3 Steps To Increase Website Conversion With Semalt's Dedicated Seo Dashboard
What to do to increase your conversion rate?
Conversion rate is an indicator that shows the % of interactions on your website that converted, that is, where your goal was achieved. For online stores, the goal will most often be to make a purchase by the user, while for service websites - to make them use the service.
A low conversion rate does not necessarily result from a lack of traffic on the website. It happens that users enter a website, but eventually leave it without achieving our goal. How to turn traffic into conversion? We have distinguished 4 main areas of activity that can really influence consumers' purchasing decisions.
1. Take care of UX
User experience - user experience is an aspect that has a huge impact on the user's behaviour on the website.
It is worth noting that whether we keep the consumer on the website may be influenced by details - e.g. the choice of colours or the way the CTA is designed. Adapting the website, both visually and technically, to the user's requirements - can contribute to an increase in conversion.
A functional website will also be appreciated by Google algorithms. The latest updates, such as Core Web Vitals, highlight the direction in which Google is heading, putting functionality and usability first.
Functional view in mobile and desktop
More and more people use mobile devices, so when designing a website, it is worth making sure that it is functional in use, regardless of the size of the screen. According to the Gemius research from 2020, as many as 73% of Internet users make online purchases, of which only half use a desktop computer for this purpose. As many as 80% of users use a laptop, 69% use a smartphone and 24% a tablet.
Responsiveness of the website, i.e. adjusting the layout of the website to the devices on which it is displayed, is no longer a nod to those who choose mobile instead of desktop, but a mandatory point.
Exclusion of intrusive ads
Pop-ups are an element that can effectively deter potential customers. Nuisance notifications or a hard-to-close window can make the user simply leave the page.
It is worth excluding intrusive advertisements of this type, and if we want a message about e.g. an overpriced group of products, an attractive discount or the possibility of subscribing to the newsletter to be displayed after entering the website, make sure that the window does not block the possibility of interacting on the website.
Is a pop up always a bad idea? Absolutely not - the key will be to choose the right moment, e.g. a pop up displayed to a user who is about to leave the website is a chance to save the customer, not the risk of losing a conversion.
The clear structure of the store
The clear structure of the website makes it easier to navigate through it. Users appreciate the intuitive navigation, the ability to quickly go back to the previous step, the superior category, and quickly find the product they are interested in.
Consider whether the products in your online store are correctly assigned to the categories and whether there are too few or too many of these categories? Is filtering sufficient? An example that facilitates navigation is breadcrumbs, i.e. a breadcrumb menu that shows where on the page or stage of the purchasing process the user is.
High-quality content
The content on the website is a virtual seller. It is worth remembering this when creating content. Unique, interesting product or category descriptions that answer the consumer's questions may influence the purchasing decision. To build the position of an expert in the eyes of the user, it is also worth considering running a company blog.
How to write? Preferably short sentences and in a language adapted to the recipient. It is worth not only describing the features of the products, but also indicating specific benefits resulting from the purchase of a given product or group of products. When creating or optimizing descriptions on a website, it is also worth applying SEO principles. Thanks to this, we will provide not only valuable content to the user, but also we can influence the visibility of the domain in the organic search results. And this action can also turn into increased conversion.
Consumer path analysis
Analyzing consumer behaviour on the website is a good step towards increasing conversions. Seemingly trivial errors or shortcomings can significantly affect users' decisions.
One of the tools that should be used to analyze user behaviour on the website is the Dedicated SEO Dashboard. It allows you to track exactly what the potential customer is doing on the website: where he is clicking, what he is watching and how much time he spends on a specific subpage.
This knowledge will be invaluable when optimizing the subpage to the user's needs: it may turn out that the buttons in the mobile version are too small, the delivery forms are unclear, the summary of products in the basket is missing or one of the forms simply does not work.
The analysis allows you to catch errors and implement actions aimed at their improvement, so it is worth returning to it periodically.
2. Adjust the offer to the customer's needs
Online shopping is perceived by buyers as convenient and gives more possibilities than in stationery stores. It is worth taking advantage of their potential and adjusting the offer to the needs of customers. In this context, it will be a good idea to analyze the price of products, cost, time and form of delivery, as well as the method of presenting the offer.
Factors influencing more frequent online purchases according to a survey:
The price of the products
Nobody wants to overpay - neither do the customers of your online store. To keep their interest, it is worth adjusting product prices to the current market price, so as not to fall behind the competition.
