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In the previous installment, I outlined the key differences between a typical optimization plan and a holistic strategy for conversion rate optimization. In short, the difference is between tweaking random website elements based on what your boss wants, and truly improving your website by identifying your must-have user experience and engineering the conversion funnel to get users there quickly and effortlessly.

So how do you optimize your funnel, and shuttle visitors quickly along their way to the experience that will turn them not just into a conversion but into engaged users who love your product and spread the word to their friends?

In other words, how do you knock down the barriers on your way to the land of rainbows and unicorns?

Uncovering Pinch Points and Confusion

In your funnel you have bigger challenges than button colors. It's your job to find and fix them. Unlocking conversion improvements requires you to step back and get a good look from all angles at what's really transpiring in the conversion funnel for different visitor types.

Analytics is the place to start digging to uncover existing challenges and potential opportunities for performance improvement. Analytics packages, such as CrazyEgg, KISSMetrics, and Google Analytics, can help you find pinch points that are hurting conversion.

When you're looking at the data, the goal is to gain insights by looking at user behavior and comparing it to what you think should be happening in an ideal user experience.

Here are some common examples of where your ideal scenario is likely distorted by reality.

Funnel Drop-off Points

In your analytics package, look at each page in your conversion funnel and identify pages that have high levels of user drop-off. You can use the Funnel Visualization Report in Google Analytics, or a funnel report in KISSMetrics, to find these trouble spots.


Funnel visualization report in Google Analytics, via VerticalMeasures.com 

The pages with high exit rates are strong candidates for areas you should focus your attention on first. Review the detailed analytics around those poor-performing pages to determine the issues creating the fall-off.

The page doesn't live in isolation. You need to look at it in context, including evaluating the source the visitors came from, the previous pages in their path, and the pages (if any) they visit before leaving.

Examine the navigation path of the user to and from that page. Do users simply leave the site, navigate to another page, or spend exceptional amounts of time there? You can use such information to create hypotheses about their behavior, which you can then test against.

Keyword Searches vs. Site Messaging Copy

Using the Traffic Sources > Search > Organic report in Google Analytics, you can see the top keywords driving traffic to your page. Compare those keywords with the messaging on your site. Do the inbound terms align with your product offering and value proposition?


Google Analytics organic search traffic data, via KISSMetrics

For example, if users are arriving to your site based on keyword searches for a product or feature you don't promote on your landing pages, you may be creating user confusion and reducing your conversion rates. To fix that problem, you can better align your promise and messaging with that inbound traffic.

If a large percentage of your inbound search traffic is obscured because of Secure search—that's the keyword "(not provided)" line in Google Analytics—you can get some insight into that secure search traffic https://blog.kissmetrics.com/crack-keyword-not-provided/ via various means.

Landing and Exit Pages

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How to Uncover Confusion in Your Conversion Funnel: Article 2 of 4

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Sean Ellis

Sean Ellis is the founder of GrowthHackers.com and CEO of Qualaroo, a technology company that helps marketers better understand the needs of website visitors and improve conversions. He has held marketing leadership roles at breakout companies, such as Dropbox, LogMeIn (IPO), Uproar (IPO), Eventbrite, and Lookout.

Twitter: @SeanEllis