When fielding your conversion percentage to get a grip on how “healthy” your site really is, you must take into account every step of the shopping process and effectively measure the success of each stage to best understand the final conversion metric. And we mean every step: Search > Enter > Shop > Cart = Purchase
Use the checklist below to help you scout out what your site offers consumers and the purchase path it creates. Be prepared to answer tough questions like:
The Search:
РDo your metrics show traffic generated for keyphrases that a “ready-to-buy” customer would be using?
РWhat “ready-to-buy” keyphrases would be valuable to position your product or section pages with?
– Are you paying for incredibly general keyphrases in your PPC or other paid campaigns? If so, can you insert ten more specific keyphrases that can completely replace that general phrase?
– When choosing the keyphrases to put focus on for organic and paid campaigns, are you thinking about sales or thinking about traffic?
– Relevancy is number one. Is the ad copy, title, or description appropriate to your store contents or landing pages, or are you fishing for traffic?
The Entrance:
– Do the landing pages accurately reflect the keyphrases and copy that brought them into the site?
РAre you using “Calls to Action” that immediately steer visitors in the right direction?
РAre the customer’s most important questions answered first?
РIs the customer presented with “information overload” upon arrival?
The Shopping Experience:
РHow many “clicks” are your visitors away from a purchase?
– Are you familiar with your store performance metrics, including trends, bounce rates, number of pages viewed, etc (not just for your entire site, but for each page)?
– Can your visitors easily find what they are looking for?
– Are your products priced appropriately?
РDo your visitors have an incentive to buy? (What separates you or your products from your competitors or competitors’ products?)
– Are you offering the visitors help in deciding what they need?
The Cart:
– Are you establishing trust at the cart level as well as at the site level?
– Is the checkout process seamless and comfortably integrated in your site design?
– Is your shipping information prominent? Is the shipping pricing reasonable?
– Can you reduce the number of steps at checkout?
Viewing your store from the perspective of a potential customer (or asking someone to critique it for you) is a valuable step in catching little nuances that may make the difference between converting or losing a sale.  At FastPivot, our strategic team, is well-versed in conducting reviews and audits of online stores and are always available to make recommendations and implement them.  Make the most of this holiday season and improve your store for ongoing success!
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