Conversions are at the heart of any business website. It is important for websites to convert their visitors in order to survive and thrive in the digital space. Without conversions, the website may fail and eventually shut down.

In this article, we will give you best practices on how to improve your online store’s conversion rate.

What is a conversion

Conversion is the process of getting visitors to perform a series of tasks that you have previously defined. There are different types of site conversions and conversion refers to converting a potential customer into a buyer. Converting a visitor to a potential customer can also be counted as a conversion and some of the most common types of conversions are:

• Converting a search engine user into a site visitor: In this case, each visit to the site is considered a conversion.
• Convert a visitor into a subscriber to a newsletter.
• Convert the newsletter recipient into a buyer.
• Converting an occasional customer into a regular customer.
• Convert a visitor into a potential customer who fills in a contact or inquiry form. In this case, the conversion overlaps with the lead, which is the initiation of a connection to a potential buyer.
• Divert a user who searches for a phone number on the site and calls.
• Submit a form or register on your site
• Download software or upgrade a subscription plan

The list of other actions that can be considered conversions is very comprehensive. So, conversion is basically the process of converting your regular website visitors into paying customers :).

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is the percentage of your total visitors that you completely convert into paying customers. So if your site receives 100 visitors, and you manage to reach 50 of them, your conversion rate will be 50%.

The higher the conversion rate, the better your site will perform.

Conversion rates are usually about 2% Just. And believe it or not, a 2 percent conversion rate for a website is actually pretty good. Most websites have a conversion rate of only 0.2%. This means that they can only convert 2 people out of 1000 visitors.

So, how can a site owner improve the conversion rate? Here are some best practices for improving your conversion rate.

Include testimonials and reviews

Before people buy a product or take advantage of a service, they will usually try to look for recommendations or reviews about the quality of the product or service. This is normal because no one really wants to be the first person to try a product or service.

Therefore, providing testimonials and reviews about your products and services can assure your visitors that what you offer is of good quality.

Testimonials and reviews are powerful in converting your visitors because they also get an idea of ​​how your offerings work, what people think, and how well your site handles customer concerns.

In addition, this practice also helps you build trust and gain more loyal customers.

Enhance your CTAs

Call-to-action (CTAs) are vital in converting your website visitors. Some of the most popular calls to action are “register”, “start trial” and “click here”. When people see CTAs, it’s like asking you to do the actions you want them to do.

Improving your CTAs isn’t just about putting a lot of CTAs on your copy. You need to choose the words you will use depending on your target audience. You won’t want to confuse your visitors about what you want them to do.

For example, if your e-commerce site is focused on selling shoes or clothing, you should try to avoid using call-to-action phrases such as “Get started now” or “Take advantage of our service.” The reason behind this is that putting it in your content wouldn’t really make any sense.

So to make sure your CTAs are effective, you need to align them with the purpose of your business. For companies that focus on delivering software, you can try calling-to-action such as “Start your free trial” or “Sign up now!”

One of the most common tactics used by most digital marketers is the use of the word “yes.”

The use of this word gives users a positive psychological effect. An example of a CTA with this word is “Yes, I want to sign up!”

If you want to know the performance of your CTAs, you just need to use tools that give you an idea of ​​which CTAs on your website are generating the most engagement. You can also define calls to action that are not clicked and check them which makes them ineffective.

Remember that optimized calls to action are more effective than just using generic ones in your copy.

Avoid placing distractions on your web pages

When people come to your web pages, your primary goal should be to convert them. But how do you do that if there are distractions that draw them to other sites on your website?

Your landing page should not contain any pop-ups and internal links that lead to your other web pages. Your landing pages should be easy to navigate, clear and give what users are asking for. The rule of thumb is that if it doesn’t contribute to the conversion, skipping it will be your best option.

To give you an idea of ​​what to put on your landing pages, here’s a list of important items:

• Headings and subheadings
• Benefits and features of products and services
• Social proofs such as testimonials, reviews, trust icons, and data/numbers
• Pictures of your products and services
• live chat box
• Educational or promotional videos

Consider using pop-ups

Pop-ups are useful for directing users to important pages such as landing pages or sign-up forms. Remember that choosing the right popup for your website is difficult. That’s why you need to use a trial and error methodology when choosing.

Different target audiences prefer different popups, so you need to try several offers until such time as the popups convert a large portion of your site visitors. Your offers can be a newsletter subscription, PDF downloads, links to premium content, or other products on your site.

