A good digital marketing strategy can drive potential customers to your website. However, high traffic does not always translate into revenue.
Your website is critical in capturing potential customers because 80-90 percent of them will use it to help them make a purchasing decision before ever getting close to a sale. You’ve got a nice-looking, functional website up and running, and people are flocking to it. But the question is….how do you turn them into paying customers? That is, you must concentrate on what you want them to do within the first few seconds of landing on your page. Even before that, you should be preparing the bait for your future customers. Your website needs to move the relationship forward. Don’t worry. We’re here to guide you how.
What is a website conversion?
Conversion is a very important metric in the marketing funnel, but it does not always mean a purchase. When someone completes a pre-determined and desired action on your website, such as signing up for a newsletter, sharing a blog post on social media, or purchasing a product, this is referred to as a website conversion. Your conversion rate is the percentage of people who complete your desired action.
Why do conversions matter?
Conversions enable businesses to distinguish between visitors who are interested in their products and those who are not; a visitor who takes the desired action becomes a lead.
Conversions can also assist businesses in determining issues with their website or marketing strategies. Marketers can see what is and isn’t working by analyzing the customer journey and identifying bottlenecks. They can also see which sources of traffic bring the most customers and which should be dropped.
What is Conversion Optimization?
Divide the number of times a user completes a goal by the number of visitors to your site. This will provide you with your conversion rate. As a site owner, you want to get as many conversions as possible in order to maximize your conversion rate.
Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the process of encouraging more visitors to take a specific action when they visit your website. It entails designing or modifying web pages in such a way that visitors are more likely to convert before leaving the site.
Why Is Conversion Optimization important?
CRO is important because it enables online stores to make the most of the traffic they already have, reducing the need to invest in customer acquisition. Pay-per-click costs are rising as the demand for online ads rises.
Businesses are constantly increasing their ad budgets, but because not all clicks result in conversions, conversion rate optimization (CRO) has become an indispensable method for keeping prices low while increasing revenue per visitor.
It all seems pretty straightforward: encourage more visitors to convert, and you’ll get a higher ROI and more revenue. However, here’s a sobering statistic: 96% of website visitors leave without converting.
What is a good conversion rate?
Many businesses want to know the magic number for having a successful conversion rate. But the truth is there isn’t a magic number.
Your conversion rate will depend on numerous factors, including:
- Your industry
- Your sales cycle
- Your products/services
- Your costs
- And more
Because these factors influence your conversion rate, determining the exact amount you need to achieve is difficult. You may need to conduct some research to determine what a good conversion rate is for a company in your industry.
Key factors for improving conversion
- Consider your colours, graphics and visual elements
Every aspect of your website’s design is important. A beautiful series of product photographs can show off an item to the best effect, and a video tutorial on how to use the product can encourage more visitors to buy it with confidence after seeing how it works.
Colour is a language all of its own, and different colours have different effects on your audience, even if it’s just on an unconscious level. That’s right, even colour can affect conversions.
- Analyze how your audience interacts with your site
You can see where your website falls short by analyzing how your audience interacts with it. You may discover that the format of your page causes visitors to leave or omits a critical button that directs visitors to the next page.
When you analyze how visitors interact with your website, you can make changes that will help you provide a better experience for your visitors. More people will stay on your website and learn about your company, resulting in more conversions.
- Include testimonials and case studies
Persuasive onsite content backed up by statistics will result in more conversions. Include feedback and reviews from previous and current customers (with permission), or publish case studies that demonstrate the worth of your products or services. This is an excellent way to increase visitors’ trust and confidence in your site.
- Focus on your landing pages
The home page of your website is frequently where you get to make your first impression on visitors and encourage them to explore your website further. Make certain that it is well-designed and simple to use. Include hyperlinks to information about your company’s products or services. Invite visitors to contact you, encourage them to read your blog, or give them the opportunity to join your mailing list.
Ensure that the content on all landing pages is optimised to encourage visitors to take action.
- Beef-up your blog
Your company blog also gives you an endless number of opportunities to convert interested visitors. This is your chance to establish yourself as an industry expert. Whether you want to educate, entertain, or both, a well-written and relevant blog with frequent updates will keep readers returning to your site.
- Improve your CTAs
Ensure that any call to action on your website are optimized to increase conversions. They should be brief and to-the-point, and they should stand out without interfering with the user’s navigation of the website. A call to action should feel like the natural conclusion to the user’s journey, rather than disrupting it.
Make sure your CTA is specific and not too broad (for example, “Download my e-book for free” is a better CTA than “Download now”). Ensure that completing the action is a simple and quick process for the user. As part of your overall CRO strategy, a qualified SEO consultant can assist you in optimizing and improving the calls to action on your website.
- Make smarter use of your pop-ups
Large, full-screen pop-ups will make it more difficult for users to access your site’s content, especially those using mobile devices. Consult with your SEO agency about the best way to include advertising on your website in an unobtrusive manner that does not interfere with potential conversions.
- Keep your website secure
Online users are increasingly concerned about cyber-security. According to research, roughly half of your visitors will check the security of your website before providing any personal or confidential information.
Conversions are gained through the development of trust, and security plays an important role in this process. Display any verification tags to show users that your payment systems can be trusted. “Trust symbols” such as VeriSign or Symantec SSL can help prospective online shoppers feel more confident and secure about making a purchase.
When it comes to e-commerce, additional costs such as shipping can also cause customers to abandon their carts. Free shipping on orders over a certain amount can help to discourage this. Be honest with your customers about the total cost of each order so they don’t get a surprise when they check out.
- Optimise the speed of your website
Sluggish websites are so inconvenient that you can expect a high number of abandoned shopping carts if your site’s speed isn’t optimal. Use a site speed test tool to see if your website is loading quickly enough, and if not, consult an SEO expert about the best ways to improve your load time.
- Make your site mobile-friendly
Mobile devices are being used to browse and shop by more people than ever before. A bad user experience with a website that isn’t mobile-friendly will discourage them from spending any time on your site. Responsive (mobile-friendly) design is absolutely necessary, or you risk losing a sizable portion of your potential audience.
Start improving your website conversion rate today
There is no one universal formula for success when it comes to converting website visitors. It’s possible that you’ll have to keep testing and tweaking multiple variants indefinitely. Set up tracking mechanisms, calculate your conversion rates, and then use these conversion optimization ways to increase revenue from your website, and you’ll be well on your way to online success.
Conversion optimization can produce immediate results, but it is ultimately a long-term endeavor. There is always room for improvement when it comes to attracting new visitors to your site and converting them. Yes, the number of visitors to your website is important. But it’s even more important how many of them become customers.
Are you looking to get more website conversions? Contact us online to speak with a strategist about our website conversion services.