You’re probably well aware of SEO, since it’s a pretty hot topic in the marketing scene. The vast majority of most websites’ traffic comes from web searches, so companies are designing their pages to rank well on these page results. More visibility equals more visitors: seems simple enough, right? Well, the fact of the matter is that search engine optimization is only half the battle when it comes to increasing your revenue with marketing. Once people are on your site, it’s conversion rate optimization that really seals the deal.
You’re probably well aware of SEO, since it’s a pretty hot topic in the marketing scene. The vast majority of most websites’ traffic comes from web searches, so companies are designing their pages to rank well on these page results. More visibility equals more visitors: seems simple enough, right? Well, the fact of the matter is that search engine optimization is only half the battle when it comes to increasing your revenue with marketing. Once people are on your site, it’s conversion rate optimization that really seals the deal.
Let’s talk about the benefits of conversion rate optimization and how you can take your company’s online presence to the next level.
Conversion Rates: What Are They, And Why Do They Matter?
Before we get into the details of this crucial part of designing your website and content, let’s start with the basics: What is conversion rate optimization? To put it simply, just as you’d adjust your web content to rank well in Google search results, you can tweak things to drive visitors to take action once they’ve arrived at your site. The most obvious goal is to have someone purchase a product, but conversion rate optimization can help out with any situation where you want a visitor to take action. From purchasing a product, to signing up for a subscription or email list, to something as small as clicking on a specific link, there are steps you can take to optimize your website and get a better result with each view.
Long story short, SEO gets visitors to your site, and CRO is the way you make those visits valuable.
The Basics
Conversion rate optimization can be incredibly difficult to navigate if you’re trying to optimize your site with peak efficiency. With that said, we’ll go over some of the basics to help you get a sense of how CRO works and some simple fixes that can lead to a significant increases in valuable traffic.
Providing Value
One of the biggest things to keep in mind when trying to optimize CRO is that the consumer is probably a lot like you. It’s important to take into account demographics and other aspects of your target audience when designing your site, but at the end of the day, we’re all looking for the same thing: value. This could be something straightforward like a product that will make their lives easier or more enjoyable, or even a web page that gives them information or entertainment. By keeping the needs of the consumer in mind, you can position your site to make it as easy as possible for customers to access that value. Recognize what your goal with each page is, and tailor your efforts to making that more of a reality.
Putting Yourself In The Customer’s Shoes
So once you’ve figured out what you’re trying to accomplish with each page, it’s time to guide your customer to that result. One of the benefits of conversion rate optimization that’s done correctly is that you’ll end up with a site that’s designed to follow the customer from that initial click all the way to the final conversion – with tailored content to influence their decision along the way.
Think of how you behave when you visit a site. Chances are that you arrived at a page through some sort of google search, so that first page needs to provide quick and easy-to-understand information that doesn’t require too much digging. First impressions are very important for conversion rates, and you can’t secure conversions if they don’t stay on the site. Something as simple as moving around links or changing up images or the general page layout can make for a much more accessible experience.
Other opportunities to increase conversions include easy access to customer support to address any questions or concerns, and following up with visitors who leave the site or who were previous customers in order to try to secure future conversions.
Making Analytics Work For You
You can get a lot done just by taking a step back and trying to figure out how the average customer might approach your site. However, that process can only go so far.
You can glean a lot of valuable information about the way people interact with your site in reality instead of purely theoretically by taking a look at website analytics. Using these tools, you can get information about the type of people visiting their site, the time they spend on each page, and even identify problem areas that are holding conversions back.
This process is tricky to get right, and that’s where conversion rate optimization services come into play.
Getting Help From The Experts
In an ideal world, you’d be able to handle your company’s presence on your own from start to finish. However, unless you’re a marketing pro yourself, you may need to reach out for help from the experts.
Conversion rate optimization services are filled with marketing professionals that have the kind of specialized knowledge you need to keep your business website moving forward.
So if you find your website in a slump, or even if you’re looking to continue the momentum of a big jump in traffic, a quality marketing agency can give you that specialized approach that only years of experience can provide.
Having another eye on your website can make all the difference, especially when you’re getting frustrated and can’t understand where things are going wrong. Chances are that you’re too busy to really tweak your site to perfection; sometimes bringing in some outside help is the way to go.
The tips in this article were pretty general, but an expert team can get much more personal. A small investment can pay off in a major way with experts that really understand your needs, funneling your customers from that first visit to a valuable conversion.
