Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Back to Basics: Is your website a "closer"?

Back to Basics: Is your website a "closer"?

Many successful sales people describe closing a sale as a process that is composed of many steps. It's a dialogue -- a series of information exchanges that culminates in the ultimate sale or final agreement. This closing process occurs thousands of times every day on websites around the world. Websites and visitors engage in a dialogue during which products are chosen, shipping and credit card information is provided, and sales are closed.

But a sales person has an advantage -- he or she can observe where customers get concerned or uncomfortable during a sales process and address these obstacles before they result in a lost sale. Your website can't do this by itself.

It's up to you, the website owner or manager, to look at what happens during each step of the closing process (i.e. conversion funnel) and find a way to make each page in the process as helpful and painless as possible.

You can look at the Funnel Visualization report in Google Analytics to see how many of your prospects move from one step to the next, where they drop out of the conversion process and where they go instead. Once you have this information, you can start fixing the pages that lose would-be customers, just as a good sales person addresses obstacles that prevent customers from closing.

You can learn how to use the Funnel Visualization report in the latest Google Analytics in 60 seconds video. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.


Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team