When a website has decent traffic quality and quantity but is not converting, most rightfully assume there to be a problem with the primary sales or landing page(s). Therefore, they set about to either split test different sales tools on the current landing page or pay to have someone rewrite and possibly redesign it. But what if the problem was never the sales or landing page and no matter how many times you ran another split test or revised the copy, it simply didn’t convert?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) experts are hired to solve this very problem and ultimately deliver more online sales and profits. And in most cases, the problem in this case would be the sales funnel itself. Specifically, the website is not funneling enough visitors to the sales or landing page. So while the website itself may have a low conversion rate, the sales or landing page itself may actually convert quite well. But how do you know if the problem is the landing page or the sales funnel?

Conversion rate optimization experts rely on website traffic analysis tools like Google Analytics, Optimizely, Clicktale, and other advanced tracking platforms to isolate conversion problems. In this particular case, a conversion rate expert would look at the percentage of visitors reaching your primary sales or landing page(s). If you have Google Analytics set-up to track visitors on your website, here is how to do this:

1. Click on Behavior Link in Left Hand Navigation

2. Click on Site Content

3. Click on Content Drilldown

Following these steps should pull up a default screen that shows the top 10 most viewed pages on your website. If your primary sales or landing page isn’t in the top 10, you’ve probably have a big problem. But, it should certainly appear on this page and if so, just look at the number of unique page views for your primary sales or landing page. Now don’t pay attention to the percentage that Google Analytics displays next to the Unique Page views. What you need to do is to take the number shown for Unique Page Views for your landing page and divide it by the number of unique visitors to your website. To get that number, click on the Audience tab in the left column and then Overview.

If less than 50% of total visitors are reaching your primary sales or landing page, you have a funneling problem. Obviously, the higher this number the better but below 50% signals a pretty clear funneling problem. To fix this issue, conversion rate optimization experts might employ one or more of the following strategies:

1. Add Slide Show and Link Directly to the Primary Landing Page(s)

Conversion rate experts add slide shows to both get USP’s above the fold and link them directly to primary landing pages. This direct link and prominent display of USP’s helps funnel significantly more visitors to your primary landing pages.

2. Create CTA’s On All Traffic Generating Content

Conversion rate optimization experts know that some content is created to directly generate sales, and some content is created to generate traffic. However, even traffic generating content (like blogs and articles) still must funnel visitors towards the primary landing page(s).

To do so, CRO experts will create specific CTA’s (calls-to-action) at the bottom of all traffic-generating content to redirect prospects to the primary landing page. In addition, conversion experts will create secondary CTA’s on all traffic generating content to encourage name/email capture and build the marketing list. This secondary CTA will typically offer some lead generating product or service in exchange for contact information and CRO experts will typically place it in the right-hand column content. Ultimately, this will help boost primary conversions and add value to the business as the marketing list grows.

Concluding Thoughts

Make no mistake, most conversion rate optimization experts end up making revisions to the copywriting and design on the landing pages on the vast majority of projects. However, it is equally true to say that conversion experts also tend to find sales funnel problems on most projects that are suppressing sales by as much or more than the landing page issues. If you are tracking traffic with Google Analytics, you can quickly determine the percentage of visitors making it to your primary landing page and if it’s less than 50%, then you have a serious sales funnel problem.