How to increase website conversions

Websites are, by their nature, a marketing tool.

They are there to help you win business. A website put together right can be as effective, if not more so, than a full-time sales team.

But, perhaps you have found yourself in the position we have found many a client in the past. You’ve got marketing going on to drive visitors to your website. Perhaps a Google AdWords campaign or a social media push is starting to drive more and more people to your website. Your analytics are showing you how well you’re doing, you’ve increased visitors by over 80%, your marketing is working!

And yet, the conversion rate is not up by the same percentage.

There could be many reasons for this of course, but we will focus for now, on the most common issue – your website is not properly geared up for converting traffic into leads or sales.

The Mistakes

It is often the case that because you know your website, you know where everything is and you know what everything means – you don’t look at it as a regular user would. As a result, you don’t see the issues.

You know how easily an email can be misinterpreted, well the same goes for a website. Don’t assume everyone is going to look at it the same way you are.

Remember that 96% of a typical internet user’s experience will be focused around about six websites. If your website’s experience and interface is wildly different to these, people will naturally struggle.

Unfortunately, you need to make a bit of an assumption that you have to keep the website “idiot proof” and rather spoon-feed what you want people to do. This irons out the doubts!

So, what do you do?

You may or may not have heard the phrase “call to action” before. What is it, well it does exactly what it says on the tin. It calls people to action.

In the world of the internet, the call to action is the key to success or failure.

People are lazy online, as a result, they act in a fairly dull manner, because they aren’t paying the same amount of attention that they may otherwise do. So, you have to make it clear and obvious.

So, here are some quick tips to look at on your website to see if you’re doing the right things:

1. Are your phone number/contact details in the header of the site?

Seems obvious, but so many people forget to put it there. It should ideally be in the top right-hand corner of your website in the header bar so it’s visible on every page of the website.

2. Is your site too cluttered?

Another common error is a site filled with stuff for the sake of stuff. A sidebar here, a ticker over there, small text so it all fits onto one page, images dotted randomly about. As a result, things just get lost. They get missed and you don’t get that conversion you might have otherwise got.

3. Do you have call to action buttons?

A call to action button can be something as simple as a “Contact Us” button under the intro text on your home page. Because it’s calling them to take an action i.e. contact you! Ideally you want to place these anywhere on the site that there is a natural progression onto more information or a natural contact point.

4. Have you considered or planned your ideal user journey through your website?

This is a very key consideration. Have you thought about how you would like a customer to move through your website? Have you considered where you want them to go, what you want them to read, where you want them to click? And, if you have, have you made sure that journey is easily laid out for them? Like the breadcrumb trail leading them to where you want them?

5. Have you looked at your user flow to see where you lose people?

If you use Google Analytics, there is a really good section called “Behaviour Flow”. This allows you to see the most common user journey’s through your site are. Helping you understand where people go from what page, where they go next and where they leave. All of this helps you understand if you need to adjust what you are doing on your website to alter that user flow to better benefit you.

There are a lot of tools you can use to measure the way users interact with your website. Some are free and others will cost you, but it is always important to measure. Consider your calls to action and place them well, it will always pay dividends.

Want to see how well your website’s health is? Check out our website health check.

https://dragonfiremarketing.com/product/website-health-check/