3 Ways To Improve Your Website For Better Conversions
Your website is there to sell. In this article, you'll learn the top 3 ways to improve your website for better conversions rate.
Your website is there to sell. Sure it should look great, and make your readers laugh sometimes. It should have amazing photography, easy to blog posts, and great product and sales pages. But never forget, your website is there to sell. In this article, you’ll learn the top 3 ways to improve your website for better conversions rate.
The Problem With Most Websites Is…
They are created by a web designer. (No offense to web designers. I am one too.) Most web designers are focused on design, and not on your business goals. Unfortunately, your website is not online just to look good, it’s there to sell (just repeating myself so you don’t forget).
Designers love to make stunning graphics and amazing scrolling, parallax pages, with all manner of bells and whistles. They enjoy design. Who can blame them?
What they normally don’t do is: drive your visitors to your website goals through the strategic use of website elements and SEO.
The designer, or their employer, is focused on the job at hand – website creation, not on your actual goals. That is why I approach web design differently, with the end in mind (sales). And you should too.
How Can You Make Sure To Fix Your Website?
Here are some of the many ways you can improve your website to help get you more customers via your website.
1 Focus On Your Homepage For Better Conversions
The most popular page on your website is often the homepage, so it is crucial that you are driving visitors to your main business goal from there. This goal could be:
- Learning more about your business
- Signing up to your email list
- Discovering your best selling product
And so on. It is different for each business, and changes as the business and time of year change.
Note: Be careful not to jump the gun and assume everyone will buy or call on their first visit. Especially if you sell an expensive product or service.
Here is an example from Keap, where they encourage visitors to their homepage to try out their software:
Action Steps: Review the top area of your homepage and ensure that you are driving visitors to your number one goal on your website. Exit-intent pop-ups are great for converting customers as well.
Call to Action (CTA)
Your website has to have a clear and strong call to action (CTA). What can this CTA be? Here are some options:
- A simple question that your prospect is called to reply to
- A link to your calendar so that the prospect can book a call with you
- A link to your portfolio to let your prospect learn more about you to better conversions
The problem is that when most people build websites, they’re afraid to take the lead and add a strong CTA. Alternatively, often companies include a CTA that’s too sales-y. This means that if your CTA is weak, your prospect may not bother replying at all, or may simply forget to get back to you.
The CTA that we’ve chosen—the action we want our prospect to take next—is to book a meeting on our calendar. It’s essential that they book a meeting instead of us booking it for them because it changes the dynamics of the relationship completely. When it is “them” (the prospect) that books a meeting, it is we who have the lead and present ourselves as a solution to their problems.
2 Ensure Your Visitors Can Get In Touch (As Easily As Possible)
Another fundamental website issue is not allowing your visitors to get in touch as easily as possible. After all, you do want to hear from your potential (and even existing) customers, right?
I am sure you have a contact page (or at least I hope so) as this is one of the most important and common pages visitors will look for when wanting to
- get in touch online (your email or a contact form)
- write to you by mail or visit your store (ie. your address)
- give you a call (your phone number or hotline)
But there are other ways that you can make this task easier, especially if you have a physical location and phone number.
Add It To The Header to improve the website for better conversions
The header is often, if not always, present so why not make more use of it!
Like this header from a niche hosting company called Krystal, they ensure that their phone number, support website and email are in their header so their clients can easily get in touch (on any page, and at any time). This makes it easier to find and contact them, both for existing and new clients.
Add It To The Footer to improve the website for better conversions
Another commonplace to provide all of your contact details are in the footer. Similar to the header example above but now you have a lot more space.
An example from one of my favorite restaurants (The Stag On The River) in Godalming, UK (close to where I live). They have a footer that not only provides all the information you need to get in touch, but also their sister restaurants and a reservation link. They are clearly thinking of how to make your life easier!
Action Steps: Place your business contact details in as many locations as you can (header, footer, contact page, etc) in order to allow people to get in touch as easily as possible.
3 Focus Your Navigation On The Most Important Things
You may not realize it, but what you put in your navigation (aka menu) is influencing your visitors heavily. It is actually one of the most clicked-on areas on your website (it is on every page) and is, as a result, very powerful. So, you need to seriously consider what you put in the menu because these links drive visitors to these linked-to pages more often as a result.
I have had to seriously rethink my navigation recently because:
- space is limited when you include a logo and take mobile into consideration
- less is more when it comes to choice (you may have heard about the famous Jam study)
So when you create your next version of your website navigation, break it down and think about it again, then do it again.
- What are the most important pages on your website (sales pages, product pages, contact, about, blog?)
- Can some be placed in a sub-menu with the main item summarizing them all
- Can some be placed in the footer as they are not used and don’t drive business goals (terms and conditions, team, jobs)
Examples to improve the website for better conversions
Here are two great examples to give you an idea of how different industries tackle this problem:
Coschedule offers blog editing and scheduling software for WordPress and their focus is on getting people to sign up for their product. So their menu is limited to the areas their potential customers care most about.
You can even see their blog (which is great by the way) on the menu. They are laser-focused on their business goals!
Chris Drucker is a popular entrepreneur in the marketing space and has a number of areas of his business that he focuses on. These include his podcast, speaking engagements as well as giving access to his private membership. And as you can see, they are all focused-on in the menu (as well as his contact, about and blog).
Action Steps: Take a look at your menu, see what is there that could be out, and focus on the most important elements. The things that move your visitors closer to buying. Now you have a number of ideas of things that could be upon your website. Take a little time to review and improve your website every month.
Review all of the following to improve the website for better conversions
- Your homepage – taking into account your main business goals
- How easy it is to contact your business – add where appropriate
- How focused your menu is – adjust according to most useful pages
It will lead to more customers, in the end, I can assure you of that.