Your website is where you’ll drive customers to purchase goods from you. And, since there is more competition than ever before in the online space, you need to do everything you can to increase conversions across your site.
Your conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who complete one of your desired actions, like filling out a form or making a purchase on your site. You can calculate yours by dividing the number of people who took the desired action by the number of site visitors you’ve had, all during a specific period of time.
A low conversion rate, typically below 1 percent, signals that you need to do some optimizing on your site to improve your customer’s experience. Let’s take a look at five easy ways you can improve your website’s conversion rate to improve your bottom line.
Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash
1. Harness the power of strong call to action buttons
A call to action, or CTA, is a prompt on your site that directs visitors towards moving forward with your company. A CTA button is a clickable icon that will bring your potential customers directly to where you want them to be. It makes it easier for them to convert and will help you meet the business goals you have.
You can improve your conversion rate by placing strong CTAs throughout your site and using strong verbs and direct language. Be clear about what will happen once users click that button to put the potential customer at ease as they engage with your site, too.
Your homepage and landing pages should all have a clear, eye-catching CTA to prevent users from becoming confused about how to take the next steps with your company. The design of your site can also play a big role in your conversion rate, so choose a CTA color that stands out from your other design elements to ensure people see and engage with the buttons.
Let’s look at a company that does a great job of using color and design choices to make their CTAs stand out on their site.
Take a look at this example from Smith.ai, a company that provides other businesses with a 24/7 answering service. They have chosen a striking red tone that makes their CTA button stand out from their website’s white background. Notice the language is also direct and creates a sense of urgency that let’s the reader know clicking the button will get them started right away with the company.
They have made a great choice of using a simple background, minimal page copy, and a singular image to ensure the CTA doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, and they have strategically placed an image of a model almost looking down at the CTA to draw the attention of the audience towards the button.
You can use a similar strategy on your eCommerce store by crafting your call to action buttons to stand out and inspire your site visitors to convert. Use strong verbs that demonstrate what the user can expect when clicking the button, too, so there’s no confusion.
You could even consider using different CTA buttons on the same page for customers at various points in their buyer journeys. This will help you reach more customers and inspire them to convert, driving more revenue for your eCommerce store!
2. Reach the right people by targeting the right keywords
Your conversion rate is unlikely to improve if you don’t reach the right people. So, you must target the right keywords with your website copy. This will ensure your website ranks for the correct queries on search engines, putting your site in front of the most suitable people as a result.
Come up with a list of words related to what you do and sell, then type them into a keyword research tool like Moz or Semrush. They will show you the related phrases that are commonly entered into Google, and therefore what kinds of terms you need to be incorporating into your copy to reach the right people.
Once you have a list of words, weave them into your page copy naturally by placing them in your headers, answering questions in your content, and optimizing the descriptions of your products so your pages appear on the most relevant search engine results pages. When searching for keywords, you should assign specific keywords to individual pages based on what you offer on each page and what your customers are searching for.
You’ll want to avoid using the same keywords on multiple pages as this can dilute your SEO efforts by confusing search engines. This can actually harm your visibility and may result in none of your pages ranking, reducing your overall online presence.
3. Publish helpful content that pushes people towards converting
Increasing your conversion rate is all about helping your target audience to find your site. And, generating high-quality, helpful content is a great way to attract the right people and improve your search engine rankings.
Choosing what you should be covering in your content can be difficult but, with some social media research, you can see what topics are popular with your target audience. For instance, you could look at what your audience is posting, the questions they ask, and the products they interact with online. You can also use keyword research tools to generate ideas, or ask your customer service team what questions they field repeatedly. If you don’t have the resources to do all of this, you could also consider using a blog writing service to simplify the content creation process and ensure you hit the right keywords and topics that your customers are looking for.
Let’s look at a company that does a great job of creating content that answers questions its customers are asking to improve its conversion rate.
FreshBooks, a company that sells accounting and finance software, knocks it out of the park with its informative blog posts that meet the needs of its customers. For instance, in this article, notice how they address a common question their ideal customers are going to be asking. This will help to show that the company truly understands its audience, which is likely to generate more sales.
You can use the same strategy by thinking about what topics would be most helpful to your target audience and writing informative blog posts to answer those questions and help solve their needs.
4. Choose website imagery that will help you reach your goals
The look of your website is nearly as important as your page copy. So, you should put a lot of thought into choosing the correct imagery for your website.
Of course, different imagery will work for different businesses, so the type of images you should choose will vary based on your target audience, market, and business goals. There are many kinds of imagery that can be effective for improving your conversion rate, such as:
- Images of staff members that humanize your brand, since they’ll show the real people behind your company.
- Pictures of people using your products to help customers imagine themselves interacting with your products and enjoying the benefits they bring.
- Graphics that let people understand how your services work instead of having to read through lots of content on a page.
- Strong product imagery that highlights different features that customers can expect to enjoy once they purchase your products.
- User-generated images of past clients taking advantage of your products or services.
For inspiration, let’s look at a company that uses images to help personalize its brand and connect with its target audience.
Take a look at this example from the online mortgage broker Rocket Mortgage. The images on their homepage show a relaxed couple going through the homebuying process. This imagery helps put the mind of potential buyers at ease because it shows the pair enjoying their time together because Rocket Mortgage makes the home loan application experience simple and easy.
You can implement the same strategy on your website by choosing relevant and engaging imagery that reflects what you want customers to feel. Be strategic and ensure each image represents what you stand for and what you want to accomplish as a business, and you can use images that highlight the benefits of your products to encourage people to convert.
5. Add positive customer reviews to your most important pages
People tend to trust the word of other customers, so it’s a great idea to ask your customers for reviews and testimonials you can publish on your website. Testimonials and user reviews demonstrate that you’ve done an excellent job for your customers in the past and will build a sense of trust with new clients.
Ask your customers for testimonials a few days after their purchase, or a bit longer if you have a service-based company that needs time to achieve the desired results. You can even offer an incentive, like a discount code or free resource, to motivate them to give you a review so you can fill your site up with testimonials.
Let’s look at a company that does a great job of using customer testimonials on its site to build trust with its audience and drive more conversions.
Victoria University Online highlights student success on their master of teaching online program page. For instance, they use testimonials to show the success of past students who have studied at the school. They have chosen to highlight three testimonial excerpts in a scrolling carousel to show how much of an impact their service has had on real people. This then shows how their online courses could help future students to pursue their dream careers.
You can use the same approach on your website by adding review snippets and testimonials to your service pages and homepage to show customers what you have to offer. By proving that you’ve made past customers happy, new visitors are more likely to take a chance and convert.
Summary
When a potential customer lands on your site, you should do everything in your power to convince them to take the next step with your company. If you don’t, your conversion rate will suffer.
Optimize your web pages to drive conversions by making it easy to move forward with your business and creating an engaging user experience through imagery, social proof, and high-quality content.
Before long, you’ll see your sales increase as your site finds your target audience!
