Savvy retailers are pulling out all the stops to entice consumers to purchase products and services from their website – find out how you can increase your website conversion rate.
Usability expert Jarod Spool and CEO and Founding Principal of User Interface Engineering increased a company’s website conversion rate by taking away the need for customers to register when they bought a product. This simple modification boosted conversion rates by $300k a year and shows how a little change can impact on sales – here are 10 ways you can improve your online return on investment.
Optimise your pages with long tail keywords
Optimising your website for long tail keywords can be an effective strategy to increase your website conversion rate. When creating your landing pages consider using a combination of short tail keywords such as ‘cordless drills’ and long tail keywords such as `Black & Decker cordless drills’. Popular, higher volume keywords can increase your traffic but specific searches using long tail keywords are far more likely to convert to sales.
Be honest and transparent
Information about your privacy policy, shipping rates, returns policy or any other terms and conditions of purchase should be easily found on your website. Customers do not want to wait until the last stage in the transaction before they are informed about exorbitant freight costs or any extra fees added to the purchase. It is also important for an online website to have contact details such as a telephone number so people can speak to a real person.
Increase your website’s credibility
Quality website design inspires confidence in people purchasing from your website and may mean the difference between a high bounce rate* (the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing page) or a high website conversion rate. There are certain website design principles that can make your website look more secure and trustworthy to potential customers. These include:
- integrated online booking engines
- case studies and testimonials
- clear images or videos of your product/service
- third party accreditation such as being part of a professional industry association
- contact details such as a phone number and/or physical address
- terms and conditions, returns policy and privacy statements
- about us pages with images of employees
- awards won
Make the checkout process short
By simply offering a guest checkout out process, Jarod Spool increased his client’s website conversion rate by 300%. When Spool analysed the client’s database, they discovered that 45% of all customers had multiple registrations in the system, some as many as 10. Simplify the path to conversion as much as possible – the more steps you give to a customer, the more opportunities you give them to opt out of the checkout process.
Incorporate a secure integrated online booking system
The process of installing a secure online booking system with SSL encryption can result in significantly higher rates of conversion – Web users now look for the ‘secure’ icon in their browser when shopping online. Valuable sales can be lost when visitors to your website are forced to open another window or are transferred to a third party website. Not only does it add another step to the conversion process, there is a perception of decreased security and increased risk for the customer.
Offer different payment options
This may be stating the obvious but some customers will prefer to pay by PayPal and others by a direct debit card or BPAY – not everyone will want to pay by credit card. If you offer a customer a variety of payment options, they will choose the one that suits them best rather than have this decision made for them by the merchant. If two websites are offering a product at a similar price point, this could make the difference in who gets the sale.
Include clear call to action buttons
Your website should be created with specific conversion goals in mind and offer multiple calls to action that are above the fold. Call to actions comes in all different forms – it may be a heading, a button which stands out, a text link or a banner advertisement. The type of call to action used and its positioning on your website can considerably influence and increase your website conversion rate. Popular calls to actions include:
- prominent telephone numbers
- online booking forms
- free trials
- buy now buttons
- obligation free consultation
- contact us forms
- online chat functionality
Include high quality images of your product
You can increase your website conversion rate by offering large quality images of your product offerings. Savvy clothing retailer Supre has a selection of products with 10-second video footage showcasing the outfit on the catwalk and how the garment fits on a real person. Not only does it keep customers on the site for longer, the high-quality photography and catwalk videos, has quadrupled Supre’s website conversion rate.
Have an attractive returns policy
One of the biggest pitfalls of buying online is that you cannot try on the product or see how it feels. Clever online retailers are offering more attractive returns policies to entice customers to shop at their ecommerce site. Zoodee, a leading lingerie and swimwear retailer has a generous returns policy where they will cover any standard delivery charges worldwide for exchanged items up to 60 days after the original despatch date of the order.
Offer incentive schemes
Offering an incentive for your customers to purchase from your website may also be a pivotal turning point to increase your website conversion rate. Online cosmetic site www.strawberrynet.com offers a unique loyalty program where the frequency of your purchases gives you a higher discount. All you need to do to apply for the loyalty program is to register your email address soStrawberryNET can recognise you are returning customer.
Practice makes perfect. Change elements on your landing pages such as the call to action buttons, shopping cart layout, copywriting, and layout and keep on testing your landing pages until you are happy with the result. SEO Works is a leading Search Engine Optimisation company which can help you to reach your conversion goals. Contact SEO Works to find out more about how you can increase your website conversion rate.
