We get clients who ask us to quote SEO services for their e-commerce sites everyday. They are always focused on driving more traffic to their site, but they over look the obvious question. Do they need more traffic, or do they need more conversions?
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What have we learned?
We manage e-commerce sites for a variety of clients and one thing we have learned is traffic is not the most important thing, conversions are what drive sales. Think of it this way, if you have 10,000 people a month coming to a site, but only are converting 1% that is only 100 sales. What if you did not increase your traffic, but increased your conversions?
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The two fold effect.
We have noticed what we call the two fold effect with sites. When you increase the conversion rate, it in turn increases the traffic rate. This works through back links being built from your customers, positive reviews being posted online, and through word of mouth referrals. Using this effect you can slingshot your sales volumes to numbers that are not imaginable.
Refining your conversions.
How do you refine your conversion rate and increase sales from your current visitors? Below are the most effective ways we have found to increase conversions.
- The sites design. It has to look professional. The more professional a site looks, the higher the conversion rate will be.
- Clear policies, having shipping, return and privacy policies posted where users can read them.
- Free Shipping, we have found that offering free shipping rivals having a lower price to making conversions.
- Abandoned cart coupons have proven very fruitful for our clients, they normally capture 5-10% of lost sales by our numbers.
- Offer both guest and account checkouts. Some users like the commitment that comes with an account, others want to be a guest. Offer both, make everyone happy.
- Easy to find contact information.
Once we increase your conversion rate, then it is time to start super charging your off site SEO. Does your conversion rate need to be increased? Do you use Prestashop? Give us a call or send us an email today and we can give you a free evaluation on your site.
About the Author: Lesley Paone
Lesley has worked in e-commerce for over a decade, and is the founder of dh42. Starting out with PrestaShop and brancing out into other platforms like Shopify. He loves all things e-commerce and loves a challenge, in his spare time he helps moderate several forums on SEO, e-commerce, as well as the PrestaShop forum. If you have any questions for him about any of his articles just use our contact form to contact him.
