Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).
When working on promoting your website, it is so easy to get pre-occupied with drawing in more traffic that you overlook the type of traffic you are attracting. We have been to a lot of consultations lately where we have seen continual improvement in website traffic but have moved the conversation towards Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).
For some industries, conversion rates are of a lesser concern, though shouldn’t be, due to them having huge search volumes and visits. For other industries, it’s a constant fight for the top spots because the search volume is a lot lower.
Either way it is important to get the most from the visitors to your website.
This will, in turn, increase conversion rates and will also allow you to re-visit areas such as Keywords and analysing the cross-section of visitors to your site.
So, here are some tips to improve your CRO:
Keyword, Ad and Meta Optimisation
Keywords
Before you start considering low conversion rates on your website, it makes perfect sense to consider the type of visitor coming to your website. The perfect starting point for this is the Keywords your website is ranking for. Run through your Keywords and consider the type of person that might use them. Whilst doing this, utilise your Analytics account, visit the pages that are optimised for those keywords and analyse the data. Data such as high bounce rates, Avg. time on site etc.
Beware of phrases that attract, both, ideal prospects but also irrelevant visitors. Sometimes you must “bite the bullet” and use keywords that bring in both. A good example of this is when optimising for general phrases such as “Anti Slip Tape”. This can bring in both researchers and prospects.
Ads and Meta Data
This is where you manage expectations and try to filter out the visits you don’t want. Use your Ads and meta data to entice the type of visitor you want, and to discourage the visitors that you don’t want. So, if you are a manufacturer you would steer clear of informational phrases such as Learn How To, What Is. You would work with Manufacturer, Supplier, Trade etc. which allows the searcher to see what you are before clicking.
However, you will still get people clicking on your ads and organic listings without reading the Ads (yes it happens more than you think!).
Also, managing expectations is a key area to work on here. You want your ads and organic listings to mirror your site content to a certain degree. Don’t write ads promoting a 30% offer then not mention that offer on the page. Try to have the same message the Ads was portraying near the top of the on-page content.
On-Page Content
As we have mentioned time and time again. The content must be unique, interesting and relevant. It is no different for Conversion Optimisation. It is still important to write the content based on the Audience you want to read it.
On-Page Conversion Optimisation
This is generally known as Landing Page Optimisation. Before designing a page or when optimising a page, you should also work with what you expect from the visitor to the page. It is easy to concentrate too much on the SEO of the page, ahead of ensuring the visitor has a good experience. SEO is both. You need good quality content on pages but you also need to give your visitors a good experience.
Call To Action (CTA)
When working on Conversion Optimisation you need to work more on the level of conversion. Normally there will be one main conversion such as an enquiry or Sale. However, there are smaller conversions that will also be used, also known and Micro or Mini Conversions – these are subscriptions, downloads, Playing Videos etc. Normally these are there to start Lead Nurturing for those at the early stages of the buying cycle.
The key to success with On-Page Conversion Optimisation is to use different CTA for Conversion depending on their importance. Prominently placed CTA with the use of bold colours would benefit Sales/Enquiry type conversions. Where In-Content, Footer and Sidebar CTA can promote Subscriptions, Videos etc.
Keep It Clean
With all the content and CTA you can work with, it is equally important to keep your pages clean and as clutter free as possible. Don’t get too obsessed with converting every visitor in some way or another. It is more important to focus more on the important ones and keep your website clean and professional.
Responsive Design
We all know that people are using different devices to visit websites. We also know the importance of Responsive design.
It is important to have good CTA on Mobiles as it is on Desktops. However, you may want to change the focus more on the mobile CTA. Think more about the type of visitor on a mobile compared with that of the desktop. How serious are they about a sale? How much time do they have? etc. You may want to reduce how prominent the Sale/Enquiry CTA is on a mobile and be more focussed on Subscriptions, Videos etc. to generate more interest.
Trust
A huge part of acquiring a conversion is trust. You need to build credibility and trust with visitors through your website. This is done through website design, features, reviews, testimonials and more.
If you combine a professional website design with the items above you will not go far wrong.
However, there are also tools to allow trust through 3rd party websites such as Reviews of your products and services. Some examples of these can be found at https://www.reviews.co.uk/, https://en.business.feefo.com/ but there are many more.
Test, Test, Test
Never be happy with your website. There is always work to be done. Once you have run through everything above, collect data and run through it again. It’s like any other marketing, a continuous cycle of improvement.
