When you think of website optimization, I’ll bet your mind jumps immediately to search engine optimization. But the type of optimization I want to talk about is important, yet rarely top of mind.

Consider these results from a study by Econsultancy: for every $92 companies spend driving traffic to their websites, only $1 is invested in converting that traffic into a sale.

We continue to focus too much on the traditional marketing goal of attracting attention, which in the digital space means driving traffic. However, with the forward march of technology, new tools allow us to see the actions of visitors on a website in more detail. The practice of using this information to increase desired actions such as sales or inquiries (conversions) is called conversion rate optimization (CRO), and it’s a powerful thing.

Why is CRO so powerful?

Let’s look at some simple numbers: if a site currently converts five out of 100 people, various small, intelligent changes likely can be made to raise that to six out of 100. That might seem puny, but it translates into 20 percent more leads and/or sales (because six is 20 percent higher than five). A small increase in conversion rate can lead to a large increase in revenue.

How does one optimize for conversions?

CRO is a social science driven by data, and it’s a deep field that is only getting deeper. What I want to do here is provide an overview so that you can jump in at a point that makes sense for you. There are a few basic things you can do if you haven’t already that will likely give your site a quick boost in effectiveness.

Number one is to build trust, which can be done by including recognizable brands you have worked with, testimonials, and so on. When we build sites, I like to include testimonials throughout – especially near inquiry forms – rather than group them together on one page.

Second is to make sure visitors know what to do through bold calls-to-action (CTAs). This can be a large button that says “Book your flight now” for an airline or “Check availability” for a hotel. It needs to stand out visually and have a clear action associated with it.

Third, make sure that any forms you want visitors to fill out are easy to work with. Get rid of cryptic or non-specific error messages, ask for as little information as possible, and arrange the fields so that they are easy to scan.

Once you’ve collected the low-hanging fruit, take a step back and look at the messaging. Is it clear? Does it target the right audience? Does it focus on benefits for that audience rather than how great your company is? CRO is only partly about buttons and forms and other user interface elements; content is also extremely important.

The last thing on my list of basics is certainly not least: always test your assumptions. If you have enough traffic to a certain page, split testing will tell you objectively which version performs better. If you don’t have traffic volume, you can still do user testing by having a handful of sample users try to perform a task on your site. Either way, if you’re not testing, you don’t know if you are making things better or worse.

When to hire an expert

Really, once you’ve done the basics, it’s time to talk to an expert. The leverage of increasing your conversion rate also applies in reverse – if you go from five out of 100 to four out of 100, that could mean a 20 percent decrease in sales. You’ve heard the adage: “Think hiring a professional is expensive? Wait ’til you hire an amateur!” Find someone who knows what they’re doing and they’ll bring back every penny.

A final thought

Like search engine optimization, CRO is an ongoing, iterative process. The thrilling part is that these two feed into one another, with more conversion providing revenue for more traffic, which in turn feeds back into further optimization. In practice this takes time and a committed team to achieve, but the sky is the limit. Have fun.

John Durso, the owner of Crosshatch Creative, works with small to medium businesses that want to drive revenue via the web. Contact him at john@crosshatchcreative.com. He also is a member of American Marketing Association PDX. Learn more at www.ama-pdx.org.

The post OP-ED: Investing in conversion rate optimization appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.