Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
"How did you find out about us" accuracy research?
-
This is more of a conversion and usability question than an SEO question.
Does anyone know if there's any comprehensive research about the accuracy of the well-known "How did you find out about us" question in web forms?
I need to convince a customer that they shouldn't put the question in their form, at least not the way they do now.
I hope someone can refer me to a credible online source / article about this subject?
-
Hi Keri,
Thanks for getting back on this.
I was able to make my case, but without the scientific evidence I was looking for.
It turned out that the manual referral system used by the hiring managers of the company has major flaws and is not properly used by most of the managers. That resulted in faulty referral reports to the HQ.
In short they had a bigger problem than the referral question :).
-
Whatever happened here? Were you able to make your case to them at all, or are you stuck with the question?
-
Here's a study of 40,000 landing pages that has some data about conversions and number of fields in general. Unbounce might also be a place to look for case studies. Best of luck.
-
Thanks for your input Keri. Yes I found that page too and it is quite useful to illustrate the case. Too bad it doesn't have any references to research or trusted sources (except one link in the comments to an official Google blog). So my quest for a scientific backup on the claim that referral questions in web forms are unreliable continues...:) C'mon! Who helps me out here?
-
You may be able to more easily find convincing proof that the more fields you add to a form the more you hurt conversion on a general level, then tell the client that it would apply to the "how did you find out about us" as well.
I have never heard of this site before, so I don't know how to judge the accuracy of what they write, but this article looks like what you're looking for to back you up about the "how did you find us" question: http://www.goodusability.co.uk/2010/01/how-did-you-hear-about-us/
There are 36 comments on this post, which can also be helpful for giving your client anecdotal information about how people say they don't fill out those forms, etc.
For me personally, I often find that the choices don't match what really happened for me. Someone mentioned company x on twitter but didn't include a link, so I went to Google to search for company x. Did I hear about them from Google or Twitter? What if I had also heard about company x from people in a group of my friends first, but was never at a computer to investigate company x and it wasn't until the Twitter mention that I remembered I wanted to look at them?
-
Thanks for your reply Andre, but this doesn't really get me there.
First of all I'm afraid the client has total control here, so I can't measure for them.
They DO need to ask it, since they also need to track offline sources. But instead of making it a required field before submitting, they could ask it on the 'thank you' page.
So what I really need is convincing proof that asking for sources this way is unreliable and hurts conversion.
-
Just tell them you will find out were they came from using Google analytic's. You don't need to ask them at all.
GREG
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect Management on Headless Wordpress w/ React Front End
Hello everyone, As Headless Wordpress becomes more and more popular, it becomes more complicated to manage and track 301 redirects. I'm reaching out for advice on this. Our main issue right now, is that after migrating from Drupal to a Headless Wordpress/React platform we lost the ability to track, manage, and view traffic analytics for users hitting those redirects. This was something we were able to do in Drupal. Example: If we have a redirect in place we could see how many times in the past x number of days that redirect was hit by users attempting to access the old URL. Unfortunately, Yoast Premium, has been helpful with other SEO needs, but this is one that it is not able to manage. Anyone have any ideas, experience, or thoughts on this issue? Thanks for your time
Conversion Rate Optimization | | culturefoundry1 -
Best to Include Phone Number as CTA Button in Mobile Version of B+B Web Site?
We are attempting to keep the number of CTAs (Calls to Action) on our commercial real estate website to a minimum. Our adjusted design (see attached) has 2 CTAs. One is "Contact Agent" the other is "Schedule a Tour". We are focusing on the listing page, which is the primary product page and critical in terms of CTA. Our mobile version does not show a phone number while the desktop version (also attached) displays a phone number. Should the mobile version also display a button a phone number? Some members of our target audiences, business owners and executives who are often in their 40s and 50s may prefer to call us up rather than communicate by written message. Any suggestions for elegantly displaying the phone number without causing confusion? I have read that the number of CTAs should be limited so I am on the fence as to whether or not to include a phone number Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Alan 6yR88Vt WwYpt810 -
Can Very High Impressions and 0% Organic CTR Impact our SEO Rankings?
