Commonly we hear that a one or two percent CR (ConversionRatio) is good. By this is meant that one or two visitors takethe desired action in accordance with the site purpose. Perhapsthey make a purchase, request further information, or download afile.
Such numbers mean different things to different people. Manysites would be dismayed by a CR of less than ten percent. Stillothers, particularly those selling high ticket items, may bequite content with a CR of 0.1%. What the CR for your site oughtto be, depends upon the site purpose. For example, it's easierto generate leads than to sell product. Thus you would expect a better CR in lead generation than in selling.
CR And Newcomers
If you're new to the Web or have only recently opened a site,you may not have enough visitors or sales to figure what your CRis or ought to be. The bottom line is that hits are hard to get,and the task is far more difficult for a new or relatively newsite.
So What Should Your CR Be?
As suggested, it is a function of the site purpose. As anexample, assume you have opened a site and are selling an ebookat $20 per copy. Further assume it's a dandy book with greatcontent of interest to many. And one that over-delivers bigtime.
In theory, you should be able to generate one to two salesper 100 visitors (1% - 2% CR). In practice, it may be anunrealistic goal. The inconsistencies between groups of only 100 can mislead.
The Makings Of A Great Site
Let's assume you have taken a practical view toward yoursite. And that it is all working well. You have great contentthat even now is beginning to draw traffic. And you have otherproducts, perhaps an affiliate program or two, besides the ebook.
Given this model, hits on the site do not relate directly tothe CR for your ebook. You need to look at the hits on the pagewhich contains the sales presentation of the book. Then considersales relative to this count.
To put this another way, it may require 1000 hits on yoursite to generate 100 hits on your sales presentation. If thesehits bring two sales, your CR is 2%. However, relative to yoursite which received 1000 hits, ebook sales amount to only 0.2% on total hits.
1000 Hits? That's A Lot!
You bet it is. And if you're new to the Web, you may not yet have received this many in total. Growing targeted traffic is the most difficult task there is in doing business online. It takes time, a lot of learning, and above all, patience.
So What Can You Do Meanwhile?
Continuously examine all aspects of your site, with the goalof directing more visitors down paths to sales.
* Does your content at least indirectly point to a path whichleads to a sale? * Can the sales presentations be improved?
* Is there a product that can be dropped that would increasesales on others by bringing a sharper focus?
While the above are clear cut, it's very difficult to measurethe effectiveness of any change. That is, given a change, 100hits on a sales presentation may yield 3 sales rather than 2, butyou still must do a lot of guessing. In fact, a good improvementin the presentation may result in a drop to only 1 sale in thenext 100 hits. With so few hits, results are not conclusive. Ifyou are convinced your new page is better, you may decide to keepit, and worry about the CR over time.
How Many Hits Can You Expect?
When a new site is opened, the only hits come from thewebmaster and friends. While building content, submitting tosearch engines, improving the sales presentations and all elsethat is required to grow a site, you will be busy. Hit countswill climb, but slowly. Sales even more slowly.
While there are those who have the experience to generatemassive hit counts in very short order, even the most determinednewbie may need to be content with something between 2000 and4000 total hits in the first year. Translate this to only a fewsales of a $20 ebook, and it's easy to see why people so often do not hold on even for a year.
The good news for the persistent types is that a growth rateof ten percent per month is not out of reach. And this brings adoubling in 7.5 months. The secret? Hang in and make it happen!
It Takes A Lot Of Hits
Until you are generating two to three hundred hits a day,testing is not likely to "prove" the effectiveness (or failure)of changes. In fact, even at 1000 hits per day, there willalways be a need to evaluate results. In some cases, you mustignore what the numbers appear to say.
To put this another way, suppose you are up to 1000 hits perday. If you put up a new sales presentation and your CR jumpsfrom 2% to 4%, and stays there, there's really no choice. Holdto the new version. However, you may decide to do so even if theCR drops a tad. Why? Because results from even 1000 hits day can be circumstantial, a function of the traffic thathappened by. The new page may be determined good, so long asthere is not a significant drop. In taking this choice, the hope is in gains over time.
Where Does That Leave You?
In the end, it is always a matter of judgement. With fewhits, this is really all there is to go by. Given lots of hits,you will have better numbers to help you make such judgements. But you will also have greater experience. So now, as at somefuture date, you may need to act upon your sense of things,rather than numbers.
Never, Ever Release Any Of Your Rights To Anyone
One of the grandest scams on the Web, which goes largelyunnoticed, is for a web-based bookseller or publisher to requiresome rights to your work in exchange for the service to beprovided. Many demand the electronic rights, for example.
How Well Do You Know Your Perfect Customer?
Your Perfect Customer is real only in your mind. He or sheis the one individual most representative of your target. Theone to whom you always speak one-on-one in your newsletter andon your site.
Does Search Engine Traffic Matter?
The short answer is, "Sure." And it likely always will.But the amount of free traffic search engines now deliver tomany small online businesses doesn't amount to much. And whatthere is of it continues to decline in importance. Pay-for-submission models are rapidly eliminating free options.
