You monitor your website’s analytics, but the real problem is – what do you do with the data? Follow this three-step plan to make the most of your site’s analytics.

Define the Audience Need

People buy a specific product or service because if fills a specific need. When you are able to identify that need, you can then create an experience to address that need. Analytics are able to provide clues as to what those needs are. They can provide clues about your customers as to their interests, how they accessed the site, do they tend to consume more short-form or long-form content, do they watch the videos on your site, and how long do they spend on your site doing what.

Establish Baseline Conversions

It’s important to know your conversion rates. Analytics will not only help you establish your baseline conversions, but you will also be able to know the conversion rates from different sources of traffic. You will be able to determine that an ad on one site may perform at a much higher rate than other sites, or that one site in particular provides a very low conversion rate. Knowing the conversion rate of your site in general and of each of its traffic sources will allow you to focus and tweak your advertising efforts to maximize the results while minimizing the effort and expense. Continue reading →

There were massive changes in the Internet arena in 2015 and the future of conversion rate optimization is becoming more defined. You cannot allow yourself to be limited by your or the industry’s current beliefs. The old ways of doing things just won’t get you very far any more. It is, in fact, not enough.

Landing Page Optimization Is Not Enough

The term “landing page optimization” was first penned by Tim Ash in his book, “Landing Page Optimization.” Although the term is a little misleading, the newer term, “conversion rate optimization,” is a little lacking as well.

These terms seem to imply that one should seek to optimize campaign-oriented landing pages only. That is not the case. Anywhere significant amounts of traffic enter a website should be optimized. This could mean the complete revamping of an entire website. Imagine a site optimized with a compelling end-to-end online experience with a user-centered whole-site redesign.

Surface Knowledge Is Not Enough

It is necessary to dedicate some time each week to learning. Few people dedicate time for themselves each week to digging deeper into a subject and truly learn the ins and outs. Most are content with reading a blog post or a top ten list online. Continue reading →