Marketing Monitor - Finding a Real Path to Conversion"

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Dinner for Two? Finding a Real Path to Conversions
December 14, 2006

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If your website was a road map to your dinner party, how many guests do you think would arrive?

In the last couple of weeks, I was involved in performing a small usability study for a private client. The study involved an equal number of participants each interacting and performing various tasks on two of client’s domains. The specifics aren’t really important to this story, what matters are the universal recommendations.

The key to any maps success, whether it be for a dinner party or a website, is in a users ability to read the map. For instance, using miles instead of paces; clearly marked roads instead of dotted lines; timelines and motivators – when you see a big spruce tree, go right – “click here”. Unfortunately there are many sites out there that are responsible for lost or confused users. A conversion shouldn’t be treated like an “x” on a treasure map – users shouldn’t have to hunt to complete a sale or request – conversions need to be intuitive, clearly marked, and natural click points.

Ok, so what can we do, how can we turn our labyrinth of a website to a clearly drawn map?

The answer is seemingly simple one; you simply have to guide your visitors to their destination with a clear path. Understanding the intentions of your visitor is critical. Knowing how many different types of visitors your site receives will make it easier for you to design various branching points on your patch to conversion.

The journey most often begins on the home page, does your home page have clear path or call to action(s)? Is there a clear messaging to each of your user types - be it a casual visitor who is just looking for some basic information or maybe someone who has researched your product extensively and is ready to purchase. Each have different needs and should not be bundled and processed together.

Does the need for basic information or general enquiry justify a 3 page form? Probably not, think about all the potential leads you lose due the abandonment. Not only can those forms contribute to a high bounce rate but they also leave less then favorable impression with the visitor as they leave your site. Like it or not, WOM is still the most persuasive marketing communication and the biggest factor in how successful you can be at building sustainable and profitable online relationships with your customers.

Not to sound like a Google Shaman, but your user should dictate what your site looks like and more importantly HOW your site works. Matching the user’s intent with a clearly defined and laid out content should be the ultimate goal of any site. There are many other challenges with search engine marketing, any my good friend Jody Nimetz has covered them in his article

If you want your visitors to arrive on time, then provide a scent for them and entice them to follow the path! Either way, make sure that every dinner party guest knows where your house is and what time dinner will be served, else you run the real risk of being the only one there and having to eat a lot of shrimp and fondue before they go bad. Plus, good luck getting anybody to come to your next party now that you are the office pariah.

Tom Abramowski
Organic Search Marketing Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing
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