Just when I was starting to think I had answered most of the “types” of questions I’m asked via e-mail, I got a bit of a cracker from Christopher, who I’d previously corresponded with about the need to add good SEO content to your site on an ongoing basis. He came back to me with a thorny issue. The backside had fallen out of his conversion rates after he had just started to think his new affiliate site was a right wee goer!

Here’s his question (his niche and site have been removed as he really has found a totally cracking area to work in and I don’t want him getting 100 competitors because of my blog.)

I’m getting a bit worried now and thought i would ask for some advice. I’ve
been adding articles daily to my website, i added 7-8 yesterday and 5 the
day before to try and increase visitors. At the moment it’s sitting at
around 80 visitors from search engines but conversions are hitting rock
bottom now – this may be normal but here’s some stats to paint a picture.

Thanks for any help Kirsty.

Well Christopher…

It’s Way Too Easy To Have A Knee Jerk Reaction…
Generally speaking, I think the best advice is don’t worry at all about the variations in conversion rates. Its way too easy to over analyse these things. Sometimes there is a reason for conversions turning to shit. Towards the end of the month for example people have less money and are browsing ahead to see what they’ll buy when they get paid. Conversions always surge after the last Thursday / Friday of the month (for my niches they do anyhow!).

Also weekends can be dodgy, public holidays, good weather days, major sporting events. Even when your traffic is the same, conversions drop. Seems only window shoppers stay at home on special days.

Its important when you see a drop that you don’t overreact and totally re-jig your whole site. There are lots of external factors you should take a look at first before you start to blame your own handywork. If it worked fine up till now, why should that change?

Here’s a few things to think about.

Affiliate Serendipity
However, sometimes you are just unlucky for a few days!! I had a day recently where for no apparent reason I LOST money. WTF? I mean come on! Nothing had changed, just serendipity.

The Best Thing To Do Is Wait And Collect Data…
I’d give it a good couple of weeks before you go changing anything. Sometimes as an affiliate the best thing you can do is to just sit tight and wait. Of course, the less positive way to look at this might be that those few days of ace conversions were the exception rather than the norm. If that turns out to be the case I’d analyse what happened in those few days that might have made the difference.

Where Did The Increase In Conversions Come From?
Were you suddenly ranking for a term you’d not previously cracked? If so that might be a good one to try out some PPC on, or orientate some good SEO content towards.

Check Your Other Data…
– If you are really worried, check your “bounce rate” on the days your conversions have sucked. i.e. how many people visited the site v’s how many went through to the merchant. Has that changed? If so, something might be up somewhere.

– Broken links, a merchant site down, or merchants tracking being broken can all also be causes of sudden loss of conversion rates too. Have a link audit, check the merchants site and look for any notices about site maintenance and downtime that might have slipped past your radar.

If you see a drop in conversions and just can’t find a reason within your own site, drop the merchant a line. Ask how things are for their traffic. Quite often I do this and the merchant comes back telling me their site has seen the same type of conversion reduction as mine and can give me some more insight into market conditions causing this.

– If you have a feeling tracking has been wonky, politely ask for a tracking test or two to be done through one of your affiliate url’s by the merchant. You’ll either be reassured or help them discover they have an issue!!

– Check what keywords people came in on during those days when conversions dropped. Were they relevant? Had they changed? That might explain a drop in conversions too.

Analysing what has been happening before, during, and after any issues can really help you to see what was going on with your site. If you just can’t see anything wrong… there’s probably nothing to change. Sit tight and keep analysing your data. Most of the time, checking your data will show you where the issue lies.

Christopher Says…
Thanks for info on analyzing – i would never of thought this but i suppose thats why your own data is so important. I think i’ve pinpointed the keywords and the reasons why it was so high in comissions. My conversion rates and EPC for certain merchants are really good still but the surge in sales i think was due to an offer Merchant X where having as well as being #3 for a very good term, which im number 10 now.

So there you go folks. I think this particular Ask Kirsty shows the importance of analysing your sales data, search engine rankings and merchant activity as much as possible. I do this on a daily basis and the valuable information that gets thrown up is unreal.

If you have an Ask Kirsty Contact Me using my contact form and I will do my best to get back to you!

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