There are a lot of metrics that you will need to look at to determine how effective your website is, evaluate its performance and evaluate whether you are on a growth trajectory. Few of these metrics will be as important as the conversion rate.
The conversion rate is the proportion of visitors or users that respond to your invitation to perform a specific action – buy a product, join an email list, fill a form, click on a link etc.
Whereas website traffic, average session duration and number of pages are each useful for gauging your marketing efforts and page content quality, it is the conversion rate that shows whether your audience perceives your website or product as offering value.
The most successful websites are those that do not leave conversion to chance. There are dozens of strategies you can use to improve your site’s conversion rate. We take a look at some of the most important ones.
1. Create Easy Navigation
There are a lot of similarities between doing business online and offline – this is one. Think about the time and thought that goes into arranging a brick-and-mortar retailer’s floor space. Floor planning is intended to make it easy to find what they are looking for while giving visual prominence to other items they may be interested in. The same principle applies to website navigation.
Organize pages and products logically and provide easy-to-follow navigation aids such as page headers/titles, menu items, footer links and sidebar navigation. Have a search bar that visitors could use to look for and go directly to the product or information they want.
Provide indicators of the visitor’s current location on your website such as a multi-level tree-like menu that allows the user to jump back to a higher level menu or switch to a different product/menu category.
Ease of navigation improves the end user experience and reduces bounce rates.
2. Use Catchy, Intuitive CTA Buttons
Call-to-action (CTA) buttons are important context-aware touch points that prompt page visitors to, as their name suggests, take action. A CTA could be a ‘sign up’ button, a ‘buy now’ button or other conversion-focused button. The CTA’s placement is important. By the time the reader gets to it, they should be armed with all the essential information they need to click through.
You can increase the proportion of visitors that click on your CTA by making the button clear and catchy. For example, have a striking contrast between the button’s color and the background.
Many websites opt for a red, blue or green button against a white background. You could go further and have an animated CTA such as a flashing yellow button like in the example below from NUORI or dancing text.
Tread cautiously with animation though – it can be distracting and draw a visitor’s attention prematurely before they have gone through the text leading up to the CTA.
3. Focus on Content Quality
The role of high quality content cannot be overemphasized. It is the cornerstone of your website that underpins, complements and amplifies everything else you do to increase conversion rates. Content is everything from blog posts and infographics, to podcasts and videos.
It has the greatest impact when it's informative, educative, entertaining or otherwise earns the trust of the audience.
When visitors can believe and resonate with what they read, hear and watch on your website, they are more likely to listen when you nudge them to buy, subscribe or fill a form. Also, your content should convey a compelling value proposition.
Visitors should understand fairly quickly what they stand to gain by joining your email list or buying your product. Avoid jargon – clarity is crucial. Write as though you are explaining something to a close friend.
4. Use Responsive Design
Two decades ago, virtually everyone accessed the Internet using a desktop or laptop computer. Smartphones and tablet computers have changed that. Smart mobile devices surpassed PCs in 2011 and that gap has grown massively since.
The overwhelming majority of people worldwide go online on a mobile device today. Still, laptop and desktop PCs remain in significant use by online shoppers especially in developed markets like the US.
It’s vital that you build your website based on a mobile-first design but one that takes into account the sizable proportion of visitors that will still be browsing on a PC. Opt for responsive design where your website adjusts its layout to conform to the user’s screen.
Choose file formats and web technologies that do not degrade loading speed on mobile devices. Avoid pop-ups especially for mobile users as these could inhibit the user’s ability to move through the page.
5. Publish High-Quality Product Photos
How much attention do you pay to the quality of photos when it comes to seeing a product for the first time, in digital format. I mean, in many cases – the store owners actually go through the trouble of getting professional photos done for their product range, just to impress the clients and give them a better feel for what they're about to buy.
