Conversion rate is a function of your website usability, trust in your brand, relevancy of the incoming traffic, and a myriad of other factors. To ensure you are getting the most bang for your digital marketing buck, continuouslyoptimizing your websitefor improved conversions is a no-brainer.
However, you might often find yourself in a pickle when it comes to devising a step-by-step conversion rate optimization strategy that actually delivers worthwhile results. To help you get started, this blog post shares 20 statistically proven tactics that you can use to steadily increase yourwebsite conversion rateusing a/b testing and improve your top line.
Download Free: Conversion Rate Optimization Guide
1. Define your site’s goals
Before setting out on yourconversion rate optimizationjourney, it is important to set website goals that you want to measure conversions and optimize for. These goals could be any particular action that you want the visitor to take on your site that generates certain value for your business. Once you have created them, you must assess visitor behavior against these defined goals for your conversion rate strategy to work.
Below is a list of some of the goals that you could set for web page conversion optimization:
- Page visits
- Form submits
- Click on links
- Clicks on elements
- Custom conversions
VWO Insightsallows you to create goals as per your unique requirements and track visitor behavior for them so you can direct yourwebsite optimizationaccordingly and aim for improved conversions. For instance, if you want to assess how a CTA button on a particular landing page is performing, you can do so by simply assigning a goal for it.
2. Collect and analyze visitor data
When it comes to CRO, it’s best to avoid assumptions and estimations, and rely solely on data for all decision-making.
One of the proven conversion rate optimization techniques is to constantly track and analyze your website data to learn more about your website visitors and their preferences. It’s this data that should inform you where to direct your conversion optimization efforts.
Following are some key data points that you absolutely must track to understand your visitors:
- Data on traffic and traffic sources
- Details of user behavior on your landing page
- Bounce and abandonment rates for web pages and forms
- Click-through ratesof adverts and marketing campaigns
- Information on return customers and average order values
- Net promoter scores (NPS) or other customer feedback
Once you have collected quantifiable data, use it to create your user persona, which is a representation of your ideal user. This must highlight all valuable information about your target prospects and users, including their interests, likes, dislikes, goals, and pain points.
The combination of quantifiable data and your ideal user persona will help you devise hypotheses to run insightful tests to better understand what works and what doesn’t on your website.
3. Perform competitor analysis
To have a competitive edge over your rivals, you need to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. You can then use that information to highlight your USPs and strengths over your competitors’ weaknesses. This is another proven way to optimize conversions on websites.
Also, keep in mind that people research their options before making a purchase. They’re going to check out your competitors and how you measure up to them. By performingcompetitor analysis, you also get to step into your customers’ shoes and pit yourself against your competitors just the way your potential customers would. You can then optimize your website for conversion and ensure that your product range is the best they’ll find.
4. Assess your currentconversion funnel
Before you set out to fix what’s broken, be sure to understand in detail what a typical user journey andconversion funnelon your website looks like. This will help you gauge where website visitors are hesitating and dropping off and the plausible reasons as to why that may be so.
You can use VWO Insights to track conversion rates across yourfunnelsand identify specific stages in the journey where users might be losing interest so you can accordingly optimize them.
At each stage of the funnel, you will have a natural drop-off resulting from people failing to take the next step in the funnel for multiple reasons. You can then decrease that drop-off by devising solutions to those probable reasons to nudge people down the funnel, thus acing your website conversion rate optimization.
For example, one of the stages where eCommerce sites focus their conversion optimization efforts is checkout, where an average of 69.23% of shoppers are known toabandon their carts. A higher conversion rate, however marginal, will be a significant contribution towards tackling this pressing issue.
A prominent example of a site that has improved itseCommerce conversion rateby simplifying its checkout process is Amazon with the one-click checkout.
To understand and optimize your funnels, you need to assess what your site does to move potential customers through the set stages. How are you leading them to a conversion? Where do you lose most visitors? By learning these answers, you know where to focus your efforts to increase conversion rate.
Your website visitors spend time exploring and engaging, excited to make a purchase. But if the checkout page isn’t working smoothly, it’s like hitting a roadblock just before the finish line.
They end up feeling frustrated. This is why we discuss eCommerce conversion rate optimization tips specifically for your checkout page in thisblog.
