23 Proven Strategies How to Increase Website Conversions

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PixoLabo

Are you looking at how to increase website conversions? Learn how to optimize your website and convert website visitors into leads and customers.

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 are ready to sell the moment a visitor hits their website. But most website visitors are not prepared to buy at that stage! So that is precisely where our proven strategies to increase website conversions come in.

Web designers are focused on design features such as the user interface, product layout, and page navigation. On the other hand, 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.

Why is Optimizing Your Website for Conversions Essential?

Often, companies become so wrapped up in optimizing their websites for search to drive as much traffic as possible to their site that they forget about this crucial next step: converting them into leads or sales.

If your website’s visitors are not taking the next step in their journey and becoming a customer or a lead, this traffic isn’t doing much to help your bottom line. Therefore conversion optimization becomes a crucial part of the website success equation.

One of the main goals for a website is to improve the business’s bottom line and generate leads and sales. Conversion optimization helps companies achieve these goals by making it easy for website visitors to become customers or prospects.

A conversion can range from an online purchase of a product to downloading a guide or filling out a contact form. What counts as a conversion on your website will depend on your goals and the nature of your business.

What Exactly Are Website Conversions?

Website conversions are generally any action a visitor takes on your website. Of course, that action always depends on the site. You have seen many examples of calls to action (CTAs) on websites. 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 or organizational website. 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?

You want your website visitors 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.

Optimizing for Search vs. Optimizing for Conversions

Website and business owners sometimes feel as though they’re at odds with Google. For instance, the search engine fails to rank their best content, or website owners experience a massive drop in traffic after an algorithmic update.

But your goals and Google’s are the same:

  • Serve up the best possible content for your audience
  • Create a positive website user experience
  • Prioritize content that offers significant value

You just go about it in different ways. For example, Google analyzes millions of websites while you are focusing on your specific audience’s behaviors.

Google uses more than 200 ranking signals to decide which pieces of content appear on the first page of the search engine results. In addition, the algorithm pays careful attention to signs that a particular web page will give searchers the information they seek.

When you focus on SEO, you choose primary and latent semantic keywords related to search intent. Then, you write content that people love to read and make sure you provide meta information to help Google better understand the copy.

If you optimize your website for conversions, you focus on guiding visitors toward a specific goal, joining your email list, or buying one of your products. Like Google, you want to give your audience exactly what those consumers want.

Knowing how to optimize your website for SEO and conversions simultaneously furthers both goals and creates a better relationship between your site and the search engines.

Making Your Website Work for You

Anyone can build a website — even a beautiful website — but far fewer can create a website that reliably produces conversions. After all, the average conversion rate across all industries is less than 2.5 percent.

You want your audience to convert at much higher rates. So you have to study your audience closely and give them what they need and expect.

You can expect a jump in conversion rates if you’ve researched and applied the data to your site. The people who visit your site find what they need quickly and appreciate your brand for providing it—brand loyalty results.

SEO always comes first, though. Without traffic, you can’t have conversions. So create a site with valuable, sticky content and plenty of opportunities for visitors to convert.

How Can You Increase Website Conversions?

But getting more website conversions is more involved than solely making your buttons bigger! In 2022 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 business owner and marketer’s expectations and 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 things we can do to engage potential consumers better, address their concerns, and get them to convert? Let’s take a look.

How to Increase Website Conversions in 2022

Understand Your User Experience

When people visit your website, you don’t want them to find what they want (or worse, not find what they want) and leave. Instead, you want to keep your audience engaged on your site long enough that they become convinced to take the next step, whatever that may be. This process starts with understanding how users are engaging with your site.

Implementing heatmaps can show how visitors navigate your site, whether they scroll down the page or click on your call to action (CTA). For example, if you have a “Request a Demo” button at the bottom of your page and users aren’t scrolling down that far, then moving it toward the top of your page can be an easy way to increase your conversion rate.

Grow Your Organic Traffic

According to Instapage, the average Google Ads cost per click across all industries is $2.41 for search and $0.59 for display. According to Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman, the 10-50 thousand dollars that small businesses spend on marketing is about 1% of their income.

So, if a business earns 500 thousand dollars a year, then advertising will take 5 thousand dollars; if sales are 2 million dollars a year – 20 thousand dollars. But, of course, in some industries, small enterprises spend significantly more than 1% (retail), and in others, much less (production).

As you can see, the costs can quickly add up, especially for small businesses still dealing with the economic fallout of the corona pandemic.

Attracting organic traffic through SEO, however, is free. Of course, you have to pay to develop and promote the content, but that’s not nearly as expensive as pay-per-click.

When you compare the close rate between searchers who arrive at your site via organic search and those that come via paid ads, the results are illustrative. According to Safari Digital, 70% of clicks in Google search results go to organic, with 30% going to AdWords.

Organic search closes at nearly 15 percent, while paid search closes at less than 2 percent.

Invest your time and, if necessary, money into growing your organic traffic. It might take longer, but the results last longer and result in more conversions.

Capitalize on Existing Traffic

When people visit your website, you don’t want them to look around and leave. Instead, you want to make a lasting impression and encourage them to return.

