In a perfect world, people will come to your website, locate the product, service or item they want, and proceed sedately to the end of the funnel without hesitation. But this is not a perfect world
The cold truth is that it is unrealistic to expect everyone who arrives at your site to make a purchase or perform the action you have in mind for them. In fact, according to expert data, about 70% of visitors will end up leaving your website without converting.
So how can you even the odds and improve your conversion rates?
1. Have a user centered design
Before we get to the nuts and bolts of conversion optimization, we have to make sure that your website meets the standard for user experience.
If your website is not designed in a manner that keeps visitors on your page for longer, any conversion optimization tactics you deploy may not make much difference.
That said, it is vital that your website is visually appealing, user-friendly, and properly optimized for search. You will find useful tips on how to design a user-centered website on the internet.
2. Use conversion optimization tools
Another vital step in conversion optimization is knowing where you stand at the moment. Thankfully, the internet is replete with amazing tools that you can use to analyse your conversion rates.
The following few are popular with experts such as Full View, Ottawa Search Engine Optimization Services and you can use them to measure and optimize your site for conversions:
- Google Analytics: The most popular of them all, and which provides a comprehensive view of your analytics.
- CrazyEgg: A nifty tool by CrazyEgg that provides a holistic view of your site performance using heatmaps, click maps, scroll maps and more.
- HotJar: An amazing tool for analysing how your users interact with your website so that you can determine how to produce better content.
- Optimizely: One of the best and leading A/B testing tools on the internet.
- Clicky: For online stores, providing real-time analysis of engagements on your site.
- Google Page Insights: Nifty Google tool that analyses your site for speed and offers suggestions on how to make your site faster.
3. Show social proof
These days, people tend to check for reviews and peer recommendations before transacting with brands online. In fact, reviews and recommendations are high-level influencers of people’s buying decisions.
If you are serious about increasing your conversion rates, show visitors that your brand is credible and worth doing business with. To this end, encourage customers and visitors to leave reviews and recommendations on your site, especially your product pages.
4. Follow up bounced users
Bounced users are people who arrive at your website but leave almost immediately without fulfilling the purpose for which they came. There are different factors that account for page abandonment and bounce rate, but it is your responsibility to see about bringing them back.
One of the popular methods of getting back these bounced customers is retargeting. Retargeting helps you re-engage with people who left your site without converting, compels them to come back, and helps move them further down the marketing funnel.
Final words
Conversion may not always result in sales, but at the end of the day, it influences your bottom line. Therefore, doing all you can to improve your conversion rates is an investment worth making.