Hi, First thread i've started so wooooooo! Anyway, back on topic! There was a thread recently where people mentioned where they get most of their traffic from (ie... google, yahoo and msn, predominantely in that order). I posted a reply, with several others, that although google provided traffic ten fold of any other search engine, leads generated by Yahoo were considered of better quality, and in turn higher conversion rates. I got thinking last night of how i can improve conversions on my website, and generate more leads for the same stream of traffic, however i don't have anything to really benchmark it against except my own statistics. Although i know the stats are specific to the industry etc, but what percentage of visitors, across the board (so all traffic counted) do your websites convert, and also mention whether you are an online store, or online storefront(don't sell the product online). I run two websites which don't sell online, but across the board, conversions are around 3-5% of all traffic. Although i think this is pretty low and i've tried lots of different methods of improving this, i wondered what sort of levels your sites convert visitors at. Also, i'm talking physically sales/bookings, not leads. Thanks!
Just curious on why you would not be interested in leads. Personally I make the money in a couple diffrent ways adsense slowly becoming the front runner though my others still holding their own. I would say my actual conversion which is sign ups is .5 approximatly it is hard to tell since google anaylitics and stat counter both differ. I run a website, forum, and have two blogs which I constantly update and all have their potential to make me money I would guess it higher at 5-10% either signing up or becoming a reader. I also think your three websites is funny since I get most of my traffic from msn then google then yahoo. Strange right I think msn just has a love for me who knows why. Any way that is my guess it is difficult to tell exactly since my stats differ between the two counters I use.
In the direct marketing industry a conversion of 1-3% is considered good. 3-5% like you're getting is even better. I'm luckily getting around 11% on one of my sites - but I'm driving EXTREMELY targeted traffic there. Try focusing in with your keyword and search engine marketing to the more targeted types of keyword sets. Example instead of "dog grooming" build webpages for "dog grooming clippers" - if that's what you sell - and focus the content and promotion strategies on clippers, clipper reviews, etc... Just some quick thoughts
With google's tools you can run A/B testing for your site. Make subtle changes (or even significant ones) and track your conversions. Definitely can be worth your time. Some times small increases in conversions can lead to big increases in revenues.