Here are some best practices when placing pop-ups on your website:

• Set the timer before the popup appears. Usually 30 seconds is the delay layer before the popup appears.
• Don’t make it difficult for users to close popups.
• Use cookies to prevent pop-ups from appearing more than once per user.
• Make sure that your popup website won’t disturb your visitors.

If you follow these basic practices, you can increase conversions from popups and you won’t receive many complaints due to popups.

Optimize your forms to improve conversion rate

Your forms play an important role in achieving conversions for your website. Users usually skip forms if they find that there are too many required fields.

You may not know this, but redundant fields in a form are among the most important factors causing conversion rates. So, if you plan to have the user fill out a form, make sure to remove unnecessary fields and leave only the most important fields.

When creating a form and thinking about the required information, keep in mind that the form should be easy to understand and complete and that the information you request will be used to provide equal or more value to your users.

However, you also need to think about your internal team. Without enough information, it will be difficult for them to strike a deal with the leads. So finding a balance between the number of information required from users and the information required for the closing team is critical.

For example, if you’re running a real estate business, you don’t really need to ask people to provide unnecessary information like a family member’s name. Right? But if you run a cake shop that serves custom cakes, a family member’s name is required because you’ll need to put the celebrity’s name on the cake.

Basically, if you know the field isn’t necessary, just remove it.

Make the initial step simple

When trying to convert users, you need to remember that you need to take simple steps. Take the conversion process slowly so that your chances of fully converting the user are higher.

If you are aiming to obtain some important information from them (contact number or email address), you should not request additional information with them. For example, you can just put “Enter your email address to find out more about our offer”. in a simple form.

This is more effective because the user will not put much effort into entering their email address. So, there is a good chance that they will do what you ask. From here, you can send them an email where you will explain what you are offering and ask for more information.

If they fill out the following form, that’s fine, but if they don’t, that’s fine. You still have their email and can use it when sending future offers. The simpler your steps, the greater the chance that your visitors will take action and finish the whole process.

Add more convenient registration service to improve conversion rate

Have you tried registering on a website and when the form loads, you see that there are options where you can register with your Facebook, Google, or other accounts?

These are third-party registration services that make it easy for your visitors to register on your site. As we said earlier, the simpler the step, the higher the chance of a visitor converting.

This is why incorporating these most convenient ways of signing up on your website can be a good idea.

Quickly improve your conversion rate

Optimizing your conversion rate doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need to follow basic and effective practices in doing so. Sticking to simpler practices can sometimes be better than implementing complex strategies that may not even work. So, if you are aiming to increase your conversion rate, just stick to the tried and tested practices.

Conversion rate optimization plays an important role when it comes to online business offers. Ultimately, website optimization is all about receiving as many qualified traffic as possible. This makes traffic generation the first and essential component of conversion rate optimization. In the second step, the existing content must convince the visitor to make a conversion.

In the end, other factors play a role if visitor and conversions are to be improved:

• Download speed: The faster the website loads, the better the user experience. Likewise, the longer a visitor stays on a website, the more likely that visitor will convert.
• Content Marketing: Placing qualified leads is important for improving your conversion rate. The better the content meets the user’s intent, the more likely the user will make a conversion.
• phrase Calls to action: If website visitors are called to action (or a “call to action”), the likelihood that they will take the required action increases. This means that a call like “Buy Now” or “Download Study Now” can create an action.
• Safe and straightforward shopping cart operations: In e-commerce, the shopping cart process is one of the most difficult areas of the customer journey. In this journey, the customer must disclose his/her personal data as well as payment details. The higher the level of trust in the site and the simpler the whole process, the more likely the customer will make a purchase (in this case a conversion). As a result, online retailers place great emphasis on improving the conversion rate during the checkout process.
• A/B tests: A/B testing is the practice of testing one or more similar landing pages against each other. The differences between pages are usually limited to one or two items. Pages A and B are then asked to “compete” against each other with the highest converting page declared the winner. From there the process continues.

conversion measurement tools

Conversion can be measured using a web analysis tool such as Google Analytics. To track purchases, you must first set up e-commerce tracking. Otherwise, “targets” can be specified in the backend of the program. It is also possible to monitor “events”. If a Google Analytics account is linked to a Google Ads account, the goals can be considered as conversions in ads. With advertising software, further conversions such as calls or submitting a contact form can also be generated. To this end, a separate tracking code must usually be added to the source code of the target page.