If you know the importance of SEO, then you should know the importance of stats tracking- including conversions. But, what exactly is a conversion?

Many people have the misconception that a conversion means a completed sale for a physical product, but that is hardly the case. The truth of the matter is, a conversion is whatever you want it to be. Essentially, it’s when a visitor to your website accomplishes a specific action you want them to take. This can be anything from:

• Fill out a form
• Subscribe to a mailing list
• Register a new membership
• Drive to your store
• Read an ad

In my case, I’m managing a fairly new blog. So to me, a conversion would be for someone to subscribe to my full content RSS feed. I feel that if someone thought that my blog was helpful and interesting enough to subscribe to my RSS feed, I had accomplished my goal. So that’s my “conversion”. What’s yours?

Do you spend money on links or ads and work for hours on end trying to improve your search engine rankings? Remember- good ranks do not guarantee conversions! You can spend a million dollars on PPC (pay per click) ads or rank #1 in Google for your favorite keywords, but if you don’t do a good job of accomplishing your goal (conversion), all of your work has just been thrown out of the window!

Also, what you consider a conversion today may not be a conversion tomorrow. Since I want to build up the number of RSS feed subscribers to my blog, that’s my conversion. But when I have 10,000 subscribers, I may want to push for something else. I may decide that I need more of my visitors to make comments on my blog or to Digg my articles. Choosing what you consider a conversion is an ever-evolving process that you must re-evaluate on a frequent basis in order to get the most out of your visitors.

So remember: Before you start your next big SEO or advertising campaign, know what a conversion means to you and be sure to steer your visitors in the direction they need to go in order to accomplish your ultimate goal.

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Category: Website Traffic Tactics
Article posted by: Neon on July 25th, 2007