It’s important to drive traffic to your website. But, if you’re not getting enough conversions, your business can get affected. You may have spent a good sum of money on a website domain and host, but those aren’t prerequisites for good sales. How do you convert visitors into customers? Read our article on 9 elements of a website to improve conversion rates to know more.
What Is A Conversion Rate?
Before we get down to the necessary steps to improve conversion rates, we need to understand its definition. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to a website that performs a desired action – these could be anything like purchasing something on the signing up for a newsletter or downloading an app.
Conversion rates are calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the overall number of visitors and multiplying the figure by 100. For instance, if an apparel website gets 300 users in a month and garnered 60 sales, the conversion rate would be 20%. By knowing this percentage, you can determine areas that are succeeding or need improvement.
The process of improving conversion rates differs from company to company. Here are some of the most common elements that you should know:
- Direct Navigation
- Test Home Page Headlines
- Mobile Optimization
- Lessen Friction
- Show Brand Credibility
- Use Live Chats
- Use Videos On Your Landing Pages
- Include Powerful CTAs (Call-To-Action)
- Reduce Distracting Elements
1. Easy Navigation
You need to consider a clear and intuitive design when it comes to website navigation. If the navigation is too complex, visitors can’t find what they’re looking for. This often results in your potential customers heading elsewhere, resulting in a loss. That’s something you don’t want happening! A clean, easy, and intuitive navigation system will ensure a better user experience, which will yield a higher percentage of conversions.
While designing your user interface (UI), it’s important to keep in mind that it’s straightforward. Your customers should navigate with ease and find information about your product without strain. This can be done by segmenting your content into categories that are easy to understand and including only important links.
One notable example would be Oscar, an American health insurance company. Its website has a menu that’s easy to navigate, despite offering a wide range of services. When you click on any category, the website divides its sections. For instance, when you click on “Shop Plans”, you’re taken to four subsections that showcase the type of insurances covered. Click on the available plan and you’ll be directed to more subcategories, including FAQs. This allows the user to glance through services conveniently and even get common questions answered.
2. Test Home Page Headlines
They say that the “first impression is the last impression” and this can be carried out in the way you write your headlines. To make a sale, you must test your headlines using split testing, also known as A/B testing. This strategy provides a metric to determine which headline performs better.
A/B testing in writing headlines involves comparing two or more variations of a headline to determine which one is more effective in encouraging engagement. After showing different versions of the headline to a sample audience, you analyze their responses. Therefore, it allows you to determine which headline resonates with your target audience.
MOXĒ, an online store that specializes in oil products, garnered the sales they desired by giving their headline a retouch. The brand’s current headline “Your Personal Portable Aromatherapist: 15 seconds of bliss anywhere you go” made a 30% increase in conversions.
3. Mobile Optimization
Mobiles have become an important part of our daily activities. We shop, browse the latest brands, and consume content all through our small screens. Reports say that 56% of web traffic comes from mobile users, making it essential to optimize your website for mobile viewing.
On the other hand, Google has prioritized mobile-first indexing. Not being mobile optimized could lead to a drop in rankings that could lead to fewer conversions; you don’t want this happening.
To determine whether your site is mobile-friendly, you can use Google’s mobile testing tool. You’ll get suggestions on how to optimize your site’s performance on mobile. For example, the tool will recommend increasing your font size, compressing images, or enhancing page speed.
To make the mobile-viewing experience even more robust, you can follow these additional tips:
- Ensure that the buttons on the website are functional and easy to view. Users should not leave your site because they couldn’t tap on a category.
- Just as your website’s desktop experience, see that visitors can navigate through your web pages on mobile as well.
- Sometimes, mobile users prefer viewing a website through a desktop version. Have a setting that allows the user to make the switch easily between mobile and desktop viewing.
4. Lessen Friction
Friction occurs when something on your website is dysfunctional. It slows down customers from making purchases and figuring out the reason at the earliest is crucial. You can lessen friction by:
- Increasing Site Speed: According to a report by Kissmetrics, 47% of users demand sites to load in two seconds or less. Plus, 40% of consumers move to a different site if a web page takes more than 3 seconds to load. Sales and landing pages are impacted the most if they’ve slow loading times. As a result, it’s integral to analyze your speed website to avoid friction. Avoid inserting high-resolution images as they can impede site performance.
- Introduce Multiple Payment Methods: PayPal or Visa cards are not always a customer’s preferred payment mode. By introducing different payment methods, you’re providing customers with a sense of ease to complete the purchase. Also, including payment plans can influence a visitor’s purchase.
- Reduce Requirements: To increase conversion rates, make sure that you include fewer tasks to only those essential. Don’t force a potential prospect to sign up or subscribe to your newsletter to make a sale. You could make signing up optional and offer a guest checkout option to make the purchase. After the purchase is complete, you can ask the buyer to save their order details and create an account. Since all the information is saved, it’ll be easy for the user to fill out each field in the form.
5. Show Brand Credibility
Building trust among your prospects is another step that’s needed to increase conversion rates. Testimonials and reviews are a great way to leverage credibility and use it to your advantage.
