Conversion rate optimization refers to the process of analyzing user behavior on your website and finding ways to improve the user experience to get users to take a particular action and improve your conversion rates. While many businesses will be familiar with the concept of conversion rate optimization, it’s a whole another story when it comes to actually implement best practices.
While it’s tempting to be distracted by the coolest new trend or tool that claims to solve all your lead gen problems for you, the greatest gains can often be made by simply following the fundamentals. In this article, aided by the excellent information provided by Surrey-based SEO agency Session Media, we will talk about a few immediate actions that you can take to improve the conversion rates on your website.
Let’s get into it.
Ensure you’re tracking the right things…properly
Before you do anything else, you need to ensure that you are tracking the correct metrics and that you are tracking them properly. 42% of B2B marketers say that a lack of quality data is the thing that is most holding them back from generating as many leads as they would like to generate.
You need to ensure that any tracking tool that you’re using, for example, Google Analytics is configured correctly and that you have implemented any exclusions that need to be implemented, e.g. blocking out robot traffic or your own company’s visitors from your traffic reports.
You need to ensure that all of that is implemented correctly before you actually start using the data to inform other decisions. You also want to make sure that you’re tracking the right things. Do you have clear KPIs that connect to your business objectives?
Make sure you’re tracking the correct things and make sure you’re tracking them correctly.
Make your website secure
The next thing you need to do is to ensure that your website is secure. SSL or HTTPS is essentially a way to encrypt the connection between your landing page and a visitor’s browser. It is becoming an important element of trust on the internet and is even used as a ranking factor by search engines such as Google.
It also reassures your users that the website that they’re visiting is secure and reputable. It is worth investing in making the move over to SSL if you haven’t already done so.
Have a clear CTA
You need to understand that the average user is going to have a very short attention span. And that your website and their visit to your website is only a very small part of their day. You need to make it as easy as possible for them to take the action that you want them to take.
Therefore, your call to action has to be super clear, relevant, and contextual to what the user has already seen on your landing page. It also needs to stand out and be visibly very easy to find. Often from a design perspective, using a different color that stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the landing page is a good way to help users find your call to action.
Use trust signals to gain credibility
As we mentioned in the section on security, trust is very important in online transactions. Before a prospect feels comfortable spending money with you, they want to make sure that you are reputable, trustworthy, and that you have delivered for clients similar to them before. This is where using third party validation is very useful.
If you have been featured in reputable websites, or if you have had reviews or, even better, glowing testimonials from customers, you need to make sure that these are as visible as possible on your website. Social proof is a key behavioral science concept- humans look to other humans to gain clues in terms of how to act. If people see that you have delivered for clients similar to them they will be much more likely to trust you and do business with you.
Get to the point with your copy
Most visitors to your landing page will tend to scan your copy first and then figure out if they are willing to stick around and really read what you have to say. Even so, using long, running sentences is a great way to lose your readers and have them bounce off your website.
The great thing is you don’t really need to use a lot of words to get your message across. In fact, studies show that users only need 14 words to understand the majority of what you are trying to communicate. So cut your copy down and get straight to the point. Your customers and your bottom line will thank you for it.
Keep your forms simple
While it might be tempting to use your lead capture forms to capture as much information as possible about your prospects, it is in fact, not the best way to utilise forms on your website. Each additional field that you include in your forms increases the chance that you’re going to lose that customer because they cannot be bothered to fill out all of this information.
Sometimes, prospects can also become nervous at how much information you are requesting at a relatively early stage in the sales process. Therefore, resist the temptation to include too many form fields. You can always collect this information later.
Closing thoughts
These are just some ways in which you can immediately improve the CRO on your website and help drive more leads. For a more comprehensive list, view the infographic. And most importantly, start implementing these tips straight away to help improve lead gen for your business.
