A conversion funnel is a pictorial diagram showing website visitors’ journey from their first visit to when they finally make a purchase. The funnel is a crucial element of conversion rate optimization. We’ve dealt with this in detail in the first blog of the series. Read that article to learn more about conversion funnels and how to draft one for your business website.

In this one, we will introduce you to conversion research, another core topic in conversion rate optimization. It’s the systematic process of gathering new and helpful information about your website visitors and customer behavior. It’s necessary to run perfect A/B testing to arrive at the best conversion pages for your website.

But before you commence your conversion research, you must familiarize yourself with your analytic software. These tools are designed to show site performances with some key metrics. And you cannot relate to these terminologies except you know them.

Key metrics on analytic software

All analytic software does not present the same metrics. For this reason, we will describe some metrics of Google Analytics, the most preferred analytical software. Besides, Google Analytics measures website performance across several dimensions and metrics. It’s an excellent web analytic software for conversion rate optimization. Let’s see its key metrics and measurements.

Website Audience

Google Analytics gives a comprehensive report on your site visitors. You can view this report by navigating to Audience >> Overview. The key metrics for this category include:

  • Sessions

Sessions are the number of times visitors have remained on a website. The higher the value, the better for your website. A more extensive session shows that people are spending time exploring your website.

  • Users

It’s the number of unique visitors received by your website.

  • Returning Visitors

Returning visitors show the number of people who have visited your website more than once over a selected period. An increasing number of returning visitors shows that users are enjoying your content and returning for more.

Traffic Channels

This section gives insights into how people find your website and the channels contributing to your site traffic. You can find this through Acquisition >> All traffic >> Channel.

  • Organic Traffic

It shows the number of visitors that discover your website on search engine result pages. Increasing organic traffic shows that your search engine optimization is paying off.

  • Paid Search Traffic

The number of visitors brought to your website by clicking on your ads on a search engine. A growing number of paid search traffic indicates that your ads campaign is working.

  • Referral Traffic

It presents the number of people who came to your website via a link on a different website. These visitors are recorded in this section. And you can also see the channels (website) contributing to this traffic.

Website Performances

Website performances have a significant impact on your conversion rate. And you can see how well your website is performing using Google analytics. Key metrics in the report include:

  • Page views

It indicates the number of times a web page is visited, and it helps to figure out what pages are the most seen by your audience. Then, you know where to put your web copy for increased conversion.

  • Average Time on Page

It tells you the time duration spent by audiences on your web pages. Average time on pages shows the need for optimization of web pages to encourage audiences to spend more time on your website.

  • Bounce rates

A bounce occurs when a visitor sees only a page on your website and cares not to check others. All one-page visits on your site accumulate to give your bounce rate, usually expressed as a percentage.

Audience Segment

  • Mobile

Google Analytics tracks visitors by their device screen dimensions. Therefore, it knows the number of users that browse your website using mobile devices or desktops. This metric gives you something to focus on. If most of your visitors are on their mobile, you should optimize for mobile screens.

  • Screen Resolution

You can also narrow it down to know the particular screen resolution that contributed the most percentage of your site visitors.

  • Locations

It tells the countries where your visitors belong. This metric helps you to know the country with the most visitors, bounce rates, and time spent on pages. Then, you can target the right location for ad campaigns and email marketing.

Investigating Key Visitors Journey on Your Website

Data are for insights. And the main reason for learning some key metrics is for you to understand and interpret what they mean for your website. They help you to see how your web visitors are doing on your website. And the improvements you need to make the journey interesting for them.

For example, a high bounce rate shows the need for internal backlinks. Internal backlinks help to direct your website visitors to other pages on your website.

It could also be that your contents are too salesy. Users won’t stay longer on your website if you’re always demanding their money. At least make some content to educate and enlighten your audiences.

Also, these analytics will help you discover the exits on your website. You can see which pages have the most visitors along your sales funnel. Implementing the Google Analytics conversion funnel setup feature and Google tag manager is a better way to visualize this journey.

You can develop a sales funnel on your Google Analytics account to monitor visitors’ behavior on your website. This special tracking tool enables businesses and website owners to set up a sales funnel by submitting the page’s links in the conversion order.

Maybe you’re a SAAS agency and provide email marketing software for businesses. You could have a sales funnel that starts with your home page, which is also the landing page for your Google ad campaign. The home page introduces the tool and its features and contains a register for a free trial button to move them to the next page of the funnel.

The registration page contains a short form and a “start now” button to submit their email, password, brand name, and other details. Also, there’s a term and condition checkbox that contains a policy that says you can now begin to send product updates and promotions to their emails.

The next page will be their admin page, which contains a notification of the remaining days of the trial and a button that says get premium. Clicking on the get premium button should take them to the checkout page, where they can enter their card details and make payment.

This sales funnel contains four pages. And with Google Analytics, you can track how your web visitors relate to these pages. The tool will present a report that shows the conversions on each page, channels through which users came into your website, and their exit route.

Visit this page to learn more about developing a conversion funnel using Google Analytics, or watch this video.

The Google tag manager is for event tracking. This tool can segment your audiences and test their behavior on-page elements like buttons, headings, and other features. This tool will show how small changes can make a big difference.

Conclusion

Conversion tools readily available online will help you understand your audience and make the best decisions. Conversion research is a big part of conversion rate optimization that must be done right. And following the steps highlighted in this article is your best way to prepare for effective conversion research.

By analyzing the reports provided by these tools, you can see your strengths and weaknesses and make necessary corrections to improve your conversion rate. This is the third article of the series. We encourage you to stick with us to the end of the series to boost your site conversion rate and increase sales.