Optimisation Report (March 2017) – Google Analysis

I wanted to start writing regular optimisation reports alongside the transparency reports which are on the Epic Plugins blog. You’ll see I first did one of these using HotJar and for the two week period. There were a couple of issues with this:-

• HotJar is a SaaS, so of course they want your money. At $89 a month for the amount insights I was getting it wasn’t worthwhile.
• Lo-behold. Google Analytics do the same, for free
• I was a little bit uncomfortable with seeing the recording side of things (even though anonymous)

While I still check in on HotJar, the fact I’m now on the Free Tier and the fact they don’t offer an affiliate system means I want to go back to sustainable ways of creating and reviewing my website’s optimisation.

These reports are written for me, as a checkpoint. If you find them useful then great. Don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter where I’ll be sharing these types of reports (and reminding you when a new one is ready)

Google ‘Shopper Behaviour’

This does pretty much just what HotJar was doing, expect it does it better (it ‘back-fills’) the steps and the funnels so you can see more realistic conversion rates.

See, almost the same as with HotJar but without the additional costs…  I know which I’d choose. So what is the above showing me.

Google’s report shows me the same type of feedback that HotJar was

But what’s that feedback?

• Around 90% of Product Views do not result in a addition to the cart
• Upon addition to the cart, around 50% abandon the cart
• Of those that reach checkout, another 60% abandon there
• Giving an overall Conversion Rate for March of 1.6%

The usual maths comes into play here. If you can double your conversion rate, then that doubles the amount of income to a business.

But that’s easier said than done.  The obvious step to look at was the product pages. Since I’m biased and developed the themes, I figured a good way was to just ask customers. Here’s some of the responses I got

Which is useful in understanding that perhaps the Copywriting needs some work.

This one above is particularly interesting. While the information is there, the selection of themes available doesn’t appeal (they are rather niche).

I cover more about reaching out for feedback and how to use it to help grow your business in my upcoming ebook (sign up below to find out when it’s ready and receive updates).

What to focus on with Optimisation

The product pages are still the obvious area for further work in adding extra information. Social Proof (sourcing more reviews) and also introducing documentation links on the product pages before purchase. Knowing whether they are able to use the product (or will be left in the dark) post purchase is additional comfort to them that the theme is for them.

So what’s coming with the product pages:-

• A documentation area. Similar to the guides area and linked to from the product page
• Making the theme guides easily viewable from the product page too

With these two areas added (and additional guides and documentation produced) I expect that people will have less issues with making their mind up whether they should purchase one of the themes.

Theme Selection

As for the choice of themes, the addition of the Theme Pax framework is something which should open up the choice of themes available to people from Epic Themes. This will be coming in a few months.

If you want to sign up to learn more about growing a business (any business) as I go about growing Epic Themes you can sign up to be notified about ‘Growth’ below.

What will growth cover?

• The backstory. There’s no rags to riches sob stories here, but starting from the start is always good
• Where to get started. Launching cold vs using marketplaces
• Does every business need a website?
• Case studies for Epic Plugins, Epic Themes and Zero BS CRM
• Case studies for other businesses outside of WordPress Development
• Loads of actionable insights which you can apply to your own business from Day ONE
• Plus much more to guide you along the way