The efficiency of conversions is measured by the amount of visitors to a particular website that leave the site having purchased a product, enquired about a service or simple having changed their perception to your brand. This may just be about providing a user with useful information.

Whats the average rate?

Around 10% of new visitors to a site have found what they were looking for or make contact after using the site, we often see rather large bounce rates and for the bounce rate to be over 50% is not unusual.

If the time on site and bounce rate (measured through analytics) is extremely high there may well be something fundimentally wrong with your site i.e.

• Poorly Targeted Traffic
• Poor Usability
• Poor Content
• Poor Accessability
• Poor Design

Most web design and SEO tends to focus on the homepage, but it is important that the quality content on your site runs deep, constantly providing a user with a useful informative browsing experience. This often means that an SEO campaign is spread out across a website and that the optimised page is the correct landing page for the search query. All of which means that you are increasing the chance of conversions.

Where can i see an example?

The best modern example i have seen, which really considers what a user needs and how to get a successful conversion is the recently elected Barack Obama web site http://www.barackobama.com/index.php . The use of colours and wording is excellent and drives users to making a contribution with clever slogans like ‘Donate Now to make a difference’. He also marketed his site using social media (I touched on this in a recent article regarding the effectiveness of SMO (Social Media Optimisation) can be found here; http://www.seo-creare.co.uk/news/social-media-marketing/social-media-optimisation-optimisation.html).

References:

Excellent article with further information about the Barack Obama online campaign can be found here: http://www.webprofits.com.au/blog/2008/07/23/6-lessons-we-can-learn-from-barack-obamas-online-marketing-strategy/

E-consultancy – Search Engine Optimisation Best Practice Guide.