Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors performing the desired action on a website. We all know, the obvious goal of a business website is to convert more visitors to leads and to customers. CRO is very important as it increases the value of existing website traffic without the need for additional marketing costs. Here in this post, I will tell you the 15 proven ways to increase the conversion rate from your website.
What is Conversion Rate?
When a visitor takes the desired action on your website, that is called a conversion. Desired actions can include purchasing a product, signing up for a service, signing up for your newsletter, filling an inquiry form, or clicking on a link (promotional advertisements, etc.) or maybe directly contacting yo from your website.
Every visitor won’t perform the desired action on your website, some (most of them) will leave your website without taking any of your desired action. Thus the conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that take the desired action on your website.
How To Calculate The Conversion Rate?
The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions (desired actions taken by the website visitors on your website) by the total number of website visitors and multiplying the result by 100 to get the percentage.
Let me explain you with an example here, if you made 50 sales from your website and you got 1000 website visitors last month, your conversion rate is 50 divided by 1000 (0.05), multiplied by 100 = 5%. So, 5% is your conversion rate from your website.
The average conversion rate varies from a website to website or from industry to industry and also depends on website visitors, nature of products or services, seasonal offers, etc. I suggest you to, measure and compare your conversion rate in your industry so that you can set a realistic goal when you go for conversion rate optimization.
How To Increase Conversion Rate?
Before we actually get into the ways to increase the conversion rate from your website, we need to understand the basic psychology of why visitors take action (and obviously why they do not take the desired action). If you can get this basic psychology, you can really improve the conversion rate by simply implementing the techniques given below.
Understand this, why visitors came to your website? They wanted something and they were expecting to get that from your website. But, then they do not take any action and leave your website, what could be the possible reasons?
One reason could be that your offerings could not match their requirement and the other (very strong reason) could be friction, there was something that was creating friction so that they couldn’t take the desired action. The logic is very simple; if the perceived value (that you offer) is greater than the effort required to get that value, they convert i.e. you get the conversion from your website.
If the motivation is stronger than the friction, they move forward, reaching the goal or vice-versa. So, there are two ways you can increase your conversion rate, either increase the motivation and/or decrease the friction.
Some Proven Ways To Increase Conversion Rate From Your Website
Now that you understand your website visitors and understand the basic psychology of conversion, now let’s get into the techniques for improving your conversion rate. Here are the 15 proven ways to increase the conversion rate from your website.
1. Make Sure Your Website is Responsive
More and more people these days are accessing the internet on mobile devices. Having a non-responsive website means, a chunk of website visitors (mobile users) cannot access your website properly and they might leave your website. In today’s time, you can not afford to have a non-responsive website for your business. Having a responsive website also improves your website ranking in search results (Google recommends responsive website) and helps you drive more traffic to your website.
2. Improve Your Website Usability
In order to increase the conversion rate from your website, make sure your website is properly useable to your website visitors. With usability, I am not just talking about the responsiveness but I am talking about the overall user interface. You should have clear navigation buttons and minimalistic design so that your visitors can easily navigate on your website and can easily access the web pages they are actually looking for. Don’t add those irritating pop-ups (especially for mobile users).
3. Improve Your Website Speed
The speed of the website also plays an important role in conversion rate optimization. If your website takes a hell lot of time to load the pages, visitors will leave your website without taking the desired action. So, if you want to increase your conversion rate from your website, make sure your website loads fast. Consider optimizing the images, CSS, and JS files used on your website and/or switching to faster web hosting.
4. Create a Dedicated Landing Page
Do not confuse your website visitors with too many offers on a single page, it will divert their attention and they may leave your website without taking the desired action. Here, I would suggest you, create dedicated landing pages for each of your products and service. Also, if you run different offers, create a separate landing page for them too, to avoid confusion. This small step will really improve your website conversion rate.