Do you have software whose sales you want to increase through website optimization? We’ve got you covered withoptimization tips tailored for SaaS websites.
Watch how to use VWO funnels to leverage visitor behavior.
5. Define and clearly highlight your value proposition
Yourvalue propositionis a concise explanation of why a user should buy from or subscribe to your products/services over your competitors. Therefore, the first step towards increasing conversions and getting website visitors to convert is to clearly convey to them what sets you apart and why buying from you is a good decision.
Clearly stating and reinforcing your value proposition through multiple site elements can work wonders for your CRO strategies.
Your value proposition should come across through your headlines, images, and copy and should primarily feature your Unique Selling Point (USP). Repeatedmarketing experiments recommendthat your USP should be summarized in 10 words or less.
Let’s take Evernote as an example of how they redid their value proposition to bring out their product USP.
Their original tagline was “Remember Everything.” It nicely described the benefit that users could gain, but not the functionality of the tool they offered. Below the tagline, they highlighted 3 product features that illustrated how their tool works.
Here’s a look at their redesigned page:
It’s a succinct tagline that arguably better describes the functionality of the tool, while the text underneath the tagline further builds upon the value proposition. Before deciding which one to go with, be sure to craft multiple headlines, andA/B testthem to find out which resonates the most with your target audience and influences conversions.
6. Optimize layouts of your critical pages
If your conversion rates aren’t improving despite repeated efforts, it’s a sign that you need to introduce a radical change in your landing pages. Try altering its design and layout based on insights from visitor data and best practices to see if your conversions get impacted.
Theprinciples of high-converting page designare based on a body of material and case studies that reveal how people use websites.Conversion Rate Optimization toolslikeeye tracking, scroll maps,mouse tracking, andclickmapscan provide you with insights into how visitors are browsing through your website. Use these to create a page that visitors love to engage with.
Download Free: Conversion Rate Optimization Guide
7. Apply sales copy best practices
One of the must-follow website conversion optimization tips is making yourwebsite sales copymore persuasive. Repeated case studies have shown that making even small improvements or tweaks to your copy can influence your conversion rate.
There are many elements of sales copy you can and should test; the most important one being the headline.
Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents of your dollar.
David Ogilvy, the founder of the global marketing firm Ogilvy, was famously quoted assaying.
Therefore, start by testing your headline and see if you can drive a noteworthy improvement in your conversion rate.
Here’s an example fromimsider.ruwhere they ran a simple test on the headline of their sign-up:
By merely stating the time-specific benefit of their services,the headline on the right helped generate 9.52% more conversions than the one on the left.
8. Build trust with reviews and testimonials
Without your audiences’ trust, no conversion rate optimization strategies will work. To build trust and encourage your visitors to convert, the low-hanging fruit you can target is showcasing reviews and testimonials. This strategy can significantly increase conversions and boost credibility.
Consider VWO’s testing product page, for example. It shares customers’ success stories along with their photos, conversion uplift, and company logo. All these elements add up to building trust and confidence among visitors in the credibility of the brand.
Research and multiple case studieshave shown that visitors who interact with a review are 58% more likely to convert into paying customers.
That’s a vast benefit to gain from merely popping some customer testimonials up onto your landing page. There is a lot to consider when experimenting with testimonials. The case study below for a sales page nicely illustrates how a change in the location of atestimonial can increase your conversion rate.
Of course, the way you use testimonials should relate to your goal. LKR Social Media, a VWO customer,used A/B testing to increase email signups. By using a testimonial for the headline, they got a 24.31% increase in conversions.
9. Make site navigation simple and seamless
Visitors land on your site with a purpose and your job is to make it as easy as possible for them to find what they are looking for. Make sure that navigating your website is intuitive and user-friendly to increase its usability, thereby nudging visitors to convert.
The objective of your CRO strategies should be to remove all friction in user experience and make it seamless for visitors to understand how to buy from you or otherwise convert immediately.
You may also want to consider adding a search feature to your site to increase conversions. Visitors who use an internal site search tend to convert at a much higher rate than those who don’t. That’s because the users of the feature are often people who already know the product or service that they want and have a much higher purchase intent. You don’t want these visitors to bounce from your site because finding that product wasn’t as easy as it could be.
