What Are Website Conversions?
A website conversion is the process of transition from a visitor to a customer or lead. If someone visits your website and buys something, they have converted from a visitor to a customer. Similarly, if someone visits your website and submits an enquiry form, they have converted from being a visitor to a lead.
Converting a visitor seems straight forward at first glance, but as with most things, the finer details are critical to success.
Recently I have had an increase in enquiries about issues relating to low conversions on various types of websites using different marketing techniques:
- Pay Per Click (PPC) driven marketing
- Organic search engine optimisation
- Email marketing
- Facebook campaigns
So I decided to write this post to address some of the most obvious but overlooked areas.
To begin, let’s get back to absolute basics about what a conversion or goal actually is and how it is achieved:
The basics of achieving a website conversion or goal
Icons made by Vectors Market from www.flaticon.com
6 Simple Ways To Increase Your Website Conversions
Yes you can get lots of traffic and lots of clicks. Yes you can attract targeted visitors. However, if nothing is converting into a lead or sale – you may well have a problem..
Here are some of the reasons why you might not be getting enough conversions and simple ways to improve:
- If you are targeting local searches, you need to ensure that your visitor is local too – there isn’t much point trying to target someone looking for ‘washing machines in Brighton’ when you are based in Glasgow. If you are just starting out, try starting off with a few local towns and expand to the nearest city. Don’t forget it’s important not to just copy and paste each of your location pages. Google loves specific content directly relevant to a search.
- When you run a PPC campaign, don’t just point every Google Ad to the home page. Carefully craft targeted landing pages or use direct phone call PPC ads. Using the same example above, don’t direct users to your home page with 30 categories of white goods – take them to the washing machine section. Better yet, if they are searching for ‘Bosch’ washing machines, make sure your landing page is brand specific – your conversion rate will increase overnight. Checkout this SEO guide from Google themselves.
- When you finally get that valuable visitor to the right section of your beautifully designed website (such as an enquiry form) – keep it simple. No one likes filling out forms, let alone big ones. In plenty of cases, three or four fields will do just fine to gain as much information as you are ever likely to need. Plus, make your forms relevant to the section the users wishes to enquire about. Having just one relevant form equates to calling a dreaded 0800 number for an enquiry..
This is reiterated clearly by the well-known marketing legend Jeff Bullas:Only require the bare minimum when it comes to filling in fields. If you only need a first name, don’t ask for first name, last name, blood type, astrological sign, and Harry Potter house
- Don’t enforce your visitors to register in order to buy a product. Provide a guest checkout option so the user has the choice to sign up or not. You don’t want to lose that precious customer at checkout stage!?! Depending on the product, if they get a fast and smooth experience, they may well return for a second purchase and then create an account.
- Smooth out general website issues. If the page is slow to load because images haven’t been optimised or there is some out-of-date plugin holding everything up – fix it! Nothing is more irritating for your precious visitor than having to watch a blank screen and wonder what the hell is going on. For WordPress hosting and especially WooCommerce, Kinsta is a particularly good choice with plans from just $30 per month – it is blazingly fast.
- Finally – measure everything. Ensure that Google Analytics is integrated with your website and/or Adwords account. Make sure you set up constructive goals, such as:
– Successful check out
– Submitted enquiry form
– Phone number click
– User journey and drop-offs
..Nothing is more frustrating than not knowing if what you are doing is actually working. You need to know where and why things are going right or wrong.
As mentioned on this page by Neil Patel the infamous SEO/marketing guru:
42.3% of AdWords account managers have absolutely no idea whether or not their campaigns are working.
What do you find helps increase conversion rates on your website?