In “When should you test your domains?” I mentioned that enough factors can impact your click through rate that we would focus on it separately. While I’m breaking these factors down into eight separate points, it has been my experience … Read More →

In “When should you test your domains?” I mentioned that
enough factors can impact your click through rate that we would focus on it
separately. While I’m breaking these factors down into eight separate points, it has been my experience that sometimes it is multiple factors impacting a domain so changing one thing won’t have a huge impact, but changing a second will. Bottom line, test a few different factors until you start seeing a positive impact.

Bad Traffic

Bad traffic is often a huge culprit when you have a low
conversion rate. Bot traffic doesn’t convert and worse, can get your domain
black listed.

Landing Page

Although it may not always make rational sense, your landing
page can impact your click through rate, but what will or won’t work won’t better
isn’t necessarily obvious. In direct mail, there exists a lot of debate over
the long versus short letter and more relevant the glossy versus the ugly. Most
people assume that the expensive looking slick glossy pieces get the best
results but often it’s actually the cheap, looks like they printed it
themselves postcard that works. What I’m trying to say is test a variety of
landers including those that don’t necessarily appeal to you. You may just
discover one of them works better than the others.

Keywords

It’s a good idea to take some time and look at the keywords
your parking companies have attached to your domains. Are they relevant? Are
they the correct language? Do the incoming search terms match your keywords? If
a visitor reaches your site and doesn’t find what they’re searching for, they’re
not going to click on your links.

Geography/Language

While geography and language are two separate issues that
can impact your conversion rate, they are often related to one another so we
will discuss them together. Where your traffic comes from and what language
they speak can have an impact on your click through rate. If your domain is optimized
for English speaking traffic, but the majority of your visitors don’t speak
English, the links may not be relevant to them. Or depending on the country and
the parking company, they may be visiting a very different landing page. It may
not have any links at all, simply a search box. Or it may have generic terms
that are completely irrelevant to your domain. Take the time to look at not
only where your traffic is coming from, but what language their search terms
are in.

Photos

Do parking pages with photos convert better than parking
pages that don’t? Maybe, maybe not. Some people will swear by photos on their
parking pages while others get great results without them. Just like the glossy
versus ugly debate, try testing with and without photos. Try different photos,
try relevant photos, try no photos.

Parking Company

While the differences between parking companies and click
through rates was most pronounced when it was essentially a Google feed versus
a Yahoo feed, your parking company still can impact your click through rate.
Each parking company utilizes different algorithms, optimization options and
potentially monetization options. Some parking companies handle non-English
speaking countries very well, others not as well.

Non-Convertible Traffic

No matter what you do, some legitimate traffic is just not
going to convert. Maybe it’s someone interested in your domain and trying to
determine if it’s available for registration or for sale. Maybe your visitor
realizes they input the incorrect domain and simply moves on with the corrected
domain rather than clicking.

For Sale

Does having a for sale link on your parking page impact
conversion? It might. For some visitors, they may worry that the for sale link
means the site isn’t very strong, or won’t be around for very long. For others,
it may make it seem less trust worthy. And, it may also not have any impact
whatsoever.

What changes have you made that had an impact on your domain’s
click through rate?

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