5 Hacks to Boost Website Conversions
None of us are generating traffic for the fun of it.
Especially if you’re paying for it.
You want some (ideally all!) of those website visitors to take a specific action…
You want them to convert.
Most of the time that means buy something or enquire and become a lead.
And because the majority of our clients are local service businesses that want to generate leads
That’s what I’m going to focus on.
You could very easily write a whole book on landing page optimisation and many people have…
But here I’ve listed 5 few things you can do quickly and easily to get more out of your website traffic.
1) Reduce Options
If you want your website visitors to take a very specific action, such as filling out a contact form…
You want to limit the other options available to them as much as possible.
That means reducing or eliminating navigation menus…
And getting rid of all other distractions and buttons on your landing page.
Now you do have to be very careful here.
There are a lot of traffic sources that take a very keen interest in your landing pages and your website…
And they will not allow you to advertise on their platforms if you don’t meet their requirements.
At the moment Google is strictest and if you’re using AdWords to generate website traffic, then you should be aware of their advertising policies.
For example, they really want you to have above the fold navigation.
Which is incredibly annoying…
Because one of the best ways to reduce options on a landing page and increase conversion rates is to remove header navigation.
If you can get away with it (you can with almost all other advertising platforms – Facebook included) then removing the menu from your header is usually a great idea.
By removing header navigation, you prevent your visitors from getting distracted and bouncing all over your website.
As I mentioned, always make sure you read and adhere to the advertising policies for the traffic sources that you use.
And don’t make the mistake of thinking you can get away with it.
You will be caught, and your account will be suspended.
2) Ensure Ad Scent
It’s a very frustrating fact that a lot of your traffic will hit the back button as soon as they reach your landing page.
For most websites it’ll be more than 50%…
For some it’s more than 80%!
There’s nothing you can do to eliminate this completely…
But there are steps you can take to reduce this.
If someone clicks on one of your ads and comes through to your landing page.
The first question they subconsciously ask themselves is…
Am I in the right place?
And if there’s a hint of doubt in their mind, they’ll hit the back button and you’ll have paid for a wasted click.
You can avoid this by making sure your landing page is as congruent as possible with your ad…
If you mention a free initial consultation in your ad, make sure that offer is also prominent on your landing page…
If you have an image in your ad, put it on the landing page.
Your landing page should very obviously be about whatever the headline of your ad is.
For example, if you have an AdWords ad with the title London Photographers…
It should be very clear on your landing page that your website is of a London based photographer.
I think you get the idea.
Pretty simple to do…
But very effective.
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This template includes some of the best performing ads we’ve created for our clients in multiple industries and if you’re looking to promote your business on Facebook you’ll find it very useful.
Click here to download the free template now: 5 Part Facebook Ad Template.)
3) Make Your Call To Action Stand Out
It’s very natural to make your landing page look pretty…
And make sure everything flows nicely and is inkeeping with the colour scheme.
But that’s a problem because our eyes aren’t drawn to things that look right…
They’re drawn to things that look wrong, and that look out of place.
You don’t have long to draw the attention of your website visitors.
Remember that pesky back button?
So you should make your call to action stand out.
Your graphic or website designer won’t like it…
But it will deliver better results.
Most local service businesses want website visitors to fill out a contact form.
The easiest way to make a contact form stand out, is with a large and colourful submit button.
For example, if your website has a sleek white and blue colour scheme, I would make that submit button thick and orange.
Here’s a simple test you can use that I heard on the perpetual traffic podcast recently.
Stand 4 feet away from your computer screen…
What do you notice and what can you see?
You want to make sure your call to action is the first thing your eyes are drawn to.
If it isn’t, you’ve got some adjustments to make.
4) Reduce Load Time
A lot of optimising for conversions is all about dissuading people from immediately hitting the back button…
And making sure your landing page doesn’t take forever to load is a huge part of that.
Don’t remove anything from your landing page that you need to convince visitors to convert.
If you have a video that explains your product or service and does of great job of generating leads, then you should obviously leave that in there.
But anything that’s not strictly necessary, particularly anything with a large file size, like images or video…
Take it off your landing page.
5) Make It Easy
You don’t want to make your website visitors jump through a bunch of hoops.
The conversion process should be as easy as possible.
If you’re a local service business looking to generate leads…
That probably means you should include a copy of your contact form on your landing page.
Don’t rely on website visitors navigating to your contact page.
Some of them will, but not everyone.
And you don’t want to miss out on those valuable leads.
Also, don’t ask for more information than you need.
If all you need is a name and an email address, then that’s all you should ask for.
For every extra bit of information you ask for, your conversion rate will decrease.
Obviously you should ask for a phone number if you need it, but a lot of business could trim their contact forms down quite a bit.
There it is…
Our top 5 conversion optimisation hacks.
Questions? Comments? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below.
(FREE DOWNLOAD: 5 Part Facebook Ad Template
This template includes some of the best performing ads we’ve created for our clients in multiple industries and if you’re looking to promote your business on Facebook you’ll find it very useful.
Click here to download the free template now: 5 Part Facebook Ad Template.)
