Case Study: One Activity Improved Conversions (and Rankings, and Shares…)
Conversions are essentially the reason why most business sites exist; while traffic and engagement metrics are important in understanding how people get to the site and travel through it, everything that we do when working on a site is geared towards getting those enquiries or sales.
The Challenge and the Solution
One of the simplest ways of convincing and converting your traffic is to show them what you can do, which is exactly what we did for a loft conversion client in Hertfordshire. The site had plenty of relevant content and a robust architecture, but visitors were getting turned off by the case studies on the site. The pages that were meant to convert visitors actually had the highest bounce rate because of the dark photographs, clutter, and bad angles.
Luckily, the solution was simple; upgrade the imagery. Our photographer spent a few days visiting the clients to take photographs of their completed loft conversions using wide angle lenses and the right aperture to show the loft conversions at their best.
Improving Conversions Through Good Photography
As with any content, it was essential that we used these new images intelligently to make the most of the client’s budget. We wrote up was case study in full to include information about the specific work, location, and client testimonials – this meant that each case study contributed to the local rankings, client reputation, and rankings for the long tail phrases.
Instead of featuring all of the photographs on the site, we only featured half on the site and used the other half to pitch to interior design blogs and relevant sites to further bolster the rankings and gain links.
The Result
The conversion rate improved significantly; the pages gained additional traffic thanks to improved local SEO, while the imagery finally started converting visitors rather than pushing them off the site.
The bounce rate for the case studies was cut in half as visitors found the images more appealing and had more trust in the company’s work.
Year on Year
January’s traffic often higher and conversions can receive a natural boost as people look at booking renovation work in the New Year. We needed to compare the results year-on-year to ensure that it wasn’t simply the result of good timing rather than good imagery.
We compared the results to the previous year, and found that the results were even more pronounced:
Better Rankings and More Social Shares
The primary aim was to increase conversions, but as always we aimed to make the most of the client’s budget and our work. The improved photography also helped us:
- Increase social shares on Twitter, Pinterest, and Houzz
- Improve local rankings
- Improve long tail rankings for phrases based around the client’s services
- Increase social traffic
- Reduce bounce rate from the case study pages
Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact on Conversions
The human brain processes images far faster than text, so businesses simply can’t afford to have bad imagery on the site (especially when it involves photographs of the product). It’s amazing how much you can achieve with just a day or two of photography – especially in an industry where a lot of competitors don’t pay attention to this aspect of their marketing.
