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	<title>SeeWhy &#187; internet marketing</title>
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	<link>http://seewhy.com</link>
	<description>Shopping Cart Recovery: Real Time = Real ROI</description>
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		<title>Web Form Design Checklist</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/11/17/web-form-design-checklist/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/11/17/web-form-design-checklist/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandonment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[form landing page checklist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landing page optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[maximizing conversions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multi page web form checklist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[remarketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[single page web form checklist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web forms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1942</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Increase-Web-Conversions-With-Web-Form-Design-Checklist.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1943" style="border: 1px solid grey;" title="Increase Web Conversions With Web Form Design Checklist" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Increase-Web-Conversions-With-Web-Form-Design-Checklist.jpg" alt="Increase Web Conversions With Web Form Design Checklist" width="149" height="149" /></a>On average, 62% web forms are abandoned before completion – this means that organizations are losing out on a lot of potential leads, applications and quotations, which results in lost leads and ultimately lost revenues. So in this, the first of two blogs on designing web forms, we’ve pulled together a simple checklist for you to use. The next blog will look at such aspects as field order and single page vs. multi page forms, but initially, I think it’s worth recapping the basics. In order to maximize web form submissions, marketers must design their web form with the recipient in mind. This may seem obvious, but it is amazing how ‘form blind’ marketing departments can get when they are trying to capture all the information they require. Typically, the marketer passes a list of fields to be captured to the web developer and scant attention is paid to what will make the form convert.<span id="more-1942"></span></p>
<p>Before designing any type of web form, it is important to define what you are trying to achieve. For instance, is your goal to maximize the number of form submissions, or drive only qualified leads i.e. quantity versus quality. Also, what value do you attribute to these form submissions – do you want a long standing relationship with these people? You need to have defined your requirements and those of your target audience so you can incorporate these into your form and required fields. Depending on the form’s purpose, the number of fields can range dramatically, so one of the first considerations is whether to have a single page or multi page form. Getting the balance is essential – people will be more reluctant to fill in multiple pieces of personal information if they do not feel it warrants it (i.e. a 10 field form for a pdf download) and too many fields on one page will put people off filling in the form completely. (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Increase-Web-Conversions-With-Web-Form-Design-Checklist.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1943" style="border: 1px solid grey;" title="Increase Web Conversions With Web Form Design Checklist" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Increase-Web-Conversions-With-Web-Form-Design-Checklist.jpg" alt="Increase Web Conversions With Web Form Design Checklist" width="149" height="149" /></a>On average, 62% web forms are abandoned before completion – this means that organizations are losing out on a lot of potential leads, applications and quotations, which results in lost leads and ultimately lost revenues. So in this, the first of two blogs on designing web forms, we’ve pulled together a simple checklist for you to use. The next blog will look at such aspects as field order and single page vs. multi page forms, but initially, I think it’s worth recapping the basics. In order to maximize web form submissions, marketers must design their web form with the recipient in mind. This may seem obvious, but it is amazing how ‘form blind’ marketing departments can get when they are trying to capture all the information they require. Typically, the marketer passes a list of fields to be captured to the web developer and scant attention is paid to what will make the form convert.<span id="more-1942"></span></p>
<p>Before designing any type of web form, it is important to define what you are trying to achieve. For instance, is your goal to maximize the number of form submissions, or drive only qualified leads i.e. quantity versus quality. Also, what value do you attribute to these form submissions – do you want a long standing relationship with these people? You need to have defined your requirements and those of your target audience so you can incorporate these into your form and required fields. Depending on the form’s purpose, the number of fields can range dramatically, so one of the first considerations is whether to have a single page or multi page form. Getting the balance is essential – people will be more reluctant to fill in multiple pieces of personal information if they do not feel it warrants it (i.e. a 10 field form for a pdf download) and too many fields on one page will put people off filling in the form completely.</p>
<p><strong>Single Page Web Form</strong></p>
<p>Some key considerations when designing a single web form are described below on our web form design checklist:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Number </strong>- Use the minimum number of fields possible</li>
<li><strong>Order</strong> &#8211; Easy data first, hard data later. Make it easy for your prospects to get started</li>
<li><strong>Placement</strong> &#8211; Ideally all above the fold</li>
<li><strong>Call to action</strong> &#8211; Clear ‘positive action’ button which restates the benefit, as opposed to a simple ‘Submit’ button</li>
<li><strong>Flow</strong> &#8211; Logical flow of requested information</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Multi Page Form</strong></p>
<p>Multi page forms can prove to be more problematic. For insurance claims or credit card applications, organizations require detailed, and in most cases very personal, information from the applicant in order to progress the form submission:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Simplify</strong> &#8211; Break forms done into multiple steps so it does not overwhelm</li>
<li><strong>Show progress </strong>– Implement progress indicators so applicants can track their way through the form</li>
<li><strong>Order</strong> &#8211; Easy first page, getting harder the further down the application process, when people are more compelled to complete since they have already gone so far</li>
<li><strong>Email address</strong> – Capture email address early in the process – this allows you to remarket to those that abandon the form</li>
<li><strong>Use persistent forms</strong> – Ensure applicants don’t have to re-enter information on an application that they had previously started to complete</li>
<li><strong>Show ‘Email me this’ button</strong> – So applicants have an easy link back to their partly completed form, which you can include in a remarketing email</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Landing Page</strong></p>
<p>Depending on the way your website and forms are set-up, you may also have a landing page to construct. The landing page needs to entice people to start the form submission process. Here are a few items you should consider for inclusion:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Clear benefits statement</strong> – To show why people should fill out the form</li>
<li><strong>Testimonials / quotes or video</strong> &#8211; To increase the organization’s credibility and their offerings</li>
<li><strong>Encourage communication</strong> – Through detailing contact phone number, email address and/or a click to chat button, which enables people to contact you should they have an issue. You have to strike a balance with this though since you do not want them to go away from the form unnecessarily to contact you by other means</li>
</ol>
<p>To gain more insight into how to design web forms and increase conversions, register for our webinar this Thursday, November, 18th. The webcast will discuss best practices when designing forms and landing pages, long forms vs. short forms, field order (and why it’s important), landing page optimization techniques and best practices as well as how Facebook can help you to increase form conversions. You can register for this webinar, entitled “<strong>Maximizing Conversions from Web Forms</strong>” <a title="Maximizing Conversions from Web Forms Webinar" href="http://seewhy.com/archive/Webform_landing_page.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/11/17/web-form-design-checklist/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8619</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>6-Point Guide to Email Remarketing and European Union Privacy Directive</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/11/04/email-remarketing-eu-privacy/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/11/04/email-remarketing-eu-privacy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CAN-SPAM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[e-Privacy Directives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email remarketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Union Data Protection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Union Privacy Directive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1770</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Guide-to-Email-Remarketing-and-European-Union-Privacy-Directive.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1771" title="Guide to Email Remarketing and European Union Privacy Directive" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Guide-to-Email-Remarketing-and-European-Union-Privacy-Directive.jpg" alt="Guide to Email Remarketing and European Union Privacy Directive" width="148" height="148" /></a>Remarketing emails, when done well, provide good service to customers. These emails are often kept and used as a reminder, or quick path back to items in their shopping cart. In the case of a web form, being able to pick up where you left off on a long form is really appreciated, and can save the customer significant time and effort.</p>
