How To Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate?

What is conversion rate?

Your conversion rate is the percentage of your visitors who take action on your website. The desired action can take many forms and often varies from site to site. For some websites, a conversion could mean anything from subscribing to a newsletter to downloading some software, or even purchasing a product. Pretty much any activity beyond just browsing the page would be considered a conversion.

However, not only tracking these conversions but the path people take to reach that action, can play a valuable role in understanding which elements of your website or marketing strategy could do with improving. Let’s say you’re not happy with where your conversion rate is. Ignoring it and not evaluating what could be done to improve it, is likely going to lead to your conversion rate stagnating which could result in a loss in profits.

Understanding your customer

So now we understand what conversion rate actually means, it’s time to work out how you can go about improving it, right? Well, before we get started with the technical stuff, it’s important to take a step back and work out if you’re targeting the right people. This can drastically improve your conversion rate without technically changing anything about your website. You could have the best call to action the world has ever seen but someone that has no interest in your offer just isn’t going to convert.

The key to encouraging people to convert starts from the ability to understand your customer, and how you or your products speak to their specific needs. If the perceived value is greater than the effort required to get that value, they will more than likely convert. If the motivation is stronger than the friction, they move forward, reaching the goal.

There are two overarching methods that can lead to an increase in conversion rate, increase their motivation and make it easier for them to take action.

The key however still lies in understanding your customer, or visitor to your website. By understanding what they’re thinking, you can assure them that you are the best solution, increase their confidence and reduce their uncertainty, encouraging them to take action and convert.

Calls to action

Calls to action are an essential component to every great web page. They typically appear on most pages, and you’ve more than likely interacted with them at some point before. They will always be a key part of the buying journey. Maximising clicks on your calls to action should therefore be a top priority if you want your site to perform well.

The best calls to action are often the most simple, but make sure to keep them personal. The copy that you use in your call-to-action is often overlooked but it is just as important as the design of the element itself. Using first-person language tends to be a powerful tool – it becomes an internal dialogue in the visitors mind. Instead of talking to them or at them, keep it conversational, this will help reinforce to your visitor the value available to them after completing the desired action.

A call to action doesn’t have to be over complicated but make sure that they are specific, the customer should be able to understand what you want them to do at a glance. Using active language instead of passive language will help customers feel more engaged, leading to more conversions and sales.

Having a simple, personal suggestion to get in touch, will much more likely to lead to an increase in conversion rate.

Adding evidence

There are two kinds of evidence that can be used to support your marketing claims, Quantitative and Qualitative. To improve your conversion rate, use a combination of the two.

Some visitors will prefer quantitative data to base their decision on, as it appeals to the mind with reason. Examples could include; percentage changes, return on investment or time/money saved. Whereas others may prefer social proof; other customers stories or first-hand accounts. Appealing to emotive aspects could be the difference in achieving that conversion.

Looking at some of the most successful marketing pages, you’ll find they provide hard data that demonstrates their results but also evidence from customers, often accompanied by faces, names or company profiles.

Amazon.com does this really well. A brief look at just about any product page, you are greeted by both forms of data. They make use of a 5 star rating system that at a glance, provides potential customers with an understanding of the quality and value the product provides. The 5 star system is accompanied by Amazon’s customer reviews, providing prospects with real life testimonials from real people. This further reinforces the element of trust, making visitors feel more comfortable about buying a product, often leading to another conversion.

Conversion tracking

How do you know what your conversion rate is without tracking it in the first place? There are many reasons why you should be tracking your conversions, but first and foremost you want to understand what’s working and what isn’t, right? Conversion tracking will help you optimize your Google Ads performance, improve your return on investment and essentially, help you save money!

Google Ads is an ideal medium for conversion tracking. By measuring your conversions, you can build up an understanding of which landing pages, campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads are performing best and make changes accordingly.

Tracking conversions can also help you reduce your ad spend. Generating clicks to your website is great, but they’re not valuable if they’re not converting. Conversion tracking allows you to gain higher quality clicks that are more likely to convert, helping to improve your return on investment.

I hope this article was helpful in outlining a few steps you can take to go about improving your website’s conversion rate. If you feel that your website is underperforming or if you’re not too sure how to go about setting up conversion tracking for yourself, get in contact with us today, and one of our experienced website experts will be happy to help.