A company’s website should be a tool for driving conversions. Unfortunately, many businesses focus too much on website traffic and overlook conversion rates. While attracting visitors is important, visitor engagement matters more, which is why conversion rate optimization should be a priority for any business operating online today.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?
Put simply, CRO is the process of increasing the number of website visitors that take a desired action, whether it is filling out a form, making a purchase, or something else. Once you understand how users behave on your site, you can make the necessary adjustments to encourage visitors to perform certain actions. And this is the key to achieving more of your marketing goals.
It is not as complicated as it sounds. With a few simple modifications, you can ensure your website is more engaging to users and primed for conversions. Here are 10 CRO strategies you can use to improve conversion rates on your website:
1. Update Old Pages
First, it is important to clean up your website by removing or upgrading outdated content. Visitors are unlikely to be engaged by out-of-date information and it could seriously undermine your credibility. If you do not want to delete a page, at least make sure all the information is up to date and relevant to your business today.
2. Communicate Your Unique Value Proposition
On any landing page, you should emphasize your unique value proposition. It is often the first thing visitors read about your company, so it is important to get it right. Usually in the form of a headline or large statement at the top of any page, it should include:
• Who your target customer is.
• What you offer.
• How potential customers will benefit from your offer.
• What makes you different from your competitors.
3. Incorporate Multimedia Content
Including images or videos of your product or service is a quick way to make your site feel more trustworthy. Videos are especially effective, as most consumers today prefer this content format to learn new information. According to recent research, including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80 percent (1). Whether they are animated explainers, real-person interviews, or slideshow presentations, videos can clearly convey your unique value proposition and demonstrate the value of your products and services.
4. Shorten the Checkout Funnel
In terms of sales, the shorter the path to a paid transaction, the more likely it is that you can convert a visitor. This is why it is so important to make the checkout process uncomplicated. There are a few ways to make it as pain-free as possible:
• Don’t make visitors register for an account first.
• Don’t offer anything else at this point.
• Use short forms, only asking for the minimum amount of information.
• Make the payment process simple.
5. Include Social Proof
According to a PowerReviews study, 97 percent of consumers use product reviews before making a purchase decision (2). This is why you should include some kind of social proof on your site. You could link to review sites, although showing testimonials and reviews on specific pages of your site is ideal.
6. Survey Your Customers
There are plenty of online tools you can use for customer research. Whether it is on your website or via email, a survey is a great way to discover what potential customers really want. Ask people what kind of content they want from you, and what they want from your products and services. Instead of multiple-choice questions, let users tell you in their own words.
7. Write Stronger CTAs
Clear calls-to-action should be placed throughout your website and landing pages. To ensure more visitors take the desired action and click on CTA buttons and links:
• Include them at the top, middle, and bottom of pages.
• Make sure they stand out on the page by using contrasting colors.
• Make them benefit-oriented. For example, “Download My Free Guide” is more powerful than “Click Here to Download.”
• Apart from buttons, try using anchor text within content to encourage users to take a specific action.
8. Try A/B Testing
A/B testing tools are useful for testing CTA buttons and many other elements of your website. Use them to test out two versions of the same page to discover which version converts more visitors. The difference between the two versions could be the headline, the color of buttons, or the size and placement of visual elements on the page. See what works for your audience. You can run multiple tests to help improve your conversion rates. Here are some tools to try: Google Optimize, Optimizely, and Crazy Egg.
9. Optimize Page Speed
According to Kissmetrics, 40 percent of users abandon sites that take more than three seconds to load (3). For this reason, page speed is closely linked to conversion rates. To get started, try Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, which also offers tips on speeding up load times. Here are a few recommendations:
• Switch to a more reliable web hosting service.
• Compress image and video files.
• Enable browser caching.
• Use a content delivery network.
• Remove unnecessary plugins if you use WordPress.
• Compress JavaScript and CSS files.
10. Analyze User Behavior
By using powerful website analysis tools such as Google Analytics or Crazy Egg, you can check how users are interacting with your website. You will discover important information, such as:
• Where visitors enter your website.
• Where visitors came from.
• Which devices and browsers visitors use.
• How visitors spend their time on individual pages.
• The demographics of users.
• Where visitors leave your site.
You can even get screen recordings of visitors using your site, showing you what they click on, where they look, and more. All this information will help you see what is working on your site and in which areas you can improve.
If you want more of your website visitors to take the actions you want them to take, these CRO strategies are a good place to start. Using these techniques will not only help you increase website conversions; they will also improve the overall user experience for visitors. However, every business is unique, and audiences respond in different ways. Therefore, it is up to you to test different strategies in order to optimize the results for your unique business. Keep experimenting and in the long run you should see a dramatic improvement in your conversion rates.
If you have any questions, our team would be more than happy to help. Call us today at 215-393-9787.
