If you have a website that LOOKS great but is not generating any leads, you are probably wondering where you are going wrong.
The design, look and feel of a website are extremely important, they’re not the sole factors that are going to get you more business.
Some beautiful looking websites are terrible at converting visitors into leads! Building a high converting website requires paying attention to some specific aspects of the design and content. Often these factors are ignored.
Whether your business has problems getting LinkedIn connections or leads from your online marketing, or you are looking to build a website that will cause real business growth, here are a few things you should keep in mind to make your website a high converting one.
1. Include an Initial Call-to-action
Calls-to-action are a suggestion or prompt that tell a visitor what to do once they land on your site.
They are crucial to turning website visits into conversions. It is a good idea to make the call-to-action easily available to the visitor, so they don’t have to hunt around for it.
As soon as a visitor lands on your site, having an initial call-to-action near the top of your page gives the visitor an immediate suggestion of the action that they can take to get what they are looking for, be it a phone call, filling out a form, or subscribing to a journal.
Here is a really good example of an initial call-to-action on Netflix’s home page:
2. Optimise Your Page Speed
When it comes to website speed, Google’s mantra is ‘Speed equals revenue’.
According to research by Akamai, most people expect a site to load in under 2 seconds and most people who have trouble with a website are likely to not return back to the site.
The increase in loading time has an opposite correlation with the number of conversions, i.e. as the page loading time increases, the more likely your visitors are to leave your site and find another one that loads faster.
So, it is extremely important that your website loads in at least under 6 seconds and eventually your aim should be to make it load in about 2 seconds.
There are plenty of factors that contribute to making your website load faster. To begin with, you could test your website load time at one of the many websites that offer this service like Pingdom speed test or GTmetrix.
3. Display Your Phone Number Clearly in the Header
The easiest way to turn a visit into a conversion is to have someone call you. There’s nothing like a phone conversation that gives you and your team a great opportunity to turn a prospect into a customer with your amazing marketing skills. You also have a chance to personalise a solution or service for them, and therefore give them a great customer experience.
This is why it is important to mention your phone number clearly on your site and the higher up you mention it on a page, the easier you are making it for a customer to call you. Ideal practice is mentioning your contact details right in the header, so someone can call you right away if they want to.
4. Decrease distractions
When people visit your website, your aim is likely to be that they will buy something or become a lead. Sometimes people who intended to buy, or make contact, leave without doing so. Why?
According to Chris Goward, an expert on marketing optimisation, one of the reasons a person doesn’t convert on your website is DISTRACTIONS! It simply means you could be driving your visitors away from your primary goal.
Good sites reduce distractions and lower anxiety.
Here is an example of what your site shouldn’t look like –
Your aim should be to keep it simple, have nice big images, keep your content crisp and clear, have two or three brand colours, and have a clear navigation bar that makes it easy for people to navigate through your site.
Whereas Apple has mastered the art of a distraction-free site:
5. Closing Call-to-Action
A closing call-to-action is even more important than your initial one and should appear near the bottom of your page.
Let’s say a visitor gets to your website, sees the initial call-to-action and decides that they want to know more about what you have to offer. They click and then browse through the entire page, reach the bottom and … nothing. Chances are they’ll hit the “back” button and won’t convert to a lead.
When a visitor reaches the bottom of the page, you want to provide them with a suggestion as you did at the top of the page. This gives them direction and to buy or call you.
If you are confused about any of these things or need advice on how to go about making your website better, you can get in touch with an online marketing agency to help you make your website a successful one.
For more details about this topic, read the more in-depth blog post: 8 Effective Ways to Turn Your Website Visits into Conversions .
Author: Saranya Kannan is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Duoplus Online Marketing .