<p>There is a significant opportunity for emarketers here. On average 70% of shopping carts, and 62% of web forms are abandoned before completion. Yet email remarketing should recover on average between 10% and 30% of abandoners. That translates into significant dollars.</p>
<p>Several global brands have asked us about the compliance requirements for remarketing, especially in Europe. So we engaged Ruth Boardman, a partner at Bird and Bird LLP, and one of the world’s leading electronic data privacy experts. Ruth and I co-authored a white paper on <a title="Email Remarketing Compliance White Paper for CAN-SPAM and EU Privacy Directive" href="http://seewhy.com/whitepaper/legal.htm" target="_blank">email remarketing compliance</a> which covers this subject in more depth, and additionally we recorded a webcast titled <a title="Email Remarketing and Compliance (in the US and European Union) Webinar Recording " href="http://www.seewhy.com/resources_conversion_academy.htm" target="_blank">Email Remarketing and Compliance (in the US and European Union)</a>.</p>
<p>In a previous blog, we looked into what marketers have to do in order to comply with <a title="CAN-SPAM in the US for email remarketing " href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/20/email-remarketing-compliance/" target="_blank">CAN-SPAM in the US</a> for email remarketing – this week, I’m looking into The European Privacy Directive in Europe, which is slightly more complicated. <span id="more-1770"></span></p>
<p>Email remarketing compliance in the European Union is more complicated than in the US because while there is umbrella Europe-wide legislation in the form of the European Union Data Protection and e-Privacy Directives, each of the individual countries in Europe have interpreted the legislation slightly differently.</p>
<p><strong>European Union Privacy Directive Email Remarketing Checklist</strong></p>
<p>As with all processing of personal data, you will need to comply with general data protection obligations (including, but not limited to ensuring security of data, accuracy and quality of data and filing requirements). (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Guide-to-Email-Remarketing-and-European-Union-Privacy-Directive.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1771" title="Guide to Email Remarketing and European Union Privacy Directive" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Guide-to-Email-Remarketing-and-European-Union-Privacy-Directive.jpg" alt="Guide to Email Remarketing and European Union Privacy Directive" width="148" height="148" /></a>Remarketing emails, when done well, provide good service to customers. These emails are often kept and used as a reminder, or quick path back to items in their shopping cart. In the case of a web form, being able to pick up where you left off on a long form is really appreciated, and can save the customer significant time and effort.</p>
<p>There is a significant opportunity for emarketers here. On average 70% of shopping carts, and 62% of web forms are abandoned before completion. Yet email remarketing should recover on average between 10% and 30% of abandoners. That translates into significant dollars.</p>
<p>Several global brands have asked us about the compliance requirements for remarketing, especially in Europe. So we engaged Ruth Boardman, a partner at Bird and Bird LLP, and one of the world’s leading electronic data privacy experts. Ruth and I co-authored a white paper on <a title="Email Remarketing Compliance White Paper for CAN-SPAM and EU Privacy Directive" href="http://seewhy.com/whitepaper/legal.htm" target="_blank">email remarketing compliance</a> which covers this subject in more depth, and additionally we recorded a webcast titled <a title="Email Remarketing and Compliance (in the US and European Union) Webinar Recording " href="http://www.seewhy.com/resources_conversion_academy.htm" target="_blank">Email Remarketing and Compliance (in the US and European Union)</a>.</p>
<p>In a previous blog, we looked into what marketers have to do in order to comply with <a title="CAN-SPAM in the US for email remarketing " href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/20/email-remarketing-compliance/" target="_blank">CAN-SPAM in the US</a> for email remarketing – this week, I’m looking into The European Privacy Directive in Europe, which is slightly more complicated. <span id="more-1770"></span></p>
<p>Email remarketing compliance in the European Union is more complicated than in the US because while there is umbrella Europe-wide legislation in the form of the European Union Data Protection and e-Privacy Directives, each of the individual countries in Europe have interpreted the legislation slightly differently.</p>
<p><strong>European Union Privacy Directive Email Remarketing Checklist</strong></p>
<p>As with all processing of personal data, you will need to comply with general data protection obligations (including, but not limited to ensuring security of data, accuracy and quality of data and filing requirements). Here is a useful checklist of the specific requirements for email remarketing in Europe to comply with the European legislation:</p>
<ol>
<li><em><strong>Check Privacy Policy: </strong></em>As with the US, the first step is to check your website privacy policy before embarking on a remarketing campaign.  Most website privacy policies already contain the required language which covers using the data that has been captured for remarketing, but best practice is to insert a specific paragraph. An example of this is given in our <a title="Email Remarketing and Compliance White Paper including European Union Data Protection and e-Privacy Directives" href="http://seewhy.com/whitepaper/legal.htm" target="_blank">email remarketing compliance</a> whitepaper.</li>
<li><em><strong>Have an opt-in / opt-out on your shopping cart or web form: </strong></em>You need to explain to customers that you will keep their email addresses for email marketing and ask them to give consent to this – for example by ticking an opt-in box.<br />
•    <strong><em>Opt-in: </em></strong>To maximize the number of prospects to whom you can send follow-up emails, you should design your registration page so that your email marketing opt-in box is as close as possible to the place where the customer enters his email address.<br />
•   <em><strong> Opt-out:</strong></em> The European Union e-Privacy Directive also allows businesses to send email marketing on an opt-out basis in limited situations to customers who have not ticked an opt-out box. Some member states only allow marketing to be sent on this basis to customers who have made a purchase (not prospects); others such as the UK and France, allow emails to be sent on an opt-out basis more widely where there has been a negotiation for a sale. This exemption varies country by country.</li>
<li><em><strong>Easy unsubscribe mechanism:</strong></em> The sender has to offer the recipient a free-of-charge, valid and an easy-to-use mechanism to say no to future emails (opt-out).</li>
<li><strong><em>Honor opt-out requests promptly:</em></strong> You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request promptly.</li>
<li><em><strong>Don’t use false or misleading information:</strong></em> You must not disguise or conceal the identity of the sender in a commercial email message.</li>
<li><strong><em>Tell recipients where you’re located:</em></strong> Your message must include your valid physical postal address.</li>
</ol>
<p>Remarketing to visitors that abandon shopping carts and web forms is very effective in generating incremental sales. Remarketing is permitted in Europe, and subject to checking your privacy policy, and providing either an Opt-In or Opt-Out tick box on your website, can be implemented in confidence of compliance with the various legislation.</p>
<p>An Opt-In approach will work universally across the EU. However, some countries will allow remarketing on the basis of an Opt-Out. More details about the compliance requirements of the major European countries (France, UK, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Netherlands and Finland) can be found in the Country Compliance Table, contained in the <a title="Email remarketing compliance white paper contains country compliance table" href="http://seewhy.com/whitepaper/legal.htm" target="_blank">email remarketing compliance</a> white paper.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/11/04/email-remarketing-eu-privacy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7620</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Emotion—The Forgotten Factor Influencing eCommerce Purchases</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/12/emotion-ecommerce/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/12/emotion-ecommerce/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:36:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandoned shopping cart recovery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Codebaby]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landing page optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Patrick Bultema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web analytics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1651</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>When customers make purchases online, on average 3 out of every 10 that start the shopping cart process go all the way to complete the purchase. Seven out of 10 don’t and abandon the shopping cart. Shopping cart processes require visitors to fill in a form, submit personal details and click buttons. It’s a logical and completely rational process—at least to the ecommerce site.</p>
