Once you’ve built your website, optimised it for all the right keywords, set up social media accounts and started sending traffic to your site via paid channels, you might think the hard work is done.
Unfortunately not!
A key part of the puzzle is working out how to increase conversions. This is one of the key ways you can make your website work a little harder. Instead of assuming that your website design is set in stone and that the functionality cannot be tinkered with, we would recommend conversion rate optimisation techniques to help you get more value from your visitors.
In the past, we’ve written about website conversion rates and what makes a good rate based on your industry. In this article, we’ll look at some of the factors that may be holding you back. Starting with…
Slow website speed
Nothing will turn a website visitor away from your website quite like slow loading speeds. One study found that 40% of website visitors will leave your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. And this isn’t only the home page. The same can be said for every page on your website. If you want to boost your conversion rate, make sure your site loads fast on desktop and mobile.
You can find out more about website loading speed here.
Captcha forms
You might think you are protecting yourself from a deluge of spam messages when you add a Captcha form to your website. In reality, you could just be putting off potential leads. Back in 2009, Moz implemented a little A/B test with Captcha forms. With the form turned off, they had 0 failed conversions. With the form turned on, they had 159 failed conversions.
Captcha has changed a lot in this time, but visual and audio captcha still present a problem. The visual test takes 9.8 seconds to complete while the audio test takes an average of 28.4 seconds to complete. If you want to stop turning away engaged visitors, it might be time to take your chances with the spam. You can always use the honeypot technique to trap the bots.
Failing to differentiate your CTAs
It’s common for web pages to have more than one call-to-action. When building your site, you should think about the hierarchy of your CTAs. You can then use this hierarchy to differentiate the different levels, making top level CTAs most eye-catching. If all of your CTAs look the same, nothing will draw the eye and your website visitors might feel confused about the next step.
You can read more about the role of the call to action on your website here.
Hiding your terms
When a customer has made a purchasing decision, they might just have a few last checks they want to make. This usually includes checking the terms and confirming the shipping costs. If you hide your terms away in a dark corner of your website, this can damage the trust between website and user. Likewise, only revealing the shipping costs after the user has handed over lots of personal information is only going to annoy people. Be open and transparent and make sure this information is freely available before users have to hand over any personal information.
Slow response times
If a customer has a question, they will expect it to be answered quickly. If they have to wait 24 hours for a response from email support, or if their Facebook message is left unanswered for days, they will likely look elsewhere. This is one way that live chat can help to increase conversions. By making your customer service team instantly available, you can clear up any confusion and help to drive more sales.
If you need help optimising your website conversion rates, get in touch with the team at Auburn.