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How to Tweak Your WordPress Website for Better Conversion Rates

As your online headquarters, your WordPress website should be optimised for maximum conversion.

Your goals and action plans may differ depending on your industry and target audience. However, certain action plans could be considered the foundation of an effective Conversion Rate Optimisation strategy.

In this blog post, we’re going to discuss what these action plans are and how you can implement them. You can get started on most of these without professional assistance.

What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Conversion Rate Optimisation is the act of using strategies to convince website visitors to perform a specific action. Most of the time, you’re implementing these strategies to get people to:

• Start a free trial.
• Download an ebook.
• Subscribe to a newsletter.
• Complete a purchase.
• Ask for a quote.
• Ask for more information.

Analyse your homepage.

Your homepage is undoubtedly the most important page on your website. It is often the webpage the most visitors see first.

For maximum conversion, the homepage should contain the following elements:

A well-crafted hero message that sums up what you do and who you do it for

Potential clients should know two things right away–what you do and if you’re the right fit for them. The hero message, the statement above the fold on your website, should convey both things.

Begin by crafting your hero message by drilling down on what you do. If you offer several services or products, focus on one or think of an umbrella term for all of them.

At Cornerstone Digital, for example, we offer web development, SEO, and PPC services. The umbrella term for all these services would be digital marketing, so that’s the term we use on our homepage.

A clear and visible call-to-action

A call-to-action is a line of text that prompts visitors to perform a specific action. To be effective, it needs to be succinct and visible.

Be direct when deciding on your call-to-action. If you want people to subscribe to your newsletter, you might be tempted to say “Click to see a surprise” or something equally unique. Avoid doing this at all costs.

Your call-to-action should make it clear to users what will happen after they click on it. If it’s unclear, they might think twice and decide to do something else instead.

Your call-to-action also needs to be visible. If you place it in a white box against a white background, people might scroll past it and not see it at all.

Make sure it’s spotted right away by visitors. For example, placing your call-to-action in a red button against a white background would be a good idea.

Install speed-enhancing plugins

A fast website is important for both CRO and SEO success.

Back in mid-2018, Google rolled out its Speed Update. The update made page speed an important ranking factor in mobile search engine results.

For example, if two websites have equally good content, the faster website will have better chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

You also need a fast website for better CRO results. Data from Google shows that the majority of users will leave a website if it fails to load after three seconds.

The content you worked so hard on will become useless because users will not get the opportunity to see it.

You can make your website faster by installing the right WordPress plugins.

These plugins usually perform minifying or caching functions or both. Caching saves files in a user’s browser, so they don’t have to download it again the next time they visit your website. Minifying lessens your file sizes, so users can download them faster.

Popular speed-enhancing plugins include WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, and W3 Total Cache. You may need to pay for some of these plugins before being able to use their full features, while some of them may require more technical knowledge.

Choose the right plugin depending on your needs and resources. 

Make your website mobile-friendly.

According to a recent survey, 62% of all global users access the Internet using their mobile phones. Combine that with Google’s Speed Update, and a picture begins to emerge.

To be more successful online, you need to prioritise mobile users.

Begin by determining if your website is even mobile-friendly. Check with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Enter your website URL and click on Test URL.

It will then rate whether your website is mobile-friendly or not and show you improvement suggestions. For example, some elements like fonts or images. You may then want to address these yourself or with the assistance of a professional.

If you’d like to see for yourself, you can give Responsinator a try. It’s a free tool that lets you see how your website looks on different iPhones and Android devices. You can even navigate to different pages, so you get a better feel of the user experience.

Conclusion

Conversion Rate Optimisation may differ depending on your target audience and field. However, if you have a WordPress website, there are universal action plans you can implement for better results.

Analyse your homepage. Ensure it clearly expresses who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.

Install speed-enhancing plugins. These plugins can minimise or save files in users’ browsers, so your website will load faster.

Make your website mobile-friendly. There are a variety of free tools online that will let you know if your website is mobile-friendly or not. Utilise them, and make the necessary changes.

Cornerstone Digital is a web development company in Sydney. We’d be glad to help you create and implement CRO strategies. 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.