One area that people really don’t think about on their website is how their website converts. While the topic of website conversion isn’t a very sexy topic, it is one that every business owner that has a website should know. So, let’s take a look at what website conversion is and how you can apply strategies to get more opt-ins, leads, and sales.
The process of converting website visitors into paying clients is referred to as website conversion. This is an important indicator for every company with an online presence since it shows how well a website performs in terms of reaching its objectives. In this article, we’ll examine website conversion and discuss nine ways to make it better.
Conversion rates on websites can be affected by a variety of things. Among the most significant ones are:
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- Website design: A well-designed website that is visually appealing and easy to navigate is more likely to convert visitors into customers. Be sure to adhere to a color scheme so that your design is consistent throughout your branding. Remember the website should be about the visitor and what you can do for them, not who you are.
- Content: The content on a website should be informative, relevant, and engaging to the target audience. The key here is that you utilize keywords in the text of the website and that they convey what your website is about. This not only helps the website visitor but aids in search engine optimization. Many site owners miss this step.
- Call to action: It’s important to have clear and prominent calls to action on a website such as “Buy Now” or “Sign Up” to encourage visitors to take the desired action. I’ve mentioned in previous articles that it should be obvious what you want the visitor to do to act, and they should not have to hunt for that.
- Trust signals: Visitors are more likely to trust a website and make a purchase if the website has trust signals, such as customer reviews or security badges. Also, it is important that your website has a secure connection or what is called an SSL certificate. This is shown in your browser’s address bar for your website; it is depicted as a padlock.
Mobile friendliness: With more and more people accessing the internet on their phones, it’s essential that a website is optimized for mobile devices. If you’ve looked at your website stats at all, you will most likely see more and more of your traffic is from mobile and tablets and less from desktop. This could be different depending on the niche you are in, but it is critical that your website is mobile friendly. Also, Google favors sites that are mobile friendly and gives them better rankings in their listings.Businesses can experiment with website conversion by using A/B testing, which compares two versions of a website to discover which one works better, to increase online conversion rates. Utilizing programs like Google Optimize or Optimizely can help with this.Some specific website items that you would want to test are headlines—not only what the headline says but how it looks. Different fonts may appeal to your audience. You could test underlining key words in your headline or even bolding them, maybe make the keywords in your headline bold and a different color. You will see different conversion results with each one.
You can also test conversion on button colors, test if it makes a difference if you have an icon on your button or not. You can even test the wording on your order button. Try simply “Order Now” or “Order Today”, Order “Right Now”, “Order Now and Save!” Those are just some quick ideas to test. You may think that this is overkill when it comes to testing, but if you are serious about your business, you will study and see what is working and what is not. You would be pleasantly surprised to find out that by changing the little things, you can earn more money. And that makes it definitely worth it!
Other tactics for improving website conversion include:
- Personalization: Customizing the website experience for individual visitors based on their interests and behavior can increase conversion rates. This is where knowing who your market is or looks like can make a big difference. You may not physically know them, but you have an idea of their likes and dislikes and know what works for them.
- Lead generation forms: Asking visitors to fill out a form in exchange for something of value, such as an ebook or webinar, can be an effective way to collect leads and convert them into customers. That is if it’s relevant. Sometimes you won’t need to give them anything. In some cases, they will opt in just to stay informed about the product or service.
- Live chat: Adding a live chat feature to a website allows visitors to get immediate help and answers to their questions, which can improve conversion rates. In my humble opinion this has to be a live person. Many people will leave the site if the live chat is an automated response and not a real person.
- Customer support: Providing excellent customer support can help build trust with visitors and encourage them to make a purchase and also make them want to be repeat customers.
Finally, website conversion is an important metric for any business with an online presence. Businesses can improve their website conversion rates and turn more visitors into paying customers by focusing on the factors we’ve discussed here today in this article.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
— Peter Drucker
One key thing to remember is that you can’t test everything at once. Choose one thing and start there. When you are getting good results, move to the next thing. Take notes on the information you generate. Write down the numbers so you have something to measure and improve upon. But most importantly just get busy doing it!
