If you are running a tech startup, you probably spend most of your time focusing on your product to make it lean, easy to use, and able to solve people’s problems. However, if you want to be successful you need to reach a lot of people, and so it is important to increase your conversion rates.
There are a lot of things you should focus on when designing your website for higher conversion rates.
In this short post, you’ll find 6 key areas you need to work on:
- Tracking visitor behavior
- A/B testing
- Social proof
- CTAs
- Solving problems
- Optimizing for mobile
1. Track visitor behavior
You can track and analyze visitor behavior to better understand how they interact with your website. By using behavior tracking tools like hotjar, pendo, or similarweb, you can find out if your special offers are popular, which pages are the most visited, and how much time people spend on different parts of the site. These tools usually create a heat map of your website to show you which elements attract attention, and which ones you can improve.
As a general rule of thumb, elements that are higher up and on the left side of the page tend to catch the eye the most. Conventional wisdom suggests that users tend to scan webpages in a pattern that resembles the shape of a letter F (see image below). This means that justified alignment of the text, although many editors insist on it, is not necessarily the most appealing for readers.
Source: Dummies.com
Another good way to find out about the behavior of your visitors is to ask them to fill out a survey. Ask them how they got to your website, why they came, whether it was easy for them to find the information they were looking for, and if they have any suggested improvements.
To motivate visitors to fill out your survey, you can offer them a reward or something for free, like a case study, e-book, a free trial of your product, or anything that doesn’t cost you a lot but creates a hook for conversion. During that process, ask them for their email address so that you can start your email campaign based on the behavior of each visitor.
If the behaviour tracking tool or survey reveals some common patterns of behaviour, then this gives you an idea of where to begin in your mission to reach more people.
2. Incorporate A/B testing into your everyday processes
A/B testing or split testing involves offering different users the same content but with a slight difference in order to see how people respond. After analyzing the behavior of your visitors, you can keep the ideas that work, and use these insights when creating new content. By following this approach over time, you can consistently increase your chances of converting users into subscribers or paying customers.
You can test a lot of things, but the most common things to test include:
- Headlines
- Colors
- CTAs
- Copy
- Layout
- Where you place elements
- Welcome screens
3. Harness the power of social proof
When buying an appliance for your home, you probably check user reviews before making your decision. The same idea works for your products. Social proof gives people comfort when they are making a decision to purchase a product they haven’t tried before.
A great way to include social proof into your website is to add testimonials from satisfied customers. Testimonials put potential customers at ease by showing that you already have customers and that those customers are happy with your products.
You can nurture a relationship with your existing customers by rewarding loyal customers with a gift in exchange for a video testimonial. If you are adding these testimonials to your site, don’t make them play automatically because visitors may feel attacked by those kinds of videos. Let visitors click play if they want to hear the testimonial. Also, if customers have posted reviews on Yelp or another review site, you should link to the relevant page or incorporate it into your website.
You can include social proof from various sources including:
- Satisfied customers
- Experts
- Celebrities
- Crowds (e.g. 300,000+ users are enjoying this product)
- Friends (e.g. 47 of your friends are using XYZ)
- Certifying bodies
4. Use strong and simple CTAs
If you want to convert your visitors into customers, you need to create a clear path that leads people who visit the website to find out about your products and to purchase them.
Usually, the landing page has a call-to-action button placed in several strategic locations. You can put a CTA button in the upper part of the website for those who came to the site knowing that they want to buy a product. A second CTA button can appear after scrolling for some time allowing visitors a chance to find out about your products. A third one can be placed at the bottom of the page.
You should place your CTA buttons strategically by trying to imagine a person’s journey through your website, and at which points they might be likely to make a decision to buy a product or take some other action.
There are a few common CTA buttons: like, subscribe, learn more, sign up, get started, and add to cart. Use them wisely to slowly lead your visitors to purchase pages.
No matter how you decide to use your CTA buttons, they should always be clear, simple, and a logical next step for the visitor.
If you do not provide a CTA button, your visitors won’t know what to do next, and so they’ll probably click over to your competitor’s website.
5. Solve your target customers’ problems
If your product doesn’t solve the problems of your target customers, then it won’t sell. If it does, then you still need to communicate how it solves them. To do that, create a clear and consistent message in all of your marketing copy: on the landing page, on social media, in ads, and wherever else your product and company are mentioned.
Get inside the mind of your target customers by creating one or more buyer personas. Learn how they think and create copy just for that audience. Focus on their goals, motivations, and pain points. In order to get clear insight into their pain points, hire people to play 5 key roles:
- Product manager
- CMO
- CFO
- CTO
- Sales manager
Answer key questions right on the landing page so that visitors can quickly decide whether to buy your product. You don’t want them browsing through your site for a long time because they might get lost and lose interest in buying. Also, stay on message, do not distract visitors with information that is not connected to the purchase decision.
6. Optimize for mobile
Research shows that the majority of people (up to 54%) use their mobile phones when buying stuff online. As a result, you need to optimize your site for mobile. Mobile phone optimization is also important for SEO since Google has switched to mobile-first indexing. This means that if you don’t optimize your website for mobile your search rankings will be lower and fewer people will find your site.
Web designers know how to optimize for mobile, but there are four points in particular that you should check:
- Font size – The experience of using a website on a mobile phone and a laptop are completely different. The screen size and ratio are different, so you need to check that the text is clear and easily readable.
- Element size – Check all of the other elements of your website and make adjustments as needed. Remember, you don’t want to overcrowd the mobile version of your website. Everything needs to be clear and simple, and you should eliminate any distractions. For mobile, less is more.
- Image size – Some of your images and charts might be too large for mobile. Since mobile phones have smaller screens, you don’t need large images. By compressing your images you can reduce their size without sacrificing the image resolution too much.
- Page speed – Test your website speed with Google’s PageSpeed to check how fast it loads. If it needs more than 3 seconds to load, then there is a real risk that your visitors might go on to the next website.
You can convert more leads from your mobile site by making the purchasing process as easy as possible. If your visitors only need to click on a few easily noticed buttons, then they will be much more likely to buy your products. Don’t make them go through too many steps because they might give up along the way.
In addition to adapting your site for mobile, you need to work on mobile marketing as well. You can design push notifications for your app that are fun and engaging, use social media in your marketing campaign, make appealing Facebook ads, or develop an SMS campaign.
Final thoughts
Now you know what you need to work on.
Include people from your design, programming, marketing, and finance teams in the website design process. Each of them will provide valuable insights and a distinct perspective. By working together, you can come up with innovative and fresh ideas for your website that your customers will appreciate.
If the website redesign project seems overwhelming, remember that you don’t have to do everything all at once. Focus on one area at a time, and slowly, over time, you’ll see your conversion rates grow.
Mariya Koracheva is an SEO consultant who loves to write attention-grabbing content, when not writing you can find her playing her guitar.
Image: Pixabay