Conversions? What does this mean for my site?

You may have heard the term "Conversions" or "Conversion rate" being mentioned in regards to a website's performance. What do these terms mean and how can you use them to improve your website?

If you already have a website or are thinking about creating a new website you know that your site has a specific goal or a set of goals. If you have a site just because you want to have a website this article is not for you. A goal could be to sell products but it could also be to generate interest in your services and have potential customers contact you. You create your site in such a manner that it will help achieve this goal. You present your products in such a manner that it will lead to a sale, or so you think.

It is very important to measure your websites traffic but even more important to be able to analyze the data in such a manner that it tells you if your site needs improving or not. This is where "Conversions" come into play. The term "Conversion rate" is described as: "The percentage of unique visitors who take a desired action upon visiting the website"(Wikipedia). So this means the amount of visitors that came to your site and completed one of your website's goals. So a conversion occurs when a visitor to your site "converts" himself from a regular visitor to one that fullfills one of your goals. For example a visitor orders a product. At the moment he orders a product he creates a conversion.

By keeping track of your conversions you will be able to find out which percentage of visitors converts and therefor which percentage of visitors is of value to you and generates revenue. You can use this information to set up an online advertising campaign or use it to further finetune your website in order to increase your website's conversionrate.