No matter what expert you’ve hired or how much money you’ve spent, there’s no other barometer that means more to a successful search engine marketing strategy than how many conversions and return on investment comes from your search campaign.
No matter what the service being offered – organic SEO or paid search (or a combination of both) search engine marketers are tasked with not only driving qualified traffic to your website, but also to offer website conversion optimization consultation to help increase the likelihood of a sale or other type of conversion for their clients’ websites.
Realizing the conversion potential of your website relies on many factors such as the attractiveness of the website, the content on the site, and the ease of navigation for users who visit the site. Below I identify five conversion optimization tips that help turn simple website visitors into conversions.
Evaluate Your Competition
First, identify who your strongest competition is in the marketplace. Then, go on a little reconnaissance mission and find out everything you can about that competitor(s). What strategies are they using to drive more traffic and convert more sales on their site(s)? Are they offering deals or special promotions? Do they have easier-to-find product/service information? Do they have client testimonials endorsing their product/services?
Take what you’ve learned from your reconnaissance mission and devise your own custom plan for converting more visitors on your website.
Think Like Your Customers
If you were a customer on your website, would you know how to get around and find what you’re looking for? In order to properly optimize your website for conversions, you have to think like your customers. What information are they looking for when determining what product to buy? Does your website load quickly (you don’t want to deter them away with a slow website?) Is there easy access to contact information? Are there special offers available on the website that they can capitalize on (remember people love a good deal!)?
Produce Valuable Web Content
Conversions rely heavily on the quality of the content on your website, just as a successful SEO campaign does. The content on your website should communicate your brand and your service/product options effectively in a clear and concise manner. Your web content needs to focus on conversions by explaining the gamut of benefits that your product/service offers, and should include a strong call-to-action that will prompt your visitors to convert.
Google has made it even easier for website owners to improve their conversion optimization pitch by introducing Content Experiments as part of their Google Analytics program. In Content experiments, website owners can split test different landing page variations with separate content in an effort to analyze and determine which web page is more effectively for driving conversions.
Offer Special Promotions
Discounts, By One Get Ones, Free Shipping, Coupon Codes, and Free eBooks are all effective methods that help entice website users to convert. Offering these types of promotion gives your visitors the psychological advantage of getting a deal on their purchase and increases the likelihood that they will actually make that purchase.
It is important to note that most offers have short-term benefits for conversions and constantly need to be improved upon to help retain established customers.
Be Trustworthy
The final website conversion rate optimization strategy I’ll discuss is simply being trustworthy to visitors. Be transparent with your site visitors. Have clearly marked contact information so it’s easy for customers to find. Offer links to your social media pages so users can get the scoop on your company from actual customers.
If your website collects data, have a clear-cut Privacy Policy that states what their information will be used for. Have Shipping and Returns Policies. If your website requires, install a SSL certificate so website visitors know your website connection is encrypted and secure.
Each of these simple strategies can greatly improve the conversion rate on your website so that you’re getting the most out of your search engine marketing investment.
