 other websites?

Quality of your content will determine your conversions. if your content is weak or thin like most Affiliate sites ( trust me, most affiliates THINK they have great content, and they DON'T), you will get lower conversions than if you have really engaging and helpful content on your site.

Remember, quality isn't just about how well your articles are technically written ( ie.. spelling, and grammar error free) but also how you say what is in your articles. if you can engage people, and make them laugh, or tell them a story that they can relate to, you will get better responses, and your click rate will improve.

For example, in my dog training site, I did an article on how to Stop a Dog From Chewing, instead of just a plain and boring article on dog chewing, I took a spin with the words. There is a brand of Women's shoes called Jimmy Choos. You ladies have probably heard of them, even if you can't afford them (who pays $900 for a pair of shoes anyway?).

Anyway, took the spin and wrote the article on How to Stop Your Dog From CHewing Your Jimmy Chew Shoes I had fun with it and got the point across that I wanted to make. it was entertaining and people seem to react well to it. get a pretty high click rate on that one article, and the more clicks, the better chances you will get a sale.

Look at the sales page. is there something in the sales page targeting the exact same problem very early on? you might check to see if the merchant has problem or keyword specific landing pages. For example, several of marks products have multiple landing pages targeting specific problems, gender, and other factors that could make the sales page more relevant, and will improve conversions.

try a different banner/image.

Look at how relevant the product is to the keywords people are looking for. Look at your Call to action. is it compelling? does it tie the keyword to the product? remember, gettting a click to the merchant isn't enough. they need to be presold on the product by the time they get there.

This means, they need to know why and how this product will help them solve their problem when they get to the merchant site.

move your link placements.

Redo your color scheme ( its odd, but sometimes a simple color change will change your conversions...)

if you still want some help, or want a neutral opinion on how your site looks, pm me your URL, and i will take a look at it for you, and see if we can help you improve your conversions.

 

[jcdean]

James is spot on about the keyword(s) and buyer intent.

What are your keyword(s)

That is killer traffic though, may what to put some adsense up and see if you make more money that way.

 

[jmpruitt]

just replied to your PM Paul, hope the tips help. keep up the good work.

 

[burkhardt5]

Thanks for the help James, I am working on the changes now.

JCdean, thanks for your question. I am talking about my world of warcraft site and am working on many keywords from many angles. My home page is #1 in google for "world of warcraft strategy guide" , #1-2 for "WOW strategy Guide" and have top 5 rankings for others like "wow druid leveling guide" ,"druid pvp guide".

I also have gotten to #6 for "world of warcraft beginners guide" ,#4 for "WOW dungeon maps guide' just to give you an idea. A long term goal is to rank well for "world of warcraft leveling guide" , I am now bouncing from page 3-5 since this is a tough phrase to rank well for.

I'm not getting all that much traffic just about 250-300 visits per day but it's getting better.

My site is Superiorwowguide.com.

Once again thanks for your interest.

Never Give Up!!!
Paul

 

[cyuen025]

A common mistake that a lot of people make is that they think if they have a ton of traffic, then they should also be able to get loads of sales. It doesn't matter if you are getting 10,000 visitors or 2500 visitors. A site with 2500 visits could be getting more conversions than a site with 10,000 visits IF they are offering highly relevant, targetted content. It's important to look at your clickthrough rates. That's really what you're aiming for on your site -- you want them to click on your call to action.

What I would do is look at how many clicks you're getting in those 4000 visits. If it's a pretty low CTR %, then I would probably revise the content or the call to action. Of course, a low CTR % could be caused by a number of factors as well, not just content or call to actions. Keywords may be a factor as well.

 

[junepinto00]

This is perhaps the most important metric you can measure. By measuring a percentage of visitors you can estimate how well or how badly your website is doing regardless of traffic levels. We want people to make an online purchase, contact you or something of that nature. Getting people to do that thing is website conversion.

As a site owner, you need to optimize your conversion rate.

1. Benchmark
2. Create goals in analytics
3. Test usability
4. Identify what is not working and then start fixing what is not working

Link removed by moderator

 

[kieran]

I think it is also a good idea to keep a good record of webpage activity - keyword changes, merchant changes, hoplink statistics, sales and refund statistics, backlinks, all those sorts of things. Obvious, and probably implied in all the comments above, but I thought I would mention it just in case. I have an Excel spreadsheet for each website which I can use to analyze what works and what doesn't.

 

[Cecille L]

I think 1 to 2 sales our of every 100 visitors is good enough conversion. You need to get started on your tracking strategy early on so that you can compile data and have something to compare to like March data vs. April data. Collecting data like number of daily visitors, where these vsitors come from and how long they stay on the site and what page they stay longest in can help you get a picture of they type of visitors you get and what keywords took them to your site. If you can, try split testing and see which page gives you better conversions.

Hope that helps. Have a good day!