<p>But most buyers do not make purchases based solely on logic. This is where emotion comes in to play. Emotion is probably the single most important, and least understood, factor which makes the difference between a sale and a shopping cart abandonment.</p>
<p>Last week I caught up with Patrick Bultema, CEO of Codebaby, at the Conversion Conference. In the video interview below, I asked him about the ‘moments of truth’ that online visitors have when making purchases, and the critical role that emotion plays in many online purchases and shopping cart abandonment.</p>
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<p><span id="more-1651"></span>I’d love to hear your opinion on what role emotion plays in ecommerce. Please post your thoughts in the comments section of this blog.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &#169; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a> (&#8230;)</strong>.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When customers make purchases online, on average 3 out of every 10 that start the shopping cart process go all the way to complete the purchase. Seven out of 10 don’t and abandon the shopping cart. Shopping cart processes require visitors to fill in a form, submit personal details and click buttons. It’s a logical and completely rational process—at least to the ecommerce site.</p>
<p>But most buyers do not make purchases based solely on logic. This is where emotion comes in to play. Emotion is probably the single most important, and least understood, factor which makes the difference between a sale and a shopping cart abandonment.</p>
<p>Last week I caught up with Patrick Bultema, CEO of Codebaby, at the Conversion Conference. In the video interview below, I asked him about the ‘moments of truth’ that online visitors have when making purchases, and the critical role that emotion plays in many online purchases and shopping cart abandonment.</p>
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<p><span id="more-1651"></span>I’d love to hear your opinion on what role emotion plays in ecommerce. Please post your thoughts in the comments section of this blog.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Tactics to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment This Holiday Season</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/07/holiday-cart-abandonment/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/07/holiday-cart-abandonment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:14:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandoned shopping cart recovery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Black Friday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cyber Monday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email remarketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holiday season]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1622</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Top__7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season.png"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1623" title="Top_7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Top__7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season.png" alt="Top_7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season" width="150" height="150" /></a>So what can you do, during the crazy holiday season, to reduce shopping cart abandonment? We thought we’d put together a holiday season checklist to help you keep your customers in the shopping cart this Christmas.<span id="more-1622"></span></p>
<p>Before thinking about solutions to your shopping cart abandonment problem, it’s useful to look at the <a title="Reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/06/03/reasons-why-website-visitors-abandoned-their-shopping-carts/" target="_blank">reasons why customers abandon</a>. Based on <a title="Forrester study which examined why people abandon their online shopping carts" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/06/03/reasons-why-website-visitors-abandoned-their-shopping-carts/" target="_blank">this Forrester study</a>, you can group the top 5 reasons into:</p>
<ul>
<li>Price, especially shipping and handling, and shopping around for a deal</li>
<li>Not ready to buy</li>
</ul>
<p>But what all the research tends to miss are the emotional reasons for abandoning a shopping cart. In particular, confidence in the brand, service and, if your site is not a global brand, the basic worry of doing business online with an unfamiliar brand.</p>
<p><strong>Holiday Season Shopping Cart Abandonment Checklist</strong></p>
<p>Hopefully you’ve been working on most of these items for months, but if not, it’s not too late to implement many of these this year:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Drive down shipping and handling costs</strong><br />
The number one reason why customers abandon shopping carts is the cost of shipping and handling. While you may have seasonal free shipping promotions planned, these are tactical and it is difficult to offer free shipping more broadly. But driving down your shipping costs to rock bottom should be a priority at this time of year. This should have a measurable impact on your conversion rates.</li>
<li><strong>Minimum order free shipping</strong><br />
If you can’t offer free shipping, offer free shipping above a minimum order value. This should increase your average order value. Display prominently the minimums required for free shipping. Tell customers how much more they need to spend to get free shipping.</li>
<li><strong>Give them valid voucher codes</strong><br />
We know customers are looking for deals at this time of year, and it is important to recognize this behavior.</li> (&#8230;)</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Top__7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season.png"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1623" title="Top_7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Top__7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season.png" alt="Top_7_Tactics_To_Tackle_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_This_Holiday_Season" width="150" height="150" /></a>So what can you do, during the crazy holiday season, to reduce shopping cart abandonment? We thought we’d put together a holiday season checklist to help you keep your customers in the shopping cart this Christmas.<span id="more-1622"></span></p>
<p>Before thinking about solutions to your shopping cart abandonment problem, it’s useful to look at the <a title="Reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/06/03/reasons-why-website-visitors-abandoned-their-shopping-carts/" target="_blank">reasons why customers abandon</a>. Based on <a title="Forrester study which examined why people abandon their online shopping carts" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/06/03/reasons-why-website-visitors-abandoned-their-shopping-carts/" target="_blank">this Forrester study</a>, you can group the top 5 reasons into:</p>
<ul>
<li>Price, especially shipping and handling, and shopping around for a deal</li>
<li>Not ready to buy</li>
</ul>
<p>But what all the research tends to miss are the emotional reasons for abandoning a shopping cart. In particular, confidence in the brand, service and, if your site is not a global brand, the basic worry of doing business online with an unfamiliar brand.</p>
<p><strong>Holiday Season Shopping Cart Abandonment Checklist</strong></p>
<p>Hopefully you’ve been working on most of these items for months, but if not, it’s not too late to implement many of these this year:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Drive down shipping and handling costs</strong><br />
The number one reason why customers abandon shopping carts is the cost of shipping and handling. While you may have seasonal free shipping promotions planned, these are tactical and it is difficult to offer free shipping more broadly. But driving down your shipping costs to rock bottom should be a priority at this time of year. This should have a measurable impact on your conversion rates.</li>
<li><strong>Minimum order free shipping</strong><br />
If you can’t offer free shipping, offer free shipping above a minimum order value. This should increase your average order value. Display prominently the minimums required for free shipping. Tell customers how much more they need to spend to get free shipping.</li>
<li><strong>Give them valid voucher codes</strong><br />
We know customers are looking for deals at this time of year, and it is important to recognize this behavior. Ecommerce sites that provide a list of valid voucher codes on their website have found that they reduce both affiliate fees as well as increase conversions. For example, <a title="Voucher Codes and Website Conversion" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2009/09/30/voucher-codes-website-conversion/" target="_blank">Macy’s gets a 40 percent conversion on visitors to its voucher pages</a>. An additional tactic to consider is to move the coupon code box down the checkout process to make it a bit harder to shop for voucher codes. If customers still abandon with invalid voucher codes, then trigger a real-time email with a valid voucher code.</li>
<li><strong>‘Email me this’ button on product detail pages</strong><br />
In the run up to <a title="Ecommerce trends to watch out for this holiday season including Black Friday and Cyber Monday" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/28/ecommerce-holiday-trends/" target="_blank">Black Friday and Cyber Monday</a>, we know that customers change their behavior in anticipation of holiday promotions. <a title="Shopping cart abandonment rates change dramatically as customers move into a research mode, waiting for the promotion to be rolled out. " href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/28/ecommerce-holiday-trends/" target="_blank">The shopping cart abandonment rate changes dramatically as customers move into a research mode, waiting for the promotion to be rolled out</a>. There’s been a trend toward using shopping carts as ‘shopping list reminders,’ so a permanent shopping cart is a great bonus which enables customers to store their potential purchases. But putting in a permanent shopping cart is not a 10 minute job, so an alternate that you can still get in this year is the ‘email me this’ button on the product detail page. Sending the customer an email with an item they were viewing is a great way to provide a reminder that they can keep in their in box together with an easy link back to the page. This is a very simple remarketing technique that works very well and isn’t hard to do. It also has the benefit of capturing email addresses.</li>
