Driving traffic to your website is only the first step in building an effective online presence. Many websites struggle with high bounce rates, conversion point abandonment, and low page-count views. Social media and advertising can increase the overall flow of traffic to your website, but at some point those viewers must convert to consumers.
Identifying the specific reason that viewers exit your site before they convert yields varied answers with no single solution. General consumer behavior follows a much more predictable flow, one that can be anticipated and funneled. Meet your audience at a point of connection to drive traffic, but meet them at the point of abandonment to drive conversions.
Give Them What They Want
Site search metrics will tell you at a glance exactly what keywords your visitors are inputting when they view your pages. Prompt a conversion by making it easy for them to find those search terms and then prompt them to action. This may be as simple as placing popularly searched items on the landing page of your site in order to reduce search time, or as involved as increasing your current range of content. If you are unable to exactly match their search criteria, offer complementary or competing results in an effort to keep the consumer engaged. Even if the consumer cannot find exactly what they want, they may settle for a close match.
Direct Consumer Attention Where You Desire
If your site metrics inform you that a given set of pages consistently becomes the exit point for traffic, consider placing a further call to action on those pages. Your viewers are finding the information they desire; that’s good. After consuming your content, they’re leaving; that’s bad. Create further engagement with content designed to prompt additional action. Use white space on your content to place advertisements and visually direct their attention back to your conversion point. Your content has captured the viewer’s attention; seize the opportunity to ask for the conversion.
Identify Behavior Gaps
If your viewers are finding your content easily and remaining engaged throughout consumption, there must be another reason they aren’t converting. Study your metrics and compare them to additional data gathered from outside of your website. Are your shopping carts consistently abandoned? Perhaps your payment gateway is frustrating consumers, or your price point is not competitive. Are your newsletter sign-ups falling off? Perhaps your visitors are getting their information from another source, or their consumption habits have changed. Use your website traffic data, but don’t forget to supplement it from additional sources.
