Visits to your site are all well and good, but chances are you are paying for that traffic in some way. That could be through paid search or through other channels, and not converting those visits into leads may result in a low return on investment (ROI).
There are many ways in which you can optimise your landing page in order to increase the chances of converting users. Here are just a few quick tricks you can trial which could help you to see significant results.
Buttons:
If you have a button the user needs to click in order for a conversion to be tracked, for example “Buy Now” or “Get a Quote” buttons, then it may be worth moving this somewhere on the page which makes it clear for the user where they need to click. This is especially worth testing if the button is currently below the fold of the page (the portion of the page that is visible when the page first loads, before the user needs to start scrolling). This means that the button is visible as soon as the page loads and the user does not need to search for it. Having a second button at the bottom of the page, below any content, is also good practice so the user doesn’t need to scroll back up.
It may also be worth changing the appearance of a button. Enlarging it, making the font larger, and changing the colour so the text stands out more are all ways a button could be made more prominent to a potential customer.
Call to Actions:
Ensure your landing page has a call to action. Examples of these are “Order Now” , “Get a Quote” , “Sign up…” etc. Test different variations out and see what gets the best results.
Trust Signals:
It is important that a site user trusts your brand. Without trust, you can expect a far lower conversion rate. There are a few ways you can establish trust with a site visitor. One such way is to include customer testimonials or reviews. A few quotes could be included in your landing page, and you could even have a separate page containing further testimonials. A brand can always try to sell itself, but it’s the words of real people that gain trust.
Another trust signal could be accreditation/award badges. For example, a restaurant could have a food hygiene badge on their website. These badges could link to content describing how the award was achieved, in case people wish to read more, further establishing trust.
Content Optimisation:
Content is, of course, great for SEO, however is your content distracting from converting a site visit to a sale? A useful way to counteract this could be to have expanding content using a “read more” function. This means the user has the option to read more if they wish, and if they don’t then on-page elements such as buy / quote buttons or products won’t be pushed as far down the page. Sounds simple, but it can make a considerable difference.
Exit Points:
Ensure your landing page doesn’t contain too many unnecessary links. These can act as distractions, and all they do is take the user away from the page. It’s good to have your main navigation in place on a landing page for usability purposes, however keep all other links within the content to what’s essential (for example, product pages).
Branding:
Always have your target audience in mind when compiling a landing page. General look and feel are important factors that are often overlooked in place of elements such as content. Ensure you are using the right colour palettes, language, and fonts for your target demographic.
There are many other ways to optimise your landing page, but these are a good place to start. Remember not to be afraid to trial different things on your landing pages, and always consider A/B split testing. Perhaps in a future blog post we can talk about more optimisation methods.