10. Improve page load time
Pages that take too long to load get abandoned by potential visitors in short order. Such immediate abandonments can hit your conversion rate hard.
Researchshows that you should shoot for page load times of no longer than four seconds. Even within that range, the shorter the time, the better for your conversions. Reducing your page load time will ensure fewer and fewer impatient visitors bounce before the site has loaded. Some ways to improve the speed of your pages include eliminating large images andleveraging AMPs.
11. Test everything before deployment
One of the most effective conversion rate optimization methods to make data-backed optimizations and reduce risk is testing. When you make changes to your pages, you must track and assess their impact before deciding if they actually work well for your conversion rate.A/B testingallows you to pit your hypotheses against the original version of a web page to find out which one positively impacts conversions so you can deploy it universally.
This way, you will rely on your visitors to choose the one that resonates better with them and avoid making decisions based on assumptions in your CRO strategy. TryVWO Testingto create versions of your web pages to discover the best-performing ones that positively impact your conversion rate.
12. Add a live chat feature
Imagine if visitors land on your website but struggle to find what they’re looking for. They might leave and check out other sites in the search results. Don’t risk losing them to competitors and try this website conversion rate optimization technique instead.
Guide your visitors through the navigation using thelive chat feature. If they have questions or can’t find what they need, they should be able to communicate with your team to resolve any issues and continue their journey on your website. The feeling of being heard can directly help increase conversions on your website.
Take a look at how VWO incorporates the chat option on their website. Not only can you search for help articles and videos separately, but you can also ask questions or send messages. They take transparency to a new level by committing to reply within 5 minutes.
13. Remove unnecessary distractions
We all know that our website shouldn’t contain irrelevant details. Yet, at times, we overlook it and clutter our web pages with redundant information that visitors may not find important. This not only fails to add value but can also hinder conversions.
We recommend delving into visitor behavioral data to identify elements that resonate with your audiences and those that don’t. Based on these insights, you can remove distractions from your website.
PearlsOnly, an online jewelry brand, faced similar challenges on its website.Session recordingsandheatmapsrevealed that visitors were not engaged and dropped off from their checkout page. So, they ran a test where they removed irrelevant details and highlighted only crucial information such as product details and CTAs. The variationincreased their revenue by 10%, showcasing the impact of decluttering.
14. Optimize your forms without fail
A form that’s not easy to fill in will frustrate visitors and push them to drop off from a website. Some of the best practices you can implement are reducing the number of fields, implementing inline form validation, displaying positive error messages, and enabling autocomplete.
Qualicorp, a finance website managing healthcare plans, noticed significant drop-offs when visitors filled in the form to find a healthcare plan for themselves. So, the team conducted two tests: one where they removed repeated form fields and another where they made selecting a profession mandatory. These changesincreased form sign-ups by almost 17%.
Among all theconversion rate optimization tools, VWO stands out for its integration of behavioral analytics and testing. This allows you to analyze form performance, understand visitor reactions, and even test your forms to address visitors’ pain points and optimize overall form effectiveness.
Last but not least, pay special attention to optimizing forms for mobile users. They should seamlessly fit the screen layout of mobile devices. Below, CRO leader Craig Sullivan shared valuable insights for mobile form optimization.
15. Make your CTA buttons stand out
All the best conversion rate optimization tips include the mention of CTA button optimization.CTAs are the driving force that urges visitors to take action on your website.
Don’t leave them bland, assuming visitors will intuitively understand what you need them to do. As of 2023, the average website conversion rate stands at 3.68%. If every CTA worked optimally, this number would be higher.
Morningstar, a real estate company, wanted to improve the number of inquiries from the form on their mobile website. So, they believed that tweaking the CTA copy would help them improve the metric. They changed “Contact us” to “Inquire now” in the CTA copy. And guess what? The variation emerged as the winner,improving clicks on CTA by 44.11%.
The term “inquire” tells users exactly what to do, reducing ambiguity and encouraging engagement. Plus, the term “now” conveys a sense of urgency, implying that users should take prompt action.
16. Recover and reduce cart abandonments
Cart abandonmentis a prevalent issue for all websites. You’re not alone in this. If you’re not taking steps to re-engage lost visitors or prevent cart abandonment, you could be missing out on significant revenue.
