There are seven factors that online retailers should take into account when looking for ways of boosting website conversions.

This is according to Practical eCommerce, which cites search engine ranking as the first key conversion element, stating that businesses which fail to monitor their search positioning and implement optimisation strategies are unlikely to see as many visitors as they could.

Studying page impressions and conversions can also help merchants to discover what it is about certain content that turns prospective clients into paying customers, while analysing how visitors click through the website may be useful in identifying cross-selling opportunities, Practical eCommerce noted.

The site also recommended tracking both online and offline sales processes, as well as looking at the behaviour of returning shoppers to determine the most visited website pages and therefore pinpoint further windows for cross-sales.

Measuring the length of time visitors spend on the website may also help retailers to see whether they can do anything to improve the extent to which content engages consumers, while high shopping basket abandonment rates could signify problems with the checkout process, Practical eCommerce stated.

According to US design agency Imulus, seeing higher rankings for sub-pages than for the homepage could result in more conversions as visitors are being sent to pages that are highly relevant.