One of the most frustrating episodes I’ve seen a services team go through was when they first started measuring their conversion rate.  It was absurdly low and no one had any idea why.  Usually, everyone will have an opinion about why and will also insist that they are right and head off to make changes.  Doing analysis to find out the “why” is a necessity and is not to be overlooked.

My analysis eventually led me to traffic sources where I discovered that a high percentage of search traffic came from search terms that were just too vague.  Another portion of traffic was coming from links in which the text was vague.  When these visitors arrived, they weren’t looking for a service, they were looking for something entirely different.  In other words, these were unqualified leads and their presence on the site was driving down the conversion rate.

The recommendation to improve search engine optimization and incoming link text gave them peace of mind and a solid hold on what needed to be done to improve their conversion rate.  Another benefit of deterring these visitors was to keep unqualified visitors from becoming frustrated with the company.  That last thing you want is a website that is a net detractor for your business.