It has been encouraged as good practice over the years, and platforms like Shopify have written extensively on this particular issue. You can see their guide on how to take perfect photos of your products here. What do you use to take high-quality photos, and how can we help to help you better tackle the problem?
In any case, a photo taken with your phone camera is going to be better than no photo taken at all.
6. A/B Testing
A/B testing increases certainty on what your users want to see to increase their likelihood of conversion. It involves creating two variations of pivotal page elements such as headlines and CTAs, then randomly displaying the two versions to users to determine which performs better. There is no end to A/B testing as there is always room for conversion improvement.
Before you start any testing, understand what your customers' major pain points are. These are obstacles visitors face that inhibit conversion. It could be a complex form, a cluttered page, poor foreground/background color contrast etc.
Post-purchase surveys are one of the best sources of information. People that have gone as far as buying your product are likely to provide more candid feedback on making your website better. Do not test all pain points at a go. Instead, prioritize them beginning with those likely to have the greatest impact on conversion.
7. Social Proof
You have likely heard the old joke on how once a person gets married, they suddenly become much more attractive to people out there. It’s a not-so-nice example of social proof but just shows to what extent people will be drawn to what they perceive as a tried-and-tested product.
Social proof, your customers’ positive experiences and opinions about your business and product, are a powerful tool of persuasion.
With the pertinent customers’ permission, publish reviews, ratings, testimonials and case studies on your website.
When people see previous buyers are happy with their purchase, they will believe your product is of high quality and be more willing to give it a shot. Other forms of social proof include running counters of how many people have bought the product, joined your email list or shared a blog post.
Make the most of user-generated content (UGC) such as posts on third party social media accounts talking up your product. Share it on your own social media accounts. UGC can be especially powerful as it is considered the most authentic form of feedback – it's unsolicited and uncompensated.
8. Clear Contact Information
Visitors may want additional information about your business, website or product before they commit. Providing clear, convenient and diverse channels users can reach on minimizes the number of promising leads that fall through the cracks or abandon their shopping cart.
At the minimum, you should be reachable via email if you are on a shoestring budget. Ideally, visitors should have the means to contact you on email, live chat, helpdesk ticket, phone and on social media. The faster you can be contacted and respond, the greater the buyer’s confidence that they are dealing with a legitimate entity.
9. Smooth Checkout
A confusing, complicated and/or chaotic checkout process is self-defeating. If you have invested the time, money and effort needed to get someone to buy your product, all that goes down the drain if the checkout is so problematic that it puts them off. Instead, create a seamless checkout workflow that requires the fewest steps and least data possible to complete a transaction.
You can slash the time needed to fill in information by enabling autofill so the user does not have to repeat the same data each time they checkout. Allow guest checkout so buyers do not have to create an account to purchase your product.
10. Abandoned Cart Reminders
Potential buyers will abandon your shopping cart for multiple reasons such as a complex checkout process, high shipping costs and request for personal information. Sometimes though, customers drop out for reasons not of the website’s own doing.
For example, they had not made up their mind to buy, they got distracted by other life activities or they are weighing buying from a competitor instead.
Irrespective of the root cause, cart abandonment reminders can restore their interest and encourage them to complete the transaction. Reminders work best when they are gentle and don’t come across as too aggressively salesy.
11. Personalized Recommendations
Not everyone that comes to your website does so for the same reason. Each visitor should feel seen and heard without having to reach out to your support team. Personalizing their browsing and purchasing experience gets to the decision point quickly. There are different ways to create an experience unique to each visitor.
For example, you could show each user a set of recommended products unique to them that are based on the products in their shopping cart or their answers to a brief quiz. You can show an estimated shipping time based on the visitor’s IP address or the mailing address information they may have provided.
12. Emphasize Scarcity
Scarcity can stimulate demand. There is even a term for it now – the fear of missing out (FOMO). There are two ways you can indicate scarcity – countdown timers and limited stock labeling.
