Optimising a website does not need to be a complicated task and is more of a continual improvement process. You will never be finished improving your website.
You can start with a few of your site's main points and begin guiding your visitors to where you want them to go. The following list of the most common issues that we find every day when examining websites and some tips on how to fix them.
Optimising a website does not need to be a complicated task and is more of a continual improvement process. You will never be finished improving your website.
You can start with a few of your site's main points and begin guiding your visitors to where you want them to go. The following list of the most common issues that we find every day when examining websites and some tips on how to fix them.
1. Trigger words that enthuse your visitors
People navigate the web by "scent".
Web travellers seek out information using the "scent" given off by their trigger words. According to research done by usability expert Jared Spool, when a website visitor found the trigger word on the landing page they successfully completed the task 72% o f the time. Where the trigger word was not present they were successful only 6% of the time.
This means that your website visitors are on a goal oriented mission and if they don't see their trigger word then they abandon that particular trail and move on. The fix for this is not difficult. If a visitor arrives having searched for "cheap car insurance" then they must see "cheap car insurance" on the page.
2. Ask your visitor to take action
If you don't ask somebody to do something then they will probably not do it.
Online, it is essential that a wesite presents its visitors with obvious and enticing calls to action. Calls to action must be meaningful short links that tell the visitor where they are going and why they should go there. Avoid using "read more", "click here", etc.. Replace them with something that is more persuasive to get your visitors to take the action you want them to take, "Get cheap car Insurance" for example.
3. Better product images are worth more than calls to action
Having better looking product images than your competitors will work wonders.
Product images are a major factor in converting visitors. In fact, 83% of eBay shoppers skip product listings that have no image, while sites with galleries get 15% more activity and super-sized photos help generate a 24% hike in sales. The fix for this little item is easy. Present your products with great images and good write-ups that highlight the product features.
4. Make your headlines "stick"
Your page headline is the one thing that about 80% of your website visitors will read. Most headlines suffer from what Chip and Dan Heath refer to iin their book, "Made to Stick", as "the curse of knowledge" - once you know something it is difficult to imagine what it's like not to know it.
5. Support reviews
Reviews are all the rage and have been for a couple of years now. If you recently bought something online, did a review help you make your buying decsion?
If you don't embrace reviews of your products then they will be written anyway in a place that you don't control. Reviews are just one trend of the marketing demanding more transparency and information and these are key to getting your website visitors to take action.
6. Keep the form of forms short
Web forms are the bain of the website visitor's life. They are there to create an exchange of information and value. If people must spend a long time filling them out then you must offer something of value in return. Most forms ask too many questions and demand too many answers. Limit your forms to the maximum amount of information required to complete a particular function. For example and Newsletter sign up form should ask for no more than the visitor's name and email address.
7. Be available and willing to help
Customer service is the key to acquiring and keeping customers. Keeping your customers happy starts at the beginning, the instant they hit your site. Customer service is everything that goes into creating a great online shopping experience from beginning to end.
During the buying process there are many different questions that your visitor wants answers to. Provide those answers before your visitor has even thought of the question. By doing this you will have happy visitors who will become happy customers and they will tell other how happy they are.
8. Check your Check-out
Most abandonments happen during the check-out process. Why? It is because most website owners ignore this process because it is not seen as part of the buying process. After all, when you get to the supermarket check-out you have all your purchases in your basket and you're not going to get out without paying.
Online, this is not true. Online, your vuisitors are only one click away from leaving without buying. Therefore, you must pay attention to the check-out process and keep it simple with a few steps as possible.
9. Profile your visitors
Your visitors will not all be the same, each person is unique, and they will not all be at the same place in the buying process. Your online store has to appeal to all of the people, all of the time. You must invest in understanding your customers and their behaviour with the buying process for your products and services. Many companies already use customer personas in Conversion Architecture to help plan their marketing strategies.
10. Testing, testing and yet more testing
You cannot test enough. By undertaking A/B testing you are comparing the performance of one channel against another. After a specified time you review that performance and replace the least performant pages and replace them with new versions and start testing again. This way you are continually improving your website and continually updating it with fresh content - something that search engine spiders crave.
Summary
Having a stale website is like having a dusty corner shop. You get a reducing number of visitors and those that do venture in soon leave without buying. Making regular improvements to your website will demonstrate not only a commitment to getting it to show up on page one of Google but also a commitment to your customers and visitors that you are serious about your business.
Don't know where to start? I will be glad to help where I can and so get in touch with me today and find out how your business can grow online.
Call me on 621 173 272 to arrange our first meeting.