13 Simple Steps to Increase Website Conversions in 2020

You Must Focus on Website Conversions!

With very few exceptions, the primary purpose of a business website is to attract, engage, and convert the intended target audience. Please pay attention to the last part of that prime directive; it is essential if you want to meet your online objectives. Especially the marketing folks that are ready to sell the moment a visitor hits their website. But most website visitors are not prepared to buy at that stage! Which is precisely where simple steps to increase website conversions come in.

Web designers are focused on design features such as the user interface, product layout, and page navigation. E-commerce marketers focus primarily on the shopping process, sales funnel, and checkout and payment options. Your social media team will want full integration with your social selling channels. All of them are valid and worthwhile considerations. But without website conversions, all of them will fail to deliver measurable and sustainable results.

What Exactly Are Website Conversions?

Website conversions are generally any action a visitor takes on your website. That action always depends on the site. I am sure you have seen many examples of calls to action (CTAs) on websites that you visit. Which ones are effective? And which ones make you want to go elsewhere?

The actual client conversion must be the primary goal of any commercial and most organizational websites. It is simply not enough to attract online visitors; maybe they arrived on your site and quickly left. And even if you engage your online visitors, what if they are just killing time? What you want your website visitors to do is to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, contacting your sales team, or buying your product. And there are many other types of website conversions.

How Can You Increase Website Conversions?

But getting more website conversions is a bit more involved than solely making your buttons bigger! In 2020 mobile consumers have become very sophisticated, and they expect a high level of user experience and satisfaction. It is not enough to simply attract them to your website or e-commerce store. Now you have to hold their hand and reassure them they made the right decision. Therefore, a website conversion optimization strategy becomes pretty much essential.

The easiest way to address the expectations of the business owner and marketer, as well as the target audience, is through mobile-first web design. Exploring options in mobile-first website design can lead us to discover how we can boost website conversions for end-users. What are some of the things we can do to better engage potential consumers, address their concerns, and get them to convert? Let’s take a look.

How to Increase Website Conversions in 2020

Have a Mobile-First Website

Not only is having a mobile-first website a Google requirement in 2020, mobile consumers expect it! Recent surveys confirmed that the majority of modern e-commerce shoppers use either smartphones or tablets to access shopping sites. Online consumers do everything from checking and comparing products and pricing to completing purchases on smart devices.

If your business website is not mobile-first, it will work against increasing your website conversions. The need for a mobile-first online presence is crucial for e-commerce stores. Modern consumers will simply believe that you do not care about their user experience and satisfaction. Think of it as a shopkeeper ignoring someone when they walk into his or her store. That means they will go somewhere they feel more appreciated.

ACTION STEP: Test your site for mobile readiness!

Increase Your Page Load Speed

Modern consumers are getting ever more impatient. Currently, their attention span is less than that of the average goldfish. Ouch! For most business owners, it means that potential consumers are not going to wait for a slow website to load. And you are not going to increase website conversions if visitors never even see it!

There are many performance optimization techniques and technology available. Yet many businesses fail to optimize their website performance fully. Options can range from moving your website to a faster web host, to reducing or compressing the size of your website images, to a complete website redesign. The first step is to check your website load speed through the link below.

Once you know obstacles or bottlenecks, you can work on removing them. You don’t have to worry about every last obstacle; some may be outside your capabilities. But focus on the most serious ones or have your web designer help you. Even a one-second improvement in page loads speed can make a big difference for your website conversions.

ACTION STEP: Test your page load speed!

Have an Identifiable Brand

If you are not getting enough website conversions, maybe you are not getting noticed enough. Most often, that includes brand confusion between your different social channels, professional networks, online presence, and physical appearance. First of all, that’s not a great way to build a cohesive brand identity. Secondly, it doesn’t instill a sense of trust and transparency.

Make sure you have a consistent brand identity. That includes not only your brand logo but also your entire online and social presence and your tone of voice. Make it easy for your online audience to identify with your business wherever that may be. That, in turn, will make them feel more comfortable to reach out to your business.

Use Videos Effectively

Video marketing should be an essential aspect of your online marketing strategy for 2020 and beyond. Advancements in video embedding and sharing technologies by YouTube and Vimeo have made adding video content easier. You may also want to consider video apps like TikTok for your content creation. Therefore, any multimedia integration is a current craze among business owners and web developers alike.

However, indiscriminately uploading or embedding video content is not going to help your website conversions. To be effective, you need video content with your actual customers applauding your products or services, and also highlighting your distinct features and functions. You don’t need a lot; a simple 15-30 second video of a happy customer in your store will do wonders for your website conversions.

Keep in mind that video content adds a lot of requests to your page, and that slows down your page load time. Therefore, I recommend you keep video content away from your home page and any landing page to keep them as fast as possible. Put your video content on separate pages and link to it for a better overall user experience.

Use Rich Animations Instead of Video

Of course, animated content goes a long way in attracting and engaging your target audience. If video is not a practical option, you should consider using rich animations instead. One example is the use of Cinemagraphs. Cinemagraphs are a smart way to captivate the attention of busy visitors and compel them to engage and take action. They work exceptionally well in paid social ads on Facebook, and Instagram increases CTR and website conversions.

Beyond great animations like Cinemagraphs, we also recommend using subtle but intelligently designed animations on CTA elements such as buttons, icons, and image backgrounds. One new trend to explore is animated SVGs. They not only attract attention but also compel the users to take an intended action.

Less is More in 2020

In mobile-first web design, less is more. Overly cluttered designs tend to intimidate online visitors, and they don’t work on mobile devices. Increasingly impatient consumers don’t have time to scroll and read through endless content. If they can’t find what they are looking for right away, they may think you are hiding something. And that’s not a great way to make a first impression or increase website conversions!

