4 Tips to Fix Your Conversion Rate
What is Conversion Rate (CR)?
Conversion rate (CR) is the % of users that complete a desired goal on your website. Depending on your business goals, a conversion could be anything from making a purchase, completing a form, saving a phone number, to signing up to a newsletter. In simple terms, a conversion is a measurable action that progresses a potential customer towards becoming a paying customer.
If 1,000 users visit an e-commerce store that sells gym equipment and 15 users complete a purchase this would give the store a conversion rate of 1.5%. Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the practice of increasing that 1.5% figure as high as possible. It's highly unlikely a website will ever achieve a conversion rate of 100% which is why CRO is always an ongoing process.
Here are 4 quick fixes you can implement into your website strategy to start converting more ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
💨 Page Speed
Studies have consistently shown that faster loading times result in a higher conversion rate. As of today, 78% of websites have a load time under 5 seconds and 22% have a load time over 5 seconds. Almost 50% of users stated that they expect a website to load within 2 seconds.
According to skilled.co, after testing AI healthcare product mPulse found:
- Websites that loaded in 2.4 seconds had a 1.9% conversion rate
- At 3.3 seconds, conversion rate dropped to 1.5%
- at 4.2 seconds, conversion rate dropped to >1%
- at 5.7 seconds, conversion rate dropped to >0.6%
Other online businesses have had similar results:
- Amazon found that for every additional 100ms load time their sales decreased by 1%.
- eBay found when pages loaded 12% faster their "Add to Cart" conversion increased by 0.5%.
- Walmart found that for every 1 second improvement in load time, conversions increased by 2%
To put things into perspective these seemingly small differences in CR% can have a massive impact on the amount of revenue a site generates. If an e-commerce store generates £5,000,000 monthly revenue with a 1% conversion rate, then by optimising and increasing their CR% by an additional 1% they would double their monthly revenue to £10,000,000.
More Benefits than just CR
Not only does page speed affect conversion rates but also helps improve Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Google has specified that site speed is one of the key factors used by their algorithm.
🔍 Accessibility & Inclusive Design
Inclusive design (also referred to as accessible design or universal design) makes products usable by everyone, regardless of age, ability and circumstance. Designing this way aims to remove the barriers that create friction and separation enabling everyone to participate equally. According to Disability Discrimination Worldwide around 15% of the worlds population suffers from some form of disability, which equates to 1 billion people.
How can I make my website more inclusive?
- Check Colour Contrast Ratios (Contrast Checker)
- Use heading tags correctly to structure your content
- Include descriptive alt text for images
- Give your links unambiguous labels
- Ensure all content can be accessed by keyboard only
- Ensure font size is legible on all devices
Wave by WebAIM is a great tool to check your websites accessibility. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) errors and can also facilitate a humans evaluation of web content.
WCAG Guidelines
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have been around since 1995. The latest issue, WCAG 2.1 was released in 2018 and covers a range of recommendations for making web content more accessible for people with a range of disabilities.
The Benefits of Inclusive Design
- It's the right thing to do (Morally and ethically)
- Improved usability for everyone
- Better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Builds a positive PR
- Avoids potential discrimination law suits (Equality Act 2010)
🔒 Trust Badges
A trust badge is a badge or seal that you place on your website that is meant to promote trust in your potential customers. Trust badges are traditionally visible during the checkout process, but a new trend of placing them directly on the home page is gaining traction.
Do trust badges actually work?
Numerous studies have shown that trust badges can increase conversion rates, especially where personal information or credit card details are requested. For example, In one survey 48% said that trust badges reassure them. Familiar brands like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Norton, and Google were also the most trusted seals when paying online.
"Customers seek security through familiarity. If they recognize the brand or product/badge name or look they will be way more likely to engage. Our research and testing has shown that increasing trust through prototypically and brand awareness/familiarity increases both perceptions of security and ultimately conversion rates.” - Ben Labay, CXL (Source - CXL)
🖲 Descriptive Call to Actions
What your buttons say is as important as how they look. Using the wrong words on your button labels cause users confusion, more work, and slower task times. If you want to make it easy for users to take action, you need to choose the right words on your button labels.
How to improve CTA labels
- Command verbs: Use a strong command verb to start your CTA, words like Buy, shop, order, download or subscribe.
- Provoke emotion: “buy now and get 50% off!” – not only are you providing them with a massive benefit, but who wouldn’t want 50% off?
- Give a reason: Be benefit orientated, what's in it for the user?
- FOMO: Fear of missing out is an extremely effective motivator. "Shop today! Sale ends Monday"
