What is "Conversion Optimization" and How Does it Work?

[watto]

I have been hearing a lot about 'conversion optimization' lately and just wanted to know what your thoughts were on this topic.

watto

[kevsta]

depends on the site and level you want to go to. at the basic level it's split (A/B) testing of your landing / sales pages and adjusting as per the results.

at a higher level you're into eye tracking, and sales funnel optimization, basically working your way through the sales process and optimizing every stage of it to try and avoid losing customers (cart abandonment) along the way.

if you have a poorly converting site you'd be well advised to look at this before you think about SEO, because if you can reduce an 80% abandonment rate to 50%, that's a 30% increase in sales without ranking any higher.

higher rankings are wasted on a poorly converting site.

[kevsta]

when Aaron employs someone you can be fairly sure theyre good

Aaron interviews Ben and Karl from Conversion Rate Experts (CRE) | SEO Book.com

[kevsta]

saw this today, looks like it could be a useful tool at the very least

Heatmaps, Visitor Movies, Web Analytics | Customer Experience Analytics by ClickTale

[Webnauts]

I will probably not reply to the question of the OP, since Kevsta did that pretty well already.

Still, as a Search Usability Consultant, I would recommend everyone to:

purchase three books I have next to me on my bookshelf;

a. Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
b. When Search Meets Web Usability by Shari Thurow & Nick Musica
c. Call to Action by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg

and use the following applications;

a. Crazy Egg - Visualize Your Visitors
b. Usability & User Experience Testing Tool | Online & Unmoderated | Loop11
c. Low cost usability testing - UserTesting.com

I hope this information is valuable to you all.

John

[kgun]

when Aaron employs someone you can be fairly sure theyre good

Aaron interviews Ben and Karl from Conversion Rate Experts (CRE) | SEO Book.com

"Karl: Several years ago, I started working with Ben, who had been working in web marketing for years. I have a Ph.D. in rocket science, and we discussed how we could take a scientific approach to increasing the conversion rate of our employer’s website. Within twelve months, we tripled the website’s profits, to $9.1 million".

My bolding.

[kevsta]

"Karl: Several years ago, I started working with Ben, who had been working in web marketing for years. I have a Ph.D. in rocket science, and we discussed how we could take a scientific approach to increasing the conversion rate of our employer’s website. Within twelve months, we tripled the website’s profits, to $9.1 million".

My bolding.

lol yes, that made me smile.. kinda shoots down any detractors who might say..

"well its not exactly rocket science, is it?"

[kevsta]

I will probably not reply to the question of the OP, since Kevsta did that pretty well already.

Still, as a Search Usability Consultant, I would recommend everyone to:

purchase three books I have next to me on my bookshelf;

a. Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
b. When Search Meets Web Usability by Shari Thurow & Nick Musica
c. Call to Action by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg

and use the following applications;

a. Crazy Egg - Visualize Your Visitors
b. Usability & User Experience Testing Tool | Online & Unmoderated | Loop11
c. Low cost usability testing - UserTesting.com

I hope this information is valuable to you all.

John

some good sites there John, thanks for these

[kgun]

Surely there are already real standards for SEO. Does the money you charge your client earn a return?

Great SEO pays for itself many times over.

Good SEO earns a return above and beyond most other marketing investments the client makes.

Satisfactory SEO earns a return in line with most other marketing investments.

Weak SEO earns a return lower than most other marketing investments.

SEO is not about science. SEO is not about art. SEO is a business discipline. Judge it like one. And by the way, never, never, never let the government interfere.

Source: http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post368844

Related thread: http://www.webproworld.com/yahoo-dis...tml#post371100

lol yes, that made me smile.. kinda shoots down any detractors who might say..

By the way some years ago, I held a lecture "Determinism and stochastics in economics" (page search CTRL + F + Kjell).

There I presented an article, "when rocket scientists crash out of orbit".

So a background in rocket science may be good, but not sufficient to become an expert in search engine optimization.

[kevsta]

lol Kgun, I would think your average rocket scientist could master seo to a reasonable level without too much trouble..