When business owners discover their website is not generating the revenue they expected, many will think a new website design with increased visual appeal, easier navigation, and more consumer-friendly content will make the difference. While these types of website redesigns are critical to reducing friction points that can reduce website volume, they really don't directly address why customers aren't following through on actions that lead to sales.
Focusing your efforts on CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) can be one of the most beneficial things you can invest in for your site when revenue is stagnant.
Conversion rate is a statistic which indicates how many of your website visitors are clicking through on actions that are presented on a website. These actions can include customers requesting a service quote, signing up for a newsletter, or adding an item to their shopping cart.
When your conversion rates are optimized, web page performance is enhanced and there is an increased rate of traffic being converted to sales or other actions. CRO challenges present differently than issues caused by a lack of SEO. With good SEO, old and new clients continue to find and open your business page, but with ineffective CRO you will experience a high bounce rate or visitors navigating away after visiting only one or two pages.
Improving CRO Can Impact A Company
CRO is also considered a marketing optimization strategy, where your end goal is to get more customers to make a purchase. It directly impacts your revenue, because increased conversion volume equals increased sales. When a user lands on your site you have only a few seconds to influence them! By adding both engaging content and conversion opportunities, you offer users a better digital experience along with plenty of opportunities to interact further with your site or directly with your business.
Website clicks that lead to customer actions and a possible sale should never be hard to find on your site. Websites that are optimized to increase the conversion rate will have multiple CTAs (call to action) or conversion points throughout the site. Consider adding these tricks to your website to improve conversion rates:
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- Above the Fold: Put important information on the upper half of the web page where the user will not have to scroll down to find. This prime real estate gets the most attention from website viewers.
- Calls to Action: Create prompts for the user to take some form of action. Calls to action can include clickable buttons or hyperlinks such as a free quote, learn more here, sign up now, add to wishlist, buy now, or share on social media. The CTA encourages users to engage with your site.
- Live Chat or Help Box: This will increase your customer's trust in your online services and adds value to the website. Customers consider live chat to be more convenient than calling a customer service number.
- Messaging Features: These features improve communication between the customer and the business. Instead of frustrated customers bouncing away from your web page, they have an opportunity to interact - to get help or more information. A business that is ready to resolve issues and answer questions is of value to the customer.
- Calculator or Quote Tools: These enhance the customer experience. Website users enjoy seeing real-time numbers that directly affect their purchasing decisions. It saves them time and can be a perfect way to convert skeptical clients to seek your services.
Keep in mind, simplicity is key to fixing conversion rate problems. A simple message with simple images and clear calls to action will do more to convert customers than a page that is difficult to navigate or has too much information.
Useful CRO Tools to Consider
Lucky Orange - Offers insight into your site's usability by gathering customer feedback on ways to improve your website. Real website visitors are polled and videotaped demonstrating why they chose not to convert, which gives you valuable insight into CRO problems. Lucky Orange has multiple price entries from $10 to $100 per month.
CrazyEgg - Founded by website development and optimization guru, Neil Patel, it offers a way to improve your website to get more click-throughs. The software analyzes your customer’s user experience with A/B testing and heat maps to analyze how users are engaging on your website. Prices range from $29 per month to $189 per month.
Hotjar - A powerful tool that looks at the online behavior of your customers using both feedback and analysis tools. It aims to provide the "big picture" including usability issues such as mouse movements, visitor clicks, and mobile taps. Hotjar is priced by plans, starting at 20,000 page views per day for $89 per month.
Contact us at Neon Rain to discuss how our team of specialists can help in designing interactive websites and custom software development to improve eCommerce and business/service websites.