New Site with traffic but few conversions. Can you help?

[Tejas]

Hi Ros,

I've been a student of yours for over a year. Finally got a site up and running, but am disappointed at the number of conversions. Can you take a look and see if you can spot any flaws that could be at the root of this problem?

Thanks,
Tejas


Tejasca Web Services, LLC
ValiantHearts.com
Dating site reviews, articles, advice, tips and gifts at
http://valianthearts.com

[Lowell Rieger]

Tejas,

It would be helpful to know how much real traffic you've had. Usually you can find "unique visitors" in your hosting stats. What you are disappointed with may indeed be normal for a new site.

My comments:

Your theme is a pretty one but there's nothing on the home page to make me want to take any action. You should have some actionable items in the "top fold" of the page. You have to engage your readers attention and you only have an instant to do so.

You offer no incentive to sign up for your email newsletter.

If you want to learn how to increase your conversions you'll have to do some reading on preselling and persuasion.

To see what changes are meaningful you also need to learn site analytics, i.e. Google Analytics.

I'm sure Ros will have some input when she checks in.

Best,

Lowell

[Tejas]

Thanks for taking a look, Lowell. I appreciate the feedback.

Actually, I'm not terribly unhappy with the CTR from my Google ads, or the CTR to my merchant sites after visitors read my reviews, etc. Even my home page get a pretty fair amount of activity, even though it's not the landing page for any advertising. Subscriptions to my newsletter are doing pretty well also.

My concern is that I'm spending a lot of money on Google Adwords, and sending traffic to merchant sites, but almost none of it is converting to sales. I'm getting a reasonable number of free signups, but no paid memberships at dating services.

They, of course, say my traffic is of poor quality. But, if my ads are well-targeted and they move on to the merchant from my site, then I'd think you could consider it well-qualified traffic and the merchant is not closing the sale.

What can I do to improve the conversion rate AFTER the visitor leaves my site?

Thanks,
Tejas

[Lowell Rieger]

Tejas -

I can't help you with increasing conversion after they leave your site. I don't think anyone has control of that. You only can control WHERE you send them.

And your additional comments seem to be two issues. From what you say you are doing Adwords direct to merchant AND sending traffic to your merchants from your site and are dissatisfied with conversion for both.

You say you are getting free signups but few convert to paid hence no revenue. The nature of many dating sites is to offer free memberships. And once your traffic signs up there is little you can do to encourage a paid membership.

My solution would be to stop Adwords except for the profitable or near profitable kws. On your site I would emphasize those dating sites that people expect to pay for. These sites will probably be your most profitable kws in Adsense. Or find some sites that pay on signup.

Comments from my previous post re top fold (what visitor sees in browser window) still apply.

Lowell

[Tejas]

Hi Lowell -

None of my Adwords traffic is sent directly to merchant sites, they all come through me. I can only control where they land at my site, and I've changed that around to test which produces higher CTR.

The landing page is always a dating site review, but from there, they can either click straight through to the merchant, or explore my site. Most tend to move around the site and read more reviews, and click through to several dating sites. All dating sites offer free memberships, with upgrades required to use the more advanced options and tools. So far, almost no one is upgrading.

Thanks again for your input.
Tejas

[GailT]

Hi Tejas -

I can speak from the customer end of things. If I'm shopping around for an online dating site then I'm more likely to use one that has a free membership option than to pay a fee.

If however, my options from your site are to use a paid membership (and the benefits of using a paid membership are convincingly laid out in your review) then I'm more likely to try a paid membership - especially if I can get a month at a time billing.

I also agree that the header is too deep into the site and the content above the fold isn't giving a visitor time to stay. You may have some nice traffic now but it also may be greater with a few of those tweaks that Lowell was talking about.

The call to subscribe to your newsletter is a bit weak - it says "and you just may find" - can you make that stronger? Like - you will find material that will save you time money or heartache. And then when they subscribe don't forget to send them back to your site for new reviews or changes.

The site is really beautiful.

Hope that helps

Gail

[Tejas]

Thanks Gail -

I appreciate the feedback and suggestions, as well as the kind words.

Tejas

[Rosalind Gardner]

Hi Tejas,

Like Gail, I'll take things from a customer perspective first.

Your site design is absolutely lovely --- kudos there --- although as mentioned before, your main header is so large that folks have to scroll down to see the content on every page. That gets old real fast for most surfers, so I'd suggest doing a smaller version of the header on all but your home page.

Too, I see articles that don't follow up with a merchant referal at the bottom of the article.

Never miss a marketing opportunity in the dating niche!

And to improve conversion AFTER surfers leave your site... well, you gotta get their email addy BEFORE they leave your site and keep in contact with them... continuously.

I'd suggest visiting my dating site at http://sage-hearts.com for an example, but I can tell you've already spent some time there.

Cheers,

[Tejas]

Thanks Ros -

I've been trying to get you to my site for about two months, even offering to pay, without any luck. I wish I'd known about this part of the forum sooner.

You're right. I've spent some time at your sites, as well as many others, trying to learn the good and the bad from all. As you noticed, I thought yours was mostly good.

Thanks for the advice on the header and the articles. I'll do something about those very soon. I'm still willing to pay for more in depth advice on getting and converting traffic.

Tejas

[Tejas]

Thanks Ros, and everyone else who offered feedback on my site.

I have taken your advice and revised my subscription box, my home page headline, and most importantly, I have scaled down the header on all but the home page. It's still a little deeper than some, but has made considerably more of the page available above the fold.

Thanks again. You've all been a big help.

Tejas

[Jim Hutchinson]

Hi Tejas

The site is looking much better! The design is very nice, navigating is easy, subscription box is right at the top and when I click an article, I can read the first few paragraphs without scrolling.

Those are great improvements. Keep building!