Conversions.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

There’s a study out from Econsultantcy that shows the number one online conversion event for companies is sales, with sign-ups and registrations a close second.  Seems obvious, right?

What’s more interesting is the feedback from firms on what methods proved most valuable in increasing conversions rates. They reported A/B testing as the most valuable way to improve conversion, with more than one-half of companies saying it was highly valuable and another 42% saying it was quite valuable.

Econsultancy also asked agency folks the same question, and it appears that they didn’t necessarily know what their clients thought on improving conversions. For example, A/B testing appears further down the list. Number one for them was cart abandonment analysis. Expert usability reviews, listed as least effective by clients, was ranked much higher on the agency side.

Heck, let me show the chart with their responses:

Not surprisingly, Econsultancy determined that an organization was more than twice as likely to experience better conversion rates if there was an employee directly responsible for conversion. Although 52% of agencies said their clients did not have such a person, 60% of client-side respondents reported having a worker devoted to improving conversion rates.

Bottom line, there is no silver bullet. There is only the proven process of testing and measuring.
Rinse and repeat.

Forgive the segue, but allow me to leave you with a fascinating interview of Google CEO Eric Schmidt on What the Web Will Look Like in Five Years.