We all dream of organic conversions flying in our websites but how exactly can it be achieved? Let’s cover key ideas which will facilitate the improvement of your conversion rate on your website.
Whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, your website can improve acquisition by using 15 tactics that may increase your conversions:
- Improve your website’s customer journey or flow
- Simple navigation and filters (especially for E-commerce)
- Aesthetically pleasing, clean and tidy design
- Avoid paragraphs of content
- Readability of content
- Engaging headers
- Attractive calls to action
- Use animation (wisely)
- Effective branded imagery
- Consistent pages (in content and design)
- Improve pages’ speed
- Homepage with a worth proposition
- Originality
- Mobile optimisation
- Collect data and improve
1. Website Flow
You may have heard the term ‘successful customer journey’ before. This is often having a seamless experience on your website. In short, from arriving on the homepage, a customer can navigate through the pages the way they need to. This should be achieved without the trouble of employing a search bar, understanding unclear page headers, or closing multiple pop-ups or ads. First impressions count! Don’t lose customers because they couldn’t find their way.
2. Simple Navigation
Maybe your homepage to inner page journey straightforward and provide a navigation to assist prospects finding their way. Keep your top-level navigation headers simple. Use no more than 6 headings + an exploration bar and call to action e.g. Sign up.
E.g. a Homepage, 1-2 Product/Services headers, Promotions or a purchase, About Us and a transparent Contact page
For product websites, make certain to classify your products in simplistic categories that any user could understand. E.g. avoid product categories like “Miscellaneous”. Confirm that any prospect who hovers over your navigation knows exactly what you are offering.
Secondly, don’t neglect your product filters. Keep them organised with as little values as possible. E.g. for Colour, use simple colours to filter your products like Blue, Red, Grey, Brown, Green, Yellow. Avoid descriptive colours like Forest Green or ‘Colour/Secondary Colour’ in your filters. Your product pages often will not show details like shade or secondary colours.
3. Aesthetics
It is difficult to acquire customers or reduce your bounce rate onsite when customers don’t like what they’re viewing. It seems obvious, but many sites neglect design because they believe in their content or service. When customers don’t like what they see, they’re extremely unlikely to read your content and more unlikely to fill in your form or proceed with your call to action.
Keep your content and style tidy with space between sections. Solid colour space and dividers between sections balance content and imagery to enhance readability.
4. Content
Bluntly, customers don’t read paragraphs of your content. However, they are reading is short and poignant content like headers. We see this often using heat-mapping software for our clients.
Balance your content across pages with imagery for successful information architecture. Remember 3 steps to successful content; headline, explain, call to action. Headlines attract attention, content provides more detail before a call to action directs the customer.
5. Readability
Avoid using colours of text that don’t seem to be highly contrasting. Keep your text in these categories:
- White on Black
- Black on White
- Light Colours (such as Yellow) with Black text
- Dark Colours (Navy or Maroon) with White text
- Any Dark Backgrounds – Light Text
- Any Light Backgrounds – Dark Text
If you would like to put text over a picture, overlay the image with a highly-contrasting colour to your text. Websites lacking readability are a particularly frustrating user experience for your customers.
6. Engaging Page Headers
Engaging or intriguing headers are extremely powerful, particularly when followed up with information architecture. Questions or instructions can massively improve click-through-rate on your call to actions. For informative headers, keep them concise and simple to know. Your audience will appreciate knowing what your section is about, before reading your content.
7. Call to Actions
Call to actions is the difference between an aesthetic and effective website. A decent website design looks nice and has great content, but might not generate any sales or enquiries. Strong call to actions can directly change this. A call to action provides the subsequent or final step in a very customer journey which shouldn’t be exiting your page.
Employ your call to actions with content like; Say Hi / Book Now / Shop Now / Call Us / Begin Your Journey / Start / Get a Quote. If you offer something to accumulate customers, e.g. first order discount or free consultation, include it on your website!
8. Use Animation (wisely)
Every site can use a touch little bit of movement but watch out to not re-examine the highest. Call to action hovers are great and content being gently highlighted with motion definitely improves a customer’s likeliness to read. Animation could be a useful gizmo to create elements of your website that stand out. Use wisely, otherwise nothing will stand out!
9. Branded Imagery
We always recommend using branded illustrations to strengthen the brand identity on site. It’s preferable for purchasers to feel immersed in your brand as they travel your wonderful navigation and style you made up of tips 1-3.
A branded image or short animation can say 1000 words… far better than a paragraph of content! However, if you’re struggling to source imagery, there are stock images available on sites like Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay. Again, keep it on-brand and use them wisely!
10. Consistent Pages
Now you’ve got your navigation, content and imagery it’s time the important part of bringing it all at once. Your pages in each section e.g. your work portfolio or product pages must have the same;
- Layout or Template
- Typography (fonts and font sizes)
- Divider Space
- Themes
11. Optimising your page speed
Once your pages are consistent, you’ll be able to begin to optimise their speed:
- Remove Plugins/Apps/Installments you don’t need
- Delete branded themes you’re not visiting use
- Update your site to latest version of software you’re using
- Avoid using massive images to scale back your loading times
- Don’t go too overboard with animations and pictures (remember blank space!)
12. Your Homepage
Wow, you’ve made it this far. Don’t be upset but… without an amazing homepage, it’s not worth it… Your homepage is the final key to your website success. Customers often spend 10-20 seconds on a homepage, it’s really short. Your homepage has to provide a price proposition for them to remain.
Think about what your customer wants… Why are they on your site to start with? Provide your customer with what they require to work out about your business. Use your branded design tips you’ve seen here and other website inspiration to form something purposeful and aesthetically pleasing to your customer.
13. Originality
When you begin to implement the following tips on your website, consider your brand and site… What causes you to be different from your competitors? What does your customer like about you?
Your tone of voice, imagery, typography, animations, videos etc should be original to your brand. Take inspiration from other sites, sure! But don’t copy… You’re better than your competitors, prove it!
14. Mobile Optimise
Only 60% of internet sites are mobile optimised. Although surprisingly for a Marketing Agency, 55% of our traffic comes from mobile. Imagine what proportion mobile traffic product/service websites are getting?
When was the last time you booked a rendezvous, restaurant or made a buying deal on your desktop? Mobile optimisation is crucial in 2020.
15. Collect Data and Improve
Although it appears like “I’ve updated my website now, I won’t need to have a go at it for a year or 2.” this isn’t close to the truth. There are free platforms and tools like Google Analytics to boost your site with informed decisions.
Test your homepage click-through-rate, bounce rate and session time regularly. A website design agency in Northampton will have access to tools that will heat map, record and analyse customer behaviour easily. The best websites never stop improving!
