Conversion rate is an important parameter for judging the success of your website. Successful conversions are interpreted differently by different websites. An e-commerce website, for example, may consider the purchase of a product on the website to constitute a successful conversion. Increasing conversions is one of the essential principles in web design.

Successful conversion does only include direct product sales but also includes other forms of lead generation such as website registrations, enquiries, requests, newsletter sign-ups, and other action that takes the casual website visitor one step closer to becoming your customer.

Here are 5 things you can do now to improve the conversion rate of your website:

1. Offer Multiple Calls to Action

Call to action refers to buttons, links or other such elements on a website that encourage visitors to perform a desired action. The main purpose of call to action is to improve conversions.

Sales or leads will not be achieved by simply including a ‘contact us’ page on your website. A successful website should apply effective call to action techniques to encourage website visitors to take desired actions. Identify the 3 or 4 most important things you want your website visitors to do on your website. This can be anything from requesting an estimate, a call-back, downloading a free trial, or registering an interest to receive special offers. Design your calls to action to reflect this.

2. Replace Guest Login with Social Login

Sometimes it is important to expect website visitors to register for a guest account and login to access certain parts of your site. These days it is possible to let visitors to login to your site using their social logins such as Facebook or Twitter.

The image below shows a typical example of how many blogs today let readers login using their social account in order to leave a comment. The same principle can be applied for any login or registration on your website.

A recent study on social sharing has shown that allowing customers to login using their favourite social account instead of signing up as a guest on your website can indeed improve retention and sales. A study on e-commerce websites has also found that social logins lead to reduction in cart abandonment rates on shopping cart based websites.

3. Put More Emphasis on Your Email List

Many business websites are focused entirely on the products and services they offer and fail to focus on building their email list.

Email list can be one of the most important assets for any business and every business website should encourage visitors to join the mailing list. After all, it is much easier to achieve than making an actual sale. If you take steps to build your list now, you will have many opportunities to sell to them in future.

There are many easy ways to build your email list fast. A prominently placed subscription form and offering an incentive to sign-up are some common methods that can be very effective.

4. Include Telephone No. in Header

This is one of the easiest things you can do on your website to improve the chances of conversion. Studies have found that listing full contact details clearly on your website builds trust and confidence among customers. It lets visitors know that if there were to avail of your services, they will be able to get in touch easily should they require support or prompt resolution of issues.

5. Improve Your Navigation

Poor navigation is one of the main reasons customers navigate away from a website. There are many ways to improve website navigation. Visually appeal is important but never at the cost of usability.

Take a fresh look at your navigation from your visitor’s perspective. The navigation should reflect your visitors’ needs and not what yours. Think of the information prospective customers may require once they arrive on your website and plan your main navigation accordingly.

If you have large website, consider having a main menu and sub-menu that is displayed on relevant sections of the site. This will make your website easier to navigate. And don’t forget other navigational elements such as site map and breadcrumbs.

Conclusion:

Improving conversions is vital if you want your business to be successful on the Internet. The tips discussed above can help you get started. You may also take a look at 10 more ways to improve conversions.

Please feel free to leave a comment below to share any methods or techniques that you have found effective for improving your conversion rate.