<li><strong>Promote your phone number</strong><br />
Particularly if your site is not a well recognized brand, promoting your telephone number is important in converting those nervous about doing business with you online. The customer may have questions or just need to believe that there is a real business and a real person behind the website. If you’re a well known brand, you should be doing this already; in many cases, simply by offering a phone number, you can recover about five percent of sales that would otherwise be lost.</li>
<li><strong>Build trust with social media engagement</strong><br />
Last year, most retailers made extensive use of social media to promote holiday season special offers. But social media should not be just about promotions. If your brand is less well known, engaging potential customers in dialogue about your company, products and services will build trust at a critical time. Remember that shopping is more about emotion and less about rational decisions to many shoppers. Positive emotions about potential purchases are countered by negative emotions about potential post-purchase dissatisfaction. There is no substitute for a direct conversation with the customer to reassure him/her that you are a company with great service.</li>
<li><strong>Send remarketing emails</strong><br />
Customers that abandon their shopping carts are customers that <em><strong>almost</strong></em> purchased. One of the most effective techniques to reducing shopping cart abandonment is to trigger recovery emails to abandoners. Most ecommerce companies that send shopping cart recovery emails recover between 10 and 30 percent, and that translates into a significant return. If you want to calculate your potential return this holiday season, you can use this <a title="SeeWhy's Revenue Recovery Calculator to show ecommerce and other organizations the potential money they could save using Conversion Manager" href="http://www.seewhy.com/revenue_recovery_calculator.htm" target="_blank">revenue recovery calculator</a>.In the run up to Black Friday, record numbers of customers will abandon. These customers are telling you what products they are interested in. This is valuable data, and used in your remarketing emails, it will make them incredibly relevant—resulting in very high open rates. Many customers are <a title="Many customers are using shopping carts as wish lists in run up to holiday season and Black Friday" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2009/09/03/good-intentions-buyers-using-shopping-carts-as-wish-lists/" target="_blank">using shopping carts as wish lists</a>, particularly during the holiday season; so even if your remarketing email doesn’t trigger an immediate purchase, there’s a strong likelihood that the email will be kept in their inbox and opened several times to use the short-cut link back to their shopping cart wish list.</li>
</ol>
<p>Hopefully this has given you some ideas about reducing shopping cart abandonment this holiday season. Let us know how you fare!</p>
<p><em><strong></strong></em></p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/10/07/holiday-cart-abandonment/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6959</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Website Conversion Priorities for eMarketers in the Next 12 Months</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/21/website-conversion-priorities/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/21/website-conversion-priorities/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandoned shopping cart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email remarketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook social plugins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landing page optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[remarketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1507</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Top-priorities-in-the-next-12-months-for-eMarketers3.png"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1513" title="Top priorities in the next 12 months for eMarketers Conversion Leader's Survey" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Top-priorities-in-the-next-12-months-for-eMarketers3-150x150.png" alt="Top priorities in the next 12 months for eMarketers Conversion Leader's Survey" width="150" height="150" /></a>On July 27, SeeWhy conducted an online poll among 221 eMarketers. The results reveal some potential shifts in focus over the next 12 months: shopping cart recovery, reducing landing page clutter, link building, and transactional email all emerge as top priorities.</p>
<p>The poll also looked in detail at four key areas of conversion to determine their priorities. The four areas examined were as follows:</p>
<p>•    SEO<br />
•    Landing page optimization<br />
•    Email marketing<br />
•    Web conversion/shopping cart recovery techniques</p>
<p>Each respondent was allowed to pick only one response in each category, forcing them to choose their top priority.</p>
<p><strong>SEO Priorities</strong></p>
<p>Marketers plan to focus on link building as their top priority in the next 12 months, with 42 percent stating that it is their top SEO focus. Changes to website pages to ensure they are more <a title="SEO Checklist" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/02/seo-checklist-by-seomoz-org/" target="_blank">SEO</a> friendly were the highest priority for 22 percent, while 21 percent plan to focus on social media integration. Site-based optimization (such as sitemaps and navigation) was the main focus for only 15 percent. There are two notable conclusions that you draw about these findings:</p>
<p>1)    Marketers have taken on board the changes made over recent months by Google to prioritize quality and diversity of links in search results over the content itself.</p>
<p>2)    Social media integration is unexpectedly high. While social media is hot for marketers, in SEO terms this is really cutting edge stuff, and it signals that marketers have recognized the importance of social media in driving traffic. In particular, <a title="Facebook's Social Plugins challenge Google" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/07/07/facebooks-social-plugins-challenge-google/" target="_blank">Facebook’s social plugins</a>, including the easy to implement ‘Like’ button, are beginning to be viewed as a simple ‘social SEO toolkit.’<br />
<strong><br />
Website and Landing Page Optimization</strong></p>
<p>Marketers are taking the ‘less is more’ philosophy to heart when it comes to <a title="Landing page optimization checklist" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/14/landing-page-optimization/" target="_blank">landing page optimization</a>. Just over half (51 percent) stated that reducing clutter was their top priority, recognizing that landing pages have been added to gradually over time at the expense of simplicity and simple, strong calls to action. (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Top-priorities-in-the-next-12-months-for-eMarketers3.png"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1513" title="Top priorities in the next 12 months for eMarketers Conversion Leader's Survey" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Top-priorities-in-the-next-12-months-for-eMarketers3-150x150.png" alt="Top priorities in the next 12 months for eMarketers Conversion Leader's Survey" width="150" height="150" /></a>On July 27, SeeWhy conducted an online poll among 221 eMarketers. The results reveal some potential shifts in focus over the next 12 months: shopping cart recovery, reducing landing page clutter, link building, and transactional email all emerge as top priorities.</p>
<p>The poll also looked in detail at four key areas of conversion to determine their priorities. The four areas examined were as follows:</p>
<p>•    SEO<br />
•    Landing page optimization<br />
•    Email marketing<br />
•    Web conversion/shopping cart recovery techniques</p>
<p>Each respondent was allowed to pick only one response in each category, forcing them to choose their top priority.</p>
<p><strong>SEO Priorities</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_1527" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 406px"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Which-SEO-technique-would-you-prioritize-in-next-12-months2.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1527" title="Which SEO technique would you prioritize in next 12 months" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Which-SEO-technique-would-you-prioritize-in-next-12-months2.png" alt="Which SEO technique would you prioritize in next 12 months" width="396" height="431" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Which SEO technique would you prioritize in next 12 months</p></div>
<p>Marketers plan to focus on link building as their top priority in the next 12 months, with 42 percent stating that it is their top SEO focus. Changes to website pages to ensure they are more <a title="SEO Checklist" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/02/seo-checklist-by-seomoz-org/" target="_blank">SEO</a> friendly were the highest priority for 22 percent, while 21 percent plan to focus on social media integration. Site-based optimization (such as sitemaps and navigation) was the main focus for only 15 percent. There are two notable conclusions that you draw about these findings:</p>
<p>1)    Marketers have taken on board the changes made over recent months by Google to prioritize quality and diversity of links in search results over the content itself.</p>
