Conversion Rate Optimization is the act or goal of converting interested customers into solid leads. In a nutshell, it means persuading clients coming to your website that they should pick up the phone and call your business or make that online purchase.
When you create a new website, building in conversion rate optimization strategies is a very smart move. It helps your website act as a conversion funnel. This means that your website will help take interested/potential customers and turn them into viable leads. And this gives your business the chance to acquire more clients who actually need your services.
Why Optimize?
How can optimizing your website for a higher conversion rate benefit your business? First, it helps you attract more business. Let’s say John comes to your website and likes what he sees. However, the website design doesn’t include any calls to action — meaning that John doesn’t know what to do next to contact you about your services. So instead of contacting your business, John hits the "back" button and leaves.
Optimizing your website will ensure that it includes all-important key points like calls to action, credibility, concise copywriting, and standout design. Your customers will land on your website and immediately understand who you are, what you do and why they should choose you over your competition. And what business owner wouldn’t want that?
How Conversion Rate Optimization Affects Customers
What happens when a customer lands on a website that has been optimized for conversion? Ideally, that customer follows a simple, intuitive “funnel”’ that leads them to complete a key action.
Setting up a conversion funnel that works for your customers requires some well-thought-out strategies. A few key points to consider are:
• Who is your target audience?
• What are they looking for?
• How can you incentivize them to complete an action?
• Are there industry certifications or logos they are familiar with?
• Are there specific keywords they are searching for?
Take time to consider what type of a role you want your website to play in your business. Consider how you want it to interact with your target market, and take a moment to consider the viewpoint of your customers.
When a potential client lands on a site that meets their expectations, gives them what they are looking for at a glance and perhaps even offers them a new-customer promotion or discount, the odds of that customer converting to a paying customer or lead go up — and quickly!
Tools for Website Conversion Rate Optimization
What can you use to make your website conversion-friendly? Your conversion strategy should always include:
• Calls to action.
• Credibility boosters.
• Concise messaging.
• Incentives and promotions.
• Competitive advantages.
• On-trend design for your industry.
Calls to action are clear, simple statements that tell your customers to do something. One example could be “Call Us Today for a Free Website Analysis: 1-800-555-5555.” You can see that the action within the statement is bold and clear — “Call Us Today.” And equally importantly, the way to complete that action is clearly defined with the included phone number.
Credibility boosters are logos, text or images placed in your site that boost trust with your clients. A few examples include testimonials, familiar brand logos, industry certifications, case studies, team images or office photos.
Concise messaging means that your website is written in a way that is easy-to-digest. Are you telling your customers what they want right away? Don’t make customers dig for information — only about 20 percent of your website will be read at first glance. Make those headlines count.
Incentives and promotions should be included to persuade customers to complete the goal/action. You want your customers to do something for you (contact you), so what can you offer them in return?
Competitive advantages are key differentiators for your market. What makes you better or different than your competitors? Knowing who else is out there and how you measure up gives you important information you can use to strategically build your new website.
On-trend design should always be a consideration when building a conversion optimized website. Design and images should enhance and complement the strong messaging and should follow guidelines or trends present in your industry.
Use Customer Data to Optimize Better
There are a variety of tools available on the web that can help you understand how customers behave when they visit your website. These include heat maps, split testing tools, traffic measurement tools and more.
Heat Maps have been around in the web design industry for years and are good sources for understanding how the eye moves when reading a webpage. Dreamglow has a quick explanation on three different types of heat maps that is useful for a newcomer to the web design industry.
Although the patterns differ slightly as the reader moves down the page, the reader always begins at the top and then scans quickly from left to right. This is why your header is so important. It must communicate your company branding, your services and an action, all while remaining easy to read at a glance.
Split testing is the method of testing two similar yet slightly different webpages to see which one compels more of your visitors to act. For example, while listing the same services, one webpage may include a different promotion than the other. By measuring which one converts more leads, you can learn more about what your visitors are looking for.
Traffic Measurement. Google Analytics is a highly preferred tool that allows you to track traffic and data across your website. It has a full suite of capabilities and its uses range from a simple tracking tool to a predictive analysis strategy map.
Conversion Optimization Helps You Get More Value
Using a combination of the points above will help you build a website that converts. Once you begin thinking about your audience and how they interact with your website, you can build a strong strategy. Because there is a high rate of competition on the web, making your site clear, intuitive and optimized will help you beat out your competitors.
Optimizing your site for conversion will also help you get more “bang for your buck” as your website becomes a functioning marketing tool that drives visitors to take action and converts them into interested or paying leads.
Shea Diepeveen is a senior copywriter and team leader for Your Design Guys, a web firm that builds conversion-optimized websites.