High Conversion. Real or Inflated?

[WSteven]

Hi,

We recently redesigned our website, cardcash.com. Since we launched we are seeing a huge spike in the e-commerce conversion rate. We went up 300% - from a 4% conversion rate to a 16% conversion rate!!

The only thing that changed is our design. We think it's awesome and all but is it even possible?

Is something wrong with our analytics code or are we incredibly lucky?

[HashtagHustler]

I hope you know my response wasn't meant to be critical, more of just an observation on how there are so many variables its always hard to tell!

I agree with Jeremy, just like with Keyword ranking things like this are going to take a little time to settle in, maybe there was a big event that happened, or a black swan event that nobody could account for which increased you so 16%. Maybe there was some new optimization that took place, maybe the redesign made it 300% easier for people to convert, it will take some time to find out!

[WickVideo]

It's definitely possible. But you could have just had a lucky day or two. If the conversion rate remains at 16% for, say a month, then your web designer deserves a bonus!

[WSteven]

Hi,

Thanks for pointing out that my question is unclear. I edited the question so it should be more obvious that I am referring to the e-commerce conversion rate. Nothing changed in what we are tracking, the only change is in the design of the site.

Our analytics account excludes our developers and employees IP addresses.

[WSteven]

Everything remained exactly the same. I'm referring the e-commerce conversion rate which is only tracking people who got to our confirmation page.

[HashtagHustler]

Its impossible to answer that with the information given in my opinion.

• What goals have you set up in Google Analytics?
• What are you considering a conversion?
• Where does the online conversion of 300% stop and the overall conversion of 16% begin?
• Is the page up 300%  on conversions because there is only one page that is actually tracking the conversion rate?
• Do you have an "abandoned cart" set up where you can see if and where people are leaving?

I also always take human behavior into account. So for example, we have an Insurance Verification lead form on our website. Which, according to GA is incredible effective, but what I found out was that our Admissions staff would be on the phone with a potential client, go to the website and enter the clients insurance information through our own website.

Now when I look at the data I have to take into account that this "conversion" was actually not an organic conversion. Although it was a conversion, in order to test the efficacy of my form, I have to remove any results entered by our own staff.

Generally a redesign makes traffic stumble a little, and when things look too good to be true they generally are, but hey, who knows! Maybe you guys hit the J A C K P O T!

Hope this help!

[dsinger]

did you make any changes to your analytics strategy?

did you add any new conversions that you were not previously tracking, such as a view of a key page, newsletter sign ups, etc?  it is important to stay consistent when evaluating conversions, i.e. measure your sales Thank You page before and after the site optimization.