<p>2)    Social media integration is unexpectedly high. While social media is hot for marketers, in SEO terms this is really cutting edge stuff, and it signals that marketers have recognized the importance of social media in driving traffic. In particular, <a title="Facebook's Social Plugins challenge Google" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/07/07/facebooks-social-plugins-challenge-google/" target="_blank">Facebook’s social plugins</a>, including the easy to implement ‘Like’ button, are beginning to be viewed as a simple ‘social SEO toolkit.’<br />
<strong><br />
Website and Landing Page Optimization</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_1525" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 419px"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Which-landing-page-optimization-technique-would-you-prioritize-in-next-12-months.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1525" title="Which landing page optimization technique would you prioritize in next 12 months" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Which-landing-page-optimization-technique-would-you-prioritize-in-next-12-months.png" alt="Which landing page optimization technique would you prioritize in next 12 months" width="409" height="412" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Which landing page optimization technique would you prioritize in next 12 months</p></div>
<p>Marketers are taking the ‘less is more’ philosophy to heart when it comes to <a title="Landing page optimization checklist" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/14/landing-page-optimization/" target="_blank">landing page optimization</a>. Just over half (51 percent) stated that reducing clutter was their top priority, recognizing that landing pages have been added to gradually over time at the expense of simplicity and simple, strong calls to action.</p>
<p>Twenty-eight percent of marketers plan to re-evaluate their text on the page with a view to increasing website conversion rates, while only seventeen percent are prioritizing removing fields from data capture forms. This is surprising as experts repeatedly emphasize the importance of having only the necessary fields on forms to <a title="Which website conversion rate to choose" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/10/which-website-conversion-rate/" target="_blank">increase online conversion rates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Email Marketing Priorities</strong></p>
<p>One third of email marketers plan to prioritize post purchase email marketing (such as reviews and satisfaction surveys); while another third plan to focus on pre-transactional email (e.g. abandonment remarketing including ‘browse-but-no-purchase’ and <a title="Reduce shopping cart abandonment with Conversion Manager" href="http://seewhy.com/archive/products_seewhy_conversion_manager.htm" target="_blank">shopping cart abandonment</a>) in the next 12 months. <a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Email-graph.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1543 alignleft" title="Email marketing priorities for the next 12 months" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Email-graph.jpg" alt="" width="625" height="473" /></a>Twenty-two percent plan to focus on relationship building through email marketing, such as loyalty schemes and vouchers.</p>
<p>What’s notable from these findings is the rapid growth in<a title="Transactional email check list to increase online conversion rates" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/09/transactional-email-checklist/" target="_blank"> transactional email</a>, whether from a successful or an abandoned transaction. As integration between ecommerce systems and email engines has become much more pre-packaged—with the widespread availability of transactional interfaces for email—marketers are (finally) able to fulfill a long time desire to use website behavioral data to trigger targeted email marketing that is highly relevant and personal to the recipient.<br />
<strong><br />
Website Conversion / Shopping Cart Recovery Techniques</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_1531" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 426px"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Which-web-conversion-shopping-cart-recovery-technique-would-you-prioritize-in-the-next-12-months.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1531" title="Which web conversion shopping cart recovery technique would you prioritize in the next 12 months" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Which-web-conversion-shopping-cart-recovery-technique-would-you-prioritize-in-the-next-12-months.png" alt="Which web conversion shopping cart recovery technique would you prioritize in the next 12 months" width="416" height="427" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Which web conversion/ shopping cart recovery technique would you prioritize in the next 12 months</p></div>
<p>Organizations know that their hottest leads are with website visitors who have abandoned shopping carts, and 55 percent of marketers plan to make <a title="Why visitors abandon shopping carts" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/06/03/reasons-why-website-visitors-abandoned-their-shopping-carts/" target="_blank">shopping cart recovery</a> their top website conversion priority in the next 12 months. Marketers also recognize that price promotions are increasingly critical in the battle for online sales, particularly in the holiday season, and 19 percent intend to focus on <a title="Online personas of people who use online discount vouchers" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/03/deals-discounts-coupons-online/" target="_blank">onsite voucher pages</a> where customers can view all active promotions. These pages are effective in driving conversions and also reduce affiliate fees to price comparison engines and promotion code websites.</p>
<p>A further 19 percent are prioritizing incentivized signups to capture email addresses and social network ID’s to enable the build of opt-in lists for email and social marketing.</p>
<p>These results, individually and collectively, illustrate the growing awareness among eMarketers that having a website in isolation is no longer sufficient. In order to achieve conversion rate optimization, organic SEO results—predominately through link building—have been proven to be more effective than PPC and sponsored links, which consumers have grown wary of. Many websites built a few years ago have been added to incrementally and now require simplification in order to ensure the calls to action are more prominent. Marketers also plan to use email marketing for more than batch-based, campaign-related emails; they intend to utilize this to build relationships with customers and potential purchasers. Finally, organizations have identified that they are losing a substantial percentage of leads as they have a high form and shopping cart abandonment rate. They are thus looking for online marketing tools that can help them recapture these hot leads through remarketing.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>4973</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Landing Page Optimization Checklist: Less is More Should be the New Approach</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/14/landing-page-optimization/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/14/landing-page-optimization/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandoned shopping cart recovery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landing page optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SiteTuners]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tim Ash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1482</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Make-your-website-stand-out-landing-page-optimization-SiteTuners-41.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1492" title="Make-your-website-stand-out-landing-page-optimization-SiteTuners-4" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Make-your-website-stand-out-landing-page-optimization-SiteTuners-41-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>When it comes to website conversion and landing page optimization, Tim Ash advocates that less is more. The president and CEO of SiteTuners.com, Tim has worked with American Express, Sony Music, Verizon Wireless, 1-800-Flowers, and others; so he knows how to improve <a title="Website conversion rates" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/10/which-website-conversion-rate/" target="_blank">website conversion rates</a> by doing less. At the recent Conversion Leaders Summit, Tim provided three key pieces of advice to follow when looking at your website:<span id="more-1482"></span><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>•    Less clutter<br />
•    Less text<br />
•    Less information</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Landing-page-Optimization-Checklist.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1496" title="Landing-page-Optimization-Checklist" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Landing-page-Optimization-Checklist-150x150.jpg" alt="Checklist for landing page optimization" width="150" height="150" /></a>Less clutter.</strong> Visual clutter kills conversion. In many cases, graphic designers, the people actually constructing your pages, can be your worst enemies because they try to do too much with the page. As a result, website visitors have no idea what to look at, or what to interact with, on the page.</p>
<p>If the call to action on your landing page is not obvious, you should radically strip down the page to <a title="Increase online conversion rates" href="http://seewhy.com/archive/products_seewhy_conversion_manager.htm" target="_blank">increase online conversion rates</a>. If there are a lot of bright but unnecessary visual elements competing for the visitor’s attention, you are advised to refocus on the page’s objective and declutter. What do you want the user to do? What’s the next step in the <a title="Conversion process" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/04/29/most-influential-top-converting-website/" target="_blank">conversion process</a>? Make it obvious to the user, because if it’s not obvious, you are losing money.</p>
