If i am not wrong, the number of visitors to your page changes daily depending on your web traffic, hence i don’t think there is any thing wrong as far as the metrics are concern.

unless your concern is the your site is attracting lesser and lesser visitors. In this case, i guess you need to provide more information.

I think this brought up an important point mention in the book on data collection. I could have easily get the more reliable data from my database rather than simply stick to GA for sake of convenience.

Thanks for your help!

So in a nutshell, the numbers will never tie. But they should be close (say between 5 - 10%), if not I would dig deeper and try to understand more. It might need a bit more knowledge of the technology, but you should be able to figure out the root causes (just don’t expect them to match completely!).

-Avinash.

What i find confusing is that my goal conversion, page views of thank you page as well as my database records of subscribers all show different figures even though i have selected the whole range.

Is there any chance that the conversion result is not accurate?

Although traditionally expressed as a percentage of an opportunity, I find connecting that conversion rate to a fixed dollar ammount allows one to express traffic in terms of value per visitor (VPV.)

A metric I find to be much more powerful.

1. What is the typical average number of visitors of a new webpage?

On this blog, 200. On oracle.com 500k. On cnn.com 1 million. And so on and so forth. Most companies won’t share their data publicly. Two recommendations:
1) Benchmark against yourself and get better over time.
2) Get access to a Competitive Analysis service (Click Here for a post on options).

2. What is a typical conversion rate for visitors of a webpage that sells a membership to have access to premium services/ content etc.?

Best bet would be accessing a service such a Jupiter or Forrester and see if they have a “vertical” report (vertical = your business segment).

3. Any data on how to increase conversion rates/ tips and tricks

You have read this article already, I hope it was of some help. :) I would also recommend testing as perhaps the most powerful tool in improving conversion of any sort.

Click Here for a primer on testing. Click Herefor a post on the cultural elements of a successful testing program.

Hope this helps.

I enjoyed reading avinashs posting and the comments. You guys seem to be very knowledgable. therefore I thought you maight have some answers for me. I am looking for some statistical data (I can’t find this anywhere on the web…):

1. What is the typical average number of visitors of a new webpage (given you have good marketing to get people on your webpage)?

2. What is a typical conversion rate for visitors of a webpage that sells a membership to have access to premium services/ content etc.?

3. Any data on how to increase conversion rates/ tips and tricks

I appreciate your help

Gandalf

Order conversion rate = total number of orders taken / total visits
Buyer conversion rate = total customers converted / all visitors

Your question was:

Can I assume you prefer buyer conversion rate since you used visitors in your definition?

The definition recommended in the post above is neither of the two you mention. This is definition recommended my post:

Site Conversion Rate = Total Number of Outcomes / Total Unique Visitors during a time period

My personal point of view on the two you shared:

Order Conversion Rate: This is a bit sub optimal, for most business on the web I would stress test the rationale for using “visits”. Please see the section titled “Why Use Unique Visitors” in the post above. Using “visits” might yield sub optimal insights. IMHO. YMMV.

Buyer Conversion Rate: This is a bit more interesting as you have defined it. I am struggling though to imagine what it is telling me and what actions I could take if it were moving up or down (and overlay that with orders going up or down). The only scenario where this might be meaningful is if a website gets lots of orders from repeat buyers, same people buying a lot. Taking orders (”outcomes”) out of the equation might provide some insight. If you use this metric be careful about how you count “customers”. It is Avinash Kaushik or everyone in Avinash’s Home/Office or someone who has never purchased from you or how do you know someone is a “customer”. Sans the answer to this you are back to orders. I have this “actionability test” for a metric and my tiny brain is struggling with getting this metric to pass that test. Again: IMHO. YMMV.

I think Site Conversion Rate (which was not invented by me/us but is a fairly well established standard) accommodates for both of new metrics you mention and does it is a way that is clean and will provide insights (of course if you follow the eight best practices! : )).

I want to hasten and clarify that each business should review their business model and customer interactions and then decide on what is the best metric definition for them. You should certainly not go with what some random blogger, me, says in a blog post. You in your company are best at deciding what is best for you. Though outside points of view can be helpful and informational, I would not recommend copy pasting metrics in.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, I appreciate that very much.

Jaimie

One thing about Avinash Kaushik - he writes great posts in his blog Occam’s Razor.  I feel that Avinash has actually done it this time…he’s written "gold" - gave out something that no one has ever said before about conversion……

http://www.webmetricsguru.com/2006/07/avinashs_tip5_conversion_rate.html

This was an excellent post and I have my work cut out for me (as I need to take some of it and apply it to my clients).

A couple of extra tools/tips. For the part with sesional conversion rates - I have successfully co-related keyword seasonality demand (from Google AdWords Keyword Research tool) to traffic and revenue to a client (conversion rate) by super imposing the two patterns.

I like showing revenue next to conversion rate - I haven’t done it often or consistantly (except in a scorecard format) but would like to now.

And segmenting like crazy….who can ever do enough of that? Thanks for a great Post!

Marshall

This is a great post that puts together a nice checklist of things to do in trying to gain insights from a metric that, as you say, usually does not yield much.

Keep up the great work on this blog.