While it is no secret that conversion rate optimization is key to improve your website’s revenue, it takes time and testing for true conversion optimization. No two businesses/websites are same and therefore what works for someone may or may not be good for another. You can only know it by trying out new methods and comparing the results. There are however a few good old universal standbys that can help you get started with your conversion optimization efforts to make your visitors stay.
How & Why to Plan Conversion Rate Optimization
CRO or conversion rate optimization is the method of improving your website’s performance using analytics and user feedback. It helps you understand why visitors are not converting and what you need to do to fix the issue. After all, what’s the use of building traffic if they aren’t converting?
Conversion rate optimization, however, has some pre-requisites:
- The approach to improving your website’s performance must be structured and systematic
- You need insightful data, particularly analytics and user feedback to define the approach
- It must be based on the definition of your website’s unique needs and objectives (KPIs)
Make sure your conversation rate optimization is not based on hunches or guesses. Similarly, do not follow others blindly. A good conversation optimization helps you score more sales from your existing traffic, which in turn, improves your ROI by making the whole conversion process much more cost-effective.
Besides, it helps you to fight the battle against limited attention span of online consumers by giving them what they are looking for.
Based on what we have learned so far about conversation rate optimization, here are 3 tips to improve your website’s performance, encouraging your visitors to stay.
1. Focus on User Experience and Funnel Optimization
User experience or UX along with funnel optimization plays a key role in determining the functionality of your website. It is therefore important to make your site is easy to use, loads faster and there’s little friction for your visitors. In fact, you cannot overstate the importance of UX as it has a huge impact on funnel optimization. Unfortunately, website owners often commit some UX mistakes that actually kill their conversion.
When it comes to funnel optimization, focus on the following two aspects of user experience:
- Reduce friction such as excess pages, wasted clicks, false starts, slow page loads, and going to the wrong page etc. that cause visitors to leave your site and go elsewhere.
- Reduce cognitive overhead, which is usually responsible for putting doubt and indecision into your visitor’s mind and usually prevents them from converting.
Also, account for different traffic sources you have as well as your visitors’ levels of knowledge about you/your products and how they engage with the same. You need to map the inbound user flows, the likes of which include social media sites, press releases, Google AdWords or banner advertisements, and organic search to your conversion funnels and study them thoroughly to provide value to the user.
Remember that every user has different needs, level of knowledge and expectations and you must treat them accordingly to provide a seamless and optimum user experience and your website conversion rates go up.
Here are a few ways to enhance your funnel optimization efforts:
- Organize your website design and content in such a way that they support your call to action.
- State why users should opt for your product/service (benefits) with simple proof points
- Remove friction as much as possible; make sure your website has minimum loading time and there are only a few fields and clicks.
- Ask your visitors as little as possible to remove further friction.
- Use the interesting headline to encourage them to complete the registration process
Instead of designing your user flow, try to make it easy for your visitors so that they have a seamless experience and are compelled to come back to your website for more and also share their experience on social media sites, driving new users into your sales funnel.
2. Create a Landing Page That Converts
There is no point in people ‘just visiting’ your website. You want them to take the ‘desired’ action, i.e. to convert. If you haven’t noticed already, your landing page plays a big role here. To create a landing page that converts, you need to focus on a few key elements:
- Use attention-grabbing headlines
- It must have a clear call-to-action with a visually distinct, bigger and centralized button that takes guessing out of the game
- The primary image on your landing page must be clear, high-resolution and relevant to your product. Instead of diverting attention, the image must support your message
- When it comes to landing page layout and design, remember that less is more. Use big fonts to make it easy and compelling for your visitors to read and keep plenty of white space. Using bullets make it easy to scan the content and try to insert videos on your landing pages as they can increase conversions by 80 percent.
- Make it social proof with recommendations and other elements like usage statistics, press mentions, a list of your existing customers and testimonials
3. Content to Attract Customers and Convert Them
Content is your secret weapon to attract visitors and convert them into customers. As mentioned, conversion rate optimization takes time. It’s no instant-noodles approach that can boost your revenue overnight. Of course, there are certain instant upticks such as running split tests and enlarging your CTA buttons, but the content is one of them.
Your conversion rate optimization content strategy is a slow process, although it offers long-term benefits. It will help your visitors become aware of your brand identity and your products/services over time. It gradually persuades your visitors to convert and there lies the value of content.
Here are some tips to do your content better:
- Grow your library of information in forms of informative blog posts, how-to articles, tutorials and more
- Start guest blogging to establish authority and enhance your reputation
- Make sure your content is free of typos and grammatical errors
- If using ‘link text’ make sure you underline them so that they are lost on your visitors. In fact, it is highly recommended to add links in your body content and fix broken links, if any.
Conclusion
Conversion rate optimization is not as complicated as it sounds. It is just another way to enhance your visitors’ experience when browsing your website. Consider what they want to see or do and how they want to do it and approach them accordingly and you would win half the battle. For the remaining half, be clear about what you want your visitors to do and make it easier and compelling for them to do it. Do them and you will never miss another conversion opportunity, we guarantee. But again, don’t just take our words for it.
