How to Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rate

If you increase the number of people who visit your site you will get more clients, right? Wrong. The reality is that no matter how much traffic your website sees, unless your website is optimised to convert traffic into enquiries, you’re wasting your time.

How to Optimise Your Website to Convert Traffic Into Enquiries

Too many small businesses fail to understand the importance of converting website traffic into enquiries. 

Think of it like this. If you owned a shop on the high street and wanted to increase sales, you’d do whatever it took to bring more people in. Anything from advertising to leaflet drops to walking around in a sandwich board dressed as Gandalf. That’s great, but you wouldn’t see much of an increase in sales if all your staff ignored the customers after they’d arrived in your store would you? The sad truth is that this is exactly what many small businesses do with their websites. Can you afford to be one of them? Are you already? To find out you only need to do two things:

• compare your visitor stats against your enquiries from your website (if there’s a big difference, your conversion rate is low) and
• get your web designers to tell you how your conversion rate could be improved. If you don’t feel like asking them, either ask me or check these four things yourself.

Provide Crystal Clear Navigation

What’s the navigation like on your website? Get someone who hasn’t used it before to browse your website, and peer over their shoulder while they do it. Work out if they find it simple to find key areas like product pages, contact details, enquiry forms, etc. Resist the urge to tell them where to go, but note down where they find it hardest.

Look for common sources of confusion, such as having more than one navigation menu on the page (some sites have one at the top and another on the side – what’s that all about?). Are there too many drop-down submenus? Does the user keep losing their place? You get the picture.

Use a Responsive Website Design

An increasing number of people visit your website via a mobile device (phone, tablet etc.) rather than a desktop computer. How does your site look on them? Does it convert gracefully or does it simply shrink down into a tiny illegible blur? Is it still easy to navigate? If your site uses Flash (a surprising number still do), it could be completely useless on an iPhone or tablet. Maybe it’s time you talked to your web designers about an update.

Great Websites Use Great Photography

The famous Chinese saying is often paraphrased as “a picture speaks a thousand words” but a blurry nondescript photo could be saying to your clients: “get away from this bunch of amateurs as quickly as possible”. Eye-catching and appropriate photography can act like a magnet for enquiries. It increases buyer confidence and enhances your professionalism instantly. Chefs say we eat with our eyes, well if that is true we also certainly buy with our eyes too. Try to take advantage of the visual impact that great photography can provide.

Make Your Copy Compelling

Having said that, remember that, on a website, copy is king. From a human viewpoint, as well as from that of search engines. Take a fresh look at the text on your website. Does it have your personality, your attitude, your passion for what you do? Does it make you feel that you want to get to know the people behind the website right now, or does it make you say: “Meh, let’s check the next one”? Look for dynamic prose that’s full of active language and most importantly of all, effective calls to action. If it doesn’t have them, talk to a professional copywriter; one that really understands how to write for the Internet. Trust me, they’re as rare as hen’s teeth. At Design Inspiration, we always use the most active copy possible for our clients, but even the best copy can get dated. Maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at your  words.

The Next Step

If your website isn’t converting your traffic into enquiries, it may well be time to give it a thorough review. Use the conversion rate improvement tips in this article. If you want a second opinion, ask me. I’ll be happy to give you an assessment of your website. Just get in touch and ask me to take a look.