How to improve website conversion rates yourself (free actions)

You’re losing sales because your pockets aren’t as deep as bigger competitors paying for visibility online.

This sucks.

Hard-working businesses deserve to get noticed online, no matter their size.

Sure, it’s true what the experts say. Most people use the internet to access offerings like yours, so it’s wise to invest in digital marketing services that connect to your target audience.

But this spending is hard to justify for smaller businesses with budget constraints, right?

Don’t worry…

You can connect with consumers by spending little money – but only if you’re willing to put in the TIME needed to create valuable content for your target audience on a website that’s easy to use.

We show you powerful steps you can take yourself to grow traffic and improve website conversion rates.

Many of these actions cost nothing!

Feel empowered to get the results you want, while saving thousands of dollars.

5 focus areas:

• Publish engaging content that’s relevant to your audience
• Improve site functionality
• Build your social network
• Learn how to analyse website performance
• Understand the ranking factors and technical rules

But first, what is a conversion rate in digital marketing?

This is the percentage of website visitors who complete an action that brings you closer to your business goals.

Examples include:

• Making a purchase
• Downloading a report
• Booking a consultation
• Visiting a certain page

For e-commerce sites, the strongest conversions lead directly to sales.

A conversion rate between 2 and 5 per cent generally indicates your strategy is working. However, this number varies widely, depending on the industry and what you’re measuring.

Next we explain how to improve website conversion rates.

Focus 1: Publish engaging content to increase online conversions and site reputation

People won’t stay on your site long enough to take action, if you don’t hold their interest with compelling information. This content should be relevant to the needs of your target audience.

The best part:

Even if they never buy your offering directly, the simple act of engaging with your content sends a signal to Google that your content is trustworthy. This increases your site authority and visibility over time, increasing your chances of making a sale.

Here’s how you publish engaging content:

1. What does your audience care about?

Consider your primary audience, then ask yourself what they want to learn from you.

There are three main search intentions:

• Informational: people search for general information that indirectly relates to your offering. For example, general searches about “how to be more productive at work” would be relevant to HR software companies. Provide this helpful information and consumers may remember your brand later on.
• Transactional (sales): users search for a specific product or service, such as “automated HR software”. The consumer has a good idea about what they want, but hasn’t yet decided on a brand.
• Navigational queries: searches for your brand specifically.

Target every stage of the customer journey by creating different kinds of content. You don’t want to miss opportunities to attract people to your site.

When planning your content, use relevant keywords with a decent search volume.

2. Find popular keywords that your target audience searches for:

You can install a browser extension like Keywords Everywhere, showing how many people search for a particular keyword or phrase. It costs around $10 for 100,000 keyword searches, which lasts a long time.

Reminder: Turn it off when you’re not searching for keywords, so you don’t waste credits (go to the extension in your toolbar and click “off”).

3. Publish content with relevant keywords on your home, product and service pages.

Write about popular topics that people search for. Scatter the keywords and related terms through your content in a natural way. Try to include the main key phrase in your title and image tags, if you can do so organically, without overstuffing it.

You may also want to publish quality blogs, depending on your market. Sharing useful information helps your site authority in the long run, which boosts visibility and website conversion rates.

The more in-depth your article, the better.

Remember you’re writing for humans. Use compelling language that appeals to people’s emotions. Relate to their problem, when it makes sense to do so.

People scan online content, so incorporate dot points, colourful graphics, images and plenty of space.

Did you know that people read as though they’re speaking? Engagement will be higher if you replicate this rhythm in your writing. Read everything out loud before publication to ensure it sounds pleasing to your ear.

3. Tailor the information for search engine previews:

Even if your website ranks on the first page of Google, nobody will click on the link if your Meta preview is boring and unrelated to their needs.

People are more likely to visit your website if you immediately catch their attention in the search results
Search the targeted keyword to see what your competitors on the first page have in their Meta previews. Think about how you can stand out from what’s there.

Use compelling language that targets emotions. Relate to the problem if it makes sense to do so.

