5 Secrets for Increasing Conversions on Your Site Improving online sales is a constant process of looking at your website as your visitors see it.
By Larry Alton Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Whether you own a small business or a large corporation, website conversions are important for customer engagement and brand loyalty. If your good SEO practices are getting people to visit your website, you've taken a huge step in the right direction but it's not quite enough. You may still have low conversions simply because you can't get visitors of your website to take the next step and become actual customers.
Getting conversions to really take off might be as simple as renovating your current website. There are hundreds of ways you can improve your website to entice customers to use it. Implement these insider secrets to get you started.
1. Less is more.
When it comes to overall design, the mantra is keep it simple. Some website platforms make it easy to cram in as many images, calls to action, navigation tabs, and forms as possible, but having so much on your website will only overwhelm your future customers. People visiting websites like a clear understanding of the site's purpose and a designated path to navigate the content. It becomes very difficult for them to follow that path if your website is cluttered. Top bar navigation, a few relevant bullet points of information, striking colors, a well-designed logo, and one or two well-placed images is generally enough to entice customers.
Related: When Designing a Web Site, Do Our Brains a Favor and Keep It Familiar
2. Just one well-designed call to action on every page.
Calls to action are very important for getting website visitors to become customers, so you need to have several on one page, right? Wrong. Too many calls to action on one page is seen as spammy to customers. If they're visiting a website that sells web design services, for example, and each page has three calls to action, screaming "Click here to get started," "Try a free trial," and "Join now," website visitors will be confused and look elsewhere for web design services. One call to action button that blends in perfectly with the rest of your website design is the best way to go.
3. Run tests.
According to Darryl Stevens, CEO of DigiTech Web Design, you should test everything, and you need to run both A/B split tests and UX tests. Stevens suggests the "five-second test" for inspecting your overall design. Take a screenshot of a page on your website to evaluate, mark the screenshot with a question such as "what button would you click first" and ask the general public to record their response after viewing the website for five seconds.
These sorts of tests help you understand what entices your website visitors to become customers so you can increase conversion rates.
Related: How to Lay the Foundation for a Data-Driven Business With A/B Testing
4. Imaging and videos.
The general population is very visual. They love pictures and videos that reduce reading time and help them visualize what they will receive from your products and services. Images and videos create a sense of familiarity for the customer and make them more comfortable when purchasing something.
Customers shopping at a traditional brick and mortar store can use all of their senses to decide if they want a product -- touching, seeing, smelling, and hearing the product before taking it to the checkout stand. On your website, customers are only able to get a sense of your product by seeing and maybe hearing. Make them feel as comfortable as possible. Offer plenty of images and videos, if possible, to help customers feel like they've experienced the product with as many senses as possible.
5. Use social proof.
When people are looking for a new product or service, one of the first things they're likely to do is ask their friends and other trusted sources for recommendations. You can take advantage of this aspect of human nature to improve conversions on your website.
The best forms of social proof include customer reviews/ratings, social likes/shares, trust symbols, video testimonials, celebrity endorsements, and PR. Most websites offer social proof in some form or another, but they may not offer them at the right time. Getting social proof in front of your audience as early as possible is one of the best things you can do to take people from visitor status to customer status.
Related: 10 Great Social Media Tools to Boost Online Success
