It’s one thing to drive traffic to your site, but it’s a completely different ball game to actually convert those users into customers. What’s the point of your website if your users are just aimlessly browsing your site, but not actually doing anything to benefit you or your company? You need to decide what the intended purpose of your site is, set a goal, and see if your current site is accomplishing this goal by inspecting your customer’s behavior. These 6 steps can help guide your company in the right direction of converting your website traffic into customers.
Analyze Customer Behavior
Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a way we could analyze our customer behavior and figure out certain patterns that happen on our website? Well, guess what? There is. Google analytics allows you to take a look behind the scenes and see exactly what’s happening. With this tool, you can pick up on certain patterns that may be happening on your site, which can give you a better insight to what might be causing them. Maybe your site has a high bounce rate and you’re not really sure why? This analytics tool can show you where your customers are dropping off your site, how deep into the site they’re going, and what they’re clicking on.
Loading Time
Nobody has the time or patience to wait on a website that takes forever to upload. Even shaving just a mere second off of your loading time can help drastically increase your website conversion rates. According to Kissmetrics, “A loading delay of just one extra second can cut your conversions by 7%, and most users will abandon your site if it takes more than 6 to 10 second for it to load”. Compressing file sizes and images, as well as getting rid of any unnecessary content is a great way to give your website the boost it needs to load quicker. According to Fast Company, “Amazon calculated that a page load slowdown of just one second could cost it $1.6 billion in sales each year.” Convinced how crucial loading time is for website conversion yet?
User Friendly
Your customers don’t want to have to play guessing games of where to find things on your website. Navigating your website should be smooth sailing all around to avoid frustrations on your consumers end. Make sure all of your content is clear, concise, and to the point. What’s the purpose of your website? Do you want your customer to purchase something? Maybe sign up for your company’s newsletter? Let it be known and obvious! Don’t have your site set up to where your customer has to click on several buttons or subpages just to get where they want to be. Use your call to actions to help lead your customers in the right direction! Keep your site simple and easy to use.
Media Rich Content
Grab your customers attention and entice their curiosity! Don’t make browsing your website a drag, entertain your customers a little. Having images and videos throughout your site can drastically enhance their navigating experience. Images and videos also allow your company to shed a little light on a side of the company you may not always get to show off. This could allow your company to become a little more relatable to your customer and help build a better relationship with your customers. Media rich content also helps to gain your consumers interest to learn about who your company is and what your company does, making the learning process a bit more enjoyable and helping to give them that extra push to click the “buy” button.
Mobile Friendly
We cannot stress this enough, having a mobile friendly website is essential today. According to LinkedIn, “An astounding 50% of mobile owners use their mobile devices as their key tool for surfing the internet.” Think about how much business your company is missing out on if your site isn’t responsive on smartphones and tablets. Your site needs to be compatible for any device, so navigating and browsing is simple and the purpose of your site is easily understood and executed. It’s not enough to just have your site displayed on mobile devices, but it has to also be as user friendly as your desktop version.
Testimonials
Testimonials are a great way to help give a customer an extra little nudge to purchase or sign up for something on your website. Reading positive reviews gives your potential customers extra reassurance about your company and brand. A study conducted by Forrester and Jupiter Research found that 77% of customers read reviews before they purchased something online. That finding alone should make you jump out of your seat right now and make your customer reviews and testimonials be apart of your site.
It’s important that the purpose of your site is easily understood for your customers. Developing a user friendly site that’s easy to navigate on all devices plays a big role in this. Make sure your content is engaging with various types of media, as well as relevant to your company’s goal and intentions. Let’s face it, patience is a thing of the past and we’re living in a society that needs instant gratification. So, make sure your site loads as quickly as possible to satisfy your customers wants and needs. Analyzing your customer behavior is a great way to gain insights on your customers and how to tweak your site for improvement. Following and understanding these 6 steps will get you ahead of your competition and help your company with converting website traffic into customers.