Countdown timers on a sale, a discount code or an offer to get a gift for each purchase, can be an effective means of communicating urgency and accelerating conversions. Where a product is available in limited quantity, use labels to show the number of items remaining in inventory. That way, customers will get a sense of urgency to buy the item before it runs out of stock.
It’s important that you only announce scarcity where it truly exists. Faking limited availability or countdown timers may temporarily surge sales but eventually, buyers will catch on – something that will tarnish your website’s reputation in the long run.
13. Exit Intent Pop-ups
You are scrolling through a website and either get bored or want to look for a better deal elsewhere. As you take steps to close the browser tab or move to a different website, a pop-up appears offering a lucrative deal.
Suddenly, you are reconsidering leaving the site and don’t mind either taking up the deal or browsing the website some more. That is how an exit intent pop-up works.
Exit intent pop-ups monitor your website visitor’s mouse movements to understand how they are interacting with your content. When their mouse movement and clicks suggest they are trying to leave, the pop-up appears to lure them back. A good exit pop-up should be eye-catching, direct, persuasive and use few words.
14. Minimize Form Fields
Your website likely has different forms users are invited to fill such as checkout forms, contact forms, email subscription forms and buyer feedback forms. No business would mind capturing as much relevant information on their customers as possible.
However, your customers are as pressed for time as you are. Which means the longer the form that users have to fill out, the higher the likelihood that they will abandon the process.
The golden rule of website forms is keep it short and simple. Limit the form fields to only what you need and what is relevant in that context. So a feedback form should only ask for information pertaining to feedback – you probably do not need to know the buyer’s household size or profession, for example.
Shorter forms reduce the time and effort your customers require to fill them which can only be good for conversion rates.
15. Improve Page Speed
We briefly mentioned speed in the responsive design section but it is so important that it warrants its own conversion conversation.
Slow speeds are frustrating to users and a major cause of low conversion rates. Internet users are notoriously impatient – each second of delay leads to a steep plunge in page engagement. Target a load speed of no more than two seconds.
Images are a significant factor in loading times. Use compressed image formats only. There are free tools online (such as tiny.png) you can use to drastically shrink your file sizes.
If you are using a content management system or website builder, choose templates and a website theme that is light and trim. Host your videos on third party platforms like YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion.
16. Money Back Guarantee
Online engagement and transactions still feel more impersonal than offline, face-to-face interaction. With that, people still have some reservations buying from a business for the first time. They are concerned that they might not get their money’s worth.
Offering a money back guarantee reduces customers’ perception of risk. It provides an assurance that they will get what they paid for and can always be refunded if they are dissatisfied with their purchase. 30-day money back guarantees are like a standard for the sale of tangible products so yours should be no less than that. For intangible products, 14 days could work just as well.
17. Show How You Compare To the Competition
Your visitors will almost certainly judge you against your competition. Most people are somewhat lazy and will perform a simple comparison often based on pricing only.
Unfortunately, a pricing-only comparison does not present a real value-for-value ranking. Before your customers perform their own inadvertently misleading assessment, do a comprehensive one on their behalf.
You could for instance create a table of all key features that products in the same class have and show that yours offers significantly more bang for your buck. Taking charge of this process allows you to emphasize the advantages you have over your rivals.
It is your chance to state why, where applicable, your product costs more. Further, your competition could already be doing this to show their product is better than yours – your own comparison is an opportunity to set the record straight.
Conclusion
These are a lot of conversion optimization strategies. Fortunately, you do not need to implement all of them – at least not in one go. In fact, some businesses see a rapid rise in conversions after adopting just a couple of these.
It all boils down to the nature of your business, website, product, target audience and how well you execute your chosen strategy.
Best practice is to start with one or two, monitor results, tweak to improve impact and then move to the next set of strategies. Either way, improving conversion rate is a continuous exercise. Make changes to your conversion strategies in line with market trends, evolving technology and consumer preferences.
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