Some buyers look for a specific product or model by comparing prices in different stores. Your offer does not have to be the cheapest on the market, but it should be comparable to others. A good price combined with an attractive delivery can affect your conversion rate.
Cost and time of delivery
The Gemius study from 2020 showed that among the problems encountered with this form of shopping, internauts mention, among others, long waiting for delivery (37%) and high delivery costs (30%). What to do to adapt to their expectations? The answer is simple: improve delivery quality. Free shipping is a factor that often influences consumers' purchasing decisions.
According to the survey, the most preferred forms of delivery are the delivery by courier to home or work (indicated by as many as 74% of respondents) and the delivery to a parcel machine (68%) - using this knowledge and implementing solutions that are convenient for consumers may have a positive impact on their purchasing decisions.
Users also appreciate simple and quick transactions. The less complicated this process is, the better. Supplementing the purchase form with popular payment and delivery methods can make users purchase more often, and therefore increase the conversion rate.
To analyze the purchasing process, it is worth using not only GA, but also the aforementioned Dedicated SEO Dashboard tool - tracing consumer behaviour at the basket and payment stage will help to find possible errors and thus indicate specific areas that should be improved.
The way of presenting the offer
The price of the product and the form of delivery may determine the purchase decision, but these are not the only aspects that should be taken into account. Equally important, if not more important, is the way the product or service is presented. Elements worth paying attention to in this context are:
- understandable name of the product/service;
- unique, high-quality description;
- good quality photos;
- indication of technical parameters, if any;
- assigning the product to the appropriate parent category.
Cross-selling
A good seller in a stationery store will advise and indicate similar products that potentially meet the consumer's expectations. We can use the same action in online sales. A skilful presentation of similar products or services is a step that will be appreciated by many Internet users.
Do you run an online shoe store? You can recommend to a customer viewing leather shoes, for example, specifics for their maintenance and cleaning or insoles. Thanks to this, you increase the chance of purchasing these products, even if the user originally only wanted to buy leather shoes. The indication of related products complementing the offer is cross-selling.
Up-selling
When presenting your offer, you can also indicate other products from the same category - e.g. shoes of the same colour or products of the same manufacturer. Presenting similar offers, but from a higher price range, is up-selling. Example? A user entered the site intending to purchase a cheap 15" laptop.
Apart from the selected model, however, there are also related offers, ie other 15" laptops with better parameters and a higher price range. Thanks to this presentation of the offer, the chance to buy a more expensive product is greater - we have a chance to convince the consumer to buy.
3. Invest in SEO / ADS
ADS
Investing in internet marketing is a way to get traffic that can translate into conversion. Why? Because it allows you to better match the advertisement to the target group - due to, for example, age, interests or location. The more potentially interested users who see it, the more likely they are to use it - now or in the future. Reaching a narrower, but more accurately defined group of recipients increases the chances of conversion, unlike mass advertising.
Google Ads can deliver the effect immediately, but only for a defined duration and on keywords that the campaign applies to. It is a good idea for advertising new or particularly popular products, e.g. seasonal products.
It is worth using SEO
Optimize the domain technically
A long page loading time, an unintuitive store structure, too large graphics that jump when reading the content or mismatch with mobile devices are some of the technical problems that may affect the abandonment of the cart or shorten the visit to the website. Although UX and CRO have different assumptions, because in the first case we want to create the best conditions for a potential customer, and in the second we want to convert, these activities can complement each other.
For example, improving the page loading speed has an impact on the user's behaviour - he e does not leave the page, appreciates high-quality content, clicks on the CTA and makes a decision that ends with a conversion. His decision was influenced by both optimizations in the UX and CRO areas.
To work out long-term results, it is worth using SEO. Search engine optimization is an activity aimed at increasing the visibility of the domain in Google's organic results. Positioning is a process whose effects must be waited for much longer than in the case of Ads, but the results achieved are definitely more durable. If you want to find out how SEO activities can affect your position in Google, you can read the story of our clients.
Summary
The conversion rate is an indicator that is worth observing not only for business analysis in terms of ROI, but also for catching possible errors - both technical and resulting from a mismatch of the offer. Obviously, the tips presented by us in the article do not exhaust the range of possible actions aimed at increasing the conversion rate.
However, they are a good starting point - if you want to increase conversion on your website or store, check if you can improve the areas indicated by us. Also, remember about periodic analysis - use tools such as Google Analytics or the Dedicated SEO Dashboard, track consumer behaviour and needs and take care of the technical optimization of the domain so that it meets the expectations of new and existing customers as much as possible.