by Hannah Kampen

Created on: February 18, 2009

Using testing an

d tracking to increase sales conversions

What happens when someone is surfing the web, and they stumble upon a site that appeals to them? Say, it has a nice blog or forum they can post on, or some products they can buy, or the site just has nice pictures. That person is satisfied, and the creator of the site breathes a happy sigh of relief as yet another customer is born from boredom or need.

What about when that customer is done buying, though? Don't panic - chances are, you have just found yourself a repeat customer than a one-timer. You can focus all your efforts on directing new people to your site, or you can restrict yourself to keeping your continual customers happy. The way to tell if they're repeat or new: Tracking the site traffic, and testing it.

Tracking your Traffic to Test it: It won't fail

Tracking your site traffic, meaning the people you or your ads have directed to your site, is the easiest way to see how your site is growing. It is also one of the best ways to increase your growth because if you can track your traffic, you can see what they visit and like the most on your site. Imagine that tracking (string) is what your consumers (people) trail along behind them in a room (your site) - you will see where they have gone and can follow their 'footsteps' to see what they like. There are also programs that can show you what they like on previous sites (within a limit, of course) so you can see ahead of time what they will probably be checking on your site. No more awkward guessing at what to stock up on for products, or keeping a blog going that most people don't even pay attention to - put all of your attention and money towards building your site according to what people like to see. That's how business is made, isn't it?

Actually Testing your Traffic

See up there where it also says testing? Testing is a way to ensure you can and will double (or more) your profits by making minute changes, and 'testing' them out to see what people like. The most commonly used test, probably because it's the most effective, is called 'A-B split tests'. In these tests, you compare two things against each other to see what makes people buy more instead of just look. There are a number of ways to test, but some of the most powerful are price testing, headline testing, guarantee testing, and a payment plan test. For example, you decide to implement these four tests on a site that currently has 2% conversion (meaning 2 people out of every 100 buy something).

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