There is no doubt about it. There are many internet gurus. Some of them have helped tens of thousands of people to understand how to better leverage the power of the internet to their advantage and to the advantage of their businesses. However, they do not always agree on every aspect of the best practices for the commercial use of the internet.
A guru’s abilities are limited to counseling and mentoring, but there is never an assurance that a guru is always right. One recently said that there are no best practices for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). (That’s the technical phraseology for getting good clicks.) Ironically, the article ended with a list of recommended practices.
Best Practices for Spotting Good Clicks
Four of the guru’s suggestions begin with the word “test.” The implication is that only the website owner can determine what is in his company’s best interest relative to getting good clicks versus getting bad clicks. That implication is correct.
Keyword Connects strongly agrees: Quality lead generation does not just happen because your home improvement business has a website. In fact, in our recent article, “How to Spot Bad Clicks,” we began this discussion, noting that optimizing for quality lead generation takes some determined, dedicated, and ongoing effort.
Optimizing for good clicks includes making adjustments to eliminate bad clicks and to help pave the way for good clicks to fill your sales funnel.
Continual Analysis Is a Key to Better Clicks
The point for home improvement business owners is not to be zeroing in on individual clicks that are good or bad, but rather, identifying the sources and traits of the types of clicks most likely to convert to quality leads and, ultimately, to customers.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that studying the analytics is extra work.
The first step is the same for weeding out the bad clicks: Study the analytics. Do not make the mistake of thinking that doing the analytics is extra work. It is not. It is, in fact, necessary work. If your website is getting good clicks,
- The bounce rate will be low
- Pages viewed per session will be high
- Average session duration will be high
- Form submissions will be high
High and low compared to what? Two things:
- Compared to the average per statistic
- Compared to the trend of your own business statistics
Improvement is only improvement if it is continual.
Continual Testing Is a Key to Better Clicks
You can’t stop after just reviewing the analytics. You have to actually DO SOMETHING to increase the number of your good clicks. That is why we said earlier in this article that, “quality lead generation takes some determined, dedicated, and ongoing effort.” The amount and consistency of that effort is entirely up to you. Your job is to think about what the analytics are telling you.
- Learn your own CRO best practices. Discover the best practices for your site. Be careful, however, a “best practice” that holds true one year may not be a best practice the next.
- Test the right stuff first. If you can identify the most important things to test, you’ll be able to move the needle on conversion rate improvements a lot faster.
- Test everything. The more types of tests you run, the better you’ll be able to gain actionable insights.
- Test against your assumptions. Successful optimizers learn to second guess their own assumptions. They test their assumptions to see if they are accurate or not. Often, the very things we think are correct are actually roadblocks to success.
- Test consistently. Create a testing map and records of your changes. That will help to keep you from missing the obvious.
Don’t change a lot of things at once. This is all about fine tuning. Focus on one thing at a time, then analyze the results of making that change. Think it through. Did it make a difference? Now ask what you can change next to make an even greater impact. Now you have begun the cycle of improvement that goes on and on.
Improving the quality of leads generated through your home improvement website is not only a necessary task, it is also an unending task to be repeated again and again and again. Face the task with delight, and the results will be delightful. Neglect the task, and the struggle for better leads will continue to be a burden.
Keyword Connects can help maximize your number of quality, convertible leads. Plus, we can provide leads that are exclusively yours. Learn how Keyword Connects works. Call us or fill out the form on our website. We know that we can help improve your lead generation efforts.