3 Simple Fixes to Improve Website Conversion Rates

You already have a website. It’s a few years old and conversions are not where you would like them to be, but you can’t quite justify a full-scale redesign. It’s time to think about a few band-aids – short term fixes to get you through the next year or two while you save up for that nice new website and marketing strategy from your friends here at Waypost. Here are three simple ways to increase your conversions on an existing website.

1. Replace your image rotator with a single call to action.

The data is in and image carousels often have a negative impact on conversion. This is primarily due to visitors not hanging around on your home page long enough to see more than one slide. It’s time to focus that valuable home page real estate in three easy steps.

1. Tell people what you do.
2. Invite them to learn more about your process or mission.
3. Start them on your (designed) sales funnel.

We’ll discuss this further in future posts here at Waypost. But let’s keep this train rolling. . .

2. Reword your CTAs.

This will sound silly to some, but you may be missing conversions because your buttons are saying the wrong thing. Consider this Honda Fit commercial and compare it with this Lincoln commercial. They both advertise vehicles, but not in the same way. It’s called psychological distance and it’s extremely important. We don’t have a ton of time to break it down here but the bottom line is that you need to use the words that will inspire your specific audience to act (read: convert). So when you are adding that donate button for your next charity fundraiser at the yacht club, try “help us make a difference” or “build a better tomorrow” and stay away from “donate now”. To help you on your way, check out this article on Entrepreneur.com. And lastly. . .

3. Remove distractions from your sales funnel.

Distractions come in many shapes and sizes. We already mentioned those extra slides in your image rotator, but sometimes distractions are more deceptive. Are you active in engaging your clients on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube? If not, you can probably kill those icons in your header (and make sure to add social media to your new marketing strategy when you’re ready). Avoid unnecessary animation and make sure that the biggest and loudest links on your home page are sales funnel related. If you have analytics installed on your site, check there first to see what the biggest distractions are for your home page visitors.

Wrapping it up. . .

Band-aids are great for quick boosts in conversion, but if you are looking for better long term results you will need to plan ahead. A comprehensive marketing strategy goes a long way to ensure that your website is your most productive employee. When you’re ready to take that leap, drop us a line.