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3 Website Improvements That Will Increase Your Conversion Rate

No matter what industry you are in, you need an effective business website. Statistics say that 70-80% of consumers research a business online before buying from them.

Your website serves as your online headquarters. It ties together all your online profiles, sets you apart from the competition, and increases your conversion rate.

It is the only corner of the digital space that is truly under your control. Social media platforms come and go, and algorithms change on a regular basis. Strategies that are effective on social media today may not work tomorrow.

There are hundreds of articles online, and the amount of available information can be overwhelming. In this blog post, we will discuss the “foundation” needed for a website that increases your conversion rate.

Let’s get started.

Create quality content.

Your Brand Message

Imagine clicking on a website and being bombarded with information as soon as it loads. You have a hard time finding anything useful, because there are too many paragraphs and images.

Instead of wasting your time looking for information, you will most likely leave and proceed to the next search result.

Make your brand message clear to users the second they click on your website. Summarise what your business does in as few words as possible. How can you make people’s lives better? What problems do you solve for them?

10x Content

If you do a bit of digital marketing research, you have most likely heard of “quality content.” It is a term that has been so overused that it has become meaningless.

Creating quality content is not enough anymore. In the early days of the Internet, people created quality content to stand out online. Everyone then started creating quality content, making it harder to get found online than ever.

Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz, coined the term 10x content. It is basically taking quality content creation to the next level. You research what is already ranking in search engines, and you strategise how to create something better.

For example, the top search engine results for your keyword of choice contains ten tips. Create something fifteen, twenty or even fifty tips. You expound on the points the original post failed to cover and add even more valuable information.

Update your layout.

Creating quality content is important, but you have to ensure it is presented in an engaging, easy-to-use manner. According to a survey, 88% of users will not return to a website after a negative experience.

Navigation

Your website navigation could make or break your conversion rate.

If your navigation is confusing, users will not find the information they need and leave right away. If users leave right away, this will tell search engines that your content is not valuable. Not only will you lose potential clients, your ranking in search engine results will also drop.

This is why putting a lot of thought into your website navigation is of the utmost importance.

Take a look at your current navigation, and see if you can make some improvements. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are all the pages in your website navigation necessary?
• Are there pages you can remove, add or replace?
• Is your navigation accessible from each page on your website?

Aside from how your navigation is organisation, examine how you label and name your web pages. Standing out from the competition is usually a good thing but not in this instance. Use generic names for your navigation labels, because they are what users are familiar with.

If you want to see an example of excellent website navigation, take a look at thredUP. They are a website that allows users to buy and sell secondhand clothing.

thredUp’s website navigation proves they know their target audience. Instead of adding links to pages about their business and history, their main navigation bar contains links to product catalogues sorted by type.

If a user looking for a handbag goes to thredUP’s website, she will be able to see the link leading to their handbag product catalogue at one glance.

Their navigation sets them apart from their competitors. They understand that users coming to their website are already in a “purchasing” mindset, and the navigation speeds up the process.

Speed up your website.

Like your navigation, website speed can have a huge impact on your conversion rate and SEO.

A recent survey says that 53% of visitors will leave your website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Instead of waiting for your website, they can simply leave and visit your competitor’s website.

In mid-2018, Google rolled out its Speed Update. It made page speed a major ranking factor in mobile search engine results.

For example, Website A and Website B published blog posts on the same topic. Both posts have roughly the same word count and use similar images. The only difference is, Website A loads faster. Due to the Speed Update, Website A has higher chances of ranking in search engine results.

Yes, excellent content is still vital for digital marketing success, but it needs to go hand-in-hand with website speed.

If you are unsure how to speed up your website, begin by measuring where you currently stand.

Use PageSpeed Insights. It is a free tool created by Google that measures web page speed using data from Google Chrome users.

Once you open PageSpeed Insights, enter your web page URL and hit enter. It will then score your page speed and provide improvement suggestions. Common suggestions include optimising image sizes and updating your CSS.

Conclusion

An effective business website helps get found by potential client online. Unlike social media platforms, you are in full control of it.

Start by ensuring each web page contains quality content. Make what you do clear to first-time visitors. Emphasise the problems you create for them through your web copy and the blog posts you publish.

Update your layout. Is the navigation easy-to-use for visitors? Will they have a problem finding relevant pages?

Website speed can give your conversion rate and search engine rankings a much-needed boost. Know where you stand with PageSpeed insights, and take the necessary steps to improve your website speed.

Cornerstone Digital is a web development company in Sydney. We’d be glad to help you reach a new pool of potential clients with a user-friendly website. Call us on (02) 8211 0668 or email us at info@cornerstone-digital.com.au.

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Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.