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Getting started

by raincoast
10 replies
  • CRO
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I've run a small business for more than 10 years. I sell information products. Due to family emergencies, I've had to run the site on a "set it and forget it" model for a long time. While I've kept up with many things and I've got deep marketing experience, I am quite rusty.

My site gets around 40k unique visitors a month. I know I'm under monetized. I know my conversion rate could be so much better too.

I'm at a time in my life where it's possible family things are stable enough for me to really come back into this and optimize.

During the family emergency, my revenue dropped substantially because (1) the Google Ad market fell apart and (2) new competitors emerged. I know the ad market is never going to recover, so I no longer use it and I instead focus on my own product sales. And competitors are not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm just starting to use Google Optimize for the first time since it was called whatever it was called a long time ago. I'm just running a simple experiment on text size.

If you were me, where you have a site with this much traffic that does provide some steady revenue, where would you start for working on your on-site conversion rate? I need to figure out focus and find a way forward. And I am not a beginner at all, having been in this game a very long time, but I'm rusty enough that heat maps and exit intent pop ups are new to me (even though I know what they are).

(I am about to convert to a responsive site. Yes, this is how neglected the site is that I don't even have a responsive WP theme.)

Thanks.
#started
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  • Profile picture of the author whitehat
    One thing at a time. Priorities first.

    Responsive for mobile is a great start. Then look into doing the things to convert a higher percent of visitors, like:
    > Improving your already great design
    > Black letters on white background
    > HD Vids and images
    > Easy to follow steps on how to buy your product
    > Selling words
    > White space
    > Color mastery
    > Shorter pages, for less scrolling

    Storms make trees take deeper root.
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    • Profile picture of the author raincoast
      Shorter pages? I have a long-form page with CTA buttons throughout. I am actually surprised by how many people click the button at the very bottom....
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  • Profile picture of the author raincoast
    I got an alert saying someone posted to this, but it disappeared....
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  • Profile picture of the author Kent Hopkins
    I am currently in the process of finding a good copywriter to rewrite a headline and convert my long copy to short copy on one of my website. Like yours, the site has been up and selling for 10 years, I have updated things here and there, but it never did really do over the top or anything. It has basically petered out to trickles of sales here and there every few weeks. I believe this has declined like this because of the evolution of web technologies and this particular site of mine not evolving with them.

    Let me know what you end up deciding to tackle first. I am curious to know
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    Doubts Kill More Dreams Than Failure Ever Will.
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    • Profile picture of the author raincoast
      So, what I decided to start with is Google Optimize. I picked one page and changed one minor thing - the text size of a CTA. So far, it has led to a 200% increase in conversions from that page to the landing page. I looked at this page, because it gets a ton of traffic. I only started the experiment yesterday and have already had 1300 views, so it made sense to start there.

      I went through my most popular pages that send people to my landing pages. I looked at the conversion rate to the landing page.

      Then I looked at my landing pages and their conversion rate.

      Even though it makes sense to try to improve my landing pages, I realized that, when I'm getting 40,000 visitors a month, it probably first makes sense to increase how many people end up on the landing pages.

      So now I have four Optimize experiments going. I took another popular page and I'm looking at what I can do to get those people to a landing page. I somehow have this vaguely relevant page and people usually end up leaving AFTER they read the whole article. I probably need to figure out how to serve that market. They obviously want something - it's just that my website isn't necessarily set up for them.

      I'm also reviewing my Hotjar heatmap and seeing if I can use that to ballpark what to experiment with in Optimize. My Hotjar expired a while back and I'm just on basic, but I'm trying to see what I can do.

      I'm experimenting with Privy on another site. I'm wondering if I could use the paid tool to improve conversions by having a customized site.

      I have one tiny experiment in Optimize for a landing page, just where I changed a font size. I'll see how it goes.

      The page with 1300 views already is probably one I can just implement in real life, but I am going to wait till I have more views. I just shifted the experiment to try it for 75% of visitors, as I thought it made sense to try that before just going live in real life with all of it.

      How about you?
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  • Profile picture of the author raincoast
    Hmmm. Got another alert about a reply, but none here!
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
      Originally Posted by raincoast View Post

      Hmmm. Got another alert about a reply, but none here!
      This may happen if a spammer posts something. You get an alert but before you get back to the thread a mod may have already deleted the spam so, of course, you don't see it.

      Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author raincoast
    THanks. That's probably it!
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  • Profile picture of the author whitehat
    So, have you completed the responsive design yet?
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  • Profile picture of the author radu
    Originally Posted by raincoast View Post

    I've run a small business for more than 10 years. I sell information products. Due to family emergencies, I've had to run the site on a "set it and forget it" model for a long time. While I've kept up with many things and I've got deep marketing experience, I am quite rusty.

    My site gets around 40k unique visitors a month. I know I'm under monetized. I know my conversion rate could be so much better too.

    I'm at a time in my life where it's possible family things are stable enough for me to really come back into this and optimize.

    During the family emergency, my revenue dropped substantially because (1) the Google Ad market fell apart and (2) new competitors emerged. I know the ad market is never going to recover, so I no longer use it and I instead focus on my own product sales. And competitors are not necessarily a bad thing.

    I'm just starting to use Google Optimize for the first time since it was called whatever it was called a long time ago. I'm just running a simple experiment on text size.

    If you were me, where you have a site with this much traffic that does provide some steady revenue, where would you start for working on your on-site conversion rate? I need to figure out focus and find a way forward. And I am not a beginner at all, having been in this game a very long time, but I'm rusty enough that heat maps and exit intent pop ups are new to me (even though I know what they are).

    (I am about to convert to a responsive site. Yes, this is how neglected the site is that I don't even have a responsive WP theme.)

    Thanks.
    Depending on your niche you can monetize your traffic in many ways. You can see on the authority sites how well they turn the traffic into money
    - The commercial and informational content is monetized very well with affiliate marketing and display ads
    - Constantly a list of potential buyers is built using the same traffic and social media as well
    - Every 6-12 months a new informational product is launched
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