How to Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate

“Conversion rate” can seem like a kind of buzzword in the world of online business. But what does that mean? Why is it so important? And how can you increase yours?

Here, we’ll answer all of those questions and provide you with the tips you need to make more sales through your website. Read on to find out more.

What Is a Conversion Rate?

If we want to describe it simply, we could say that the “conversion rate” refers to how many website visitors you’ve convinced to shop with you or perform another desired action.  Even more simply, it shows how many visitors we were able to convert into actual customers.

You might feel like you’ve done everything right. Your website might look great, and your products could be impeccable. But, if your website traffic isn’t translating into sales, you’ll want to focus more on conversion rate optimization.

Here are some tips you should keep in mind if you want to increase your sales and revenue.

Trust Is Key

We know that a large percentage of purchases are determined by demand or need. However, this need is often overridden by, for example, a lack of time, lack of money, or uncertainty. All of these factors can deter someone from making a purchase.

Of course, a lack of money or time is a factor you cannot influence, but you can and should reduce uncertainty. This is a factor that can be very critical to someone before making a purchase. If your site shakes a potential buyer’s confidence even a little bit, they may leave without buying from you.

How can you earn customers’ loyalty and trust?

Firstly, use customer testimonials. It is well known that, before people buy something, they’ll gather information about the product and the seller too. For this reason, it is important that you provide authentic information about your business and show that previous customers have enjoyed shopping with you.

You can use sites like Facebook and Yelp for this, but you should also allow customers to rate your products on your website so visitors can find this information quickly and easily.

It’s a good idea to put some faces to your business by adding photos of your staff to your website, too. This can greatly increase trust because your visitors can see human faces, and a kind of family atmosphere can develop on your site. This can help you to earn customers’ trust and lead to purchases.

Run A/B Tests On Your Website

What is an A/B test? In such tests, we create two different versions of a campaign or web page that you consider important, be it an ad, a UX design, or an entire landing page and we run these in parallel to see how they compare. At the end of the test, you will see which version has produced better results and which you can use in the long run to achieve a higher conversion rate.

When it comes to A/B testing, always have a plan and know what you want to test. And be aware of potential weak links in your site or campaign, since these will be your variables during the test.

To ensure that you do not deviate from your original plan during testing and receive relevant and useful information at the end, always create a roadmap. This should show what variables you want to test and how they will appear in each version.

It’s typically a good idea to include headings in your variables during A/B tests. Headings always play a prominent role in securing conversions, whether you’re testing advertisements, blog posts, landing pages, or email newsletters. This is because people use them to decide whether they’re going to read a piece of content or open a particular web page.

The Eternal Truth: Less Is More

Visitors usually visit your site for one specific thing, so they do not want to spend much time finding that content. To ensure your visitors don’t leave your page right away and are likely to perform your desired action, remember that, when it comes to writing your website content, less is often more.

You should include only the information you need on your page. Too much information spoils the user experience and can be alarming to visitors. This will decrease your conversion rate, and you do not want that, do you?

Your menu bar must be clear, too. We recommend that your menu bar should contain around 4-5 options, as this will ensure that visitors can find at the first glance what they visited your website for. It’s also best to include just one call-to-action, so website visitors know exactly what you want them to do next.

Improve Your Website Pop-Up Conversion Rate

You might think pop-ups are out of fashion and that they can put website visitors off, but that is not true. Pop-ups are great for improving your conversion rate. While in most cases the conversion rate is 3.09% for pop-ups, you can increase this by up to 10% with a few tricks.

A well-designed pop-up can be eye-catching and fun for visitors. The appearance of a pop-up is basically limited only by your imagination, however, there are some rules to consider. First, avoid using flashy colors. This may seem like a good idea at first because it attracts attention, but it can also be a concern for visitors since flashy colors in many cases call attention to danger. We recommend that you prioritize colors and designs that match your page.

Also, timing is an important factor. Make sure your pop-up does not show too often and that you never show the same content twice in a row. Use a CTA that is relevant to the topic and it should be clear and concise. Note that not all visitors can be caught with pop-ups. In order not to spoil the user experience of sensitive visitors, make sure that your pop-ups are easy to close.

If you use WordPress, we have good news: there are plenty of WordPress plugins for creating super pop-ups quickly. One such plugin is the Jet Pop-ups application, which requires no programming knowledge— you will have to pay for it, though. If you’re looking for a free option, you could use Icegram, which is more complicated to use than the aforementioned plugin, but it offers plenty of options for creating pop-ups too. Use them boldly.

Know Who’s Visiting Your Site

To improve the user experience of your site and increase your conversion rate, you must know your visitors. We recommend Google Analytics for collecting and analyzing user data, as it has a huge toolbox.

Here are some metrics you should be paying attention to.

Active Users

With Google Analytics, you can track your active users and judge whether you’re getting the traffic you want. Based on the numbers, you can tell whether your current marketing activities are working or if they need to be tweaked.

Demographic Data

Demographics have paramount importance in surveying your visitors. By being aware of the gender and age of your visitors, you can perfectly customize your communication to them. This will make your communication much more effective and your conversion rate will improve.

Interest Data

Knowing your website visitors’ areas of interest is also very important. This information will allow you to place your advertising in the most effective places and provide the most useful content for your potential customers.

Geographical Data

If you know where visitors open your website from, you’ll be able to make an informed decision on whether you should be creating local content or producing ads or guides in a different language.

Technological Data

This is important data because it allows you to see whether your site was opened from a desktop or mobile. Based on this information, you can ensure that your website is optimized for the right devices and browsers.

We recommend that you create buyer personas using the user data you collect. If you aren’t familiar with buyer personas, these are characters you make up that essentially embody the characteristics your ideal customers might have.

This is useful because it allows you to be aware of the traits and characteristics of your target audience. This can help you to create more targeted and tailored content that your audience will actually be interested in.

Calls-To-Action (CTAs)

Calls-to-action can have a huge impact on your conversion rate. A well-formulated and positioned CTA can greatly increase the conversion rate, and a poorly designed one will have just the opposite effect. Now, here are some tricks to help you improve your CTAs so you can earn as many sales as possible.

Try to use call-to-action text that confirms to your visitor that “yes, that is really what you want”. Do not use template text — be creative. We recommend CTAs that begin with “yes”, such as “yes, add to cart”, as the word yes confirms to the visitor that they really need your product or service.

Place your CTAs in a logical and visible place, too. This will make it easier for your visitors to start an activity that is important to you sooner. And do not be afraid to use colors to help visitors find your CTAs easier.

To perfect your CTAs, you can even run an A/B test. Invest energy and time in this, as a good call-to-action can greatly increase your conversion rate.

Summary

Conversion rate optimization can be very complex. It is very easy to get lost in the process because there are so many factors you have to consider. To avoid this, use a CRO planner. If you are unsure, this can be a great help, since it acts as a kind of crutch which shows you what strategy you have to use to increase your conversion rate.

Also, create a roadmap that includes the tasks you need to complete. This will keep you on track and ensure you always know what your next step will be.