As a small business owner, nothing stings more than a customer walking into your store, browsing for a few minutes, and then leaving without saying a word or buying anything. Did you know that this kind of thing might be happening on your website every single day?
If you’re not careful, it can be easy to accidentally build a website encouraging more window shopping than actual shopping. To increase conversion rates and start making connections with potential customers, follow these simple tips for better website design.
Connect Your Call to Action Directly to a Signup Form
A call to action is meant to get your customers to act on your business in some way (a wild concept, right?). Whether signing up for your email list, going to a particular product page, or following a link to your latest sale, the call to action should prompt your customer to do something specific. To increase conversion rates, put as few steps as possible between your customer seeing the call to action and taking that action. Just like no one wants to read an essay about your experience in that Italian restaurant you visited during your semester abroad before they get to the lasagna recipe, no one wants to have to click through six web pages before they finally find the product you told them to, “Buy now!”
When you put your call to action in the header of the homepage of your website, that makes it one of the first things your customers will see when they visit your site. Take advantage of that positioning by linking directly to a contact page or, better yet, using a signup form as your call to action. This makes customers more likely to give you their information as the first action they take on your website, and, as we know, information is power.
Good positioning and accessibility aren’t everything, though. You also have to make sure your call to action clearly communicates what you want your customers to do. Customers come to your website to get information, not solve a riddle. If you want them to fill out a contact form, tell them to fill out a contact form! “Sign up for our email list below” or “Click here to get in touch” tells the customer exactly what action to take so they don’t have to think they can just do.
Keep Your Call to Action Above the Fold
That’s it. That’s the tweet. Keep your call to action above the fold.
“That’s great!” you’re probably saying. “I’ll do that! Quick question, though: What’s the fold?” The fold is the cutoff point of a web page after it first loads. In other words, it’s everything you can see on a website without having to scroll down. It’s important to feature your most valuable calls to action above the fold because, let’s be honest, how often do you actually scroll through a web page if you don’t find what you need right away?
The simplest way to increase conversion rates on your website is to make each step of the conversion process easy to find and easy to complete. Putting essential calls to action above the fold (in the header, for example, as mentioned above) checks both boxes. They’re the first things your customers will see, so they’re easy to find, and they direct your customers to a clear action that’s easy to complete. Two birds with one stone and all that.
Use Images
If there’s one thing elementary school taught us, it’s that it’s important to both show and tell. To increase conversion rates on your website, don’t just tell your customers what to do. Show them why they should do it.
Pair calls to action and explanatory text with images of your business in action! Showing off a few smiling faces from satisfied customers goes a long way toward showing potential customers the experience they can expect when they choose your product or service. Text can offer information, but images convey emotion, and those emotions really are worth a thousand words when you’re trying to convince customers of the value of your business (which is great because you can’t fit a thousand words on your website anyway).
For bonus points, don’t forget to optimize your photos to keep your website running quickly and smoothly, which will help your SEO ranking. That helps people find your website, creates a more pleasant user experience, and gives your customers a glimpse into what it’s like to work with you.
Looking for more tips on how to increase conversion rates on your website? Get in touch with GreenCup Digital so we can help! Our team of digital marketing experts has a utility belt packed with all the tools they need to help you build your best internet presence. Let’s grab a coffee (or a beer) so we can learn how best to meet your online needs!