<p><strong>Less text. </strong> Too much text limits conversion. Landing pages frequently include a lot of text, especially if they are also being used for <a title="Search Engine Optimization" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/02/seo-checklist-by-seomoz-org/" target="_blank">SEO</a> purposes. Do you really expect people to read all of that information? Of course not. Putting an overbearing amount of information on a landing page basically guarantees that people will not read it. They won’t even begin.</p>
<p>The alternative—less text—can look pretty stark in comparison. Less text, however, makes the call to action much clearer. If you need text for SEO, you can still put it on the landing page; just put it at the bottom where it won’t interfere with a good user experience. (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Make-your-website-stand-out-landing-page-optimization-SiteTuners-41.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1492" title="Make-your-website-stand-out-landing-page-optimization-SiteTuners-4" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Make-your-website-stand-out-landing-page-optimization-SiteTuners-41-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>When it comes to website conversion and landing page optimization, Tim Ash advocates that less is more. The president and CEO of SiteTuners.com, Tim has worked with American Express, Sony Music, Verizon Wireless, 1-800-Flowers, and others; so he knows how to improve <a title="Website conversion rates" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/10/which-website-conversion-rate/" target="_blank">website conversion rates</a> by doing less. At the recent Conversion Leaders Summit, Tim provided three key pieces of advice to follow when looking at your website:<span id="more-1482"></span><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>•    Less clutter<br />
•    Less text<br />
•    Less information</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Landing-page-Optimization-Checklist.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1496" title="Landing-page-Optimization-Checklist" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Landing-page-Optimization-Checklist-150x150.jpg" alt="Checklist for landing page optimization" width="150" height="150" /></a>Less clutter.</strong> Visual clutter kills conversion. In many cases, graphic designers, the people actually constructing your pages, can be your worst enemies because they try to do too much with the page. As a result, website visitors have no idea what to look at, or what to interact with, on the page.</p>
<p>If the call to action on your landing page is not obvious, you should radically strip down the page to <a title="Increase online conversion rates" href="http://seewhy.com/archive/products_seewhy_conversion_manager.htm" target="_blank">increase online conversion rates</a>. If there are a lot of bright but unnecessary visual elements competing for the visitor’s attention, you are advised to refocus on the page’s objective and declutter. What do you want the user to do? What’s the next step in the <a title="Conversion process" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/04/29/most-influential-top-converting-website/" target="_blank">conversion process</a>? Make it obvious to the user, because if it’s not obvious, you are losing money.</p>
<p><strong>Less text. </strong> Too much text limits conversion. Landing pages frequently include a lot of text, especially if they are also being used for <a title="Search Engine Optimization" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/02/seo-checklist-by-seomoz-org/" target="_blank">SEO</a> purposes. Do you really expect people to read all of that information? Of course not. Putting an overbearing amount of information on a landing page basically guarantees that people will not read it. They won’t even begin.</p>
<p>The alternative—less text—can look pretty stark in comparison. Less text, however, makes the call to action much clearer. If you need text for SEO, you can still put it on the landing page; just put it at the bottom where it won’t interfere with a good user experience. People will have to scroll to read that text, but that’s okay. That text isn’t for your users; it’s for the search engines.</p>
<p><strong>Less information.</strong> Asking for too much personal information also hinders conversion rate optimization. Marketers tend to ask for too much personal information too early, and they drive up the form and <a title="Shopping cart abandonment rate" href="http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/06/09/shopping-cart-abandonment-rates/" target="_blank">shopping cart abandonment rate</a> in the process. Reverse that trend by collecting only information that is absolutely necessary to complete the specific transaction or form.</p>
<p>For example, you don’t need to ask for a user’s street, city, state, zip and country to let him or her download a PDF. So don’t ask for it. What information is needed for the download? Nothing. If you let users download a PDF without any sort of registration, downloads will increase significantly as a result. If you do want to follow up, however, as most website owners do, collect the minimum information you’ll need for the follow up, such as the user’s name and email address. Collect additional information later, when it’s appropriate—e.g. the mailing address when the user is ready to buy.</p>
<p>If you’d like more information, you can view a 10 minute video of Tim’s presentation (by selecting View SiteTuners presentation), or view a replay of the entire webinar (by selecting View entire presentation), under <strong>The Conversion Leaders Summit</strong> <a title="Conversion Leaders Summit" href="http://www.seewhy.com/resources_conversion_academy.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p>Other insights are also available from myself on website conversion and recovery of abandoned shopping carts through remarketing; Danny Dover, an SEO expert from SEOmoz.org; and Loren McDonald, VP of Industry Relations at Silverpop, a leading email service provider.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>6827</slash:comments>
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		<title>SEO Checklist: SEOmoz Highlights Search Engine Optimization Priorities</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/02/seo-checklist-by-seomoz-org/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/09/02/seo-checklist-by-seomoz-org/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversion Leader's Summit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Danny Dover]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEOmoz.org]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1425</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SEOmoz.org-check-list-on-SEO.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1426" title="SEOmoz.org check list on SEO from Conversion Leader's Summit" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SEOmoz.org-check-list-on-SEO-150x150.jpg" alt="SEOmoz.org check list on SEO from Conversion Leader's Summit" width="150" height="150" /></a>At the recent Conversion Leaders Summit on improving website performance, Danny Dover cut though the SEO hype to provide some fresh insight into search engine optimization. Danny is an SEO specialist with SEOmoz.org, one of the thought leaders in the space, so I’m sharing the highlights of his presentation and his six-point SEO checklist here.<span id="more-1425"></span></p>
<p><strong>Why do SEO?</strong> Because SEO drives traffic to your website—for free. The traffic-driving alternative is to buy pay-per-click ads. It turns out that organic SEO links—the actual search results generated by Google, Yahoo!, et al.—get about 90 percent of the clicks while the PPC ads on those pages get 10 percent. So, SEO is important because you can get a lot of free traffic if you do it right.</p>
<p>Everyone knows the higher your rank in a search engine’s results, the more traffic you’ll get, but how much more? The number one position gets 42 percent of the clicks. Number two falls to 11 percent; number three gets 8 percent; and finally, number 10 drops to 3 percent. Clearly, you want to be in the top five because people don’t look much beyond that fifth result.</p>
<p><strong>How to do SEO? </strong>Two primary consideration factors in SEO—popularity and relevancy.</p>
<p>Popularity in SEO means links. SEO experts suspect that links account for 75 percent of the overall Google algorithm, making them extremely important. Google emphasizes link profiles—where they come from, what the anchor text says, etc.—and you can optimize your link profiles by studying them, as well as those your competitors are using. Tools such as Yahoo! Site Explorer or SEOmoz Open Site Explorer will help you with this.</p>
<p>Relevancy translates to on-page optimization, which includes such things as keyword choice and where it’s located on the page. On-page optimization makes up 25 percent of the Google algorithm. (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SEOmoz.org-check-list-on-SEO.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1426" title="SEOmoz.org check list on SEO from Conversion Leader's Summit" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SEOmoz.org-check-list-on-SEO-150x150.jpg" alt="SEOmoz.org check list on SEO from Conversion Leader's Summit" width="150" height="150" /></a>At the recent Conversion Leaders Summit on improving website performance, Danny Dover cut though the SEO hype to provide some fresh insight into search engine optimization. Danny is an SEO specialist with SEOmoz.org, one of the thought leaders in the space, so I’m sharing the highlights of his presentation and his six-point SEO checklist here.<span id="more-1425"></span></p>
<p><strong>Why do SEO?</strong> Because SEO drives traffic to your website—for free. The traffic-driving alternative is to buy pay-per-click ads. It turns out that organic SEO links—the actual search results generated by Google, Yahoo!, et al.—get about 90 percent of the clicks while the PPC ads on those pages get 10 percent. So, SEO is important because you can get a lot of free traffic if you do it right.</p>
<p>Everyone knows the higher your rank in a search engine’s results, the more traffic you’ll get, but how much more? The number one position gets 42 percent of the clicks. Number two falls to 11 percent; number three gets 8 percent; and finally, number 10 drops to 3 percent. Clearly, you want to be in the top five because people don’t look much beyond that fifth result.</p>
