5 Proven Ways to Improve Website Conversion Rates
Being able to get traffic to your website is great, but if the traffic isn’t converting, then all of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts will be wasted.
It is common for some businesses to find that their traffic numbers are solid, but the leads, sales and revenue just aren’t there. So if your marketing campaigns, SEO efforts or paid advertising are grabbing the attention of your audience, why do you have a low conversation rate?
Let’s imagine your site receives 8,000 visitors per month. If your conversion rate is 1%, then you are achieving 80 sales each month. However, if your competitor’s site only attracts 4,000 visitors a month, half your monthly traffic, but has a conversion rate of 3%, that would then generate 120 sales for them— 40 more than you, but with only half of the volume of traffic.
Here’s five ways improve your website conversion rates:
1- Track all conversions
According to Marketingland, 48 million websites are using Google Analytics. Using an analytics tool to track your online conversions allows you to identify the strongest and weakest areas of your website, as well as the individual performance of your marketing campaigns.
You may have heard of the expression, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” so, with that in mind, before you attempt to make changes to improve your conversion rate, identify which areas are converting well and then employ the same techniques to develop the under-performing areas.
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However, your tracking shouldn’t be limited only to website conversion. Google AdWords will track paid ads containing click-to-call buttons and call extensions and provide information on which ads are generating the most calls. But, this tool will only show you the users who have called directly from the ad itself. What about those users who enter the website and then make a call later? You could be converting more calls from your ads and other marketing channels than you realise.
By integrating call tracking software, you can assign unique, dynamic telephone numbers to all your marketing efforts to track phone calls effectively and attribute conversions to the specific ad, channel, campaign or landing page which generated that call.
2- Review your landing page copy
If you are directing traffic to a specific landing page through your marketing campaigns, you should begin by reviewing these landing pages first. A well-designed landing page is essential to ease the consumer through the purchasing or enquiry process.
For top performing landing pages, you’ll need to consider why users are visiting your website and how you are helping them. Ensure you communicate the benefits of your product/service clearly. Instead of just promoting features of the products/services you offer, make sure the customer fully understands what they are gaining by doing business with you. And remember, keep copy brief and concise, yet persuasive enough to compel the user to take action.
Also, make sure your call to action is clear to the visitor. After a user arrives on your landing page, the CTA should inform the user exactly what they need to do next.
3- Build customer trust.
Consumer confidence in your brand is crucial. Before a user will make the decision to transact with you, they will make their own judgement as to whether they trust your company. Though building trust won’t happen overnight, you can help earn that trust naturally by including the following on your website:
- Contact page – 44% of website users will leave a company’s website if there is no contact information. Users need to know there is a real person behind a website, to answer to any questions they might have. Make it as easy as possible for users to be able to connect with you by including a contact form, email address and a visible telephone number at the top of each page.
- Customer reviews – one of the easiest ways to help build consumer confidence in your brand is through online reviews. This may also persuade new users to transact with you instead of your competitors who may not display any reviews on their website about their offerings.
- Be active on social media – if you are not already on social media, you could be missing out on potential customers, especially if your competitors are socially active. Social media can help you build brand visibility, but it also allows users to get a feel for ‘who’ your brand is and what your brand is all about. It can also help attract and direct new users to your website that you may not ordinarily reach from organic or paid search activity.
4- Integrate live chat support
Live chat can help in increasing conversions and reduce the time consumers can take to make the decision to do business with you. Rather than having to wait on hold on the phone, or type an email not knowing when they will receive a response from a business, users visiting a website can have their questions answered fairly instantly via live chat support. It also allows the agent speaking with the user to encourage a purchase and gives them an opportunity to explain the benefits of your product or service even further.
5- Take advantage of A/B testing
A/B testing, also called split testing, is essentially an experiment where two versions of a web page are published and the success of each is then compared to see which produces more traffic and conversions. It is used to consider how small differences in a marketing campaign might influence customer behaviour. You can test ad copy, page design, subject lines for newsletters, images and more.
Natalia Selby is marketing coordinator at Mediahawk.
