How to Optimize My Website For Conversions?

What are the general tips on conversion optimization? What types of conversions should I consider?

Hello there! People often ask me: “How to optimize my website for conversions?” That’s a very good question, I am happy you’re asking it. Let’s get to the business.

There are several general tips on the conversion optimization, something that you should consider before you even start planning your page or designing it.

The first thing is to have your title and meta description optimized. That means that the message that you convey, that you can communicate over the page has to be clear, and it has to be present in your <title> tag. Because a lot of people will visit your page from the search engines, and you really want to make sure that what they see before they click your link in the search results is relevant to what they will see when they actually get to your page. You don’t want to disappoint them, because the consistent page interaction experience is very critical for the page success.

The second general tip, that people often forget about, actually, is making sure that your message, the page message is clear and concise. Whatever it is that you want people to do on your page, whether it’s a sign up or a purchase, please make sure that it’s clear right from the start. Or even before the start you may want to have something actionable in your <title> tag as well. And, please, remember about the “one page equals one message” rule. You don’t want to have the page that is about everything. Just make sure that whatever it is that you want people to do is the only one that’s on that page.

Now we’ll get a little bit more specific, based on the type of the conversion that you’re after. Well, basically websites or businesses may have two types of conversions in mind. That’s a Lead Generation and a Sale Generation.

What is a Lead conversion type? What should I keep in mind when building the Lead Generation pages?

If you’re after your leads which means like a “Sign up” or “Get a free quote” or “Free trial” form, etc., this is a better option, an easier option for visitors, first of all. If your website, website pages are about generating leads, than please make sure that you have a Sign up form on every page that has value for you, and that this Sign up form is above the fold. That means locating the form on top of the page so that people will see it right when they get to that page. And they will not have to scroll down to get to it. Because not all people actually scroll on your pages. So when you have the form above the fold, I guarantee this will have a great impact on your conversion rate.

Also, for the Lead Generation pages and speaking of forms actually, you really want to make sure the form is easy for a person to complete. In my practice I’ve seen the “Free Quote” forms that had 15 to 20 fields in them. That’s a real conversion killer. No kidding. Because every additional field takes away a lot of conversions from the page. Some say that every new field in the form takes away 20% to 40% of conversions. So that’s a lot, please, consider that, and the ideal case scenario would be to only leave the email field in your form, and this way people will have minimum of barriers on their way and it will be easily opt in for whatever it is that you offer.

Another important thing about Lead Generation pages is emphasizing the value. People actually need something valuable to be able to interact with your website. If it’s a “Free Trial”, please, let them know what exactly they will get in that free trial. If it’s a “Free Quote”, for example, be sure to let them know that you will contact them like within 10 minutes after you see the quote request. Something that’s valuable for them, something that they want to get based on the page message.

What are the Sale Generation pages?

With the Sale Generation page, it’s pretty similar, somewhat similar at least. You want to have your product picture above the fold because Internet these days is very visual, people do not read much on the pages, and they just identify the product using the visual images. So you really want to have a visual image of your product above the fold.

And you also want to have Buy Button above the fold as well. Because again, people do not wanna scroll and people do not want to search for the Buy Button throughout the page. They want everything and they want it now.

What is the main difference between Sales and Lead Generation pages?

The other complicated thing about the Sales Generation pages is that they are a lot more tricky than the Lead Generation pages because people are different, products are different, and there are various things that work well on this or that page. With the Lead Generation pages, things are a bit more obvious and simple. And with the Sales Generation pages, you really want to be prepared for doing a lot of testing, the A/B testing, whatever type of testing it is, but it will require that, so, please, be prepared for that.

Also, you may want to experiment with buttons. In some cases you may see that green buttons work better than the red buttons or the blue ones, and in some cases the text works better when you have it somewhere up top, sometimes it works better when you have it at the bottom of the page. So that’s a part of the experimental suggestion.

That’s pretty much it for now. I hope this helps. Please, do not forget to follow these two basic suggestions and I am pretty sure you will be fine. Feel free to ask me the questions, I’ll be happy to answer. Bye-bye!