Read our comprehensive eBook –Reducing Cart Abandonment– to know how some top brands tackled the problem of cart abandonment on their websites and build your conversion rate optimization action plan.
Also, you can watch our insightful webinar on bringing back those abandoned carts, especially during the holidays. But we believe these conversion optimization tips work year-round. Feel free to adapt these techniques and try them at different times of the year, keeping the foundational idea the same. See how they increase conversions and contribute to your bottom line.
17. Understand psychological principles
How to get better conversion rate optimization, you wonder? Understand a little bit about human mental models – how we think and act. For example, when we leave a cluttered website or hesitate to buy without seeing proof, we don’t really know the underlying psychology at work. But we end up doing that anyway.
Understanding why we behave a certain way and whichpsychological principlesgovern it is key. When you learn how to optimize conversion rate based on this understanding, you can arrange elements on your website to align with the expectations of your visitors. It’s a big win for your business!
The new AI-driven feature within VWO can generate test ideas that are backed by relevant scientific principles for every webpage. Simply enter the page URL and you’ll see numerous relevant conversion rate optimization ideas related to that page. This helps you choose test ideas based on your goals and improve conversion rates. Watch how it works below.
In today’s vast ocean of online information, a picture (or video) is indeed worth a thousand words, creating a memorable and persuasive online journey for your visitors! Multimedia aids in storytelling, captures attention, and breaks the monotony of text, making your content more appealing.
For instance, on your eCommerce website, a video on a product page can showcase the fit and style of the product demonstrated by a model. Or let’s say for a travel website, you can consider adding destination videos or pictures shared by your customers, giving visitors an idea of what experience they can look forward to on their tour.
Or on real estate websites, you can add the feature for immersive property walkthroughs. Increasedvisitor engagementwill translate to improved conversion rates over time.
19. Deliver personalized experiences
You ask how to optimize your website for conversion? We say never skippersonalization! It’s not just another conversion rate optimization tactic; it’s at the heart of creating a customer-focused experience that builds trust. Think about those spot-on product recommendations on fashion sites or how Netflix recommends movies based on your location or watch history—perfect examples of personalization.
WithVWO Personalize, you can easily deliver tailored experiences by leveraging visitor data from different sources on your website. Say you want to show a 15% off banner to visitors who previously checked out winter wear on your website.
You can launch this campaign to see how it performs and improves your conversion rate. To explore more about personalization,take a free trial today.
If personalization is new to you, no worries! Check out thiswebinarto navigate through any challenges you might face.
20. Use surveys to your advantage
When visitors land on your website, they’re thinking about how easy or hard it is to take action for them. Maybe they find product suggestions easily but struggle to see the top brands on your website. Or perhaps they spot the form but can’t easily find the pricing page on aSaaS website.
At this point, visitors can share their experiences, and inform you about what’s functioning well, and where adjustments might be needed on your website. Their feedback offers unique and genuine perspectives. That’s why we’re big fans of incorporatingon-page surveys.
When visitors show appreciation, it shows you’re on the right track. If they suggest areas for improvement, embrace feedback and try to address them through proven conversion rate optimization strategies. WithVWO Surveys, you have the flexibility to choose survey formats, trigger them at the right moments, and filter responses for actionable insights. Explore howAI has elevated our survey capabilities.
Conclusion
To increase your conversion rate is to improve your digital marketing ROI. The more visitors you convert, the higher is the impact you drive on your top line from your existing traffic. And to ace conversion rate optimization for websites, you need more than tactics or hacks. TheCRO recommendationsmentioned above are a great place to start to strategically improve your conversion rates.
Having said that, keep in mind that some of these are likely to drive better results for your business than others. The important thing is to define your goals, gather data, and continuously run objective tests to find out what resonates with your target audience. Giving these methods a shot could really amp up the average conversion rate on your website and help you stand out in your industry. If you think VWO could help with your website’s conversion,take a free trial today.
Note: The author owns screenshots used in the blog.
Niti Sharma I've worked as a writer and editor in the B2B SaaS space for over 6 years. I read and write on all things CRO and experience optimization. I'm a chai fanatic and a paranoid parent. When I'm not copyediting or working on marketing projects, I love to spend my time reading. Besides B2B content, my passion lies in modern, behavioral astrology. I'm a dreamer and wish to write stories for children someday :)
