So, you've invested a lot of time, money and anxiety-induced sweat into your new website.
You were thrilled about the launch--the site looked great. But since that culminating moment conversion rates have slowly and steadily decreased. You're attracting visitors at a decent rate, though getting them to take action has proven tough.
What to do?
First, don't panic. You don't need to blow up your site and start from scratch. At least not yet.
There are tweaks that you can make to your website that can improve your conversion rates without breaking your budget or requiring your website team to work an entire month of weekends.
Here are 5 website conversion hacks that will help turn things around:
Make Sure Your Site is Responsive
It's very possible that your new website looks fantastic on desktop but is a jumbled mess on a mobile device. With more and more people researching and buying on their phones, it's absolutely essential that your website is responsive — meaning it is built in a way that looks fantastic across all platforms. If your site looks terrible on mobile, there's a very strong chance this is a major reason for your poor conversion numbers.
If you're having an issue with responsiveness, this could be a tough fix that will require technical skill to remedy. In some cases, you can repair the problem; in others, a more expensive and time consuming overhaul will be required.
Check Your Speed
A slow site will kill your conversion rates. Test your site across multiple browsers and platforms to ensure your content is loading quickly. In today's hustle and bustle world, no one will wait for your content to load; they'll be on to the next thing if what they're looking for fails to deliver instantaneously. If your site is slow to load, check the following items to improve your speed:
- Images (make sure they are optimized and compressed properly)
- Code (make sure your code is clean and optimized)
- Plug-Ins (make sure you have the right plug-ins and that they're updated)
- Hosting Company (if you've fixed what you can and the site is still slow it might be your hosting vendor; contact your hosting vendor to see what they can do to help)
Audit Your Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Each website page needs to provide the visitor with an opportunity to take action. If your website does not have CTAs, or deploys CTAs haphazardly, you've likely found your conversion rate issue. However, if you do have CTAs on every page, you need to do some testing. Check your CTAs for the following, and test them accordingly:
- Page Position
- Are CTAs placed in a highly visible location?
- Are they buried at the bottom of the page?
- Have you done your research on how an eye moves on a web page?
- Size and Color
- Does your CTA stand out on the page or is it camouflaged? Try CTA colors that stand in sharp contrast to the page so they stand out.
- Is your CTA large enough within the context of the page?
- CTA copy
- Does your CTA copy provide a compelling reason to click? Test different phrases and see what works.
Remember, test only one CTA aspect at a time so you can track results accurately. Testing multiple changes will obscure which alteration is having the most impact.
Evaluate Your Forms
Take a look at your website forms. Make sure they are streamlined and match the offer you are presenting. Long, complex forms are not what you want—even if people are interested in your offer, they'll leave very quickly if your form takes too long to complete, is overly complicated or has too many mandatory fields.
Keep it simple. Your forms should capture only essential information. For blog subscriptions, just ask for an email. For a free white paper by a respected thought leader in your industry, it's okay to ask for more information, as the offer has more value.
In no case should the form frustrate the visitor. Take a cold, hard look at how your forms are built. Simplify them and be sure your ask matches the potential reward or benefit to be delivered.
Third Party Validation
Does your website feature client testimonials or testimonial videos? You can improve your conversion rates by showcasing success stories through the words of others. If you say your services are great, that's one thing—a real person or business owner saying it is entirely another.
If you can get actual quotes with attributed names, or even better, videos from happy customers or clients, you'll be on your way to increasing your website conversion rates.
Well, there you have it—five website conversion hacks that will improve your website's lead generation and sales performance without having to blow up your new website and kill your marketing budget.
If you'd like some help getting more conversions or implementing some of the hacks mentioned above, give us a call. We can help.