Businesses must focus on website conversion rates to beat a recession

April 29, 2008; 02:38 AM

If a recession does hit the UK, it’s the businesses that focus on turning website visitors into sales that will thrive and survive.

That’s the verdict of Mark Furber, an experienced website optimiser who runs £3m turnover Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company NetCallidus.

He believes if a recession happens, many businesses will make knee jerk cuts to their marketing budgets. And that will cause them long-term damage.

But those that instead divert funds to increase the efficiency of their website will successfully ride out the storm.

Mark said: “At the moment, the majority of UK businesses don’t work out what their return on investment is on their website. The situation is so bad that some companies see a 90p return for every £1 they spend.

“It’s those that take a more scientific approach to their websites that will thrive. They need to look at all the data about how customers use their website, and then improve the site bit by bit to get more sales from the same visitors.

“It then makes it easy to justify spend on internet marketing tools such as Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click, as the results become utterly predictable.”

Mark points out that increasing a conversion rate by just 10 per cent can significantly raise revenues, and recommends every business sets up a simple three step process now:

1) Analyse data to understand how visitors act on your website
2) Make one positive change to increase conversions rate
3) Repeat from step one

Mark has been a professional website optimiser for 11 years.

His business NetCallidus is a strategic search engine marketing company, employing 26 people at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire.

Its clients include Dunelm Mill and York Fitness.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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