Internet marketing question?

Question

My first time using Y!Answers so here goes:

I would like to know where i could find data, statistics about how implementation of various features in a website affects its traffic and bounce rate.

More detailed: i would like to know what is , on average, the potential gain in traffic of an online shopping web site for certain implemented features: polls, quizzes, personal blogs.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Marketing Experiments has tons of this stuff, much of it free.  They are the leader (I think they just BOUGHT Marketing Sherpa)

Answer 2

I have not seen averages, but I've seen specific examples of companies that implemented site redesign, button changes, added features and how much traffic or improvement in conversion they saw

MarketingSherpa has a number of studies that provides data and statistics (unfortunately, they're not free). I've read their landing page study http://www.sherpastore.com/RevisedLandin... which gives a lot of data from various companies (but it costs $497).

Also check out Internet Retailer magazine as they regularly talks about site improvements or new features in case studies and how these led to the improvement in terms of sales and traffic. Start by looking at their  Hot 100 Retail Web Sites http://www.internetretailer.com/article.... and then buy your copy of their Top 500 report.

Answer 3

I highly recommend Marketing Sherpa; http://www.marketingsherpa.com/

They have very useful statistics and metric data on what you’re looking for. My suggestions is that you simply start implementing the features you mentioned one by one and measure them with web analytics. Statistics are useful, and should be used as a general guideline. Online shopping is a very unique beast; every industry, every niche and even categories within niches, will always present quite different behaviors and performances, which are highly influenced by demographics, seasonality and other metrics.

At our agency, we are constantly optimizing our client’s websites beyond search. Conversion optimization is a key factor when it comes to shopping websites. Polls, quizzes, blogs, reviews, testimonials, etc, all play a role in it, but don’t always apply to every site.

Make this part of your interactive marketing efforts and you’ll be successful.