We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about search engine optimization. But while it is vital to make your site seen, it is even more essential to ensure that once users get to your page, they do what you want them to do. This is where conversion rate optimization comes in.
Rather than spending time and money trying to bring in more visitors, conversion rate optimization is about making the most of your existing users. There are always ways you can tweak your site to yield more sales – it’s a selective process but one that is certainly worth doing.
Are you ready to score more sales for your business without spending more on advertising? Read on to find out how you can start improving your conversion rate.
What is conversion rate optimization?
Conversion rate optimization refers to a business’s efforts to improve the percentage of users who perform a specific action on their site. Companies can have a variety of conversion goals, including:
- Buying a product
- Booking a service
- Signing up for an email list
- Downloading something from your site (an ebook, checklist, or other resources)
- Calling your business
- Submitting an inquiry (generating a lead)
These are split into two types of conversion: macro and micro. Macro-conversion is the main aim of your site (usually a purchase or booking). At the same time, micro-conversions are all the smaller conversions (e.g., signing up for your email list or downloading a resource) that can eventually lead to that macro-conversion.
How can I calculate my conversion rate?
There are a few ways you can calculate your conversion rate:
Total number of conversions / Total number of sessions x 100
Total number of conversions / Total number of unique visitors x 100
Total number of conversions / Total number of leads x 100
The formula you use will depend on which conversion goal you are trying to measure. You can also use a conversion calculator – there are several available online.
What is considered a ‘good’ conversion rate will depend on your industry. Below are some of the most recent stats from Unbounce’s 2021 Conversion Benchmark Report.
In order to properly track your conversion rate and various micro-conversions, you should ensure that you have Goals set up in Google Analytics.
How can I improve my conversion rate?
Focus on user experience.
Above all else, user experience is the key to better conversion. You want to make it as simple as possible for the user to reach that end goal – the less effort it takes, the better.
User experience is essential for mobile users, as many businesses neglect this side of their site. Below are some of the most common reasons mobile users fail to convert, with the majority related to usability.
Landing page design
The easiest way to lose a potential conversion is a mismatch between what brought your user to a site – an ad, a result on Google, or a post on social media – and your landing page. You’ll want to ensure you deliver whatever you’ve promised your user.
A/B testing will be crucial here, allowing you to see which version of your site users respond to. You can test all sorts of variables, including color schemes, images, videos, page layout, website copy, call to action, the position of buttons, and more.
With A/B testing, you’ll only want to change a single variable between the versions, as this will give you a more definitive idea of which element works better.
Blog post optimization
Your blog is a great way to attract new users interested in your offer. Your posts should be optimized to help guide readers to pages that fulfill their needs.
Look at which of your blogs are serving as a gateway for customers and spend more time on SEO Brisbane to increase your organic traffic. Alternatively, see what offers you can add for your blogs with high traffic and low conversion.
Say you’re a landscaping company. You have a blog about different types of decking that has piqued the interest of someone planning to build. By including an offer for your services – a free quote, a deal, or your unique value proposition – you make it easy for the user to decide and entice them to find out more.
Some more tips for your blog:
- To avoid banner blindness, add a text-based call to action (hyperlinked text that stands out from the rest) that takes readers to the relevant landing page
- Update your high-performing blogs with relevant, up-to-date content to satisfy both search engines and readers
- Identify topics and keywords that link to your offerings to inform content creation
Remarketing
Most users won’t become customers right away. That’s what remarketing is for!
Remarketing shows targeted ads to previous site visitors, allowing you to keep your brand in their minds while they decide on a purchase.
It’s well-established that showing your offerings to prospective clients multiple times in different contexts over an extended period can drastically boost conversion. While 92% of customers aren’t ready to buy when they visit your site, remarketing keeps your products or services running. In fact, if a user sees your remarketing ad, there is a 70% chance that they will purchase from you rather than seek out a competitor.
You can set up remarketing ads through Google or Facebook.
Create a sense of urgency.
We are creatures of impulse – if you want to push that curious browser into a committed customer, you must quickly turn up the heat.
You’ve likely heard of the Rule of Scarcity; that is, a product that is rare or hard to come by is seen as more valuable, meaning that we are more likely to buy it. This also applies to the world of digital marketing, with this tactic being used widely in eCommerce.
Amazon is a great example, highlighting deals and limited stock to drive sales.
By providing time-limited offers or displaying how many items or slots remain, you should be able to drive up demand and see an increase in conversions.
Ready to make the most of your web traffic and boost leads and conversions? Book your free consultation today, and we’ll show you how!
