50 ideas on how to increase website conversion rate

Tips for content, usability and technical optimization

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Conversion is the percentage of website visitors who completed the target action: ordering a product, calling the company, or subscribing to a product. This is one of the most important marketing indicators. Conversion is calculated by the formula: For example out of 1000 users 5 people registered on webinar. The conversion will be 0.5%. If 200 people applied, the conversion will be 20%. The higher the percentage – the better.

In this article we gathered more than 50 ways to increase website conversion.

How to increase conversion: 50 ideas

1. Check the text for errors. Illiterate text is 99% likely to alienate the user. For example, a British site selling pantyhose did not immediately notice the error in the spelling of the category (tihgts instead of tights). When the word was corrected, the conversion increased by 80%.

2. Adjust the text to SEO requirements. Invite an SEO specialist and a copywriter to evaluate the content you already have on your site. This way you can increase organic traffic – more people will come to the site from search engines.

3. don’t use exclamation points. Usually from proposals with exclamation points reeks of manipulation: the company has nothing to offer and is trying to convince customers at all costs. It makes you look cheap, and it tends to alienate more customers than it attracts. Why am I being yelled at? Why am I being yelled at?

4. Test your headlines. They should be short and yet clearly convey the essence to the user. No need to put on a fog – it’s better to speak clearly. This is especially true for articles: it should be clear from their title what the benefit to the reader is. SumoMe conducted a large-scale study and found that creative headlines are detrimental to conversion. And Yandex even made a guide for the media with examples of good and bad headlines.

5. Speak the language of benefit. Describe the benefit of the product or product. Most customers don’t care how many awards and regalia a company has. They care about knowing if they can solve the problem. Instead of writing “Amplifer is a convenient service for posting to social networks,” the guys tell us what exactly these conveniences are

6. Talk about the benefits to the customer, not the benefits. Write about what’s important to your target audience. Move from the language of benefits to the language of benefits: Benefits Benefits. Fast hosting Sites on our hosting services load on average in 1 second. This increases your search engine position – more customers come to you. Unique strings are coated with a polymer coating that protects the metal from oxidation. This makes the strings last 70-80% longer than other strings. Fast delivery Your order will be at your home within one hour. What is CTA and how to increase its effectiveness

7. Check to see which CTAs work best. For example, Unbounce did a study and found that replacing the “Start your free 30 day trial” button with “Start my free 30 day trial” increased click-throughs by 90%.

8. Make friends with storytelling. People love interesting stories and don’t like pushy sales pitches. Tell a story about a product in a way that gets the user interested. Email and Storytelling. How strong stories help you do business.

9. Make the description of the product or service clear. Tell how to use the product, how it’s useful for the customer, how it’s different from other products. If the information is really useful, they’ll read it in its entirety. ASOS, for example, approaches the description of products quite unconventionally: ASOS divided the description into several sections – so it is easier to find the necessary information.

10. Structure your content. It is best to divide the text on the page into understandable sections, rather than write a solid canvas. It’s good if each of them will have a button for the target action. In a blog, use headings and subheadings, color highlights, photos and useful links. An example of the blog section at MockPlus: CTA buttons on the right and links to new blog content on the left. Everything is logical and doesn’t interfere with each other. And an example of their article: Headings and subheadings divide the text into digestible chunks

11. Anticipate queries. Give the site useful information that the user wants to know. For example, price of items, sizes, how-to-use instead of a list of undeniable benefits.

12. Give the opportunity to “run your eyes” through the page. Users look at photos and headlines first. Take advantage of that.

13. Set the accents. Highlight action-promoting buttons and make sure they’re visible on both desktop and mobile versions of the site and don’t move across browsers.This is what the Travel section of the National Geographic website looks like in a browser:

National Geographic website. The content is divided into blocks, each with its own header. There are color accents (e.g., “Partner content”)And this is how it is in the mobile version:

In the mobile version, the blocks and headers haven’t gone anywhere, the site is also easy to browse. Blocks and headlines are the same in the mobile version, and the site is also easy to browse. In the mobile version the blocks and headings went nowhere and the site is also convenient to browse

14. Add social proof. Real testimonials or Instagram photos of a specific product “in action” will do just fine. According to Baymard research, other people’s reviews of a product are important to 95% of users. They make purchasing decisions based on them.Product reviews on Ozon. They can be taken to the site to show what customers are saying about your product

15. Keep a blog. Fill it with relevant and useful content for the user. Show yourself as an expert in your field. T-G is the brand media of Tinkoff Bank. Write about how to save money, where it is better to invest, sort out court cases and offer ideas for travel

16. Use quality photos. According to Baymard research, 56% of users first look at photos and illustrations when they access a page. Poor-quality pictures can drive some visitors away and they’ll close the site.

