Getting a lot of quality traffic is essential to your website’s success. But if people visit your website and then leave without buying anything or submitting their contact information, what’s the point?
The conversion rate of a website is the percentage of visitors that perform a given action (it could be completing a purchase or filling out a contact form, for example.)
These are four easy ways you can increase your conversion rate.
Live Chat
Selling in person isn’t that hard. You get a chance to listen to your customers and overcome their objections. But online, when people leave your site, you have no idea why. That is, unless you’re talking to them. And, live chat is the best way to do this.
Zopim is a great live chat tool that is also very affordable (they even have a free plan).

Surveys
Surveys are great because you can ask for specific feedback about your website. These are my two favorite questions:

  1. How likely are you to recommend XYZ to your friends? (I love this question because people only recommend products they truly like.)
  2. How can we make XYZ better? (In this question you’re already implying that XYZ could be better and it forces people to think about how it could be better.)

If you’re looking for an advanced tool to gather user feedback, check out GetSatisfaction. If you want a simpler tool for basic surveys, try SurveyMonkey.

Usability Testing
Usability testing is extremely powerful. This is how it works: tell someone who’s never been to your website before to complete a certain action (like “buy a red sweater for your sister”) and watch them as they do it.
Tell them that you’re not testing them; you’re testing your website to find what people can’t figure out and where they get stuck so you can fix those issues. Ask testers to say out loud every thought that comes to mind, such as “I can’t find the sweaters on this website” and “I wonder how much shipping is.”
My favorite tool for usability tests is UserTesting.com.

A/B Testing
There isn’t a better way to know for sure what works than running a test. A/B testing allows you to test different elements on your site. Here are some examples:

  • Offer: Does $10 off or 10% off work best?
  • Calls to action: “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart”? Red or blue button?
  • Layout: testimonials at the top or on the side?
  • Images: a baby smiling or a picture of your product?

My favorite tool for A/B testing is Optimizely.

Have questions? Post them in the comments section and I’ll answer them for you. Happy Tuesday!

Conversion Rate Optimization increase conversion rate