Have reviews included on your product page so that potential customers know what others feel about your brand. If anyone faces issues related to the product, the user can leave a comment, enabling you to respond and solve their difficulty. This will establish legitimately and show potential customers that you care for your audience.
6. Use Live Chats
Another common element seen in high-converting websites is the live chat feature. Whether it’s chatbots or a designated employee to answer questions, live chats are necessary to provide answers and information quickly to your customers.
The user can address someone in the chat if they need any assistance with a product or any information, to which the chat will swiftly provide answers and guidance. By being there for your customers, you’re showing that your business is serious. This leaves a lasting impression, increasing credibility and resulting in higher conversion rates.
7. Use Videos On Your Landing Pages
Videos allow the user to experience your products with minimal effort. They’re also a great way to convey ideas in a more compelling way than images. It’s shown that having a video landing page can increase conversions by 80%. With such data, you’re sure that having a video landing page is necessary for better prospects.
But there is an art to producing a quality video for your landing page. Overdo it and you might just kill your chances of getting the sale. Here are some general rules that high-conversion sites follow in their videos:
- Keeping It Short: You have just 10 seconds to capture the attention of the viewer, and it’s better to have your video touching a minute for better retention value. But what about longer videos that cross the one-minute mark? Data by Wistia shows that viewers tend to leave at the 60-second mark. So if your content is longer, ensure that your videos are engaging and watching.
- Use A Strong Thumbnail: Just like the feature image on your homepage, your thumbnails need to hook the audience. The thumbnail should be enticing and relevant so that your prospect has a reason to click on it.
- Include Closed Captions: Including closed captions will make your landing page video easier to consume. It grants flexible viewing in noise-sensitive environments, better comprehension of text, and can boost SEO.
8. Include Powerful CTAs (Call-To-Action)
A CTA is a prompt that directs the visitor to take a specific action, such as filling out a form, signing up for a program, or clicking a button. Although written concisely, these small lines of text can increase the conversion percentage when done correctly.
Have powerful CTAs to make your website unique and include them on your landing page. These small buttons consisting of small text are necessary for your marketing strategy and are said to improve conversion rates by 80%. However, if you include multiple CTAs in your landing page, it’ll create confusion, in turn affecting conversion possibilities. You don’t want that happening, so it’s better to include one CTA on your landing page.
Also, you will want to consider the placement of the CTA. It should be above the fold, which is the upper half of the webpage. For instance, if you want to direct traffic to your product page, it wouldn’t be advisable to insert it at the footer of the landing page. By putting it above, you’re allowing the user to see your CTA clearly, in turn enhancing customer satisfaction.
Creating a sense of urgency in your CTAs can be another tactic to boost conversion rates. We’re sure that limited-time offers or special discounts piqued your interest to click on a CTA tab. This drives motivation and enables the prospect to not miss out on something special. Here are a couple of prompts that’ll help you to craft the right CTA:
- Protect Your Finances Now!
- Invest In Your Future Today
- Build Your Savings While Bringing Down Debt.
- Don’t Be A Victim To Market Volatility
9. Reduce Distracting Elements
Your website should enhance user experience and that’s why you should eliminate user-distracting elements. Your landing page should not include unneeded pop-ups, links, or navigation options that could turn your customer away. According to a survey by Google, users judge websites as visually appealing or not within 1/50th to 1/20th of a second. Similarly, visually complex sites are deemed less favorable than simpler websites, showing that the human mind is attracted to simple interfaces.
How can you remove distractions and boost conversion rates on your website? Here are some general guidelines that high-converting websites follow:
- The Rule Of One: The “Rule of One” states that every web page should include one CTA, purpose, and point of focus. Using these parameters will help you not only attract the audience’s attention but will also help you in focusing better.
- Have A Consistent Color Scheme: A consumer should recognize a brand without looking at the logo. You get to this level by being consistent. From a visual point of view, you can start by having a consistent color scheme. Look at the HubSpot website, for example. Make a note of how they employ orange and white throughout their site.
- Minimize Motion: Low-converting websites have lots of flashy images, motion graphics, and auto-play videos. These elements not only slow the website but also hampers the reading time of the user. If you feel the need to include motion graphics, keep the movement to a minimum. Disable auto-play on videos as they are a challenge to the visually impaired who use the Text to Speech feature.
Summing Up
The secret behind using the elements of a website to improve conversion rates is to avoid overdoing them. Getting the best conversion rates takes practice and experimentation. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so be patient with your website and keep working on it.
FAQs
What Are Some Key Elements Of A Website That Can Improve Conversion Rates?
Several key elements can improve conversion rates on a website, including easy-to-use navigation, prominent CTAs, and customer testimonials.
How Can Website Speed Impact Conversion Rates?
Website speed can have a significant impact on conversion rates, as slow-loading pages can cause visitors to become frustrated and leave the site. Fast-loading pages can help to improve the user experience and increase the likelihood of visitors taking action on your website.
What Do You Mean By A/B Testing?
A/B testing is a technique used to compare two versions of a webpage or element (such as a CTA button or headline) to see which performs better in terms of conversion rates. By systematically testing, you have a better idea of areas that require optimization.
