The Executive Suite: The Latest and Greatest Website Conversion Tactics

Stellar conversion rates are a fundamental element to survival for all websites playing in the digital world. Optimizing a site to achieve the desired effect of converting a visitor into a customer, however, can be quite difficult, tedious, and time consuming. Entire departments and career paths are dedicated to conversion rate optimization, so it may leave small business owners often feeling frustrated and sometimes helpless when trying to optimize a business’s website for maximum RIO. Take heart, however, it’s not rocket science. You can do this!

There are a lot of great minds who have cracked the code of CRO and given birth to a wealth of information and tools. If you need assistance in turning visitors into lifelong customers, you’ve come to the right place. Here are 4 of today’s most modern and effective techniques for optimizing website conversions and increasing your bottom line.

Headlines Must Clearly Reflect Your Content
The headline of your website will be seen by approximately 80 percent of the people who visit, which means the headline should be optimized to convey exactly what it is your company is providing. If your headline doesn’t articulate who you are, then you are missing out on a huge chance for user engagement and conversion. Three simple and easy tactics include:

Keeping it short, sweet, and to the point. A headline that is too lengthy can deter visitors from reading about what you trying to offer. By keeping your headline simple and relevant, users can quickly absorb the information and delve deeper into the site, putting them one step closer to taking action.

Enlarging headlines. A bigger headline will tend to attract more attention, and if you’ve done the work of making this catchy and engaging, you want your visitors to take notice.

Headlines should be simple and straightforward. Be sure the message you convey is easy for consumers to understand; wittiness will do you no favors here unless it’s wrapped in total functional clarity.

Quotes from media sources or well-known people in your industry are super powerful headlines, if available. If Techcrunch has sung your praises, this is a great way to gain credibility the moment a visitor lands on your website.

Website Design and Usability are Paramount
The importance of a well-designed website with a user friendly layout cannot be stressed enough. If a website does not function properly, has calls to action that are difficult to find, or has irrelevant information on the landing page, it is sure to discourage a potential customer from continuing into a deeper dive. Eliminate these frustrating scenarios from your site by:

Ensuring the readability of your website by breaking up mundane blocks of text. People don’t normally read the entirety of your site copy, they are merely scanning it. Make this a painless process – it then allows your potential customers to ascertain the core message of your copy without needing to read every word.

Place clear calls to action (CTA) at the top of the page as this makes them highly visible and allows visitors to convert much more seamlessly. Also keep in mind that it is okay to have several CTA’ s placed throughout the site, granted that they serve the same function. This will give users constant and easy access to convert.

Optimize the relevant copy on the landing page. Do not clutter this area with confusing content, but instead focus on offering up pertinent, useful information to drive your visitors in the right direction.

Tinker with the small stuff. Play around with the different options and calls to action on your site. Often times, changing what seems like a minor detail can have a major effect. Of course, you need to be watching your site metrics very closely after each change to monitor successes and failures.

Never Stop Testing
Testing how well a site is converting guests into customers is possibly the most vital step in optimizing a website and receiving maximum ROI. After all, if you don’t know how effective a site is, how can it possibly be improved? Performing a split (or A/B) test allows you to serve up two different versions of the site to potential consumers, and track which version converts more efficiently. This will allow for the best possible version of your site to be built, ultimately increasing conversions and return on investment. A great example of this type of split testing technology would be Optimizely, currently used by Sony and Microsoft.

List Testimonials
With internet scams being so prevalent online, when a user visits a website trust is not given, it is earned. Trust is the ultimate digital currency. How can this visitor be sure that what your company is providing is trustworthy and deserving of their hard earned dollars? By adding testimonials to a website. This assures visitors that you are in fact providing a quality product or service that is recommended by others. Along with the testimonial, list the person’s name, hometown, and picture, showing that this is a real person with a real life, further instilling trust in your brand.

For a company to earn longevity in a constantly evolving digital world, conversions must be made in an effective and memorable manner. Fail to do so, and the business is sure to fail as well. By creating a well thought out, user friendly, search relevant website that is constantly being tested and measured, you are developing a solid foundation of practices to carry you and your business forth successfully into the future.