Many people seem to focus on the simple idea of page views. They think success is equated by the number of times someone has viewed their site. This isn't always the case.
All Web Traffic is Not Equal
While marketing companies and people who specialize in SEO like to measure success by traffic numbers and increase of traffic, that number by itself is fairly irrelevant. You most certainly want people coming to your site, but you also want to right people to show up and then they need to perform the proper action to ensure that you are profiting from them even being there.
Web success is not measured in page views or simple hit statistics, it is measured in conversions.
To calculate your conversions, take the number of your goal achievements (like purchases, or people signing up for a newsletter, performing a function) and divide that by the number of unique site visitors. That number will be the conversion rate.
Tips to Increase Your Conversion
1. Have a Good Web Design
This might seem rather obvious, yet plenty of people still opt to try and cut corners on designing a web page. Ideally, if you are a professional company then you want a website that has some style to it.
Depending on your expectations and goals for business, you might even want something unique that stands out. Ideally you will have a clean, organized site that is easy to navigate, be pleasing to the eye, has a common theme, and translates well to multiple devices.
2. Create a Solid Call to Action
You need to be upfront about your call to action. Far too many sites put their call on the bottom of the page, off to the side, or even hide it on other pages. Smart sites use obvious buttons and action language where it is visible instantly without scrolling or hunting for it.
3. Keep Bounce Rate Low
The bounce rate for some sites is very high. That means visitors show up, and then hit the "back" button to check out other search listings. There needs to be things that entice your target audience to stay. Easy to find articles and blog posts about things they want to learn, forums, product they want to buy or anything else.
4. Funnel
Depending on your business, you generally can't have everything on the main page. That means you need to direct people to different areas of the site. The goal is to have easy navigation along with the least number of clicks or typing possible to get what they want.
5. Target Your Market
You have to focus on your target market. People who try and throw a wide net end up failing because the net never closes properly. It goes back to the conversion rate.
For example; do you want 500 customers at a 50% conversion or 10,000 at 1%? The smaller group is easier to target because it becomes simpler to put yourself in their shoes.
