Generating a hefty amount of traffic for your website is one thing. Encouraging the users to convert (buy your product, fill the form, you name it) – is something else entirely.
THE TALE OF THE CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION
Significant traffic means that your on-site and off-site elements are pretty much in a good enough shape, but something has to change to raise those selling aspects. When you see many page views that do not reflect in sales metrics, it’s time to look for conversion optimization!
Think of yourself as a detective in pursuit of the cause of poor sales.
THE PLOT
Your website is how people perceive you and your product, and a first impression is a one-time deal. Think of on-page content as how you introduce yourself to your client. It starts in SERP, where they see your website, among many others just like yours. Something made them click it; they came to visit you but didn’t buy; it means something on-site scared them off or made them think it’s not worth spending their hard-earned cash here.
To make matters worse, Google Algorithm has its criteria of ranking pages too. If on-page content is of low quality and usability, or there’s no content at all, you will not be visible. Without visibility, there is no conversion to point out.
THE CLUES
Let’s face it - an ugly website layout could impact the users’ experience drastically. Unless they need your product badly & you’re their only “hope,” they will not convert. For example, did you know that the red call to action “button” outperformed the green button by 21%, according to the HubSpot case study? Sure, red color means stop, but apparently, it also increases traffic to the page to see improved results. And green? Well, it wasn’t that apparent as it looked. Worry not, though – our talented team of graphic designers would help you figure out the best design possible for your particular service or product.
THE WITNESS
Your client doesn’t have time to learn how to use your site and where things are. They don’t care about you or your business. The fewer steps your client has to take to make a buy, the more likely they do it. Say your site’s navigation is hostile and clunky. Your conversion rate will drop if there is much inconvenient scrolling back and forth. Everything has to be crystal clear. You are here for them - not the other way around. Customers will appreciate you handing your product to them on a silver plate.
THE CLIMAX
In 2020, Google stated that they want to pay closer attention to user experience. Their algorithm will analyze the user’s behavior on your site and decide whether they were satisfied or not. We don’t have to tell you what happens if the user is not happy.
Everything has to be perfect. The on-site perfection will not guarantee an automatic conversion rate increase, but it will ensure that the user experience is not the cause of low ratings.
Hence the work on user experience never stops. It’s a necessary evil, so to speak!
HOW TO APPROACH ALL THAT?
• Define your Goal - it has to be measurable and within reach. A simple statement like: “I want to sell more” will not do;
• Set a Target Conversion Rate - it will tell you if the methods are working or not in the long run;
• Current Situation Analysis - examine your traffic, competition, customer journey, tough spots, social targets, to name but a few;
• Problem Identification and Solutions - the previous point will reveal the issues, while we could prepare you a list of possible solutions if needed;
• Testing - you have to monitor changes to determine whether the actions are giving results or not;
• Changes Implementation - the solutions that gave good results during the test phase should become a standard for your company. The ineffective ones - changed.
THE DEDUCTION METHOD (TESTING)
In conversion optimization, specific actions couldn’t guarantee an automatic improvement. Every tiny detail has to be considered, as even small things like the location of the “BUY” button can be crucial, resulting in a 0.5% conversion rate. Sure, it doesn’t look much, but it depends on scale, does it? If you have ten visitors monthly, it’ll be barely noticeable. If you have million unique visitors, suddenly it becomes a number to count on.
To illustrate, we have conducted A/B tests that were supposed to give us data on which version of the service guarantees the highest sales. The A/B test relied on comparing two versions of the same website to ultimately choose the one that’s better at achieving set goals.
During the test, we have selected two selling sub-pages, with a hypothesis:
⊗ The change in the placement of the elements on the website will increase the conversion.
The number of buying orders was chosen as a measurable target to determine which website version is more effective.
THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST SUB-PAGE VERSION
Original - the probability of scoring the highest results - 17%
New Design - the probability of scoring the highest results - 83%
THE RESULTS OF THE SECOND SUB-PAGE
Original - the probability of scoring the highest results - 26%
New Design - the probability of scoring the highest results 74%
AN APPENDIX
After running the tests, the hypothesis that we made before confirmed itself. The simplification of the purchase process and sub-pages placement resulted in an improved conversion rate. There was a necessity to scroll down in the original version’s web page to make an order. The new version guaranteed a fluent process of making an order without returning it to the website’s top.
Every change has to be tested and verified if it brought a positive, a negative result, or no result whatsoever. It might not matter much for small, start-up companies, but it’s a matter of life and death for established brands!