Learning how to optimize your website for conversions requires understanding the user experience. Figure out how visitors navigate your site, whether they scroll down the page, and how often they click on your calls to action (CTAs).

If someone signs up for your email list, you can contact them at a later date with offers, incentives, and more. You can also encourage visitors to follow you on social, visit your product pages, and read your blog posts.

Capitalizing on existing traffic helps improve your conversion rate because a higher percent of your organic traffic will convert. You know what offers your audience will respond to and how to present your offers appealingly.

ACTION STEP: Review your Google Analytics!

Align Your Website with the Customer Journey

Nothing is worse than having great content but putting it somewhere on your website where your audience simply can’t find it. This mistake will prevent you from engaging your customers and seeing results, but it will also frustrate users as they try to find the resources they need to make an informed purchasing decision.

When designing your website, consider the multitude of customer journeys for your target audience and plan accordingly. Consider what matters most to your target customers before embarking on their journey, and put those items front and center on your navigation bar.

Think about the subsequent actions your leads are likely to take and arrange your pages accordingly, making sure links to any information they need as they progress through the customer journey are only a click away.

Create Targeted Landing Pages

Targeted landing pages are essential in online advertising and SEO and driving conversions on your website. Consider the product or service pages on your website. Do you have one page that details all 10 of your services? Or, do you have ten individual service pages that focus specifically on that service alone?

With the latter, you can optimize for that specific keyword and increase your chances of converting someone who is specifically looking for that service. In addition, by saving them the time to dig through all nine other services you offer, targeted landing pages will help visitors find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Make Your Offer Irresistible

The offer should surpass the value of an action you expect from your customers. If this doesn’t happen, converting them would be more difficult for you.

The most compelling way to enhance your offer’s value is to show the actual benefits of accepting it. You may convert your leads into sales more quickly by answering the simple question, “What I can get through this offer?”.

Offer a Guaranteed Price

Often people are somewhat reluctant to buy online. They don’t want to be robbed by too-good-to-be-true offers, ultimately costing them more. So it is your job to make them believe that you are offering a competitive price. You can achieve this goal by comparing your price with your competitors.

“FREE,” the Magical Word

Using the word “free” can increase your conversion rates up to 28%. This magical world has done miracles for a wide range of websites. So if you haven’t tried this, just go for it and see the difference.

Analyze your Value Proposition

Draw an accurate comparison between your product and that of your competitors. Try to figure out what makes the difference and lets you stand out among the rest. Use this data for drawing maximum benefits out of your conversion-related efforts.

Have a Mobile-First Website

Not only is having a mobile-first website a Google requirement since 2015, mobile consumers expect it! Recent surveys confirmed that most modern e-commerce shoppers use smartphones or tablets to access shopping sites. Online consumers do everything from checking and comparing products and pricing to completing purchases on mobile 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 their 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! Potential consumers will not 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, reducing or compressing your website images’ size, 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 block; 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 load 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, you may not get noticed enough. 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 your brand logo, 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 reaching out to your business.

Use Videos Effectively

Video marketing should be an essential aspect of your online marketing strategy for 2022 and beyond. Advancements in video embedding and sharing technologies by YouTube and Vimeo have made adding video content easier.

You should also consider video apps like TikTok for your content creation. Therefore, any multimedia integration is a craze among business owners and web developers alike.

However, indiscriminately uploading or embedding video content will not help your website conversions. Instead, you need video content with your actual customers applauding your products or services and highlighting your distinct features and functions to be effective.

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, slowing down your page load time. Therefore, I recommend keeping video content away from your home page and any landing page to keep them as fast as possible. Instead, put your video content on separate pages and link to it for a better 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 great 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 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 attract attention and compel the users to take an intended action.

Less is More in 2022

In mobile-first web design, less is more. Overly cluttered designs intimidate online visitors, and they don’t work on mobile devices. Moreover, 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 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 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 2022. 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 more helpful in 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. You place your texts, images, or videos into individual containers using a grid.

On mobile devices, they arrange themselves according to screen size and orientation. Therefore, a modular framework or grid improves mobile navigation and user experience considerably.

Reduce Unnecessary Form Fields

By eliminating unwanted form fields, you can help visitors to understand your business in a better way. In addition, this will cut down on the effort visitors have to exert to use your website. So, reducing extra fields lets your visitors interact with your site hassle-free.

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.

Analyze Your CTA Button Text

The words like sign-up or submit have lost their effectiveness due to overuse. So instead, you may use any text which suggests to the visitors how beneficial it is for them to click the button.

Try Putting the CTA Button Above the Fold

The landing page tests conducted by Unbounce A/B revealed that moving the CTA button above the fold might increase conversions. This hypothesis turns out to be true in almost all circumstances. By placing the call-to-action button in a more visible position, you enhance the chances of increasing conversions up to 41%.

Choose Vibrant Color for Call-to-Action (CTA) Button

Specific case studies suggest that a red call-to-action button offered better conversion rates than a green button.

However, you must choose a color that goes with the theme of your website. The best tip in this context is that you may select a color for a CTA button not used on any part of your website. Doing so is to get a perfect contrast of colors that help attract visitors’ immediate attention.

