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Eight Quick Tips for Boosting Conversions By Michelle Megna September 29, 2008 5. Prevent "No results" site keyword searches to help users find products. Web analytics data can uncover search terms that yield no results on your site. Use that information to add tags to your products — such as the names of equivalent products from competitors that customers have been searching for without success. The report goes on to say that "when there really are no results to display, use your search results page to suggest either alternative products (like best sellers) or alternative search terms that encourage users to continue exploring." 6. Prioritize home page content to increase cross-sell opportunities. Navigation and calls-to action on the home page should support key goals, such as finding information on or buying products. The study cites an example in which one e-commerce site had eight modules on its home page, with only one linked to specific products for sale — not good. Instead, space on the home page should be dedicated to displaying subcategory lists, or at least the top choices for each category. "Exposing the subcategories creates awareness of the breadth of product offerings, which promotes cross-sell and upsell opportunities without the expense of a recommendations engine. For example, Staples credits the exposed subcategories on its home page with increasing the average number of items per order. 7. Put key functionality on the home page to reduce steps. In the realm of e-commerce, the report says it's prudent to allow customers to accomplish key tasks immediately from the home page instead of having to click off to another area of your site. For instance, let visitors do things such as booking a room or getting a getting a price quote right from the home page. Case in point: "An airline was convinced that linking to its flight search application from the home page was effective. But when the company conducted an A/B test comparing the link with putting search fields right on the home page, it saw a 45-percent increase in conversion rate with the new design," according to the study. 8.Tweak the location and appearance of key buttons to boost click-through rates. Finally, don't underestimate the design of your task buttons. If you're not getting a lot of action, review the placement, color and design of your key buttons, as they can have a huge impact on click-throughs. "One wireless carrier changed the location, color, and copy of the purchase button on its product pages. The result? The click-through rate went up 130 percent, and the conversion rate went up by 57 percent," the study says. Similarly, the researchers cite another example in which a travel company changed the submit button from gray to red and saw a 12-percent increase in conversion rate, and when the company added the word "please" to its "Submit e-mail" button, conversion rates went up by 6.5 percent. Clearly, there is no one-size-fits all formula that will work on every site, so be open to experimenting with what will work well on yours and do some basic A/B testing to find out what's most effective. Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com. Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!

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