It's probably because many business owners who launch an online presence focus so intently on getting as many people as possible to view their brand, but oftentimes, those who are working on these marketing initiatives on a website barely understand what a conversion rate on Google Analytics is, let alone know what is a good conversion rate to aim for. As part of your social media training, it's important to understand the value of conversion rates, and learn how to incorporate conversion rate goals into your overall structure of parameters that indicate whether or not your marketing strategy is successful.

Google Analytics and Conversion Rate Goal Types

Google Analytics is one of the most widely adopted tools for showing marketers like you various measurements or metrics as well as the conversion rate of your site, which is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. This demonstrates that your campaign is achieving its intended goals.

For instance, if one of the goals of your website is to have people watch a movie about your product, then you would use Google Analytics to track the percentage of visitors that landed on that page as well as the percentage of visitors who actually watched the film.

• On the other hand, if one of your goals is to make sure that visitors spend 10 minutes perusing your site, Analytics will be able to track that too, telling you what percentage of visitors are spending more than 10 minutes on the site.
• Still another goal of yours could be that each visitor views at least 4 of the 10 pages on your site. Google Analytics can also track this, showing you what percentage of visitors went to at least 4 of the 10 pages.

These are all examples of goals that could help you determine conversion rate. Now it’s time to figure out how to maximize that percentage.

Raising your Conversion Rate

While a 1 percent to 3 percent conversion rate is average in marketing, a 9 percent or 10 percent conversion rate is considered the ideal parameter for success. Let’s say you determine that your site's conversion rate is 1 percent, and you want to increase it to 5 percent. There are several factors that will get you to a good conversion rate. Ask yourself the following questions when deciding to increase your conversion rate.

1. Do I have content that is interesting and informative? Audiences are attracted to solid content. Informative blogs, videos, and other pieces of information that audiences may find valuable must be consistent and highly visible on your website. Your audience appreciates value, so give it to them.
2. Does my branding accurately portray my company? Does your branding reflect your corporate culture? Is the branding consistent and intriguing? Keep in mind that you want to know about your brand awareness and how your audience responds to your brand.
3. Do I give my audience enough incentives to stick around? At the end of the day, frequency of visits matter, but how long they stick around when they do visit matters just as much if not more, and if there is nothing in it for them, they will not stick around.
4. Is my product or service valuable? The content could be excellent, your branding out of sight and your incentives right on the money, but if your product or service is not viewed as valuable, you will not succeed.
5. Am I attracting the right audience? You can get millions of hits on your page, but if only two or three are resulting in measurable gains, then you're reaching too broadly, or you're not attracting the right audience. Ask yourself what audience you'd like to attract and how you can better target your efforts.

Have a question about Google Analytics? Submit it to questions@splashmediau.com, and we'll answer it live on our daily training show.

[photo credit: 30 Lines via photo pin cc]