Some people believe that optimizing your website conversion rate has to involve a lot of rigorous A/B testing and experimentation.
While this is a good long term strategy, there are some basic things that will boost your conversion rates immediately.
Below are 5 things will improve your websites user experience
- Site speed. One thing that drives high bounce rates is a slow loading website. It’s a big turnoff for users. Search engines also consider this when calculating quality scores. If your quality scores are poor, this can actually increase your bid price for PPC keywords. Google provides this free tool to check your site speed. I highly recommend that you do this.
- A testimonial above the fold. This is a big deal especially if you are driving cold traffic to your site. In most cases, new users aren’t going to know you from Adam. Having a testimonial above the fold will improve your credibility. The testimonial doesn’t have to be fancy, just having a basic testimonial is always better than none.
- Payment symbols. This is important for eCommerce sites. Customers like to see payment icons such as AMEX, VISA, DISCOVER, ETC… This gives a more professional feel to the site. People trust these companies and will in- turn trust you a little more.
- Awards. Customers like to know that you have accomplished something. Awards are an effective way to validate your services. This can separate you from your competitors. If possible, link the awards badges to a separate page on your site that is all about the awards you have won.
- Secure icons and trust seals. Most people are leary about giving up their information especially if they feel like the site isn’t secure or credible. Adding the classic padlock icon under the form and secure trust symbols will help improve your opt-in rate and overall conversion rate. Another suggestion is having a small amount of verbiage under the form letting customers know that you won’t share their information with third parties. Just adding this verbiage can go along way.
Optimizing your website and landing pages is an ongoing process. As you implement these changes we recommend that you benchmark how your site performs before the changes versus after the changes. We have no doubt that implementing these best practices will make a difference in your conversion rates.