I have a very strange feeling that someone bad is trying to hurt our company, but maybe I am wrong. Let me explain. In the last two month, we have seen a very significant drop in sales on our website, but we couldn't figure out why. We have looked at different metrics (Google Search Console, Moz, Google Analytics), but everything looked alright. We had 10% loss in traffic, but we didnt believe at the time that it could be the main issue. Just yesterday we've discovered the following (please see attached screenshot😞 On August 18, 2018 Google launched Search Update On the same date, we had a jump in Organic Search Impressions for one particular keyword, which we never tracked before: "free facebook login". Majority of all impressions (233,000 out of 258,000) were from Philippines. Very low total number of clicks (50 clicks) led to 0% Average CTR for this keyword. Which in return, also lowered our global CTR by 1%. One month later we had 1000's of spam emails sent to our Helpdesk from two IP addresses, also from Philippines. We blocked them of course. It could be all coincidence. I dont know. But do you think that someone can use this fraudulent tactic to lower our CTR and drop our ranking and traffic? Can this influence our SEO in any way? It's also possible that someone is attacking Facebook and we just happen to be there, on the first page, for the same keyword. Should we try to eliminate our page for this keyword and see what happens? I've checked this article from Rand Fishkin - https://moz.com/blog/impact-of-queries-and-clicks-on-googles-rankings-whiteboard-friday and it seems that CTR is an important factor. However the article is from 2015 and maybe it's no longer relevant. What should we do? Thanks! G86Nge4
Conversion Rate Optimization | | plumrocket11 -
Multi Step Form or Standard Form for Data Capture
We are redesigning our web site real estate (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). A key component of the site is the property search form. Currently visitors completes 5 fields and properties that meet the criteria are displayed to the visitor. I have noticed that my leading competitors (www.42floors.com, www.squarefoot.com) use multi step forms that ask single questions of the visitors. In effect they are reducing complexity by asking a single question per form. However the visitor must complete additional forms. Before results are served, both competing sites require the visitor to release contact info. 42floors has a clever inducement for the visitor to release their info: "Their are 127 listings that haven't been posted yet, but are visible to members." Once the visitor releases info they get to view the listings. While this is somewhat coercive, I suspect it is effective in obtaining customer date. While I understand it may result in some visitors bouncing off the site, the form completions are extremely valuable. Currently we provide listings without requiring registration but obtain very little data about visitors. In New York City, there are so many commercial real estate sites that visitors have a tendency to bounce from one to another without leaving info or calling. Multi step forms would allow me to add questions that are highly pertinent. Like when do they need possession, how long a lease term. By being asked very specific, relevant questions I wonder if that would not in fact increase the likely hood of the visitor to release info Any advice?? I am attaching several of the forms in question. In the event that we proceed with a multi part form, their are certain services like Leadformly that integrate with Wordpress. I see the eliminate the need for a Capcha and have other advantages. Is it beneficial to use such a package? iQUNh 19ugT he23uak
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan10 -
Use "Brand Name" or things like "Free Shipping" in Ecommerce Product Title Tags?
Given the current industry best practices and changes to Google algorithms, should I be using "Product name...Brand Name" or something like "Product Name...Free Shipping (or similar)" in my ecommerce title tags? Thanks!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | jeffbstratton0 -
How can I find the redirect that removes special parameter from Adwords?
My main problem is Google Analytics doesn't show data from Google Adwords because a redirect in my site removes the special parameter(gclid) supplied by Adwords. Here's an email from one of Google Adwords representative: "When I reviewed your website, I found that a redirect set up on your site is removing auto-tagging information from your URLs. Auto-tagging automatically adds a parameter to the end of each of your AdWords destination URLs in order to identify visitors as AdWords referrals. The tag captures keyword, campaign, ad content information, and your ad's position when a user clicked it. The parameter used in auto-tagging is called "gclid." However, due to your website's redirect, the "gclid" parameter is being removed from the URL. As a result, Google Analytics is unable to properly track visitors reaching your site through AdWords. We suggest contacting your webmaster to append the "gclid" parameter to the redirected URL. If this isn't possible, you may want to consider removing the use of the redirect." Thanks in advance!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | esiow20130 -
When is it good to use target="_blank"
Hi! Just wondering about user experience and when to use target="_blank" in links on the website. Let's take homepage, for example. Is it better to have social media icons (for Facebook page or Twitter or Google+ page) open in a new window on homepage? When is it appropriate to use target="_blank" and when using it is too much for a user to handle? Am I right to say that target="_blank" should be used when you don't want that link to get on the way of what visitor is doing? What's best for conversion? If you have some resources on the subject - feel free to share them. Thanks! I appreciate all responses!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | MaxMinzer0 -
The Effects of "Call for Pricing" Pricing Structures
I have a wholesaler who sells great products but they have an internet pricing policy that states we cannot show prices online and that we must have a "call for pricing" or "request a quote/price" button instead because retailers are losing sales due to lower prices online from other retailers. I know, I know.. They are out of their mind. I have already told them that they should have online MAP pricing requirements to protect their retailers but they refuse to even set an MSRP! I've been looking for some articles to show the statistics of customers lost from not having a price on your site. Does anyone have any information or suggested links on this topic? and the final question is if I was to remove the prices from my website, would that in turn affect my rankings?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | bcarp880