6 Tricks To Improve The Conversion Rates Of Your WordPress Website
Getting tons of traffic to your WordPress website is great, but, in itself, all this traffic is not going to help you make a living.
All this traffic needs to convert, in other words, make an action that will bring your business value and, ultimately, money.
The ratio of people who visit your WordPress website and those who make this action is called conversion rate.
That is what this article is about – tricks and tips to improve the conversion rates of your WordPress website.
Before we get into it
Before we can get to the actual tricks and tips, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First and foremost, there are many industries and types of websites, and they will all have their little intricacies that can affect the conversion rates.
It is therefore impossible to come up with a perfect strategy to improve your conversion rates.
That being said, the advice shared in this article should have a positive effect regardless of the industry.
Also, some of the advice in this article will be mostly aimed at owners and webmasters of eCommerce websites because selling products is more interesting in terms of conversion rates than, for example, getting subscribers to a newsletter.
And now, on to the tricks!
1. Speed it up
Even the birds in the trees know that the loading speed of a website has detrimental consequences, but when we are talking conversion rates, this is especially noticeable.
For instance, more than ten years ago , Amazon found that a delay of 100 milliseconds cost them a full per cent in sales.
And this was back when the internet was much slower, and people had far more patience than today.
More recently, Akamai showed that a 100 milliseconds delay in loading could actually reduce the sales by 7%.
This is why the first step should always be to speed up your WordPress website and not just because of conversion rates (loading speeds also significantly affect SEO).
So, how do you do it? You do the following:
● Use a fast WordPress theme
● Add a dynamic caching plugin
● Use only tested, quick plugins in general
● Maintain your database
● Minify JS and CSS
● Reduce the use of third-party assets
● Try a CDN
Also, check out this article .
1.b Optimise for mobile
While we’re on the subject of speeding up things, make sure that your website is optimised for mobile devices.
The ratio of people using the web on mobile and those on desktop computers has been changing in favour of mobile for years now (mobile surpassed desktop in 2017, btw) and there is no stopping this trend.
This seems like such an obvious tip that it almost feels silly even writing it, but there are just so many webmasters that ignore this for some reason.
Think of it this way, if your website is not fast and usable on mobile, you might as well shut it down.
2. Make it easy to convert
Every WordPress website that is trying to make the visitors convert in any way (as opposed to just providing info, e.g.) will have a sales funnel of some kind.
Even if you’ve never heard of it and you want your visitors to take a specific action on your website, you got one.
Sales funnel differ in the number of steps and other details, but for the most part, they will include the following steps:
Awareness > Interest > Decision > Action.
In other words:
Hmm, they have that product on this website > Hmm, it’s looking great, and it’s affordable > I’m going to buy it > I buy it.
To cut a long story short, you need to make this process as easy, quick and straightforward for your visitors as possible.
An efficient funnel for an eCommerce store would lead the visitor through a well-organised product category page; a well-designed product page with all the pertinent details; a Buy button which takes them to the most straightforward possible checkout page and that’s it.
A screwed up sales funnel would tell them they have to register (going through a 63-step registration process), sign up for three newsletters, get a pop-up about totally unrelated products, go through four subcategories before they can access the product page, go through a 45-step checkout process and then get another pop-up carousel of “related” items before they can purchase (with a single payment option provided).
Don’t do the second example, please.
3. Work on your CTAs
The CTA stands for the call to action, the focal point of your conversion rate improvement efforts.
It is the headline you want your customers to read and the button to click.
It should be the most prominent element on every converting page, and everything else you do (design, marketing, sales) should converge on this single headline.
This is your money-bringer.
There is a whole science behind crafting the best possible CTAs and placing them at the right spot, at the right time and in front of the right people.
Some weird facts seemingly play a role, such as inserting an odd number in the headline or using hyphens.
No, really.
The good people from the Content Marketing Institute have done a fantastic job of taking into consideration as many of the factors as possible, and you should check out that article.
The best starting point is to put yourself in the shoes of your target segment and think about what would make you perform the necessary action.
Work from there, learn a few tricks by checking out work by branding professionals , experiment with different approaches and track your results.
You should also think about using dynamic CTAs .
4. Instil trust
It’s simple – if they don’t trust you, how can you expect your visitors to buy from you?
Or sign up for your newsletter or whatever it is you are asking them to do.
Trust is everything, especially nowadays with so much false information, products and everything else pervading the web.
For one, you should make it very clear that your website has all measures in place to secure any transactions that happen on your website.
Trust badges will show your visitors that you are serious about their safety, and there have been a few studies that showed they directly increased conversion rates.
If you are running an eCommerce WordPress site, you will want to support only the safest payment methods. While we’re on the subject, try to support as many as possible and, please, support PayPal.
Another extremely effective way to instil trust is to feature customer reviews and testimonials prominently.
Here are just a few numbers to illustrate the point:
● A study showed that people are more than 60% more likely to buy from websites with user reviews
● Another study showed that more than 50 product reviews translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates
● Interestingly, another study showed that even negative reviews could be useful for business, so it pays to take the time to learn how to respond appropriately to negative reviews .
If you want to read some fascinating stuff on user reviews and their effects on conversion rates, this article from Unbounce is a trove of insights.
Another way to build trust is to present yourself or your company as an expert in a particular field.
This can be done in several ways, from great content to building a personal brand in conferences and similar events.
Finally, be honest with your visitors.
Don’t hide shipping costs or try to sell them the story that you are the most successful business person that has ever lived (unless you are, of course).
5. The ‘IT’S ALMOST GONE!’ trick
Us humans have done some incredible stuff over the millennia, but we are still mostly governed by some seriously atavistic motivators.
One such motivator is getting our hands on stuff that other people also want before the things in question run out.
Like back in the days when we couldn’t talk, and food got scarce now and then.
That is why limited offer sales work so well.
And this does not only work with occasional discounts.
This works with your regular stock as well.
Selling products only for a certain amount of time is more likely to make people buy it than if you just sold them all the time.
This also works for, let’s say, white papers or webinars.
Or, if you are running an eCommerce store, simply add how many items are left. This is bound to increase your conversion rates.
Even people who think they are above this will unconsciously find it more difficult to ignore the offer.
If you want to learn more about the scarcity principle, check out this article .
6. A few rapid-fire ones
Here are a few more tricks to keep in your bag if you wish to improve the conversion rate of your WordPress website.
Spend some effort into SEO. With well-done SEO , you will attract people who are your target market segment, resulting in higher conversion rates.
Address cart abandonment . Too many people give up on purchases in the middle of the checkout process.
Consider a chatbot. Chatbots can be used to answer simple questions about your products and help visitors find exactly what they want.
Go multilingual. If it makes sense financially, create a multilingual version of your website.
Think about the colours .
Oh, and also, let people pay with PayPal.
Author Bio: Michael has been working in marketing for almost a decade and has worked with a vast range of clients, which has made him knowledgeable on many different subjects. He has recently rediscovered a passion for writing and hopes to make it a daily habit. You can read more of Michael’s work at Qeedle .
