CONVERSION RATE OPTIMISATION

Conversion rate optimisation is perhaps the most overlooked, yet crucially important part of an online marketing strategy. Every 1% increase in conversion rates on a website receiving 1000 visitors per month translates into 10 new clients per month. As traffic scales up, each percentage point is worth more to your company. It is crucial to your online marketing success that your website converts as many visitors as possible into sales and leads. See in the table below how a 4% increase in conversion rates can turn loss-making traffic into profitable traffic.

Below are some quick and simple checks that you should carry out on your website or we can do for you. These constitute the minimum standard to which your site should adhere. Once your site adheres to this minimum standard, our conversion optimisation experts will work with you, relying on more advanced techniques, such as AB testing, to squeeze more conversions out of the traffic that you already have.

Simple Conversion Rate Checklist:

1. Is your website optimised for mobile devices?
   Between 10% and 40% of visits to your website are from mobile devices. To view a brief tutorial on how to see how you can check the precise percentage via your Google Analytics account, click here. If you haven´t got a mobile optimised version of your website, then the likelihood is that your site doesn´t perform as your users would expect when they visit from a mobile device. As more and more traffic to websites come from mobile devices, a mobile optimised version of your site is a must in order to maximise conversions and reduce costs per acquisition.
2. An introductory video:
   Video can achieve more than text in communicating a message. An introductory video can explain eloquently to potential customers why your business is the one from which they should buy. Well produced videos give the impression of a well-run company and will increase conversion rates. For more on video production, see this page of our website.
   OUR VIDEO PRODUCTION
3. Meet the Team:
   Potential customers like to see the people behind the promises. A well presented meet the team page is useful in this regard.
4. Cross Browser Testing:
   While you might always log onto your website in Firefox or Internet Explorer, a growing number of people use Chrome or Safari to browse the net. Download all major browsers and browse your website. Make sure it works perfectly in all four major browsers: IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
   You can check your website compatibility with all versions of IE browser with the following tool on one system: http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
   
5. Contact Details on All Pages:
   Your contact details should be on every page to make life easy for those who wish to make an enquiry.
6. Text Size:
   Make sure that the text on your website is not too small to ensure it is easily readable for those with less than perfect eye sight.
7. Portfolio / Case Studies:
   There is little more powerful in terms of reassuring potential clients that you will do a good job for them than providing a portfolio of previous work that you were involved in and that went well. If you are an engineering firm, giving a case study of the large projects that you consulted on is useful for example.
8. Have a Company Blog and Keep it Updated:
   Potential clients like seeing that you are a company that stays abreast of latest developments. Also, winning awards, new recruitment, office moves, purchase of new equipment etc all are of interest to potential clients and a blog is a great means of communicating such news. Make sure though that your most recent blog entry is no older than one week. Latest news from a long time ago is indicative of a shoddy, badly organised company and will hurt conversions. Either keep it up to date or take it off the site.
9. Social Media Sharing:
   Make sure your website has a share widget on every page to easily enable users to tweet, +1 or share your website. The amount of Facebook shares, likes and comments, +1s as well as the number of tweets and re-tweets your website has are now an SEO factor so give yourself every opportunity possible to acquire these.
10. Ease of navigation:
    Your site should be easily navigable and the user should know at all times where (s)he is on the site. Breadcrumbs are very helpful and recommended in this regard.
11. Testimonials:
    Every company claims to be great. To be believed, you need to be able to point to a lengthy list of testimonials. High quality companies will have many happy clients and will have no issue getting these.
12. Spell-check:
    Very often, website copy will contain typos and/or misspellings. Read all the content on your website and spell check any spellings of which you are unsure.
13. 404 Error Page:
    If someone searches for a URL no longer live or one that never existed, they should be met with a tidy 404 error page explaining that an error has occurred and inviting the user back to the homepage to start again.
14. Simple Enquiry Forms:
    If using enquiry forms, don´t add unnecessary questions; just get contact details. Everything else can be established when you speak to or meet with the client.