In order to improve website conversion rates you need to test several different style landing pages, multiple color combinations, and calls-to-action — this is common knowledge and something that all businesses should be doing. While doing this will help to greatly improve conversion rates, it isn’t the only thing that you can be doing.
There are several more things that can be done to help increase your conversion rate, and sometimes the smallest change can result in the most drastic conversion rate increase. There is never a change that should be considered too small to test out. We have put together a list of six options that you can test to help your business improve your website conversion rate.
1. Remove your navigation menu from your landing pages
When a potential customer visits one of your landing pages you want them to do one thing: convert! You might be offering them a free gift or a trial in an attempt to generate a lead, or you might be trying to get them to make a purchase. It doesn’t matter what you are trying to accomplish — you want them to stay on that landing page until they convert.
Removing your menu from landing pages eliminates any potential distractions. The last thing you want your visitors to do is get distracted and click over to another page and either lose interest or leave without converting. Without a menu to navigate to other pages you are driving all of their attention on your offer, which greatly increases the chance that they take action.
2. Avoid using outbound links
In terms of search engine optimization, internal linking provides great value as does linking out to authority websites. SEO professionals preach about how internal linking is a necessity, but when it comes to your landing pages it is best to avoid linking out — to your own website or an authority website.
Just like we mentioned about in regards to the menu, links are just something to distract your visitors from the offer you are presenting them with. With zero distractions, each visitor that hits your landing pages is able to devote 100% of their focus on the offer.
3. Use credibility badges
Is your business accredited by the Better Business Bureau? If so then sign up for their dynamic seal program, which allows you to display the BBB badge on your website and link to your BBB profile. Does your business hold any certifications or has it been presented with any awards within your industry?
Displaying these on your landing page builds credibility and greatly increases website conversion rates. If you want to really see the impact they can make split test two identical landing pages — one with the credibility badges and one without. What one do you think is going to perform better?
4. One offer per landing page
Often times we will encounter a business that gives the visitor multiple offers on each landing page. Having multiple offers on a landing page can overwhelm the visitors and cause them to leave. You want to have their complete attention on a single offer instead of giving them multiple options.
Creating separate landing pages for each offer allows you to really optimize each one more efficiently as well. If you have multiple offers it is harder to identify what is or isn’t working.
5. Use landing page headlines that match your ad copy
It is important that your text on the landing pages match the text that the visitor is reading prior to coming to your website. If the landing page copy is different from the headline that caused the click to your page then your conversion rates are going to be horrible. Maintaining consistency when it comes to the language used on your landing page and ads is a simple way to improve your conversion rates.
6. Make your privacy policy visible
Consumers are becoming more concerned with online privacy, so make sure that you have a detailed privacy policy that explains what your company does with their information. Even if you are just collecting email leads you want them to know that you don’t rent or sell your data.
A simple “Your information is safe with us” message in your lead forms along with a link to your privacy policy can increase the number of conversions your website generates. Again, you can split test this. Every website is going to be different so find out what your visitors respond best to. In our personal testing we found that a simple link to our privacy policy in the footer of our website was sufficient.
Testing is the only way you are going to improve the conversion rates on your website. Every industry is different, every market is different, and every target audience is different. Use the tips above and start testing different landing pages until you achieve the desired conversion rate you are after.