3 steps to optimize a website with low traffic

If you have a brand new website or a small site, it can be discouraging to practice conversion rate optimization as it simply does not get enough traffic and data for running conclusive tests. 

Nonetheless, small sites do not need to give up on optimization. In the field of conversion rate optimization, there is much more than just A/B testing, such as UX and design, psychology, persuasion, copywriting, analytics and the list goes on. 

Here is a simple 3 steps for brand new sites or small sites to begin optimization practices for improving conversion rate. 

Step 1: Focus on fixing what is broken

For a low-traffic site, the biggest mistake you can avoid is to not waste your time making small tweaks or optimizations based on your guesswork. You could easily get distracted by tons of small changes you could make and lose sight of what truly matters for your end goal. 

Therefore, an important rule for a low-traffic site without enough testing data for optimization is to focus on fixing what is already broken. 

A great way to start is to watch session recordings of your actual individual visitors interacting with your site. You can apply filters to watch only the recordings that are proven to be annoying your users such as rage clicks and error clicks. 

If you notice there's a high exit rate on a certain page, use the exit URL filter to watch if there is any roadblock causing your visitors to leave your site.  

You should also take note if your visitors are ignoring your important buttons or call to action while analyzing recordings. 

Step 2: Find out what make your visitors leave

Another way to focus on optimizing what truly matters to your users is to ask your visitors directly for the reason they are leaving your site. You can create an onsite exit survey to target users who are about to leave your website for their feedback on your site improvement.

A short survey with a multiple choice question followed by an open-ended question will give you valuable insights to improve your user experience. 

Howuku allows you to add more context to your survey response. You can watch the session recordings of those who submitted a survey response.

Simply click on the visitor ID to go to the visitor profile and you will be able to study and analyze their entire journey to figure out what makes a good and poor user experience. 

Step 3: Setup one funnel and start driving traffic

You don't need a perfect website or a single perfect page to improve your conversion rate. All you need is a simple funnel that is barely good enough to convert a visitor to a customer and then only put more effort into driving your traffic. 

Your focus should be on creating a simple funnel that is not broken (by referring to step 1). Break your user journey into a cohesive conversion funnel, with various parts that each has its own goal with the desired action. 

Studying visitors who did not perform the desired action at the different stages of your funnel makes it easier for you to digest and strategize. 

To analyze your funnel, clicking on the drop-off stages will show you a list of visitors who leave your funnel. Subsequently, you may click on the visitor ID to access the visitor's profile and watch recordings of these visitors. 

In short, driving website traffic and web optimization go hand in hand even for small sites. Optimization should not wait until your website has enough traffic. You can avoid wasting your marketing budget by optimizing early.