48% of users say that the design of a website is the number one factor when they’re determining the credibility of a business. While design is crucial, speed and usability should also be priorities, since conversions decrease by 12% for every one-second delay in your website’s load time.
For business owners hoping to scale their business, a solid online presence has never been more important.
Here are a few simple tweaks and changes you can make to your website to improve usability, decrease your bounce rate, and increase conversions:
1. Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)
It sounds simple, but this is a step that is overlooked by 70% of small business websites. A CTA tells website visitors what to do next- whether you want them to sign up for your newsletter, get in touch, or purchase your product.
By adding a clear CTA, you make it clear which action readers should do, removing friction and helping guide them down the sales funnel. Each page should have a call-to-action from your About Page to each blog post. Some examples of CTAs you may want to use include:
- Read more blog posts
- Share on social media
- Sign-up for our newsletter
- Checkout
- Download now
- Add to wishlist
- Buy now
- Add to cart
- Get in touch
Whichever CTA you use, make sure you’re clearly telling your website visitors what you’d like them to do next.
Choose colorful buttons that grab attention, use highly visible CTAs with large text, and clearly state the benefit your visitors will get from clicking. Don’t forget to incorporate actionable language and keep it short.
2. Optimize Your Website’s Speed
If your leads land on your website, only to be met with glacially slow load speeds, they’ll simply click back to the search results. This will increase your bounce rate, and signal to Google that your website should be lower in the rankings.
If your website takes four seconds to load, 25% of your potential visitors have already given up and chosen a different website instead. This is bad news since it means you’ll likely be handing business to your closest competitors.
Now’s the time to do a speed test. Use a tool like Pingdom, which will show how quickly your website is loading for the average user depending on their location.
3. Provide Social Proof
If you haven’t included any reviews or testimonials on your website, you may need to start collecting them.
97% of B2B buyers consider user-generated content such as reviews to be more credible than other types of content.
Make sure you place your testimonials in prominent spots on your website, and whenever possible, include a photo of the customer or client. Case studies are also an excellent option and can be a good way to offer a current client a special rate in exchange for their data and a quote or two.
4. Keep it Simple
Simplicity is massively important, and you’ll find that visitors are overwhelmed if you offer too many options, cluttered navigation, or simply have too much going on when it comes to your home page.
Make sure your design is clean and minimizes any distractions. Great user experience is all about removing anything that’s unnecessary or overwhelming to the eye.
Create a large, eye-catching and benefit-driven headline, and make sure any buttons are bright and contrast with your color scheme. Cut your copy down until it’s as simple and engaging as possible, and A/B test whenever you make a change to your website- so you can see exactly which version has the best conversion rate.
5. Incorporate Lead Magnets
What do you want your customers or clients to do if they don’t purchase immediately or get in touch? You’d probably like to have the opportunity to contact those leads again, right? That’s why lead magnets are so important.
Lead magnets are offers that give your visitors something of value in exchange for their email addresses. This allows you to build your email list and contact those people at a later time- with an offer or information that may interest them.
Lead magnets can range from ebooks and whitepapers to video courses and webinars. In order for them to work well, you need to know your target audience well and understand what type of lead magnet will interest them.
Once you’ve created your lead magnet, make sure it’s located in a prominent place on your website. This can be a good opportunity to use an exit-popup as well.
Need some help improving your website? Get in touch today.