15 Ways to Increase Your Website Conversions

Kirjoitettu - Viimeisin muokkaus

Getting people onto your website is one thing, getting them to act is another. Knowing how many people take action on your website relates to your website conversions. This could mean anything from purchasing products from your site, filling out a form, completing a survey, signing up for your newsletter, downloading a file or registering for an event.

Optimally, this is exactly what you want. But how can you make this easy for your visitors, and more favourably, how can you encourage them to participate?

The best advice you can get is keep it simple. But how simple is simple?

Let’s break it down even further into 15 easy steps.

 

1. Get to the point

Whether your conversion is a sale or a quest for information, keep the question asking process quick and the sale making process easy to follow. There’s no need to have extra questions in the way of getting the answers you want. Nor do you need to be asking the client questions if they are buying something off you. To put it into context, you don’t need to ask a client for their email address if they are buying a product. If they want an account in your service they can find a way to request it.

 

2. Provide clear information

This means gives the client all the information they need. What is the survey for? What is the document they are about to download about? When is the estimated arrival time of their purchased product or service? Think like a salesman, what do I need to tell the client so they know exactly what they’re getting. Then think like the client, what would they want to know right now about their purchase? FAQs is a good page to have on your site, to quickly answer these types of questions.

 

3. Establish trust between yourself and the client.

This is the positive consequence of clear information. To get trust you have to give it. Give the client the truth and sincerity and they’re going to trust you. How exactly can you do this? Make your phone number, address and any other contact details clear. If you’re expecting these details from them, then you should be giving away yours. This is also a genuine way to gain greater customer return rates and therefore increase website conversions.

 

4. Simple website layout

There are countless designs and layouts available for your website but there’s no need to overcomplicate or overcrowd your site with useless decoration. Opening your website a user needs to know exactly where they want to go (your where you want them to go) and exactly what your site is about. The navigate or header menu should be easily located and easy to use.

 

5. Compatibility with multiple devices.

This issue always tends to arise, but in the design process it can be forgotten. People are going to be viewing your site from a range of devices. You want to guide them in the right direction whether they are using a small mobile phone screen or a large laptop. Either way they should be easily able to access all your information to make a download or process a payment.

 

6. What is your Unique Selling Point?

This is the money maker. This reels in your sales. So boast it. What is the one technique, unique to your company that is going to encourage the user to buy your product, take your survey or download more information over the other sites offering very similar things. You will know what it is, but the client will not unless you tell them.

 

7. Available Customer Service

First of all your social media links should be clearly displayed on your website. Additionally any contacts should be easy to find. Buying a product or signing up to something makes the whole process more real as opposed to passive, so the customer may want to have real contact. Be available to answer phone calls, quickly respond to emails and perhaps even have a live chat accessible and active on your website to allow more immediate conversation.

 

8. Keep it real.

As well as person to person contact, create personalised and real content on your website. This includes aspects such as genuine testimonials. Testimonials show both that other people are using and buying this product and shows real reactions. Another way to keep it real would be to have a video demonstrating the product or what needs to be done. This adds another element of the human touch, as people can connect with the individuals present in the video.

 

9. A clear return policy

This one is specific to product buying. You can’t guarantee that everyone is going to like the product you’re selling or that the provide will arrive in the same condition it left your hands. It’s always a risk buying things online, so people need to see the guarantee that they can re-claim their product if something happens to go wrong or it isn’t to their liking. Hopefully you never need to use it, but good options for return policies include: phone to phone conversations, free return shipping and clear directions on how to return the product.

 

10. High quality.

Everything on your page should be of good quality. High quality relates to a high sense of professionalism. Quality is measured in the language you use (obvious double-check for typos or smelling errors), the definition of the pictures used on your site, the clear characteristics evident in the onsite video and the superior organisation of everything on your site.

 

11. Update your data

Old testimonials or outdated information is not going to sit well with any customer. If the site looks old, they’re not going to stay. If there actually isn’t anything you have needed to update for a while, a trick to keep looking updated, is to include the stock numbers still left in the products you’re selling. You can also include an ongoing subscriber or social media count of the amount  of people interacting with your content and website.

 

12. No technical glitches.

This primarily refers to your load time. How long does it take to load the page? Does the picture load just as quickly and the client zoom into the details of the product? Does your survey have more than one page that loads slowly? Wifi access does play a role in this, but from the business end, ensure that all technical glitches are addressed to help your page run as fast as possible.

 

13. Utilise urgency

This is more of a selling technique. By you stating that there are few products left in stock or little days left until the product is no longer sold, the client is left to make a quicker decision. There’s no time for an ‘oh i’ll think about it for a few more days and browse around other sites’. To promote this urgency you can have a countdown timer visible on your site.

 

14. Provide multiple payment methods.

There are many ways to pay for something online, and as a professional business, you need to be able to accept these varying payments. This usually includes credit, debit, paypal methods. If a customer can not make a payment on the one method you have available, you have lost a client. A good way to validate this payment display their logos. Also, if you have an expensive product or service, offer monthly payments or a form of split payment to take off the financial strain on your client.  

 

15. Keep your customers happy.

After all you’ve done, a user should be happy on your website. Happy customers and users mean good feedback. However, you can’t please everyone and an unhappy users will mean bad feedback. In this case, watch out for their comments and even send them a personal message on how you could better their experience.

 

Ilmoitettu 21 helmikuuta, 2017

Jacinta Spies

Journalism and International Studies Student UTS

I was born in Sydney, Australia in a suburb out west, bursting with multiculturalism. I grew up with a love for travelling and learning new things. As part of my degree in International Studies, I spent one year abroad studying in Concepcion, Chile. I loved the experience so much I extended my stay in South America and found a PR internship in Medellin, Colombia, where I currently live. Convenie...

Seuraava artikkeli

13 Ways Freelancers Should Build Their Personal Brand