Include at least one unique selling point, if it’s relevant to the context of the page.

Put your targeted keyword in the Meta title and possibly in the description, if you can find a way to make it sound natural and engaging.

Get to the point straight away, and don’t exceed the character limit. Use a free snippet optimisation tool to see exactly what your preview will look like.

Focus 2: Improve site functionality to increase online conversions

You can share the most valuable content, but people will leave instantly if your website is slow, cluttered or difficult to navigate because of poor functionality.

Why would anyone waste their time when other websites offer a better experience? It’s nearly impossible to improve website conversion rates if you neglect the technical elements.

Form optimisation:

1. Move your form above ‘the fold’
2. Make the form headline a call-to-action that grabs attention
3. Make it easy to see which form fields are required
4. Hide previously-completed fields
5. It’s better if your “submit” button is worded with the specific action in mind (instead of “submit” which is vague). Examples: “create account”, “send message”, and “register for free”
6. Make sure the forms are mobile-responsive
7. Include a privacy statement (and make sure to keep the users’ details secure)
8. Make the forms easy to complete
9. Automate a message that confirms the form has been submitted. Give an approximate response time.

Easy contactability:

1. Create a number and email for digital enquiries
2. Display your details in all relevant spaces and places (this includes both business and personal profiles)
3. Insert suitable call-to-actions on every relevant page (website, social & external content)
4. Add a ChatBot to your website or social media platforms
5. Include LiveChat options such as Facebook messenger or WhatsApp
6. Make sure your details are consistent across all platforms
7. Set up automated responses to reassure your potential customer that you will be in touch
8. Respond to enquiries promptly

Strong call-to-action (CTA):

This phrase tells the user exactly what action to take and how to do so. It can be as simple as a few words (“buy now”) or a longer sentence (“want to learn everything you can about marketing? Subscribe now and never miss an update!”).

Include a call-to-action anywhere you want to encourage visitors to take action.

• Facebook Ads
• Google Ads
• Social Media Profiles
• Emails
• Landing Pages
• Websites
• Blog Posts
• Organic Social Media Content

CTA’s can either be direct actions that lead to a sale (“order now”), or transitional actions that provide useful information (examples include downloading an educational video or subscribing to a newsletter). Transitional actions help to boost your credibility in the eyes of the visitor.

The CTA doesn’t have to be fancy, it can be a clickable button, or even text with a hyperlink.

A note about CTAs on the home page: the direct action is best placed “above the fold” in the middle of the screen or in the top right section, where the consumer’s eye first glances. It should stand out and be worded in a succinct and engaging way.

Mobile-responsive functionality:

Mobile phones drive online conversions. Not surprising, given how often we use them! Most people (76 per cent) who conduct a local search on their smartphones visit a physical destination within 24 hours.

Make sure that people can easily engage with your content on their smartphones, to improve website conversion rates.

Main features include:

1. Larger buttons
2. Smaller images that load quickly (shortpixel is a good option for compressing images whilst retaining quality, and there are similar websites that convert images for free if you search online).
3. Auto-fill form fields
4. Auto-detect location settings
5. Guest checkout option to save time for the user
6. Multiple screens instead of scrolling
7. Add Video
8. Test Pop-Up features
9. Add Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to your website

Focus 3: Build your social network

Half the world’s population uses social media, so it’s likely your target consumers do too! Why not take advantage of these popular channels, by publishing engaging snippets related to what you do?

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• TikTok

You can even share links to your blog articles. You’ve already put in the hard yards creating the content, may as well spread it as far as possible!

Answer questions from customers promptly, in a professional manner too. This real-time engagement has been shown to improve conversion rates by 30 per cent.

Social media advertising:

Increase online conversions by paying platforms like Facebook to display your ads in people’s news feeds. We know consumers are 71 per cent more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals, so it’s a good way to attract new customers.

It’s possible to manage your own campaign. Use compelling language that connects with people’s pain points, and highlight unique selling points.

