The Conversion/Dating Rules

Ok, let me get straight to the point, lets skip the captivating introduction, pass through the drawn out middle and land at the grand finale, what puts bums on seats, it is all about conversions... this applies to all aspects of life. Let me explain, we all want our website to attract visitors but once they are there we want to convert them into customers. What I mean is that even if we have really good rankings, it does not mean anything if our conversion rate is low.

Being dumped recently and coincidently having a lot more time on my hands I was talking to another friend (dumped too) we came to realise that perhaps there is not much difference between a first date and converting users on a website! May be the same rules apply...



RIGHT KEYWORDS - As with dates, we have to stimulate the interest of people even before they come to our website / agree to a date. We need to tweak their curiosity and make sure they click with us and not our rivals. How? Words, words & more words... No technical trick here! Our Title tags and meta-description tags are our main weapons here.

SEOMOZ a respected and valuable resource for Search Marketers place 'Keywords used in title-tags' first in the list of factors positively affecting the search rankings of a website. In brief, while a good title tag can boost rankings, a bad title tag can totally ruin your page, exactly like a few misplaced words can ruin a date. I still can't believe that my friend, whom I won't tell the name managed to say something like this on his first date "I never said you need a nose job. I just said it wouldn't hurt to consider it?"

GOOD FEELING AND CONTENT - Having a clear theme on our website ensures visitors understand and feel positive about the business right at the start. Normally we have only a few seconds before a visitor decides to stay on our site or leave. Our dialogue with the visitor (date), clean design (clean shaven and fresh clothes) are key elements that can make visitors stay (and not escape out the toilet window), thus increasing our chance of conversions. We also need some interesting and unique content on our website because we don't want our date (visitors) to get bored, do we? Talking about your lousy day at work or your ex (worst) will bore your date so much that you can possibly never see her again. The same rule applies on your website, we must ensure that our content is interesting enough to make visitors stay and hopefully provide us with a return visit (2nd date!)

Also we should never optimise for keywords that are not related to our business since this will cause our website to attract the wrong audience. In brief, we should always talk to our target audience (your date) in a way that makes you attractive...

CONSISTENT NAVIGATION - Ok, now that things are going well enough, we don't want that to end on the first night... do we? We'd like the long lasting romance. So the same applies to visitors to our site. Visitors are more likely to get what they want from a website if they are familiar with its navigation scheme. Most of the time visitors hesitate to purchase products on a website where the global navigation scheme is not consistent, they get confused, they don't know if the product they're looking for is on the same site or not and finally find themselves asking "Maybe this website (guy) isn't trustworthy and not right for me"

Therefore, we have to make sure we have a clear, consistent and well-labelled navigation that will make our visitors (our date) time on our site a pleasure...

APPEALING CALL-TO-ACTIONS - It's like making our proposal. Our goal on our site should be clear, direct and express why people should click, you don't want to mumble words and stare at your feet whilst proposing a date as the likelihood of success is slim. Whether we want our visitors to buy something, sign up for something or else (Uh hum...like spending the night together after diner).

The call to action should be clear enough and sharp to make them 'click' and convert. Therefore, when planning site architecture, part of the process is to clearly determine individual pages primary and secondary calls-to-action (depending on the type of website).

We must also think about what messages we are communicating to our visitors and the search engine spiders. If keywords, navigation and calls-to-actions are all obvious to targeted users including the search engines... then we have better chance that our visitors convert.

KEEP THEM INTERESTED - Our first conversion, hold that 'feel good' sensation. The story does not end there as within SEO we are not concerned about one night stands but the long lasting romance! So we will have to keep our dates (visitors) interested! How? We have to 'feed' them with nice and exciting offers always! Keep our content up to 'date' and interesting and also offer 'gifts' from time to time... it's all part of the game.