10 Tips For Improving Your Website Conversions

Today we’re going to talk about how to get more sales with the same amount of traffic.

Conversions are one of the cornerstones to successful marketing, and most people have no clue how much of an impact a conversion increase can have to your bottom line. The fact is even a small improvement in your open, click, lead, or sales conversion ratio means any additional revenue from your sales is 100% profit.

This is an important point when you consider the common misconception that in order to get more sales, you have to get more traffic. The fact is, you should always focus on making our website do a better job of making money before investing a ton of time and cash on driving traffic.

Well, were going to reveal how you can do just that…

“10 Tips For Improving Your Website Conversions”

Conversion Tip #1: Get Analytics
Before you can improve anything, you must have the ability to track your changes. You can sign up for a free Google Analytics account here.

Conversion Tip #2: Test headlines on your landing/squeeze pages
This is one of the most important factors you can change to see improvements in your landing page conversion ratio. If you want to see better results, learn to write copy or find someone who can. You can use Analytics Website Optimizer when you sign up for a free Analytics account. I can’t stress enough the importance of copywriting as it relates to conversions.

Conversion Tip #3: Create keyword/campaign specific landing pages
Break up your related pay per click keywords into smaller groups and create specific landing pages for each group. Remember, conversions will almost always be better if the keyword, context of the ad and landing page are the same. The same holds true for any ads you have. For instance, if you are advertising on an authority website in your industry and someone responds directly from that site (clicks on your ad) it can help to acknowledge the referring site. For instance, “Special offer for Domain.com readers.”

Conversion Tip #4: Add testimonials!
Testimonials are proven to increase conversions. If you can add the element of social proof to your landing pages, sales pages and even order pages, you will almost always see a noticeable difference in your results. WARNING: Do not use income claims of any kind… in fact, I would suggest not using any numbers at all without checking out the new FTC compliance guidelines for direct response marketers.

Conversion Tip #5: Identify sales paths and optimize to remove resistance
If you have one product, you may have several “paths” that lead to the sale. For instance, maybe you have a landing page that collects visitor contact information, which then leads to a product sales page, which then leads to a order page, etc. When you look at your analytics data, you will begin to identify where your visitors navigate on your site. In doing this, you can see where your visitors are leaving and either eliminate unnecessary steps, improve copy or call to action, strategically place testimonials, money back guarantees, etc. You should do anything and everything you can to simplify your sales process to make it less confusing and remove resistance. (All of this is covered in our Copywriting Course with David Garfinkel)

Conversion Tip #6: Test your website load time
One variable many people overlook is website load time. This plays an important role in reducing bounce rates on landing pages. You can check your load speed here free: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ . There are many things you can do to increase the speed of your site such as compressing images, optimizing CSS and HTML, using code vs. images when possible, etc. This website will give you some tips on how to improve your load speed.

Conversion Tip #7: Test your prices
This is very important and can really make a difference in conversions. Remember, your goal is to maximize your visitor/customer value. The highest converting price may not be the optimal price. For instance, if you were to double your price and only experienced a 10% reduction in conversions… you are more than compensating for your drop in conversions. If on the other hand, you reduce the price by 20% and this in turn triples your conversion ratio, your increase in conversions compensates for your reduced price. Always test your prices!

Conversion Tip #8: Test audio and video
Many people find the addition of media on landing, sales and order pages increases the conversions considerably. You should consider testing these for yourself. Remember to test with automatic play and without it. Remember, credibility is important, and the more ways you can ease buyer resistance, the better. Multimedia is a great way to add life and personality to your sales messages.

Conversion Tip #9: Walk through your own sales process
Place an order on your site and try to step into the mind of your first time visitor. Where are the hang ups, unnecessary steps, or missing elements that might increase your conversions?

Conversion Tip #10: Get into the mind of your market
What questions do people have about your product or service that aren’t answered on your site? What are the “hot buttons?”Why do people exit your page without buying? You should consider using surveys for your leads, customers and visitors to identify key points that can help you improve your sales process.

That’s all for today.

Tim