Traffic is great, but it's not enough to generate sales. What you need is traffic that converts. Otherwise, you will be burning away your marketing budget for nothing.
But how do you boost website conversion? The answer is through conversion optimization, which is more complex but also more achievable than most online entrepreneurs think.
In this article, we are taking a look at 9 best practices to optimize your website conversion rate.
1. Take Care of Traffic First
It may be obvious, but conversion rates don't matter much if you don't have traffic in the first place! Before optimizing conversion rates, you have to make sure that your traffic flow is optimized first.
If you are losing traffic from your flow, you have to identify where the weaknesses lie. To figure out which pages require some optimization, take a look at which pages result in the highest traffic loss. You can do that with a range of analytics tools, or have an internet marketing firm do it for you.
2. Build a Conversion Roadmap
You just can't expect to increase your conversion rate just by throwing money at it. Random testing is a thing of the 2000s. Today, you need a concise conversion map to identify and target the visitors that are most likely to convert.
Conversion optimization relies on good content and a lot of testing to fine-tune the performance of each page.
A conversion roadmap will help you understand where your traffic comes from, and on which page they are more likely to convert. With that data in hand, you can determine which pages need updating, and which ones you should eliminate altogether.
Conversion roadmaps are also time-specific. Set a timeframe during which you will work on the pages in your roadmap and stick to it.
3. Have the Right Content to Convert
Content optimization lies at the heard of conversion optimization. The design, the presentation, the messaging and the relevancy all play a crucial role on conversion rates.
When creating converting copy, you need to build one or more buyer personas and address them with your copy. You need to research and understand your buyer personas if you are to sell to them efficiently.
Keep your content straightforward and to the point. Nobody likes fluff or hard sales copy. The point here is to engage with your visitors and give them a reason to convert.
When it comes to converting copy, forms are your friends. Keep the forms easy to fill in and always above the fold. Give your visitors a reason to fill your forms and don't hesitate to hand out freebies. These will supercharge conversions.
The final touch to every content strategy is the calls to action. These need to be direct but not too obtrusive. You have to spell out clearly what you want your visitors to do, and then give them a reason to do it.
4. Leverage Social Proof Data
Today, visitors today can know a lot about your products before even coming to your site. This is all thanks to the power of social proof.
In fact, more than 70% of all US visitors check out product reviews before buying. This means that positive reviews are crucial if you want to boost conversions.
Social proof advertising is powerful, scalable, and very inexpensive. It can build urgency and immediacy, making your visitors more likely to follow the example of other visitors and make the purchase, if the reviews recommend it.
However, social proof works both ways, and negative social proof can damage your conversion optimization effort. Too much urgency will scare away your visitors, so you always need to strike a fine balance here.
As usual, you will need a lot of testing to make sure you have found the perfect combination of urgency and security from your social proof.
5. S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Conversion optimization is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a long process that takes time and effort. In order to remain focused, you need to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-dependent goals.
There are many steps and a lot of testing you have to do in order to make the most out of your traffic. Just jumping at the first solution you see will not get you very far. Moreover, if you have false expectations, you will be disappointed and lose your drive.
6. Technical Considerations
Conversion optimization also comes with a number of technical challenges. These include website loading times, efficient analytics, and the software tools you will need to leverage social proof and guide traffic.
All the above will eat up some of your IT budget, but you can't avoid it. You have to make sure that your platform is up to scratch.
7. Optimization and A/B Split Testing
As we have seen earlier, testing is essential to optimize your conversion rate. Create multiple iterations of each page and do some A/B testing to see which one converts the best.
Even when you have a "winner", you should still test it against other designs to make sure you are not missing anything. Thorough testing will make sure you are not dealing with outside variables you can't control.
8. Allocate Resources
You can't do conversion optimization on a shoestring budget. However, the money you allocate to conversion optimization will return back to your pocket if you succeed.
With that in mind, assign the resources needed for infrastructure, testing, and proper implementation.
9. Continue to Adapt and Evolve
Finally, you should never stop working on your conversion optimization. New trends, emerging technology, and evolving competition will keep you on your toes.
Take each failure as a lesson and continue refining your successes to remain relevant in today's ever-changing markets.
How to Boost Website Conversion and Sales by 10% in Less Than 10 Minutes
Here at Evidence, we equip marketers with all the tools and strategies they need to dramatically boost website conversion rates.
By tracking positive activity and leveraging powerful social evidence, we drive urgency, build buyer confidence, and empower you to make targeted offers. Our software displays relevant data to your users, including recent purchases by other users, number of other visitors viewing a page or a product, and targeted offers.
Try us today to find out how Evidence can help you increase your conversions without exhausting your marketing budget.