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Conversions are one of the best key performance indicators (KPIs) for your online business presence. As such, whether you are a new online business owner just setting up your website or a seasoned online business owner, optimizing your website for conversions is an important measure.
How is conversion a good KPI for your business? To start, you can gauge the number of people you reach who are interested in your products and services. By tracking the number of people who signed up for your newsletters, memberships for your website et cetera, you are getting hot leads that have a high potential of converting to become your next loyal customer.
Generally, there are 3 touch points when consumers interact in your business. First, they are exposed to your brands and become aware of your products and services. Then, they start considering your services in a process we generally refer to as influence consideration. Last but not least, the conversion process starts. Your consumer will convert & sign up for your products or services.
So, how do we optimize our websites for this important part of our business? In this article, we explore 9 website-optimization tips to gear your website towards conversion.
More does not always mean better. Having too many items on your page can cause immense distractions for the end users. When you take away all the extra, complex elements on your website, the main conversion item on your page stands out. Get rid of all the unnecessary visual effects & items, and users’ gaze will easily find your Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons and forms!
In short, by focusing your website’s layout on your conversion action, you can improve your conversion rate.
Do you know how much time you have to attract and keep your visitor’s attention? You have all of 8 seconds. That’s it. The human attention span averages out to these mere 8 seconds, meaning that you only have a very small window of opportunity to engage with your web visitors.
As such, you need to make the most out of the 8 seconds you have. Show a large but simple benefit-driven headline and include power words in it. Make your website’s goal as clear as possible by using a large sign up button with clear intentions – “Sign Up Now”, “Get My Free Copy” et cetera, as an example.
Keep things as simple as possible of your users. Your website’s navigation system should allow them to find the information they want and get to the task they need with as few clicks as possible.
Here’s how much a simple navigation system can help you increase your conversion rates. With a chat button available on your website, your web users barely need to click anywhere to find the information they want. This small change has shown to increase sign up rates by a whopping 30%!
Most of us make the mistake of using a very generic CTA text. Our sign-up forms are often followed by a button that says “Submit”. These CTA buttons are too generic, and it is not clear enough what you want your users to do.
One travel company initially had a CTA button which read “Book A Flight” for pages advertising for flights in Costa Rica regardless of which particular city the flight was supposed to land in. They later revised the CTA button on a page that advertises for flights to Tamarindo. The CTA text now read, “Fly to Tamarindo from $58”. That’s really specific! Their conversion rate increased by 591% for that page!
Granted, forms are one of the most crucial elements on your conversion-centred website page. When optimizing your page for conversions, you should ask for as little information as needed. Most forms require you to fill about 11 fields, but if you use the bare minimum – 4 form fields, as an example, you can increase your conversion rate by 130%!
Yes, these things might look good for your website. However, sliders and carousels can increase your website loading time due to the large image sizes. These additions can hurt conversion rates since the human eyes actively react to movements. As you might expect, these movements can be a distraction away form your conversion-centered website goals. It becomes more difficult for users to consume the contents provided on your website.
Even if your users are on mobile, it is far easier for users to scroll down your website rather than swiping across sliders. By eliminating these elements from your website, you can ensure that your users’ attention is maintained on your conversion goals. You can replace sliders and carousels with a static hero image with a powerful headline and subheading combination instead.
When viewers see certain colours, they associate it with certain emotions subconsciously. Most consumers also make their purchasing decisions from an emotional standpoint. As such, you should choose a color combination that goes with your branding goals and personality.
In fact, colour combinations are the most important when you are selecting a color for your CTA buttons. Contrasting colors should be used so that the button stands out, but certain colors are associated with negative messages, so we refrain from using them. As an example, a bold red color is usually linked with error messages, so this might not be the best color choice for your website.
With a constant color scheme and contrasting colors for important information and actions on your website, you are training your visitors to understand the priorities on your page and secure their attention towards these important elements.
Today’s websites need to cater to their users’ patience – or rather, impatience. Even if your website’s goals is not for conversions – which it really should be, your website should always be as lightweight as possible so that your users can visit your website and find the information they want within a few seconds.
“Just how important is page loading speed?” You might wonder. For starters, a delay of just one second can cost you a 7% drop in conversion rates. If your website loads 3 seconds slower, your customers’ satisfaction rates drop by 16% – and we all know that high customer satisfaction is one of the most important criteria for business success and conversion rates.
Try running your website through Google PageSpeed Insights to check and resolve page speed issues. This tool is very helpful in diagnosing and giving you tips on how to correct and fix certain issues on your website.
The least that you can do to reassure new customers that your brand can be trusted is to use social proof. Brands can advertise about how good their services and products are all they want, but without proof or reviews from their existing customers, it is hard for your users to believe in your words.
Showcase your customer base who have tried your products or visited your premises, and include a social media plugin. As an example, having a Facebook Page extension on your website can show details such as ‘Alexandra and 15 other friends like MohsinFancy’. These social proof can go a long way in getting better conversion rates. 92% of your website visitors will trust a peer’s recommendation, while 70% will trust recommendations from people that they don’t even know. So, what are you waiting for? Start adding customer testimonials onto your website!
Remember, the key to getting and maintaining a high conversion rate on your website is to continually A/B test one item at a time. With all of that being said, here are a few more techniques that you can use to optimize your website for conversion rates.
For your information, we do provide website design services as well as website SEO-optimization services. We believe that having a good conversion-centered landing page design paired with an excellent SEO ranking can help your online business to thrive and flourish. As such, if you are looking for more information or want more help with your website, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Simply leave us a comment in the article that you are reading or contact us on our dedicated ‘Contact Us’ page.