6 Essential Website Conversion Tips

If you’ve been in business or marketing long enough you’ve probably heard the familiar phrase: “Your website is the gateway to your business.” Though the phrase may sound cliché and is often overused in business, it still holds a lot of truth.

If you want to capture new business in a world filled with LLC’s, corporations and individual entrepreneurs fighting tooth and nail for every customer’s attention you absolutely need to create a website that is optimized for conversion. If you decide to ignore simple website conversion tips you may be passed over by your competitors more often than you’d like. So without further ado, here are the 6 essential website conversion tips every business owner needs to know.

1-An Irresistible Slogan and Headline

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for just a second: When you land on a website for the first time, what’s the first detail you notice? If you’re like most other web users it’s probably the logo, the company slogan or the primary headline. Of these three significant website details, the headline and the slogan are the most important.

If the main responsibility of your website is to facilitate a connection between your customer and your brand, you need to explain the main benefit you can provide in one succinct line. The people who actually visit your site arrived there for a specific reason, so you need to convince them to stay on the site longer and eventually become a return visitor. A headline and slogan should tell your website visitors these three things:

1-Describe the most important benefit your products and services offer

2-Explain how your company is different from your competitors

3-Explain why your company is better than the competition

Make sure that you put plenty of time and effort into creating your slogan and headline, because once it’s published it will be difficult to separate yourself from it. Once customers associate you with a phrase it’s hard for them to see your company as anything else, no matter how much time and money you spend to revamp your brand. The point: Try to get it right the first time.

2-User-Friendly Layout and Navigation

There is absolutely nothing worse than landing on a website that looks more like a circus than the gateway to a business. If your customers experience trouble finding a menu, finding contact information or even understanding the purpose of your site, you need to think about a complete overhaul.

First and foremost, make sure your customers can easily access your main navigation menu. It’s best to strategically place your most important pages at the top of your website for easy access, and add subpages under each corresponding main page for optimal organization. To make the customer experience better, ensure that your site is never cluttered with excessive advertisements. Usually local businesses don’t put ads on their sites, but if you own a blog or an ecommerce site, make sure your brand and products are always the main focus.

You always want to make it easy for customers to get in touch with you, so make sure your contact forms are easily visible. Placing contact forms in the main sidebar or near the top of each page will ensure that customers can easily contact you if necessary.

3-Exceptional Onsite Content

Too many business owners overlook the importance of well-written sales copy and website content. Customers are much smarter than companies give them credit for, and if the content on your site is written poorly you’ll be rewarded with an extremely high bounce rate and a decrease in customer acquisition. To avoid that problem you need to publish website content that’s direct, active and speaks to your customer base. So how do you create that type of content?

If you’re not a natural writer you need to hire someone that knows the trade. The rise of content marketing over the last 3-5 years has given way to a new breed of exceptional content writers that know how to craft a message that will align with your brand and represent what your company is all about. Make sure you check, double check and triple check all content before it is published on your site even if you have a talented copywriter on your team.

In addition to style, flow and grammar, you also need to format your content to match the needs of your audience. Typically web users don’t appreciate thick blocks of text, but rather they prefer to see shorter paragraphs and more concise statements. Remember, the purpose of your copy is to generate leads so you or someone else can close the deal later. You don’t need to create an essay on each page of your website to accomplish that feat.

4-Clear Call-to-Action Statement and Opt-in Offer

Publishing your business contact information in the top right-hand corner of your site is not good enough for the customer of today. If you want to draw customers to your contact info, you need to supplement it with a strong call-to-action statement. Instead of using a generic statement like: “Call us Today for a Quote”, you might try something like: “Click Here to Download our Free Product Guide”. If your call-to-action looks similar to the millions of other sites on the web your customers will never be intrigued enough to click. Providing a unique offering will make you stand out.

The call-to-action statement is incredibly important, but so is increasing your number of email subscribers. Unlike seo and other trendy digital marketing tactics, a strong email list can serve as a constant source of revenue, even when Google decides to totally shake up the search engine results every few months.

To earn new subscribers you need to provide something of value to the potential customers that visit your site, like a free ebook, coupon code, or catalog, in exchange for their email address and contact information. Thought it may sound silly to give a product or gift away for free, it actually helps build a strong connection with that customer and makes them more likely to purchase something from you in the future. Once you have their contact info you can send them updates, promotional offers, and customer surveys, which will be invaluable to the future success of your business. To make it as easy as possible for customers to subscribe, use a simple contact form from Email Blaster, Formidable or Mail Chimp.

5-High-Quality Images

You know what they say: “a picture is worth a thousand words”. If that really is true (and it is when we’re talking website conversion tips), then you need to make sure the images you publish on your site are the appropriate size, resolution, and are attractive to the eye.

If you own an e-commerce site with hundreds of products, or even just a few, you should include multiple images of each product from different angles and vantage points to highlight key areas that shoppers might care about.

If you run a non-profit site that allows customers to adopt a puppy, you should include emotionally stirring images of puppies, children and unwavering happiness.

Your customers may not remember the text at the bottom of your homepage, but they will remember the images you publish. If you want to increase the odds of them becoming a long-term customer, make sure the photos are worth remembering.

6-Testimonials, Clients and Partnerships

What’s the surest way to improve your credibility with new website visitors? Listing current and past clients, partnerships and of course—testimonials.

Unless new website visitors have prior knowledge of what your company does and what you offer, your website is the only thing that can convince them of your positive reputation. Many companies nowadays feature pages at the top of their site that highlight key partnerships, clients, and show testimonials. Personally, we think it’s more effective to include those details on the homepage of your website for everyone to see. Instead of requiring a visitor to click on a main navigation page, they can see your testimonials, clients and partnerships without further navigation. If you’re a local food vendor and you have a partnership with Costco for example, wouldn’t you want anyone and everyone to know about that partnership? Your customers want to know too. You need to take any opportunity to build rapport with your potential and existing customers.

Conclusion

No one ever said capturing conversions was easy, but if you want to significantly improve the likelihood of turning one-time visitors into long-term customers you need to follow the six website conversion tips mentioned in this post, including: Feature an irresistible headline and slogan, implement a user-friendly navigation and layout, create exceptional onsite content, create a clear call-to-action statement and opt-in offer, publish high-quality images and include any positive testimonials, client and partner relationships on your site. If you can do all that you’ll be on your way to increasing average visitor time, decreasing your bounce rate and improving your conversions.