<p><strong>How to do SEO? </strong>Two primary consideration factors in SEO—popularity and relevancy.</p>
<p>Popularity in SEO means links. SEO experts suspect that links account for 75 percent of the overall Google algorithm, making them extremely important. Google emphasizes link profiles—where they come from, what the anchor text says, etc.—and you can optimize your link profiles by studying them, as well as those your competitors are using. Tools such as Yahoo! Site Explorer or SEOmoz Open Site Explorer will help you with this.</p>
<p>Relevancy translates to on-page optimization, which includes such things as keyword choice and where it’s located on the page. On-page optimization makes up 25 percent of the Google algorithm. Here, the important things to look at are the URL, title tag, meta description, content, and images with Alt text. The title tags are probably the most important area, with the URL being second. Also, content helps build relevancy as well as popularity (gaining links).</p>
<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Checklist.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1427" title="Top tips to improve your website's SEO for increased website conversions." src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Checklist-300x299.jpg" alt="Top tips to improve your website's SEO for increased website conversions." width="180" height="179" /></a><strong>Danny’s SEO six-point checklist </strong>of things you can do today to improve your SEO includes:</p>
<p>1.    <strong>Study the cached, text-only version of your site (and your competitors).</strong> Perform a Google search and select the “cached” option from the results page. Then select the “text-only version” from the cached page. The text-only version shows you what Google sees as important when trying to determine relevancy.</p>
<p>2.    <strong>Avoid duplicate content. </strong>Search engines have a difficult time determining relevancy when they run into duplicate content, e.g., a website accessible from both http://www.company-name.com and http://company-name.com. It’s a common mistake, and it hurts SEO.</p>
<p>3.    <strong>Optimize your site’s global navigation.</strong> This is especially important on ecommerce sites. Make sure your categories and subcategories are well-implemented and are as close—from a click perspective—to the homepage server as possible. Search engines rely on this categorization; and every time they go down another level, another subcategory, they devalue that page.</p>
<p>4.    <strong>Use a robots.txt file.</strong> This is the one file on your server that you can use to control the search engine and what it can and can’t see.</p>
<p>5.    <strong>Submit a sitemap. </strong>The sitemap is an XML file you submit directly to the search engines. It’s a complete list of your website, and it’s easy for the search engines to parse. Basically, sitemaps help you get indexed, so they can make a dramatic difference.</p>
<p>6.    <strong>Look at the links. </strong>Check out where your competitors are getting links with one of the tools mentioned earlier. By discovering where your competitors are getting links from, you can tailor your content and link building efforts to leverage their success.</p>
<p>If you’d like more information, you can view a 10 minute video of Danny’s presentation (by selecting View SEOmoz presentation), or view a replay of the entire webinar (by selecting View entire presentation), under <strong>The Conversion Leaders Summit</strong> <a href="http://www.seewhy.com/resources_conversion_academy.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>7376</slash:comments>
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		<title>How Old-School Catalogs Help Drive Up Online Sales</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/17/catalogs-help-online-sales/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/17/catalogs-help-online-sales/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[catalog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[top ten converting websites conventional wisdom ecommerce]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales2.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1381" title="Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales2.jpg" alt="Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales" width="150" height="144" /></a>I recently received an email from Internet Retailer promoting a piece of research which suggests that online shoppers that received a catalog in the mail spent on average 163 percent more than those that didn’t.</p>
<p>One hundred sixty-three percent? That’s a big difference.<span id="more-1371"></span></p>
<p>This prompted me to go back to the research <a href="http://www.seewhy.com/" target="_blank">SeeWhy</a> did into the <a href="http://bit.ly/9KfRay" target="_blank">Lessons Learned from the Top 10 Converting Websites</a>, which revealed that 9 out of 10 of the top converting websites in the U.S. also have catalogs. These companies have visitor–to-sale conversion rates averaging 23 percent, compared with an industry average of 2-3 percent. However, this cannot be attributed solely to having a catalog.</p>
<p>Most online marketers strive to maximize their website conversion rates. When setting out on this path, the usual starting point for conversion rate optimization is data. Now, I’m a data-driven guy who lives in the analytics world, but it’s important to remember that conversion rate optimization is about <strong>getting more sales online</strong>.</p>
<p>It’s not about data, web analytics reports, conversion funnels, website tuning or anything else. These are all tools at your disposal to help you optimize your conversion rate, and it is important not to become overly fixated on the tools, but to focus on the goal: drive more online revenues. It’s not about whether the checkout button should be in green or on the right hand side.</p>
<p>So take a step back for a moment, and look afresh at your website. Think about your buyers—who they are, what they are like, and in a moment of escapism, become one. Visualize how they arrive at your site, where they come from, who influences them, and what makes them visit you online.</p>
<p>Sooner or later, we all realize that the quality of traffic to a website is absolutely critical when it comes to conversion rate optimization. (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales2.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1381" title="Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales2.jpg" alt="Old-School-Catalogs-Help-Drive-Up-Online-Sales" width="150" height="144" /></a>I recently received an email from Internet Retailer promoting a piece of research which suggests that online shoppers that received a catalog in the mail spent on average 163 percent more than those that didn’t.</p>
<p>One hundred sixty-three percent? That’s a big difference.<span id="more-1371"></span></p>
<p>This prompted me to go back to the research <a href="http://www.seewhy.com/" target="_blank">SeeWhy</a> did into the <a href="http://bit.ly/9KfRay" target="_blank">Lessons Learned from the Top 10 Converting Websites</a>, which revealed that 9 out of 10 of the top converting websites in the U.S. also have catalogs. These companies have visitor–to-sale conversion rates averaging 23 percent, compared with an industry average of 2-3 percent. However, this cannot be attributed solely to having a catalog.</p>
<p>Most online marketers strive to maximize their website conversion rates. When setting out on this path, the usual starting point for conversion rate optimization is data. Now, I’m a data-driven guy who lives in the analytics world, but it’s important to remember that conversion rate optimization is about <strong>getting more sales online</strong>.</p>
<p>It’s not about data, web analytics reports, conversion funnels, website tuning or anything else. These are all tools at your disposal to help you optimize your conversion rate, and it is important not to become overly fixated on the tools, but to focus on the goal: drive more online revenues. It’s not about whether the checkout button should be in green or on the right hand side.</p>
<p>So take a step back for a moment, and look afresh at your website. Think about your buyers—who they are, what they are like, and in a moment of escapism, become one. Visualize how they arrive at your site, where they come from, who influences them, and what makes them visit you online.</p>
<p>Sooner or later, we all realize that the quality of traffic to a website is absolutely critical when it comes to conversion rate optimization. One hundred thousand visitors per day that never buy may make your high-level visitor stats look good, but they throw off the rest of your metrics and do nothing for sales. An extra 1,000 visitors per day that convert will make all the difference. This doesn’t mean that high traffic volumes are bad, but the higher the quality of traffic arriving at your site, the greater your chances of converting visitors to sales.</p>
<p>The mainstay in driving quality traffic to websites for many years has been email, and increasingly for many ecommerce sites, traffic referred from their other website on Facebook. But catalogs? How very 1980’s.</p>
<p>Yet all the evidence suggests that customers love to browse offline and purchase online. In fact, research conducted by the USPS and Comscore (see below) found that catalogs doubled sales and increased website traffic for both existing and new customers.</p>
<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Catalogs-more-than-doubled-online-sales3.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1387 aligncenter" title="Catalogs-more-than-doubled-online-sales" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Catalogs-more-than-doubled-online-sales3.png" alt="Catalogs-more-than-doubled-online-sales" width="467" height="318" /></a><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Catalogs-drive-web-visits3.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1388 aligncenter" title="Catalogs-drive-web-visits" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Catalogs-drive-web-visits3.png" alt="Catalogs-drive-web-visits" width="467" height="330" /></a></p>