The best way to appear professional online is to get straight to the point. What product or service do you offer? What benefit do you provide? How do you improve the day or life of your customers? Make that abundantly clear on your website, and you will have taken a significant step to get more website conversions.

That at least is the concept of including minimalistic design strategies in mobile-first web design. Focus only on essential elements that benefit the user’s journey of conversion. Avoid cluttered design and allow for enough white space to avoid user experience distractions. Keep in mind; attractive web design does not need to be fancy but functional.

Remove Sliders & Carousels

Yes, sliders and carousels look fantastic on desktops and big screens, and they can help with some website conversions. And they can present a lot of info above the fold of your website. But their overall effectiveness is declining in 2020. Especially for mobile users, they prove non-functional and distracting at best and can affect page load speed at worst.

Mobile users prefer scrolling to swipe. Therefore, a mobile-first hero image with a single but compelling message with a head and sub-headline is much more useful for improving website conversions than scattered words on carousels.

Another annoying thing about sliders is that any CTA button becomes virtually non-usable. By the time most website visitors even have the opportunity to read your CTA messaging, the slide will move on to the next one. So much for being able to hit that CTA button!

Improve the Mobile User Experience

If you have not already done so, switch to a grid or card-based layout for your website. Grid-based design is an ideal choice for mobile consumer satisfaction. By using a grid, you simply place your texts, images, or videos into individual containers. On mobile devices, they arrange themselves according to screen size and orientation. A modular framework or grid improves mobile navigation and user experience considerably.

Add Contextual CTAs

As I mentioned earlier in this post, you can increase website conversions through subtle animations of your CTA elements. But that alone may not be enough. Try to switch up your messaging. Don’t merely ask visitors to subscribe, contact, or email you. Make sure they immediately understand the value of doing so. By making your actual value statement part of your CTA, you have a much better chance of improving your website conversions.

Update and Optimize Your Content

If you are not getting enough website conversions, maybe your website content is to blame. Images and videos alone are not adequate to convert the user, as much as many website owners think so! You need enough text content in the right combination and context to enable users to grasp the messaging behind your visual content. And search engines have pretty specific requirements in this regard as well.

Therefore, you must create text content that is both grabs the attention of your website visitors as well as leads them to take the desired action. From a search engine optimization point of view, adding your primary or focus keywords organically, as well as optimizing the copy with headings and sub-headings are essential. And actual styling of your content can be a necessary factor in website conversions.

Use Chatbots for Immediate Engagement

When visitors first explore your website, they may need help to get some guidance or answers to their questions or concerns. And of course, you already offer a variety of ways for potential consumers to contact you, such as phone and email. But what if a website visitor is ready to take action right now? Engaging visitors on your website in real-time can have a big impact on your website conversions.

Out of many available options, live chat is a handy and quick way to engage with your audience. Even better, with the integration of Artificial Intelligence, live chat agents now behave more and more like humans and automatically answer most questions without any human input. Chatbots dramatically reduce the burden on the business owner and improve user satisfaction at the same time.

Consider Value-Based Exit Offers

One strategy for increasing website conversions is to offer something of value to your visitors. That could be anything from a freebie, free shipping, or a discount on their choice of valuable items. The problem with many websites is that they offer this at the very beginning. Exit popup means the offer will “pop up” on the screen while the viewer is still consuming your info. Not very engaging, is it? Interstitial popups constitute a significant annoyance for website visitors for just that reason.

Targeting visitors as they are leaving a product or page, or after a period of inactivity on a page, is much more effective. This process is now possible online through scripts that trigger a popup placed on products and pages. Exit popups present visitors with an offer as they are leaving the page by clicking close or using the exit button in their browser.

Give Them a Reason to Buy More

This last strategy to increase website conversions is strictly for e-commerce store owners. The rest of you can take a quick espresso break or skip to the next section.

For e-commerce sites, the main objective is to increase sales, which is just another form of website conversion. Therefore, e-commerce marketers are always looking to improve their Average Order Value (AOV) by implementing various strategies and tactics. Those include offering related products, similar products others bought, discounts and coupons, and voucher-like marketing incentives for return shoppers. Incentives encourage additional purchases during a single shopping session and cart checkout process.

The Bottom Line of Website Conversions

Once again, the primary objective of your business website must be to get your visitors to take the desired action. You want online visitors to part with money in return for your product or service. And that means you need to convince them that your product or service is the best available option for them.

Many website owners and marketers we talk to at PixoLabo spend a significant portion of their web design or marketing budget on bringing visitors to their site. But unfortunately, very few consider what happens after that. If you want to increase website conversions, you must focus on the engagement and retention of your customers. In many cases, that means improving certain design elements of your website, updating your content and messaging, and focusing on your conversion funnel.

Of course, this is entirely up to you. If you feel you are doing fine with your current online presence, by all means, continue what you are doing. But keep in mind that the behavior and expectations of online consumers change and fluctuate over time. If your online presence is not keeping pace, the user experience of your potential consumers will decline. And your website conversions will hit rock bottom.

We Can Help You Increase Website Conversions

Here at PixoLabo, we offer a full range of mobile-first business website consulting and design services, including mobile-first web design and development, e-commerce solutions, search engine optimization, brand strategy, and design, and business website hosting and maintenance.

Feel free to reach out to us and learn more about our mobile-first business web design services. Our team can determine what type of website and content you need and help you increase website conversions. We are here to help!

Are You Converting Your Website Visitors?

Are your website visitors taking the desired action on your website or online store? Or are you looking to increase website conversions in 2020? Maybe you have a strategy that worked well for you? Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit as well. Grab our feed, so you don’t miss our next post! And help other business owners increase website conversions by sharing this post with them!

Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!

By Gregor Schmidt
Co-Founder
@gregorinsendai