In the last entry, I discussed the first three categories of Conversion Analytics, the topic of the latest SEMPO meetup with Todd Barrs of Spyglass LLC as the headlining speaker. As promised, here the final two categories are explained:

Endorsement:

Mr. Barrs spoke about human conditioning and the use of features that create confidence among our users. Specifically, when users see symbols for the Better Business Bureau, certifications, or things like "100% Hacker Safe," it helps convince the user to make the next step and complete the purchase. This is something that sites often do, but many do it illegitimately. I have seen many sites, and even brick-and-mortar business, claim certifications that they do not have in an attempt to increase business.

Not only could this destroy your company’s reputation, but it also says a lot about the type of business you run. Specifically, what would your clients think if they found out that you had to lie about being certified as an ethical company? And, as a developer, what impression are you making on clients that you develop content for when you tell them that implying legitimacy is that same thing as being legitimate?

If you don’t measure up to the business standards you promote, you should reconsider how you operate your business. Also, just as a side note, misusing other people’s logos, especially for implied sponsorship, can land you in the big land of legal trouble.

So while these endorsements are valuable and can be very effective, they need to be placed legitimately and legally.

Improvement:

Originally I was going to call this category "conversionment," in order to match the "-ment" theme, but I think Improvement is the idea we are really going for. Improvement of conversion rates, that is. This sums up the ultimate goal of finding out what works, and optimizing the site to increase the good and get rid of the bad.

This is something that I notice many people miss when they outsource web development services (or even if they do it internally). They assume that the site is complete. When web development happens, developers follow a "best practice" approach, which combines all the elements of design in order to create something that should work. Some developers do this well, some create sites that just look pretty, and some developers can do both. But without regular optimization, a site will never reach its full potential.

This is why any type of service optimization plan can be extremely valuable. I know that at Amadeus Consulting we can make a site that is very well optimized on its initial launch, but even here we regularly update and modify our own site for better optimization. Once a site is launched, analytics programs (Google Analytics, Omniture, etc) provide very exact data that can be used to greatly increase conversion rates since they help you know why people are coming to your site, how they got there, and what they do once they arrive.

As Todd Barrs pointed out, even tiny increases in visit-to-sales conversion can greatly increase revenues.