Your website is an essential component of your business, as it’s the hub where you collect your online conversions. Naturally, then, you’ll need to ensure that your web development is set up to optimize and boost those conversions to maximize results and gain as many leads as possible.
However, conversion-driven website development isn’t just about setting up a website and letting it sit. You need to focus on the seemingly small, yet powerfully effective, details that maximize your users’ experience and drive them along the funnel.
Implement these web development tips to help boost conversions on your website.
Prioritize Mobile Responsiveness
If your site isn’t already optimized for mobile users, this should be your number one priority. Statistics show that 52.6% of website traffic comes from mobile. People aren’t going to convert on your site if they don’t have a good mobile experience. In fact, the majority of people will leave if this happens, and they aren’t likely to come back. Make sure everything on your site is mobile responsive, from the images to the search function.
Don’t Make Your Forms too Complex
Whenever you have a form for your audience to fill out, you need to keep it simple. The more form fields you ask your leads to fill out, the more frustrated they’ll get. Many people will end up leaving the page before finishing. Keep your forms simple and just ask for the basics. What is the bare minimum you need to collect contacts? Usually this is a name, email address, and/or phone number. You can collect more information later on, but that first conversion is crucial.
Use Buttons for CTAs
Don’t overlook using a button instead of a link for your CTAs. In A/B tests, buttons have proven to boost conversions by anywhere from 25% to 90%. Buttons are more clickable for your users. They also stand out from the rest of the page, making them more eye-catching. The more eye-catching something is, the more likely people will want to click it.
Make Use of Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs help your users know exactly where they are on your site and how to navigate back from there. If you’re running an e-commerce website with a lot of different products and categories, this is a crucial component to keep your potential customers from getting lost and discouraged. With the option to click back to a previous page, people are more likely to stay on your website longer instead of clicking out, which can help increase the likelihood that they’ll convert.
Use Landing Pages and Thank You Pages
Adding an additional CTA on a “thank you” page can be an effective way to not only keep your users on your website, but to entice them with further content. When a lead gets to a “thank you” page, that usually means they’ve already converted. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t offer them more and leverage their download, sign up, or purchase. Think about how you can upsell some of the products, such as a further discount on another purchase, or content related to the piece they downloaded.
On that note, you should also make use of landing pages to help increase your website’s SEO value. Create separate landing pages for paid ads and organic SEO value, as these are two different audiences coming to your website. Users who click on an ad are further along the conversion funnel than those who come across your page through a search engine. A landing page for your ads should be more direct, simple, and straightforward with a focus on the end result (clicking, signing up, or buying), while a landing page for SEO purposes should be more informative and give your audience a better idea of what you’re selling. More content also gives Google more information to index your site properly, which means more traffic and conversions.
Collect the Right Data
Use heat maps and scroll maps on your website to examine how your audience is interacting with your pages. This will indicate where your users are clicking or dropping off, and you can use that information to update your website accordingly. For example, if you’re noticing that your users are only scrolling halfway down your website, place a CTA button above the fold where they’ll notice, which will increase the likelihood of them clicking.
Boost Your Website’s Speed
Research has shown that even just a one second delay in loading time on your website could reduce your conversions by about 7%. Further, 40% of online users say that they’ll abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Ultimately, if your website doesn’t load quickly, you could be losing out on conversions.
Here are a few ways you can reduce your website’s load time and speed up performance:
- Compress as many images as you can
- Minimize HTTP requests from your site
- Make sure CSS and Javascript files load synchronously, which means they’ll load one at a time as the user scrolls down
- Switch to a faster server if necessary