Did you know that 96 per cent of people who visit your website are not ready to buy? At the same time, some websites are known for their highly successful efforts for turning visitors into customers. How do they do it? What makes their online presence different from everybody else’s?
A number of website components play an important role when it comes to audience retention and conversion. The performance of your website, its speed, interactivity and content are all crucial.
What do people see first when they land on your pages? Are they conductive of building a long-term relationship? This is one of the most important questions to ask yourself when attempting to boost conversions. If you’d like to see a bigger percentage of your web traffic turning into customers, you’ll have to do a couple of important things.
A well-developed, functional website should load fast. Today’s online audience has a limited attention span. If website design and content don’t make an excellent first impression in a couple of seconds, chances are that you’ll see a high bounce rate and a small conversion percentage.
The hard truth is that you have eight seconds to make your case. After these eight seconds, most people will leave your website and never come back.
If you already have a website, you should do a speed audit. Many tools are available for the purpose of testing your website’s speed and figuring out what the main problems are. One of the most effective and simple tools to rely on is the page speed tool by Google.
In case you’re just getting started with website development, you should choose a company that understands the importance of fast loading and that adheres to the strictest industry standards. There are numerous things that developers can do to reduce the size of every individual page and make it load faster. You may want to inquire about the company’s strategy prior to getting started with development.
Keep in mind that fast loading is even more important when it comes to mobile traffic. The average time spent browsing via a smartphone is growing. According to August 2016 statistics, the average monthly time people spend browsing via their phone is 87 hours in the US and 66 hours in UK.
The rate of abandoning a website that doesn’t load fast is even higher for mobile than for desktop users. Since mobile is already taking over as a primary method of accessing websites, your efforts should focus on providing these users with the best possible experience.
You’ve overcome the first test and people aren’t leaving your website in a matter of seconds. The next thing to focus on is the user experience.
The user experience consists of multiple elements that get people engaged and interacting with your website. Navigation, functionalities, easy contact options and the content are all parts of the user experience that can result into website visitors becoming customers.
In order to increase conversions, you’ll first have to highlight the most important website elements that the audience should be paying attention to.
When developing every single page, think about the buttons and the links that matter the most. Contrasting colours when creating a “sign up” or a “buy now” button can be used to show the audience what you deem to be most important. Such design elements will be visible immediately, getting people to check out what you have to offer.
Good calls to action that pop up are also effective. The trick with this strategy, however, is to refrain from overdoing it. If a call to action pops up every three seconds, people will leave your website quite annoyed.
Strategic visual cues can be used on every single page to tell people what you want them to do. These visual elements will determine which aspects of the page they’ll pay attention to and even how they’re going to read – from left to right, starting from the centre of the page, etc.
The use of arrows, animation and other graphic elements will make it obvious what the visitor should be paying attention to. In order to make the strategy successful, you’ll have to work with an experienced designer. A professional in the field will know the significance of each element and the best way to utilise it in order to increase engagement.
There’s a lot you can accomplish by simply putting the right call to action button on a landing page or experimenting with its placement.
Something as simple as the colour of a button can have an effect on conversions.
Web development companies have found out that turning buttons red, for example, can have a profoundly positive effect on the conversion rate. People see red as a colour of dominance, the colour of red hot deals. Thus, a simple change from a green to a red call to action button can lead to a 34 per cent increase in conversions.
The placement of the button is also important. While it was previously believed that a call to action button should be positioned above the fold, tests reveal that it performs better when placed underneath text. The reason is that the text provides some information about the purpose of the call to action button, making it easier for people to relate.
On top of button colour and placement, button text is also an important element. Thus, website developers and copywriters should be working together for the best possible results. A good call to action button appeals to emotions. It also creates a sense of urgency, making people undertake a certain action before thinking twice.
“Buy now” buttons tend to turn people off. Many people worry that by clicking, they’ll be charged instantly. Thus, working with the text can produce much better results. Some of the button texts that are perceived as less threatening and that can contribute to higher conversions include “add to shopping cart” or “find out more.” These buttons leave people with an option – if they’re not certain, they can always give up on finalising the purchase.
Why aren’t people converting? Maybe the problem is that they can’t rather than that they don’t want to.
A problem in the flow of the conversion funnel could be keeping people from finalising the process. Thus, sitting down to test every single functionality can reveal an issue that you were previously unaware of.
There’s a simple way to figure out if something is wrong – complete every single step you’d want a potential customer to undertake. Are you getting stuck? Are you finding it impossible to move from point A to point B? If so, some of the functionalities aren’t as logical and user-friendly as you’d like them to be.
You can repeat the same experiment with a few friends or a couple of co-workers. Figure out where they’re getting stuck or experiencing difficulties. Remember that a website visitor isn’t going to dedicate an awful lot of time to finding the resolution. If something isn’t immediately accessible, people will simply give up on moving forward.
Once you identify the weaknesses in the conversion funnel, work with an experienced web development team on simplifying the process. If possible, eliminate some of the steps. Make it crystal clear right from the start what you’re attempting to accomplish and give people a simple set of steps to complete.
While landing pages are incredibly important for accomplishing your marketing goals, your homepage is the face of your business online. This is the main reason why a lot of your website development and design efforts should be focused on putting together a clean, trendy and functional homepage.
Make the homepage concise and highlight the key elements right from the start. Even if they enter your website through an ad and a landing page, many people will also visit the homepage to find out more.
The homepage should also be the centre of website navigation. It should come with an intuitive menu and a link to the most important pages. If people can’t reach a key part of your website through the homepage, they will not bother again.
Intuitive navigation and presenting the website structure on the homepage is also important for search engine optimisation. Thus, by focusing development efforts on the structure of the primary page, you’ll be getting even more search traffic (thus, increasing your chances of generating leads and getting new clients).
Remember that homepage design trends change all the time. What matters is staying true to your brand and knowing what your audience is looking for. Customising the appearance of your homepage can quickly boost audience engagement.
The final thing you should be focusing on is simplifying corporate communication. If you make it easy for people to contact you, a bigger number of prospects will get in touch.
One of the simplest possibilities is adding a live chat option to your website. One experiment suggests that the addition of a live chat button to a website can increase free signups by 31 per cent.
Any contact form on the website should be simple and easy to fill out. Refrain from demanding too much information right from the start. Once people get in touch with you and request more information, you’ll have an opportunity to access more valuable insights.
If people need a university degree to discover the contact information and put it to use, chances are that they’ll give up on your business. Thus, you may want to feature this information prominently in the footer as well as on a separate page.
A final thing to remember is to respond to inquiries promptly. Website visitors have taken the time to ask you a question or request information about your products. Fast, courteous and comprehensive responses will help you build your brand’s reputation and boost satisfaction from the interaction.
Increasing your website’s conversion rate requires a strategy and some innovative thinking. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the website visitor. Poorly constructed, slow and difficult to navigate websites will never succeed. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to focus on improving these faulty components. The amount you invest in website development or redesign will yield a high return on investment that will justify the extra expenditure.
