Yeah, But...Our Site Converts Just Fine

Really?!?! How do you know that? Did all of your "yeah, butter" competitors all share their conversion rates with you? Even if they did, how do you know what's good and what isn't? If by "fine," you mean you're making a profit, then great. But, is that all you want, just to be "fine"?

A 100% conversion rate just doesn't exist, no matter what you do to your site: Some will say yes, some will say no and then some will say maybe. It's that last category of site visitors that can have a major impact on future business growth.

The difference between the amount of maybes you're currently converting and the amount of maybes you could possibly convert is the difference between your current conversion rate and your potential conversion rate. If you're a "yeah, butter" and you've never tested your site, that gap is most likely pretty big.

Do the Math

So, let's talk about a simple scenario. Let's say you're converting 2 out of every 100 visitors (2%), your average conversion value is $100 and you get about 100K visitors per month. That's 2,000 conversions at $100 a piece for a total conversion value of $200K.

Now, let's say realistically that you could convert up to 8 out of every 100 visitors. That's $800K. That's $600K per month out there for the taking. What do you think about your site converting "just fine" now? Is it fine that you are losing $600K per month in lost opportunity? Remember, that's traffic that you're paying for; whether you're doing SEO, PPC, social media or whatever. You're paying for it, and you're not treating it as well as you could be.

Go Beyond Conversion Rate

Now let's take it to the next step. We're only talking about improving the conversion rate (and therefore the value) of the bottom-line conversion actions that you're tracking. But this is not what a vast minority of visitors that come to your site want to do. People come to your site for all kinds of reasons. They come to research, learn about you, get help, etc. So, if you really want to know how your site is doing, you've got to know how it's doing for all the tasks that visitors come to perform. 

If your site is only working for 2 out of 100 for your primary conversion, how is it working for the other 98? Are most of them able to complete their tasks without any trouble? Are there certain tasks that visitors are finding harder to complete than others? If you obsess over your primary conversion rate, you might lose a good portion of the other 98. If this happens, are you really improving your website?

Eliminate Guesswork

All in all, there are over 1,100 identifiable factors that affect a site's ability to serve its visitors. Since every business and its customers are different, you really have no idea what works best. It's only discovered through knowing your business and understanding your individual audience. Testing is the only way to uncover this. Let your customers design your site for you. Your "yeah, butter" guesswork will never design it better than their actions will.