<p>This is one of the primary reasons why the big direct marketing companies consistently have high converting websites. Visitors that arrive at their websites are not cautious and in need of convincing because they have probably already been warmed up by an old-fashioned direct mail campaign and a catalog that arrived in their mailbox. They also have a very strong repeat purchase culture. While many marketers are fixated about new visitors, many of the top converting websites are focused on getting the second, third and fourth sale.</p>
<p>The purpose of this blog was to get you to step back from your website conversion problem for a moment and look holistically at your business, your customers and how to reach them. Hopefully it’s helped.</p>
<p>Many ecommerce companies could benefit not only from catalogs, but by thinking more holistically about their market and integrating communications across the full spectrum of channels in order to drive better quality traffic. And therein, their conversion rate will climb.</p>
<p>Without changing their checkout button to green or moving it two inches to the right.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5865</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Understanding Which Website Conversion Rate to Use</title>
		<link>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/10/which-website-conversion-rate/</link>
		<comments>http://seewhy.com/blog/2010/08/10/which-website-conversion-rate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>carles.nicholls</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandoned shopping cart recovery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopping cart abandonment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Top 10 Converting Websites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://seewhy.com/blog/?p=1350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-rate-which-option-21.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1358" title="website-conversion-rate-which-option" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-rate-which-option-21.jpg" alt="website-conversion-rate-which-option" width="150" height="112" /></a>Website conversion rates are bandied about the ecommerce industry all the time, and despite many being familiar with the concept, I consistently find that a lot of people are a bit fuzzy on their website conversion and abandonment rates. This blog is intended to define the different website conversion rates and explain how to use them—and how not to.<span id="more-1350"></span></p>
<p>Whatever your particular goal, getting visitors to engage and follow a path to conversion is at the heart of driving value from your website. While most web teams track website conversion, the diversity of potential factors that affect conversion (and its evil twin, abandonment) makes this a very hard process to manage.</p>
<p>The biggest of these factors is promotions, which can cause massive changes to your website conversion rate. Equally, your competitors’ promotions can also have a big impact on your website conversion rate. Seasonally, customers have become conditioned to <a href="http://bit.ly/b4Uxm4" target="_blank">expect promotions</a> at certain times of the year; as a result, looking at your conversion rates without considering these factors is a bit like stumbling around in the dark looking for the light switch.</p>
<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-funnel.png"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1353" title="website-conversion-funnel" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-funnel-236x300.png" alt="website-conversion-funnel" width="236" height="300" /></a>In the early days of the web, we focused first on page views and bounce rates, and finally on the website conversion rate, which has become a core method of measuring site success.</p>
<p>Website conversion is usually defined as a percentage as follows:<br />
<strong><br />
Desired Actions / Unique Visitors * 100</strong></p>
<p>Of course, there isn’t just one website conversion rate. There are several, and this is one of the challenges when it comes to comparing your website conversion with other sites’ website conversion rates.</p>
<p>Here are the three most common website conversion rates:</p>
<p><strong>Visitor-to-Sale / Visitor-to-Goal</strong></p>
<p>The visitor-to-sale website conversion rate currently averages 2-3 percent for most ecommerce sites. It’s a simple measure of the percentage of visitors that land on your website and purchase in the same session. (&#8230;)</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-rate-which-option-21.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1358" title="website-conversion-rate-which-option" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-rate-which-option-21.jpg" alt="website-conversion-rate-which-option" width="150" height="112" /></a>Website conversion rates are bandied about the ecommerce industry all the time, and despite many being familiar with the concept, I consistently find that a lot of people are a bit fuzzy on their website conversion and abandonment rates. This blog is intended to define the different website conversion rates and explain how to use them—and how not to.<span id="more-1350"></span></p>
<p>Whatever your particular goal, getting visitors to engage and follow a path to conversion is at the heart of driving value from your website. While most web teams track website conversion, the diversity of potential factors that affect conversion (and its evil twin, abandonment) makes this a very hard process to manage.</p>
<p>The biggest of these factors is promotions, which can cause massive changes to your website conversion rate. Equally, your competitors’ promotions can also have a big impact on your website conversion rate. Seasonally, customers have become conditioned to <a href="http://bit.ly/b4Uxm4" target="_blank">expect promotions</a> at certain times of the year; as a result, looking at your conversion rates without considering these factors is a bit like stumbling around in the dark looking for the light switch.</p>
<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-funnel.png"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1353" title="website-conversion-funnel" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-conversion-funnel-236x300.png" alt="website-conversion-funnel" width="236" height="300" /></a>In the early days of the web, we focused first on page views and bounce rates, and finally on the website conversion rate, which has become a core method of measuring site success.</p>
<p>Website conversion is usually defined as a percentage as follows:<br />
<strong><br />
Desired Actions / Unique Visitors * 100</strong></p>
<p>Of course, there isn’t just one website conversion rate. There are several, and this is one of the challenges when it comes to comparing your website conversion with other sites’ website conversion rates.</p>
<p>Here are the three most common website conversion rates:</p>
<p><strong>Visitor-to-Sale / Visitor-to-Goal</strong></p>
<p>The visitor-to-sale website conversion rate currently averages 2-3 percent for most ecommerce sites. It’s a simple measure of the percentage of visitors that land on your website and purchase in the same session. Divide the total number of sales/goals by the total unique visitors. By contrast, top-converting websites currently convert 23 percent of visitors to sale, and what they do differently is worth understanding. SeeWhy recently published a free eBook titled “Lessons Learned from the Top 10 Converting Websites,” and this is well worth reading. The visitor-to-sale/goal website conversion is the easiest to compare with other sites.</p>
<p><strong>Funnel Conversion Rate</strong></p>
<p>The funnel website conversion rate looks at the proportion of visitors that complete your conversion process. If it’s a shopping cart, then the start of the conversion funnel is usually when a visitor places an item in the shopping cart. In a web form, this would be arriving at the first page of the form itself. The funnel conversion rate is probably the most widely used rate when people are talking about their ‘website conversion rate.’ It’s a simple percentage: divide the number of sales/goals achieved by the number of visitors that started the process. SeeWhy tracks conversion rates across approximately 9,000 ecommerce sites. This data shows that website conversion rates can vary wildly, but the average funnel conversion rate is 29 percent, meaning that more than 7 in every 10 visitors that start conversion processes do not complete them. The average abandonment rate is 71 percent (i.e. 1 minus the conversion rate).<br />
<strong><br />
Page Level Conversion Rate</strong></p>
<p>The page level conversion rate is the proportion of visitors that arrive on one page and subsequently progress to the next stage of the conversion funnel. It’s typically used to examine the performance of each step in the conversion funnel itself to ensure each step is performing well and to eliminate bottlenecks.</p>
<p>If you’ve got a problem with one of the pages in your conversion funnel, it will show up on your page conversion rate. Running a split test (using Google Website Optimizer or similar) will enable you to test two different versions of the same page and see which one works better.</p>
<p>Of these three website conversion rates, the most useful is the funnel conversion rate. This tells you what proportion of the traffic that demonstrates intent to buy, actually go on to buy in the same session. In many ways, it is one of the most important measures of a site’s effectiveness.</p>
<p>If you are interested in learning more about this topic, I recently discussed conversion strategies with a panel of industry experts—Danny Dover of SEOMoz.org, Tim Ash of SiteTuners.com, and Loren McDonald of Silverpop. You can view the webinar recording <a href="http://www.seewhy.com/resources_conversion_academy.htm" target="_blank">here</a>; select ‘View’ under ‘The Conversion Leaders Summit.’</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1" />Copyright &copy; 2010-2012 <strong><a href="http://seewhy.com">SeeWhy</a></strong>. ]]></content:encoded>
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