Multi Step Form or Standard Form for Data Capture
-
We are redesigning our web site real estate (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). A key component of the site is the property search form. Currently visitors completes 5 fields and properties that meet the criteria are displayed to the visitor.
I have noticed that my leading competitors (www.42floors.com, www.squarefoot.com) use multi step forms that ask single questions of the visitors. In effect they are reducing complexity by asking a single question per form. However the visitor must complete additional forms. Before results are served, both competing sites require the visitor to release contact info. 42floors has a clever inducement for the visitor to release their info: "Their are 127 listings that haven't been posted yet, but are visible to members." Once the visitor releases info they get to view the listings.
While this is somewhat coercive, I suspect it is effective in obtaining customer date. While I understand it may result in some visitors bouncing off the site, the form completions are extremely valuable. Currently we provide listings without requiring registration but obtain very little data about visitors. In New York City, there are so many commercial real estate sites that visitors have a tendency to bounce from one to another without leaving info or calling.
Multi step forms would allow me to add questions that are highly pertinent. Like when do they need possession, how long a lease term. By being asked very specific, relevant questions I wonder if that would not in fact increase the likely hood of the visitor to release info
Any advice?? I am attaching several of the forms in question.
In the event that we proceed with a multi part form, their are certain services like Leadformly that integrate with Wordpress. I see the eliminate the need for a Capcha and have other advantages. Is it beneficial to use such a package?
-
This makes a lot of sense. So I will not make any assumptions about my visitors and will test so as to obtain objective feedback.
-
So much this ^^
This is a question for which the only answer is "test your own visitors".
Something else to keep in mind - so much of getting visitors to complete longer forms is about setting expectations and demonstrating WIIFM (what's in it for me) up front.
"A minute and half of your time for these questions helps us give you more useful customised recommendations. We don't want to waste your time." Can go an awful long way to getting buy-in from visitors to complete the form. You've told them why giving the info will help them, and told them how much time is required. So even if they see a multi-step form, they won't get worried it's going to drag on.
Something else to think about.
Paul
-
Hi,
Have you done (or thought about doing) any testing and looking at stats to see which would work best for you?
Personally, I would be quite wary of just changing to a new form structure without doing a level of A-B testing first of all. You want to know for sure, which is going to work best for you.
I understand the points about drop-off but those that don't, you get a higher level of enquiry, but can you do better than this? Is 1 question per page too little? Could you get away with 2 and halve the process? How about 3? How about just 2 pages, one for personal and one for requirements?
There is a lot to think about here but please don't try to make the decision yourself as this isn't necessarily what other people want.
Head over to Hotjar (or something similar) that will allow you to watch how people actually interact with your forms. Setup goals in Analytics so that you can see where people are dropping out. Tie all of this in together and use real visitor numbers to help you with your decisions.
I hope this helps a little.
-Andy
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Reducing Negative Impact of Webpage Login Form
Our real estate website (www.metro-manhattan.com) now requires visitors to login in if they want to search our listing database. The result is that. 9 out of 10 visitors leave without searching; they simply refuse to set up an account. I have attached images of the search bar and login form. Is there a way to increase the percentage of visitors that login? We have tried to make it as simple as possible, allowing visitors to login by Facebook, Google or by providing their email address. We do not send any verification email. We are forced to. keep this login unfortunately. But is there anything we can do to reduce the visitor bounce rate? Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Alan TF0tlVe i79OEg5 i79OEg52 -
Is an email signup form more effective than a button?
I'm very confident it is. But I'm looking for a study I can use to tell my conservative bosses that if we replace the button with an email entry field and button, we'll improve conversion greatly. If anyone has a link to a study on how much you can further improve clickthrough by having an overlay form appear, I'd appreciate that as well. Joel
Conversion Rate Optimization | | JoelA0 -
HELP: Analysing data to make decisions, SEO vs PPC
Hi mozers! I have recently been seeing good results in the serps lately for my main keywords in my country NZ, now I'm seeing good results in Australia for these keywords and our USA domain is not far behind and making good progress... However, our NZ results show that we may get around 1 conversion every 3 days from our organic search. I read other places that click share for ppc was much higher, but there is no way we can match our competitors budgets from 3k - 300k per month. So our option was to focus on SEO. To me, the SEO results seem quiet low, however I'm not really sure how to go about diving deep into the analytics of it all to find out where I need to improve or focus on, which keywords are bringing these conversions. Maybe I need to go for long tail keywords etc... It seems my rankings are coming from general keywords which are still highly competitive, but even so, we are not performing to what I know we should be. Our competitors are mostly paying ppc, however I was told my ROI would be better spent via SEO. Any suggestions perhaps what I might be missing or doing wrong in this case. (I have recently done a new design overhaul with a new registration process) I have 3 top level domains you can see the site here http://bit.ly/1yhz96v
Conversion Rate Optimization | | edward-may0 -
Why Google Analytics is still showing data for edited/old "Goals"?
For example, I edited "Goal #1" (goal type=event) with new values/event conditions last Nov. 20, 2014. Why Google Analytics is showing numbers from Nov 1-19 for Goal #1? Does Google Analytics show old data?TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
Contact form at the end of all posts
I notice a lot of sales blogs have contact forms at the end of all their posts. Can anyone give me some information on the effectiveness of this tactic? Case studies, examples, or your experience from adding contact forms and what it did to conversions? I imagine it would help increase conversions. It would reduce a step from moving to a new page, but might turn off some visitors? Any information would be appreciated.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Oren.0 -
No form on PPC landing page
My client has explained to me that they want to drive sales CALLS instead of form submissions because they feel they have a better chance of "closing the deal" on the phone. So my company is working to design a PPC landing page that focuses on the phone number. But the question is, do you still think we should include a simple form on the landing page? There are two competing trains of thought in my office. One is concerned that if we offer a form, people won't call. The other is that if we DON'T offer a form, we will lose out on possibly good customers. In addition to the form, no form question is the question of providing additional links to other parts of the website. One person I work with is concerned visitors will leak away and not pick up the phone. My concern is that if we do not offer a way to "learn more" the visitor will become agitated and not call at all. This is specifically for a focused PPC effort. To recap:
Conversion Rate Optimization | | WestAdvertising
1- Form or no form?
2- Links or no links?0 -
Adwords conversion data is contradicting
I am looking at my Adwords data from a segment of last year. It shows my total for all ad groups in this campaign at 18. I only have one ad and it shows 7 conversions. Where are the other 11 coming from?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | EcommerceSite0 -
How can I pass the Search Term into a lead form?
We receive lead forms from interested visitors that include their name, email, grade level, and academic goals, and we would like to also know which specific phrase they used when searching for us. I need to find a way to grab the referring keywords and pass them as a hidden form field. Can this be done, and are there scripts available that can do this?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | brycebertola0