Having a website is vital when you run a business, but just having a website isn’t enough; you need to make it really work for you. Websites can do a lot, such as make your business feel more legitimate and trustworthy and help you to stand out from your competition, as well as actually make you money through having an eCommerce site. However, none of this will be very useful if your website visitors don’t convert into customers.
The ultimate goal of your website should be to convert visitors into paying customers, and there are a variety of different techniques and ideas you can put into practice to make that happen. With that in mind, keep reading to find out what some of them are.
1. A Great Design
One way to ensure you get more conversions from your website is to think carefully about the design and make sure that it is an attractive one. It should be simple and clutter-free, with well-organized sections that are easy to find and read once people have clicked through to them.
It’s important to have a consistent brand identity that runs through your website as well. This should be the same as the branding you use for your vehicles, paperwork, uniforms, marketing, and anything else that needs branding on it. If there is no consistency, people will be unsure whether they have found the right website, and they might feel less trusting in your business. If everything matches, it will be easier for them to form a good opinion of you and to understand what your business is about and how it operates.
2. Quick Load Times
When the internet was new and websites were less important – or at least not expected as much as they are now – slow loading times were the norm. You would click onto a website and sometimes have to wait a few minutes for all the images and information to appear, and because we didn’t know any different, we didn’t complain.
Today, however, thanks to advances in technology and better internet connections, a slow website is something that people will definitely not want to experience. They want the information to appear immediately, and for images to be there and not slowly load up as they wait. When they click on a link, they want to move to that new page right away, not some moments or even minutes later.
Therefore, you need to make sure that your website loads quickly. Make everything simple and optimize images so they are not too big – the larger they are, the longer it takes them to load. In this way, people won’t lose patience and go to a competitor instead.
3. Optimize For Mobile Devices
More and more people are using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices to access the internet and to browse websites. A lot of the time, they will prefer this method to using a laptop computer. Therefore, you need to make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices.
If you can do this, people will be happy to use your site and won’t find it a chore to navigate it through their mobile devices. Rather than waiting until later to look at your site when they are at home and using their laptops – something they might forget to do – they can buy from you immediately; this will bring you a lot more sales and conversions.
4. Add Accessibility Overlays
Accessibility overlays are tools that help make websites more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities. By implementing accessibility overlays on your website, businesses can not only improve the user experience for all visitors but also increase conversion rates. It’s important to understand overlay facts before you start adding these to your site, as in this way, you can really make the most of what they can do for you and how they could increase your conversions.
Some of the ways that overlays can work include ensuring that your website will work well with screen readers. Screen readers are tools that help those who are visually impaired access content on websites more easily. You can also make sure there is alt (or alternative) text included for images – this is something a screen reader can pick up on, and it’s also good for SEO purposes.
Overlays can also help people increase text size if they need it so they can read your content better, and those who are color-blind will often find overlays useful if it means they can make what they are looking at more comfortable and readable.
5. Give Clear Instructions
A website that is hard to use is always going to have problems when it comes to conversions. Whether it’s a lack of time or patience, confusion, or a feeling of frustration, the fact is that if your website is hard to use, people will go elsewhere, and you’ll lose a sale.
One thing that’s crucial to do is to give clear instructions. You might assume that your website is easy to use, but even if it is, giving people instructions to follow will help with conversions. For example, adding a call to action (CTA) at the end of an informational blog post increases conversions; people will know precisely what to do, and if there is a link to click to get to the right page to make a purchase or an inquiry, that’s even better.
By clearly displaying the steps involved in making a purchase that you want your customers to follow, you stand a much better chance of conversion.
6. Personalize Your Messaging
It’s worthwhile considering how to personalize the message you give to your customers. In this way, they will feel more positive towards you and that will make them happier to buy from you. Plus, if you ensure you tailor your content to address their pain points and problems and give them a solution, you’ll find you make more sales.
You can take this idea further and send out newsletters and emails with personalized discounts, offers, and recommendations. This will help potential customers engage with you and they will come to your site with a specific purchase in mind, making it much more likely they will follow through.
