Social Media Blog by Michael BritoSocial Media Blog written by Michael Brito.

As consumers are becoming savvier on the Internet, it is becoming more difficult for online marketers to increase/maintain their conversion rates.  A conversion rate can be defined as a relationship between website visitors and the actions considered to be a “conversion,” such as a sale, a download or a form submission.  This metric is often expressed as a percentage and is used to drive decision making for online marketing strategies. The following are some examples (still used today) that are sure to kill your online conversion rates:

Pop-Ups: I don’t know about you but even when I notice my Google Pop-Up blocker signaling that there is a pop up trying to infiltrate my browser, I immediately get turned off and hit the back button. I am amazed that with the saturation of pop-up blockers on the internet, marketers still insist on using this tired old technique. 

Pop-Under: Although not as popular as pop-ups, this is still an irritation technique that many marketers today are still using.  If your goal is to create long term, profitable relationships with customers, please refrain from using pop-unders. It could be considered worse than infidelity.

Prevent Right Clicks: Okay, if you are that adamant about someone stealing an image from your website, don’t use it. Most savvy Photoshop users can do a print screen and crop out any image they want.  Or, if it’s content that you are protecting, all someone needs to do is save the web page to their desktop and steal the code that way. Here are some additional consequences of preventing consumers to right click on your website:

• they cannot use the ‘forward’ and ‘back’ buttons
• they cannot open any links in a new window (or tab for Firefox users, which by the way, their market share is growing)
• they cannot bookmark the page
• they cannot print the page (IE users)

Music: Forcing consumers to listen to your choice of music is torture. Don’t assume that everyone and their mother like Country music just because you do.  This technique, if that’s what you want to call it, can guarantee that your website visitors will leave in heartbeat never to return. Put yourself in their position. If you are at work browsing the Internet with your speakers turned on, the last thing you want to happen is for some horrific music playing from your computer.

Creating a website more than 800 pixels wide: Choosing a width wider than a standard screen resolution (800 pixels wide) and forcing the visitor to scroll left or right is a painful mistake; and it is sure to damage your conversion rates, if you even have one.  Most, if not all, consumers who actively use the Internet are not accustomed to scrolling right to left.  Rather, everyone in the world knows and is comfortable with scrolling up and down. It’s like forcing someone to drive on the left side of the road and expect them to not get in an accident. It just doesn’t work.

Mile Long Shopping Cart Process: I do understand that there is required information when taking orders online. However, the more steps you have in the process the more likely consumers will abandon the website.  The goal is to eliminate the amount of clicks before a customer inputs their credit card information. Don’t ask for unnecessary questions like, “How did you find our site?”  Most consumers won’t take the time to even give you an accurate answer.  If you can, try to consolidate all the relevant information on 1 – 3 pages, and consider “a quick shopping cart” as Amazon does on their website. 

Mile Long Forms:  If the goal of your website is to have prospects fill out a form, don’t make them spend 15 minutes doing so. I would suggest the name, the number, email address and a comments field. Any more fields than that becomes a burden for consumers. 
Also, if you build your form where certain fields are required before the consumer submits it, please make sure that is clear at the beginning of the form, perhaps in a bolded red font.
Lastly, on the thank you page (after they press submit), consider adding a time element (i.e. someone from our staff will contact you within 24 hours) so the visitor can anticipate when you will call him/her back.

Splash Pages (Flash Intros): These are useless for many reasons; two of which are most important. Number one is that consumers don’t care.  You are just adding an additional click for the consumers to find what they are looking for. Remember, the less clicks will result in higher conversion rates.  Number two is that search engines only read HTML content and can’t read images or flash.  So, if you want to rank well in the search engines trash the splash. 

The only exception is if you are driving traffic from paid search.  This can be effective when communicating your value proposition (from paid search only). 

Inconsistent Navigation:  This seems like a really elementary, no brainer strategy, but believe me, there are still some marketers who don’t get it.  Whether you choose your navigation to be on the left margin or across the top it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it is consistent on EVERY page of your website.  When navigation is all over the place, it creates confusion for consumers. It’s like a right handed pitcher who suddenly (out of nowhere) starts to pitch with his left hand with the same batter. 

Now, just because you follow some of these simple strategies doesn’t mean that your sales are going to go through the roof. There are some techniques and strategies that you should consider on how to convert visitors into customers. Additionally, you have to have a product or service that consumers actually want or need.  If you are selling products or services that consumers don’t want, consider a change in your career like in network marketing or something. Well, on second thought that’s probably not a great idea since network marketers sell useless products and services also.

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