Those of you who have had a website launch in the past may be aware of this scenario. You spend weeks (sometimes months!) working with your website designer, copywriter and photographer. Ideas are exchanged, opinions raised, expectations are both raised and dashed. Rabbits are drawn from hats. Finally, the day has come and your website is ready to go live. LIVE!
You get to bed early the night before. After all, you’ll need a good night’s sleep to deal with the flood of enquiries tomorrow’s launch will bring. Right? Sadly, this isn’t the reality, at least for most websites. The expected (sometimes promised) flood of calls never comes.
This could be for a variety of reasons. First of all, can people find you online?
- No? Well, that’s a post for another time. We will look at some simple SEO tips to help you push your site to the next level.
- Yes? Congratulations, you have half the battle won.
Now let’s dig a little deeper with actionable steps you can take to get your website converting.
6 Great Ways to Increase Your Website Conversions
1. Compelling Content
Whilst it may seem cost-effective to write your own web content, you are really getting behind the eightball in doing so. Need a great website that converts to sales? You need to get your text written professionally. It isn’t all about words on a page either. It’s about placement, flow and most importantly, getting the reader to take the next step and get in touch. Writing for the web is an art form and having it done right will make all the difference to your website.
2. Social Proof
Got some great Facebook or Google reviews? Show it!! Whatever you claim on your website, backing it up with real proof from real customers will go along way to turn those readers into sales. Research conducted shows that advertisements with social proof performed significantly over than those without. Social proof + profile photo? Even better!
3. Call to Action
You’ve got great content and lovely photos. As a reader goes through your text, they feel confident in your product and company. Okay, where to now? They want to make contact, but how? You want people to be able to reach you in no more than 1 or 2 clicks. Putting a large ‘Call Today’ button at the top and bottom of your website is ideal. Make it stand out and either go to your Contact Us page or open up a Contact Form to be filled out.
4. Contact Forms
Another great one for conversions is contact forms. An attractive, well laid out and short (this isn’t a tax return) contact form is a vital tool to make your web sales tick over. Whilst having the phone running off the hook is a good thing, having your inbox fill up with web enquiries is better. Why? You can track it! This way, you are able to find out exactly how many enquiries are coming via your website. You can also feed this data directly into your CRM so nothing gets missed.
5. Easy Navigation
The key to keeping people on your website for longer is good navigation. We see many websites that just lack the basic navigation philosophies. Have a look at your website. Is it clear what you sell and what your company values are? Is it clear how they can contact you? We humans have become somewhat conditioned to how websites are laid out. Logo on the left, navigation on the right. Contact Us link in the top right corner. No need to reinvent the wheel here. It will just confuse your visitors and turn them away.
A/B Testing (or Split Testing) measures 2 versions of your website to see what converts best. Essentially, it is an experiment conducted on your website with 50% of viewers taken to one version, and 50% to the other. What works best, the green or the red Contact Us button? The short, punchy headline or the more formally structured one? Whichever converts best, that’s your winner!
Next Action
Have a chat to your web designer about how they can help you improve your website this area of your site. Many modern websites work with a ‘drag & drop’ type framework so entire website rebuilds arent always required.
Want more advice or are you looking for a website for your business? Check out our great new website design packages & drop us a line.