What is conversion?
A web site is a corporate resource, and like any other resource it should provide a return on investment. That return should be immediate and measurable, meaning that the bottom line for any website is – how specifically has the web site grown my business today/this week/this month, and so on. Enter the concept of ‘conversion’.
For a business web site, there are three primary goals:
- generating leads
- selling products via e-commerce
- generating referrals
The reason that I say this is because these are the only actions that lead to real dollars. So, they’re the only way for your web site to produce a return-on-investment. When a visitor takes one of these actions, that is counted as a ‘conversion’ (as in converting visitors into leads and customers).
April 30th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Is the word ‘Conversion’ just the lastest buzzword for good communication practices? I mean, in order to make any site effective, aren’t we really just using ‘effective persuasion’ in all aspects of website building? This goes back to basic college communications - Ethos, Pathos, Logos - right?
May 1st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
You’re right, ‘conversion’ is really nothing more than good marketing. But the real understanding comes when businesses realize that the web is a direct marketing medium, not just an information dissemination tool.
Furthermore, I’ve also found that conversion is something that doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a specific strategy to create conversion rates higher than typical.