1. Improve Page Loading Speed
First things first, it needs to be easy for visitors to get on your website. And, the first thing that’s going to leave an impression in their mind is the amount of time that it takes for your site or landing page to load. If it’s taking a while, they’re much more likely to hit the back button and go elsewhere, having a negative impact on your bounce rate and causing you to lose out on potential sales. And, a high bounce rate is no good for SEO; Google will judge you on the number of visitors bouncing off your site and could rank you lower as a result. On average, visitors will leave if a site takes more than just three seconds to load – so make sure that yours is ready to go almost immediately.
2. Have a Modern, Responsive Web Design
Secondly, you’ll need a modern, simple, and eye-catching web design that entices your visitors to come on in and learn some more. A site that’s too busy can quickly put somebody off; use clean lines, white space, and interesting visuals to incite interest in your brand and keep visitors on your site for longer. And, make sure that it’s just as easy to use for mobile visitors. With more and more people today browsing the web from their smartphones and tablets, failing to use a responsive web design that looks awesome on every type of device can quickly put your visitors off. And, trying to navigate a design that isn’t mobile-friendly can be very tricky on a smartphone, particularly when reading content or filling out forms. This can quickly deter a visitor from making a purchase.
3. Make it Easy to Navigate
In addition to an eye-catching design that’s responsive and easy on the eye, you’ll need to make sure that visitors can navigate your website easily. If your visitors are struggling to find what they want, they’re going to give up quickly and try one of your competitors instead. Use a simple menu option so that customers can easily browse through what you offer and place a search bar in a place that’s easy to locate immediately, so visitors with a specific product or service in mind can find it straight away.
4. Focus on Engagement
Boosting engagement levels with each visitor to your site will help to improve your brand’s reputation and create a stronger relationship with both your existing and potential customers. There are several different options that you can consider when it comes to improving engagement levels. Many people associate brand engagement with social media profiles, but there are several ways in which you can engage with your visitors right there on your website. Quizzes, for example, are a great way to interact with your visitors and find out a little bit more about them in the meantime, helping you get a better understanding of your audience so you can tailor your advertising to them. And, quizzes can help with your SEO efforts – higher levels of customer engagement are favored by search engines, which can have a positive impact on your search ranking. There are various online tools that you can use to make quizzes, such as LeadQuizzes, that can help you engage your visitors and turn them into valuable leads.
5. Provide Useful Content
When your visitors have the option of consuming high-quality, informative content when they visit your site, they’re more likely to stick around and explore your offerings. A business blog is one of the best ways to do this. You can cover topics that your audience will find useful, which could include anything from helping them get the most from your products and services to information that will help them with related topics and issues, regardless of whether or not they are a paying customer of yours. The key here is to provide information that anybody can use – once visitors begin to trust your knowledge and view your brand as an online authority, they’ll remember your brand when they need to purchase the kind of goods or services you offer in the future.
6. Use Clear Calls-to-Action
When it comes to encouraging your visitors to go ahead and part with their money in exchange for one of your products or services, don’t expect your website alone to be enough. Including clear calls-to-action throughout your site will make it very clear to visitors how to make a purchase and encourage them to go ahead and do so. And, this is a great way to try and reduce instances of cart abandonment – for example, adding ‘Buy Now’ buttons rather than ‘Add to Basket’ will encourage customers to make the purchase there and then, rather than leaving it for later.
7. Follow Up
Last but not least, following up with visitors wherever possible will help you get a better idea of the reasons why users are either staying on or leaving your site, in addition to why they did or didn’t make a purchase. As a result, you can use the information that you gather in the future to make changes and improvements to your site accordingly – improving your chances of converting visits into sales or sign-ups. For example, if visitors sign up to a newsletter or leave their contact details after making a purchase, offering the option for them to fill in a quick survey of their opinions and suggestions for improvement can provide you with great insight. In a competitive online business world, it’s crucial to maximize the value of each and every visit. If you have any suggestions of your own to add, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.
