![\"ecommerce](\"https:\/\/thegood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ecommerce-conversion-optimization-1.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nTo start, you need to recognize that conversion optimization<\/a> massively differs by company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your users are going to vary significantly depending on your industry and target demographic. Men between the ages of 18-25 purchasing Crossfit equipment are going to interact with a website much differently than a middle aged woman purchasing beauty supplies. If you sell clothing, your optimization practices need to be nuanced differently than a sports equipment ecommerce site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Dan Barker notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A first-time visitor to your site who has never bought from you before, is far, far less likely to purchase than an old, loyal customer. On the opposite side of that, a very loyal customer & regular visitor is far less likely to be swayed to make a purchase because of little conversion tweaks.<\/p> Lumping those 2 groups together is like lumping “first time house buyers” into a big pot with “castle owners” & trying to make sense of the strange “average house price” that throws up.<\/p> Visitors from different traffic sources \/ referrers will also differ wildly. Direct visitors will tend to convert more highly still since they tend to contain more existing customers. Likewise brand and non-brand search terms, generic vs long tail terms will vary too.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In other words, best practices are helpful, but far from sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\nBest practices are helpful, but far from sufficient. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n Conversion optimization<\/a> is a holistic, thorough process that involves optimizing your entire website for sales, based on your data, target demographics, conversion goals, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This goes far beyond a simple tune up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To do it correctly, you need to do a deep dive into your data, understanding who your consumers are, what they want, what stops them from purchasing, and what changes you can make to eliminate friction points. In order to get to your goal, you need to first understand where you are. Only then can you take the proper steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You also need to determine which metrics matter the most. Which levers generate the most growth and sales?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, you need to be able to form hypotheses, thoroughly test them, and then iterate. Optimization relies on testing, not on guessing which change will make the most difference.<\/p>\n\n\nOptimization relies on testing, not on guessing which change will make the most difference. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n This is a complex task, but it results in a thoroughly optimized website that is perfectly tailored for your customers and industry. If you don\u2019t use this process, you\u2019re essentially firing without aiming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do you make this optimization process a reality? How can you go beyond colors and buttons<\/a> and headlines? There are three primary steps, with a number of crucial substeps within each. It starts with understanding your consumers, moves to identifying areas for improvement, and then concludes with designing experiments around key metrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To state the obvious, not all consumers are equal. Some will be high-revenue, while others will be nothing more than tire kickers. Optimization starts with fully understanding your target customers, which then allows you to tailor your site toward them. Getting a firm grasp on your ideal customer starts with gathering all the relevant data about who is visiting your site, what they\u2019re doing on your site, which demographics are generating the most revenue, and more. It includes studying your quantitative data like conversion focused analytics as well as qualitative data like user testing, heatmaps, and surveys. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analytics give you a broad picture of your website visitors. They allow you to determine your high growth levers, like your overall traffic levels, your conversion rate on different pages, and your average order value. They also allow you to determine your cost per acquisition, customer return rate, customer retention rate, and other crucial measurements. Often times, marketers fall victim to using the out-of-the-box reports from popular tools like Google Analytics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, these default reports provide little more than vanity metrics. Those vanity metrics might be great for tuning your marketing, but not for improving your conversion rate. Your reports and analytics need to be tailored to your business goals and key conversion levers, not generic reports. Once you learn to manipulate these levers, you can then increase your overall ecommerce revenue. You can also see which pages are pulling in the most traffic, which pages are getting the most return visits, how long customers are staying on pages, various bounce rates, where you\u2019re losing your customers, and page load<\/a> time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing your most valuable pages allows you to later identify your high impact areas. Analytics allow you to analyze visitor flow through your site. You can see where \u201cloops\u201d are occurring. A loop is when a visitor keeps flipping back and forth between two pages, like the home page and a product page. This indicates confusion and shows you where improvements can be made. Additionally, it can open your eyes to places on your site where you\u2019re essentially leaving revenue on the table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also evaluate key conversion rates<\/a>. Which demographics are generating the most revenue? Which copy and headlines are converting most effectively? Are certain countries outperforming others? What about times of day? If your conversion rates for key demographics are low, it indicates you\u2019ve got some serious room for improvement. With analytics you can examine your various channels and traffic sources for effectiveness. Does social media or organic search traffic produce more sales? What about Facebook ads vs. Google ads? How well is your email marketing converting? <\/p>\n\n\n\n By seeing which channels are producing conversions and which aren\u2019t, you can evaluate and change your strategy in those channels. These, as well as dozens of other analytics<\/a>, will give you a broad picture of what is happening on your site. It will also allow you to see sticking points, friction areas, and places where visitors are abandoning the site. It\u2019s not enough to simply look at analytics averages. You need to dig deeply, identifying the true causes of surges and drop offs. As Dallas McLaughlin says<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\nUnderstanding Your Consumers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Conversion Focused Analytics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n