Whilst many businesses are concentrating on making their site appear as high in the searching listings as possible, some of them may be overlooking the main point. No matter how much time or money you plough into blogs, articles, press releases and keyword research, there is little point in driving thousands of customers to your site if none of them are converting from visitors into customers.
There is certainly a time and place for SEO, because without it your site may as well not exist, but alongside this you need to be looking for ways to increase the conversion rates on your site. Here are 4 top tips for making it happen for you.
Related Posts:
Understanding the Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimisation
1. Where are your links going?
Many businesses make the fatal mistake of linking their customers click through only to their home page. Most customers, unless they are particularly interested in your company, will not bother to navigate around your site finding the product they were originally interested in, so make their lives easy for them by pointing your links to the product, service or piece of information they are reading about.
2. Review your site content for quality, not just SEO
Yes, yes, content most definitely is king, but when it comes to selling products you also need to make sure you are giving the customer enough information to make a purchase decision on the spot. Are your delivery and returns policies clearly stated? Have you worked up a good FAQ section fort the site? Are your product descriptions informative enough to allow people to buy on the spot?
3. Focus on ‘above the fold’ for your key messages
Above the fold means the section of your pages which the customer can read without the need to scroll down. This is where 70% of their attention will be placed and should be the prime location for your calls to action and other key information you want the customer to take. Contact details should be available on every page in the top half of the page, and special offers or discounts should feature prominently here too. Avoid putting advertisements here as they are eating into your available marketing space.
4. Review your design
If you have been in business for a while, you might find your site is getting somewhat cluttered and difficult to navigate. Consider having a good old spring clean of information to keep things working smoothly and efficiently for your visitors. Turning a cluttered website into a sleek and efficient product is something akin to the difference between the jumbled shelves of a corner store and the clean, stylish lines of the designer boutique. An overhaul will instantly make you look more professional, more modern and if the information is easier for the customer to find, stands a very good chance of improving your conversion rates.
on
I think that I have made the mistake of linking back to my home page before. However, at the time, perhaps I did that for a search engine optimization purpose. I don’t know if it worked. This being, it really makes sense to be linking to products’ pages or information related to the page the visitor is reading, as you advised to do.
One of the other points you made that grabbed my attention was to provide “enough information to make a purchase decision on the spot”. I think that I knew that giving enough information was important but you gave me in a sense a measure as to how much information I should provide.
In fact, the expression “on the spot” says a lot in my opinion.
on
I agree with all your tips, and especially like the quality over SEO point – apart from the fact that SEO doesn’t impress a human reading your site, you need the right information to convert someone to a sale. That doesn’t mean telling them everything but things like delivery is crucial (one site I saw yesterday didn’t have delivery information or costs anywhere on the site and you had to register to see the checkout – I left rather than give my email to find out the postage was too high.)
on
I really liked reading the “above the fold” suggestion. That’s an old newspaper reference that I understand! A lot of paper media people are moving to internet media, and this is a good way to explain it.
I do hate when I’m browsing a site and can’t find anything that I’m looking for. Worse yet is when you follow a link, looking for specific information, and the link takes you to a general home page — not the information you needed. BloggerMB, that’s a good tip — to look at your own browsing habits and what you like and don’t like.
on
Out of the three suggestions you made, I think that placing your ads or links above the fold is the most important. It seems obvious, but it is incredible how many people don’t follow the rule and have ads or product links buried at the bottom of their pages, and then wonder why they aren’t getting many conversions.
A good way to get more conversions is to monitor your own use of links and your own browsing habits. Think about which ads YOU click on and what you look for on a page, as other people will likely have the same habits as you.
Anyway, great tips again, thanks for the information!
on
The section/information on the ‘above-the-fold’ messages is very enlightening. I think website designers and online marketers should apply this principle. Since the ‘above-the-fold’ areas of the website capture more attention than those in the middle areas, more concentration should be allocated on enhancing the content and readability of these areas.
on
All of the points made in the article are very important! Especially the design part! If you want to make money of your website, then have a good design. It’s simple.
on
I agree with all 4 major points of the article. I think that it is content that builds traffic to any website and that this is a key point in converting traffic into customers.
on
It’s also important to track offline conversions in relation to your optimized landing pages. There are commercial services to help you accomplish this, or your in house team may have a process in place to report on these conversions and attribute them back to their original source. There will almost always be a certain percentage of your traffic that may have originated online but ultimately wishes to complete the conversion over the phone.
on
Where are your links going? This is a very important question. I see so many people just linking to the home page, when the home page doesn’t have the information I’m looking for. (Having a cluttered home page with unclear navigation is horrible too!) When I click on a link for more information, I expect to get that specific information, not an overview of where I could possibly find that information if I want to keep clicking. Make it easy for your customers to get what they want, and they’ll get it from you.
on
I think, particularly if you are running a PPC campaign, that is essential to have well designed, targeted landing pages that are optimised to convert.
on
Conversion friendly landing pages are everything with PPC. Why spend all your money on clicks and just leave your landing page? It doesn’t make sense, but because it’s a chore, many people don’t develop proper landing pages.
on
While these 4 tips are presented here very easily , they are still very important in increasing the conversion of the website. It would be hard to think about them on your own , but here you can find them very well explained and practical. Thanks for the tips.
on
For a more in-depth look into how to increase conversions to your website, check out “Why Should I Use Landing Pages?”
on
Design is key these days, to the point that restyling is necessary every 3-6 months to tweak some aspects, given that CMS systems evolve with new versions that have more plugins.
on
I have noticed that word of mouth is very powerful! So I think that the testimonials are a very important aspect of gaining trust with potential customers. What about using the BBB comments in a companies website? Would this help with the trust issue for new customers?
on
BBB comments are definitely a good way to gain trust with customers!