17. Add a video. According to a 2017 Wyzowl survey, 97% of companies reported an increase in conversions when they added a video to a landing page. It can be an instructional video, a promotional video, or something else on your topic. Screenshot from the initial Careers Airbnb window playing a full-length video. A screenshot of the Careers Airbnb start screen with a full-length video playing

18. Show the real team. Instead of stock images with smiling people, upload a section with your “heroes” – real employees. The “About Us” section at Dodo Pizza with real photos of employees.

19. Use a secure connection protocol (https) and install a digital SSL certificate. Especially if you conduct online transactions with money. Without such a protocol, the user will see a notification that the resource is not secure and it is better to close it. To configure it, contact the developers or do it yourself. Tilda has an article on this topic.

20. Compress photos. Users don’t like to wait. Compress the pictures to make the site load faster. Compress can be in special services: Optimizilla, Compressor.io, CompressNow.

21. Increase the loading speed of the site as a whole. You can check the loading speed of the site on Google PageSpeed insights, Pingdom or WebPageTest. Here you can also get recommendations on how to optimize the loading speed.

22. Adapt the site for mobile version. According to Hootsuite as of January 2020 – 53.3% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices: 53.3% of people go to websites from phones, 44.08% from computers. Take care of the adaptability of the site, so as not to lose users who came to you from mobile devices.

23. Test different browsers. If the site works well in your usual browser – it does not mean that the user is ok. You can check the conversion rate of different browsers in Google Analytics in the “Technology” section.

24. Run A/B tests. Divide users into two groups and show them different versions of pages. For example, some see the blue button at the end of the article, and others see the green one. Or for some people we put the CTA at the beginning of the page, and for others – at the end. After the test, we see which result gave a higher conversion rate. We did not write “run A/B tests” for nothing, because it should be an ongoing process. That way the conversion will grow over time.

25. Make clear navigation for the user. Convenient menu, links to other sections. Much more pleasant to “roam” on the site when everything is clear at the level of intuition and the desired section is easy to find. Convenient navigation can even affect the position of the site in search results.

26. Add a voluminous footer, if you have a lot of information on your site. Duplicate the main sections with a list, add links to FAQ, user agreement, ways of communication. This allows the user to see all the sections once again and choose what they need. This is how Aviasales does it:If a person has reached the footer, they can always get to the right section from there

27. Make the search bar stand out. It is much more enjoyable to use an online store or read a blog when you know where to enter your search terms. At ROZETKA webshop the search bar is almost the main element of every page

28. Watch out for search functionality. And yes, the search must work well and give accurate information. Check how easy it is to find products on the site through search, whether all models can be found, whether there is a message that the item is in stock.

29. Add autofill. A useful and convenient thing that should be in any search. Especially if there are a lot of goods on the site. Amazon offers query options

30. Replace words entered with mistakes. People often make mistakes when typing queries. Turn them “box” into “box” or “gkfnmt” into “dress.” For example, the service Multisearch.io automatically corrects typos in user search queries, converts the Cyrillic to Latin, picks up synonyms for the query.

31. Add filters. One more way not to “chase” the user through the site, and immediately give him the opportunity to buy or find what he wants. Online stores need filters 100%, other sites need them optionally, and it depends on the topic. On the “Qian” site it is possible to set several basic filters for searching for an apartment. It is possible to apply several basic filters for the search of an apartment on the Cian website. Advanced filters can also be selected, where a more precise search request can be formulated One can use advanced filters – here one can formulate a more exact search query.

32. Include an initial geolocation check. In case you have a site in several languages and work for different countries. Many now make retargeting automatic, but specify which version of the resource the user wants to visit. This is not a simple basic functionality, ask good developers for it. Rains brand online store landing page. How to set up geolocation checking and selection – Serpstat article.

33. Give you the option to cancel the action. For example, when changing information in the personal account, ask if the user definitely wants to keep the changes or ask again if they want to remove the item from the cart. The person will feel like they are in control of the process. Will think again before deleting an item, and end up more likely to buy it.

34. Highlight errors when filling out forms right away. Not after the page is refreshed. The user may not see all the mandatory sections and then the form will give an error on submission.

35. Add an “up” button at the bottom of the page. It’s handy if you have a long article or just a few screens of information published on the page, for example. Don’t make the user scroll to the top.