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, no matter how 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 grabs your website visitors’ attention and leads them to take the desired action. From a search engine optimization point of view, adding your primary or focus keywords organically and optimizing the copy with headings and sub-headings are essential. And the styling of your content can be a necessary factor in website conversions.

Use Original Testimonials

Using a fake testimonial is a widely followed trend, and it results in losing the trust of a visitor or prospective buyer. So it is not recommended that you use these testimonials, as they can hurt your site’s credibility. Instead of using fake testimonials,  you should use the name and photo of the person leaving the review.

Provide an FAQ Page

People like to know what they are getting before committing to a purchase or filling out a form. The fewer unknowns about you and your business, the more likely―and comfortably―a visitor can take the next step. It’s essential to build trust and expertise early by providing them with the relevant information they need and answering their questions firsthand.

When creating your CTAs, make it clear what the user is getting. For example, if your CTA is to download a guide, explain the guide’s purpose. Creating an FAQ page on your site can help address any qualms an undecided customer might have about making a purchase or taking the next step in your sales process. If customers don’t understand your product, how to use it, or the benefits, they likely won’t feel comfortable investing.

Add Required Images

Images have a purpose, as they are considered an integral part of your website. Attractive and relevant photos can convert maximum leads into sales. As stated earlier, images have a specific purpose, and you should use a suitable image to attain the same.

On the contrary, if you are only using them to enhance the looks of your landing page, it is not possible to get the desired results. Images help to believe and understand your offer.

TIP: Never Use Stock Images

The cheesy stock photos are not recommended for this purpose, as they lack quality and compromise the credibility of your website. In addition, they have a cheap appearance and minimize the site’s overall look. So keep this in mind while optimizing your website for better conversions.

Numerous case studies conducted through market experiments exhibited enhanced conversions for a particular website. The most noticeable cases were when a picture of the website’s founder replaced the stock photo. Doing so resulted in an increase of 35% in sign-ups.

It is well-known that visitors prefer dealing with humans rather than websites. Therefore, make sure to use images of the people associated with the business rather than the stock photos. This strategy will increase the interaction with your client and ultimately maximize the conversion rates.

Prominently Display Your Phone Number

Place your phone number within the header of the site’s homepage. By doing so, it will be noticed by the visitors just after they land on the page. This small change can enhance the credibility of your site. In addition, visitors can quickly contact support if they come across an issue while purchasing your product.

Use Prominent Headlines

The headline is considered the most prominent section of a web page, and making it attractive may increase conversion rates.

Create a Sense of Urgency

For creating a feel for urgency, using a limited-time incentive would be a positive move. Persuade your visitors to act promptly and give them a solid reason. For example, you can offer them an incentive in the shape of delivering the order within 24 hours.

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 by 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 significantly impact your website conversions.

Live chat is a handy and quick way to engage with your audience out of many available options. 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. As a result, 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 initially.

Exit popup means the offer will “pop up” on the screen while the viewer is still consuming your info. Not very engaging, is it? Unfortunately, interstitial popups constitute a significant annoyance for website visitors for just that reason.

Targeting visitors as they leave 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 leave 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 always look to improve their Average Order Value (AOV) by implementing various strategies and tactics.

These include offering related products, similar products others bought, discounts and coupons, and voucher-like marketing incentives for return shoppers. In addition, incentives encourage additional purchases during a single shopping session and cart checkout process.

The Bottom Line for Optimizing Your Website for Conversion

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 spend 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 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.

Keep your landing page simple, straightforward, and interactive. Try to use minimum call-to-action buttons on your landing page. Generally, having one CTA per page is recommended. According to various tests conducted by conversion experts, simultaneously offering more than one choice may confuse visitors. This confusion would eventually minimize the conversion rates to a drastically low level.

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.

How to Optimize Your Website for Conversions

All the methods mentioned above increase conversions and sales. However, their efficiency and proposed output are dependent on the clarity, reduced anxiety, relevance, increased urgency, and minimum distractions associated with the landing page on your site. You can achieve higher conversion rates for your website by considering all these factors.

Need some help? Contact us today to see how we can help you optimize your website for conversion and go beyond simply driving traffic and generating leads and sales to improve your bottom line. We are here to help!

Are You Looking to Optimize Your Website for Conversion?

Do you want to create a functional, thoughtful, and user-friendly website for your business or product brand? Our team of professional designers will be happy to help you with this. But, first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.

Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your web design needs, let’s talk! We offer a full range of consulting and design services for businesses and product brands, including custom web design and developmente-commerce solutionswebsite redesignmultilingual web designsearch engine optimization, and WordPress optimization.

And if you are still not sure how to optimize your website for conversion, let’s talk! Our team will listen to you, answer your questions, and determine the best way to attract, engage, and convert your target audience. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Are You Converting Your Website Visitors?

Are your website visitors taking the desired action on your website or online store? Did you optimize your website for conversion? If so, how has this helped you meet your marketing and sales objectives? Maybe you have a strategy that worked well for you? If not, what is the biggest obstacle you face in optimizing your website? Or are you looking to increase website conversions in 2022?

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 Saita

Co-Founder / CXO

@gregorsaita