You can run all the digital ads and social media campaigns you want, but your website needs to be up to par if you want to be a well-rounded digital marketer and make website conversions.
Imagine this-someone sees your ad on Google.
They’re persuaded by your powerful ad copy, so they click on the link with the intention to learn more, but they are disappointed because the website takes too long to load.
Naturally, they leave, and you lose what could have been a potential client.
That’s just one example of the many ways your website could be turning customers away, lowering your conversion rate. This also creates what is called a high bounce rate. A high bounce rate is a telltale sign that your visitors are not finding what they need from your website. A low bounce rate, on the other hand, can result in more conversions for your business, which means that the visitors are completing a desired action on your website, such as contacting you or purchasing products and services.
That's why we want to tell you about the eight ways to build a website that gets more conversions:
1. Increase your page speed.
According to Google, 53% of consumers will abandon a mobile site if the pages take longer than three seconds to load. That means a slow-loading website is costing you business, disappointing your website visitors, and lowering your SEO ranking.
2. Make sure your website is responsive.
More than half of the trillion-plus searches conducted on Google each year happen on smartphones, which means it would benefit your business a great deal to have a mobile-friendly website.
A responsive website provides a seamless user experience across all devices.
Having a responsive site can improve your organic search engine rankings, especially with Google shifting to a mobile-first index (Google’s move to make the mobile version of a website the primary basis for determining its rankings).
3. Ensure your website is properly optimized for search engines-and more importantly, online users.
It’s not enough to simply make a website. You need to use search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure your site gets the best exposure possible in search engines like Google and Bing.
The incorporation of relevant keywords, the use of internal and inbound links, schema markup, the use of high-quality content, off-site listings optimization... These are just a few of the things you can focus on to boost your SEO and improve the website experience for users.
4. Answer important questions.
First and foremost, it is essential to answer your visitors’ immediate questions so that they feel informed about and ready to utilize your services. You will want to immediately draw attention to these answers. What types of services do you offer? What areas do you service? How many years have you been in business?
These are key questions you should answer on your website, and it is important to make the answers to those common questions accessible. This will create a positive user experience for your visitors and make them more likely to be drawn to your “call-to-action,” whether that involves contacting your business or purchase your services.
Having important information easily accessible keeps the visitor happy and less likely to bounce away from your website.
5. Highlight your services or products on the homepage.
Your website must give a clear idea of what your business offers and a clear path to learn more about each offering. After all, the purpose of your website is to showcase the services of your business and to create new clients. Making your website as comprehensive as possible will remove any roadblocks on the way to new clients.
6. Prominently display your contact information (or a “Contact Us” button) at the top of every page on your website.
In order for your website visitors to contact you, it must be easy for them to do so. With the widespread availability of products and services on the market today, if website visitors cannot access yours easily, they will not become potential customers. This is why it is so important to create a clear path for your visitors to be able to contact and work with your business. It also helps to include web forms that site visitors can fill out to message your business in case they can’t make a call.
7. Get strategic with your imagery.
The right image will grab a website visitor’s attention and refuse to let it go, so make sure the pictures and videos you display are relevant and high-quality.
For example, if you own an HVAC company, you might show images of your new service trucks and well-groomed technicians. Furthermore, if you’re a dentist, you might show images of smiling dental patients and a clean, inviting office environment.
8. Utilize sales copy best practices.
The design and copy of your website are like two pieces of a puzzle. If they are formed together strategically and in a way that fits, you will create a seamless user experience that drives conversions. Even small improvements in the readability of your copy can make a major impact on your conversion rate. Any great piece of copy on your website begins with a strong, effective headline. You will want to follow this up with important information about your business, and it will help to utilize SEO best practices. This will ensure that those who are looking for your products and services on Google and other search engines are able to find them, and ultimately contact your business to get the help they need.
Building and maintaining an effective website can be a lot of work—especially when you have a business to run and customers to serve.
If you want to streamline and improve your website, but don’t feel like you can handle the burden, the team at Scorpion is here for you. That’s why we have a team of web designers and Internet marketers ready to assist you! If you want to improve your site and give customers a better user experience, maximize your exposure, and acquire new business, it’s time to ask for help.
To find out how to boost your website traffic and conversions, get in contact with our marketing experts today.
[This blog post was originally posted on June 14, 2017. It has since been updated and reposted to reflect more recent developments in the Internet marketing industry.]
