10 Proven Ways to Increase Website Conversions for Small Businesses
Almost every small business sets up its website to attract visitors with the aim of boosting website conversions. However, converting website visitors requires strategy and effort. From creating a responsive and well-designed website that projects a positive brand image to publishing consistent and valuable content and optimizing the website for search, lots of effort goes into optimizing a website to generate conversions.
Consequently, improving the conversion rate has a ripple effect. In addition to increasing sales, it helps lower customer acquisition costs and increases revenue per visitor while growing your customer base.
In this post, we share ten proven ways your small business can implement to increase website conversions.
1. Social proof
Social proof is a powerful strategy for converting more prospects. It relies on the psychological concept that one is more likely to conform to other people's actions by assuming their actions reflect the correct behavior. For instance, if an influencer shares a video using one of your products, their followers may be more inclined to try the product under the notion that your brand is credible.
There are many types of social proof, including customer reviews, celebrity endorsements, certifications, case studies, etc. For example, statistics indicate that most people search for reviews before purchasing a product. Actually, most of them trust customer testimonials as much as recommendations from other sources.
With tools such as Trustpilot, Capterra, G2, TripAdvisor, etc., you can quickly gather customer reviews and then publish them on your site to win your visitors' trust. For best results, ensure you add the reviews to pages with relevant content.
2. Social Media Links
In addition to engaging your followers, social media content can help boost your SEO. Sharing valuable content with your followers sends links to the search engines, which can direct relevant traffic to your website.
Identify your social channels with the highest engagement and focus on sharing high-quality content with your followers. Besides growing your social presence, you should also expect a build-up in organic traffic over time.
3. About Page
Whenever a visitor interacts with your website and likes the experience (maybe after reading an insightful piece of content or viewing an enticing offer on a landing page), the next inclination is always to check your about page to learn more about you and decide whether they want to do business with you.
In other words, failing to create an about page can lead to missed opportunities. At the same time, the page information should be clear and concise but provide the essential details to help the visitor get a vivid picture of the company. Include information such as;
Brief company history (brand story)
Business ownership
Size of the business
Value proposition
Core values
4. Differentiate Yourself
Most businesses face stiff competition in their market. Similar providers are putting out their A-game to win the same pool of customers. To increase conversions through your website, you have to differentiate yourself from your competitors by positioning yourself.
For example, you need to understand the customers who love your product/service. One way of doing this is by finding out why they prefer you over others. You can run a survey either on your website or via email, asking them why they choose you and what they like about doing business with you. The information should help you refine your overall marketing strategy and create clear brand messages that resonate with the ideal customers to generate more website conversions.
5. Guide the User
Your homepage should be a magnet that captivates your visitors' interest and navigates them to the relevant page with strong and clear calls to action. For new visitors, the homepage creates the first impression; hence it should not be cluttered. At the very basic, the homepage should have a simple headline, primary calls to action (above the fold), a bulleted list of benefits of doing business with you, and a social proof section.
You could also include secondary calls to action below the fold for those visitors who are not ready to transact with you yet. For instance, you could offer them a free downloadable resource or ask them to subscribe to your newsletter.
6. Exit-Intent Popups
Popups are annoying. However, used strategically, they can net prospects who may have otherwise been lost, allowing you to nurture them to conversion. Using exit-intent popups is a genius way of catching abandoning traffic and getting them to engage further with your brand.
Usually, the exit popup does not interfere with the customer experience as it shows up when they're about to leave. You can use the exit-intent popup to engage the prospect through;
A discount code or coupon
Free eBook/guide download
A survey
Link to a case study or testimonials
7. Secondary Conversion
Strong primary calls to action are essential in generating conversions. However, creating secondary conversion opportunities helps engage prospects who are not ready to convert yet. For instance, assuming you offer website hosting services and a visitor comes to your website to learn more about your plans and features. If the visitor is not ready to purchase the service yet, they're likely to leave after reading the information they were looking for.
As there's no guarantee they will come back, you can avoid losing them by strategically placing a secondary call to action on the page. This could be an offer to download an eBook or guide. Once they provide their email, you can nurture them further, e.g., by sending them a hosting plan discount.
8. Specific Landing Pages
Landing pages have high conversion potential because they are very specific in their goal. As a result, they help a prospect remain focused on the page's goal.
Creating landing pages to capture prospects with high intent can quickly boost your website conversions. For example, you can optimize product/service pages for local search using long-tail keywords. Consider including location name in the keywords to attract customers searching for local businesses as local queries tend to have a higher buying intent.
9. Shorten Forms
Shorter forms attract higher submissions. For example, a two-field form will likely get you more subscribers than a four-field form. While a prospect who is interested in your offer may not mind filling a three-field form, the likelihood of abandoning the offer increases as the form gets longer.
Besides, you can always get more information later once the visitor enters your list. With dynamic forms, you can collect additional information much more easily, as the system automatically fills out the data you already have in your CRM, only requiring the prospect to provide the extra information.
10. Speed Your Website Conversions Up
Website speed plays a crucial role in website conversions. If your pages load too slowly, prospects will likely abandon your site no matter how interested they're in completing your calls to action. In a study on the impact of page speed on conversion rate, pages that took 2.4 seconds to load had a 1.9% conversion rate, and the rate dropped as the loading speed decreased, with those taking 5.7+ seconds only getting a 0.6% conversion rate.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website conversions has a ripple effect. Besides increasing sales, it lowers customer acquisition costs, grows the customer base, and ultimately boosts the bottom line. Start implementing the strategies we have shared above and watch your conversions build up over time.
Meanwhile, remember that Siguro is here to help your business grow faster. Book a call if you need assistance with web design, SEO strategy, or building your e-commerce store.