If you can, consider hiring a specialist who knows how to get the best results quickly.

Positive reviews drastically boost conversion metrics:

How to improve website conversion rates while strengthening your reputation? Encourage customers to leave reviews. Displaying positive reviews lifts online conversions by 270 per cent. You can easily do this yourself, by asking clients to share their reviews. Alternatively, ask an agency like E-WEB to handle the entire process (you only pay for the reviews you get using our system).

Focus 4: Learn to analyse website performance

Examine key data about how people engage with your website, using automated systems. You can do much of this yourself; some tools are free and others come with a small cost.

This will reveal what’s working, and what needs improving. It’s about making empowered choices that save time and money!

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics helps you understand the behaviour of people who interact with your website. It’s free to set up an account, and easy to use after you get used to it.

Not only can you track conversions, but you can also see how visitors interact with your content. For example, what pages are the most popular? Find out how many people visit each page, how long they spend browsing it, the quality of SEO traffic and so much more.

This information tells you whether or not your strategy is working.

There’s a lot of advice online about the basics of using a Google Analytics account, but reach out to us if you need help or want to explore some of the more complicated features.

A/B Testing (also called split testing):

Most people take a stab in the dark when creating content, guessing what approach works best.

But your content will be more powerful if you use A/B Testing to experiment with different versions. This shows you what elements resonate the best with your audience, removing the guesswork.

You can use platforms like Google Analytics and Google Optimise to test a number of content variations on an audience that has been split. This shows you which variation performs the best on a particular audience-type, over a specific period.

For each experiment, you’re testing for a single change only – so there’s no confusion about which variable is responsible for performance differences. Example: you may launch a test that compares two different subject lines in an email, but everything else stays the same.

If you want to test for multiple variables, go ahead and run multiple tests.

Heat Maps:

A heat map is a graphic that shows what elements people interact with and how much time they spend browsing each section on your website. It tracks the journey of their mouse. For example, how far down the page they scroll and what pages they click.

A warm-to-cool colour spectrum represents this data. The warmest colours reveal the page elements that attract the most attention, while the cool colours show low interactions.

Are people engaging with important content, or overlooking it? See what content and design elements work best on your page, and what can be changed to increase online conversions.

You can use heat map technology yourself, by installing the tracking tool onto your website. There are different tools, but a good option is the Page Analytics Chrome browser extension, which you can connect to your Google Analytics account.

Microsoft Clarify is another free option.

Focus 5: Understand ranking factors and technical rules

Google uses a complex system of technical algorithms to decide where to rank your site when consumers search for a keyword you’ve targeted. This determines if your page is visible on the first few pages, or gets banished to distant pages with no traffic.

Google is more likely to favour web pages that contain relevant keywords AND offer a valuable experience to visitors.

Read about the main ranking signals that Google uses to determine the positioning of pages. You can find a lot of this information online. One helpful resource is Google Ranking Factors by Backlinks.

Keep in mind that Google frequently updates its algorithms. Become aware of these changes when they occur, in case you need to tweak your approach. Consider subscribing to a free daily newsletter like Search Engine Journal for comprehensive updates about the digital marketing industry.

They also have a helpful document about how to recover from Google penalties.

Familiarise yourself with the complete list of penalties, so you don’t accidentally break any of Google’s rules. If a website is penalised, it may disappear from the search results until the issue is resolved. It’s tough to increase online conversions while penalised, so don’t let this happen to you.

How to improve website conversion rates without doing the heavy lifting yourself?

You may not have the time to focus on the strategies we’ve discussed.

If you’d like any support with your digital marketing, please contact our team.

E-Web Marketing uses cost-effective strategies, because businesses shouldn’t have to spend beyond their means to get noticed online.

For the last three decades, we’ve helped 3000 businesses to increase online conversions, brand loyalty and site traffic. If you want to speak with some of our clients, we’re happy to share the contact details of those who’ve permitted us to do so.

Call 1300 785 122 or fill out this form to find out how we can help you lift online conversions and build a loyal customer base.