36. Make several different subscription forms. There’s nothing wrong with pop-up forms if you use them wisely – don’t be intrusive, don’t go into passive aggression, customize your targeting. But it may happen that the user closes the popup, but then wants to leave his contact information. Give him the opportunity to come back to the form at any time and type in his name and email. Alternatively, add a static form to the footer. Vanity Planet’s footer with subscription form

37. Do not force authorization. Before you require users to leave their contact information, let them decide if they want to sign up or not. Let him look at the information on the site, buy a product without registration, read the blog.  Ask him to register in an unobtrusive and useful way. For example, by telling them about the possibilities for authorized users, like Medium does: A popup on Medium with an offer to sign up. Popup on the site of Medium with the offer of registration

38. Simplify the registration or subscription form. Most often people are just too lazy to fill in all the items, and their abundance is simply alarming. Interesting case: Expedia increased their profit by $12 million just by removing the “company name” field on the subscription form. The field confused some users, causing them to enter incorrect data. As a result, Expedia couldn’t verify credit card details and customers couldn’t pay on the site.

39. Highlight special offers. So that the user’s eye is immediately hooked on them. A classic example is a sale in online stores.

41. Don’t highlight prices too large. High prices written in small print are perceived as lower prices. VC has extensive material on this topic and examples of research related to human perception of price.

42. Separate long forms. If the user needs a lot of information for order placement – divide it into logical blocks (personal info, address, payment info). This way even a huge form will be much easier to fill out, and you’ll get a lot of useful information. For example, Intercom collects information about the user on 4 different screens – on each you need to enter only a small part of the data: On the first one, we leave an email. On the second one, we choose a service plan, and so on. At the second one we choose our tariff plan and so on.

43. Get rid of distracting elements. For example, from unnecessary banners, or too big a site header. Make sure that the really important information does not move because of the banner, and people see it in the first few seconds of being on the page. In order to understand what is “unnecessary” on the site – analyze the user’s behavior on the page and his clicks. How to do this: Conduct split tests. Connect Yandex.Webvisor.

44. Add contact information. Phones, addresses, social media links. Presence on social networks and real phone numbers where people can find out the information they need, builds trust and leads to increased conversions.

45. Provide online support. Add a chat with an operator to help the user quickly solve his problem. Support, of course, should be competent and friendly. Services for connecting chat to the site: Carrot quest, Eadesk, Talk Me, Omnidesk and others.

46. Personalize your output. Analyze the behavior of a particular user on the site, his previous requests and clicks. Suggest what he is really interested in. For example, add a personalized block with new products or recommendations of products for each specific user. You can do this with special services like Retail Rocket.  Personalization also works well in newsletters. In UniSender you can send an email to the user with recommendations based on previous purchases. Or a reminder of items the user has forgotten in the cart.

47. Conduct a mini survey to improve recommendations. Invite the user to answer questions to personalize the output. It’s better if it’s a choice between several options rather than a blank line where you have to enter the answer. For example, Yandex.Zen asks about the user’s interests to recommend thematic channels:

48. Don’t let the user get lost. When setting up an ad, for example, for a free web design course, give the user a direct link to the landing page or recording, rather than leading him to a page of different courses where he can get lost.

49. Add incentives. A limited offer almost always motivates people not to put off a buying decision. Such triggers can be messages that there are only a few items left or an additional discount on the order if the user checks out in the next half hour.

Booking, for example, adds “sold-out options” to the output to create a sense of high demand: And the online bookstore Labyrinth shows promotions with a timer. Plus different triggers like “Coming Soon”: And online bookstore Labyrinth shows promotions with a timer. Plus different triggers like “Coming Soon:

50. Display the download process. This lets the user know that nothing is hanging, and the page is just loading. You can do this with animated elements (hourglass, circle with divisions).

P.S. What lowers the conversion rate

Several elements that can kill the conversion of the site:

• Pop-ups that can’t be closed.
• Welcome windows that pop up at 0.0001 second of the visit.
• Questionable CTA: “Lose 15 pounds in 2 hours.”
• Several exclamation points in a row.
• An abundance of third-party banner ads.
• Flashing buttons.
• Vyvyglaznyy color palette of the site.
• The design of the times when the Internet first appeared.
• Template phrases that users have already seen a thousand times: “Only here, only now.
• Very long loading of pages.
• Baffling navigation.

Necessity to register and enter a bunch of data, including the name of great-aunt’s cat. In trying to increase the conversion rate of the site, don’t go too far. Don’t use the case studies of other resources as a guide. What worked for some people won’t necessarily work for you. Test different approaches and find ways that work for you.