5. Optimize Your Landing Page
Pay more attention to landing pages and optimize them properly as they are the lead capture pages. Make sure the landing pages load in no time. I would suggest you, create a static landing page rather than using CMS, static pages loads faster than the pages created using CMS. Test your landing page on different screen sizes and make them responsive for all devices so that you don’t lose the conversion from any device.
6. Optimize The Lead Capturing Form
Optimize the lead capturing forms that are used to capture the leads on your website. Make sure you don’t ask for too many fields (information) from your website visitors. Only collect the information that is really needed (name, contact option, and their requirement) to serve your website visitors. Ensure that the lead capturing form works properly on all devices, it should be easier for mobile users to fill the details.
7. Add Clear Call To Action (CTA)
The call to action button plays a very important role in increasing the conversion rate on a website. Make sure you have a clear call to action button (use power words in the button text) so that the website visitors do not get confused. Also, if possible try to add only one CTA on every landing page, too many CTAs may confuse the website visitors and they may leave the website without taking the desired action.
8. Lots of (A/B) Testing
Well, every visitor is different and so are their requirements. You need to spend more time testing your landing pages, design, content, and CTA. You should do the A/B testing with different sets of landing pages, CTAs, and offers for individual products or services. Make sure you don’t leave anything that creates friction in the conversion and thus you need to do lots of testing to ensure everything is working as expected.
9. Avoid Distraction
For better conversion rates, avoid distractions on your landing pages. Avoid using unnecessary outgoing links that may take your website visitors to any other page. Simple rule, less distraction, more conversion. Do check the best landing page design in your industry that’s working great for them or prefer consulting a designer who has expertise in creating conversion-friendly landing pages.
10. Add Testimonials (Social Proof)
If you want to increase the conversion rate from your website, do add the client’s testimonials on sales and landing pages. If you still not collecting testimonials, it’s high time, you should start doing now. Prefer video testimonials, as it looks more real than those of textual testimonials. Also, for online sales or signups, add social proof on your website to improve website conversion rates.
11. Provide Multiple Contact Option
You need to provide multiple contact options on your website (preferably on every page) and make yourself easy to be contacted so that if your visitors have any queries about your offerings, you can resolve that immediately. Apart from the contact form, also add your phone numbers and instant messaging option (live chat option) on your website, they add credibility to your business website or offers.
12. Be Present on Social Channels
Be active on popular social media channels (in case if you still do not have social media pages for your business, set up them now). Visitors do check social media pages for reviews of your offerings before taking the desired action. Social media channels also help you to drive traffic to your website, be active on your social media pages.
13. Be Quick To Reply
As per an online study, leads are super hot for a couple of hours only. If you take lots of time replying to your user’s query, they may choose to go with a different company or they may lose interest in your offering. This is the most common reason for a decrease in conversion rate for many of the businesses. Try to reply to the visitor’s query as quickly as possible, you will see the improvement yourself.
14. Create Content To Drive More Traffic
This is nothing to do with the conversion rate but if the conversion is something you are looking for then you need to drive more traffic to your website. More traffic simply means more conversion. The best and cheapest way to drive traffic to the website is by creating compelling content. Also, you can choose to go with different digital marketing channels like SEO, PPC Advertisement to drive traffic to your website.
15. Create Sales Funnel (Do Regular Followup)
Well, sign up and capturing the leads are the first step, and not the final goal, you want to make sales. Leads sometimes take time to convert into sales. One big mistake every company does is that they do not create the proper sales funnel and don’t follow up on the leads on a regular basis. Well, you have already invested time and money to get those leads, its time to set up the proper sales funnel and follow up with those leads on a regular basis for better conversion of those leads and more business.
Conclusion
I hope the techniques given above will help you increase your website conversion rate and help you generate more leads for your business.
Does all this sound like a bit too much to implement on your website? I won’t lie: I know it’s not easy! If you don’t have enough people or time to invest in this, or if you simply don’t feel like doing it yourself, hire someone who can help you. As a leading web designing and digital marketing company in India, we can help you in conversion rate optimization so that you can generate more leads from your website and more business for your company, we are just a call away.
