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Website Conversion Best Practices: 4 Must-Have Items To Turn Web Visitors Into Paying Customers

Below is a transcript of this video.

So, in this video we are going to talk about the top four things that we should have on our website to turn our visitors into customers. I mean obviously we want to get as many relevant … as much relevant traffic to our website as possible. But also it’s very important that when we get these visitors we want to try to get them to reach out to you, try to convert them, so that you can have conversations with them to turn them into customers. So these are the … important things that we need to have on the website. Now we are going to go about a lot of details, but I am categorizing them, categorizing these details in four areas.


So the most important thing is to think from the visitor’s perspective. So the purpose of the website is not to boast about the company in terms of how great you are, unless it helps the customer to make addition. So always think from the visitor’s perspective. Now when someone comes to your site there are basically three main things, three main questions that the visitor is thinking about. They are thinking about what do I get, can I trust you, and what should I do next?


So when we are thinking about the internet, people have a very limited attention span, especially if they come to your website and they’re not a referral. If they’re a referral then they already know about you, and then when they come to your site they might spend some time, they might give you the benefit of the doubt. But if they are not they you need to really answer these three questions really quickly. So the first question that goes to a visitor is, what do I get? The second question is, can I trust you? And then the third question is, what do I do next?


So as soon as your visitor comes it should be very clear to them what they get. And then after they’re satisfied that you can help them, then the next question is, okay, can I trust you? Now I know that these people can help me but can I trust them? And then once they can trust you and they know that they can help you, then basically what is important is to make very clear what you want the visitor to do next. So let’s dive into this in more detail.


Let’s talk about what do I get. Now how do you make it clear to a visitor what they get? So the first thing is to have a clear headline that also grabs people’s attention. And then we are going to look at an example about all of these points, so we’ll look at a real website.


Now, a clear headline. So what is important here is to be clear. So as soon as people come to a website you should have a clear headline that clearly identifies what you provide and how you can help. Now, it’s also great if you can really grab people’s attention by this. So in addition to being clear, if you also provide the main benefit, the main way that you’re different in this headline also, that is ideal. then, the other thing that you should do is to provide more details as you scroll down. So right at the top you have the headline, you could also have a sub headline. So that grabs people’s attention. So after reading that, if visitors are clear that you can help them, then some of them might want more detail.


In fact, most of them might want more detail. So as they scroll down you should provide them with more details, answering this question, what do I help, answering their questions. Now we said there are three questions, right? So now we’re focusing on, what do I get? So as they scroll down you should provide them with more details answering this question, and then those details should be provided in a way that it’s taking [inaudible 00:00:04:28]. So once they scroll down initially you provide the next most important information. Then as they scroll down even further then you provide the next most important information, and so forth.


Then also be clear to provide and talk about the benefits to the visitor. Right? So what are the main ways that you can help and then how you are different? So let’s look at example. Now, if you look at this website, they have a clear headline. “We handle your IT so that you can handle your business”. So they are clearly telling what they do is handling your IT, and then also they are kind of providing, making it more enticing, telling that … “so you can handle your business”. So it’s pretty clear in terms of what they do. They’re providing a clear headline, and then as you scroll down they’re providing more details in terms of how they can help you. They’re actually really, clearly posing this question, how we can help you. Right? And then they’re also providing the three main ways that they can help. So see that they do provide a lot of services, but they are making it clear by dividing those services into three main buckets. So they are making it very clear in terms of what they provide and then as you scroll down they provide more details.


Okay. So let’s go to the next point. So after visitors know that they can help you, the next question is, can they trust you? Now this is a quote from Zig Ziglar: “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” Right? So you should build trust with the visitors on your website by using things like testimonials, then case studies, then using photos of real people that work at your company. Now you can use stock photos also because research has shown that having photos of people is really help, but try to minimize the use of stock photos. Ideally don’t use any stock photos at all and then use photos of real people. If you can have a video of the people working at you company, that’s even better.


So if we go back to our example, now they have a video here. And if you play this video they talk about basically the … it’s a video about the people working at this company. And then also if you go to the “about us” page you will see that they have their team. They also have another video here that automatically plays, showing the office, and then they also have the team. So try to have images and then videos of the people working there, and then also testimonials. So if you scroll down they have these testimonials. These are video testimonials. So this build trust, so this is another key factor of what you need.


So once people know what you do and then they know that you can help them, and they you are build trust, the next important thing is what you want them to do next. Now this is called a call to action, so make it very clear. Make it very clear in terms of what you want people to do next, and then try to make it enticing. Instead of just telling, contact us, or, send us an email, or join our blog, try to make it enticing. And then have several calls to action on the page. So ideally something right at the top before they scroll down, and then ideally something towards the middle of the page, and then something towards the end of the page. So again, if you go back to our example, they have two clear calls to action of the top of the page, and then this doesn’t change. This doesn’t move as you scroll down the page.


And then also you will see that instead of telling something like, contact us, they are calling it IT consultation. So they have another call to action here towards the top, and then as you scroll down you will see that they have another clear call to action here. And then you will see that the color that they use is a color that really stands out, and not only that, colors like orange and red are action oriented colors. So ideally for your calls to action you want to make it in a way that it really stands out, and then research shows that red and orange are two good colors that basically help people to take action and then do that call to action.


So those are a couple of things to keep in mind when thinking from a visitor’s perspective. Now the other important thing is to be clear and then not clever. I often see people who are building websites, especially who don’t have experience and then who don’t have this clear goal, and thinking clearly in terms of the main purpose being the conversion of the visitors, they try to build websites that are really fancy in terms of various web design oriented ways, that are really kind of a different, that are unique. So if your goal is to build a website that’s going to build … that’s going to win an award in terms of very novel concepts, that’s fine. But if the goal for your website is to get visitors into customers, turn them into customers, then be clear and then not be clever. Right?


So what does this mean? So the first thing is stick to conventions in terms of the general layout. So what this means is that any website, if we look at most of the websites on the internet, they have a general layout, like having the logo on the top left, then having the main calls to actions, like the phone numbers, on the top right. Then having a headline and a sub headline. Then when you scroll down talking about the main benefits. So this is the general layout. If you just browse around the internet you will see most websites follow this convention. So follow this, because if not you are subconsciously creating a difference. If someone comes to your website and then sees this logo on the top right, it would be different. It would be a hindrance, right? Subconsciously they will thinking something is just not right on this website, and then that is a hindrance to conversion. So follow the standard layout of the website, and this is not the place to be creative when it comes to the web design.


Then, next thing, ideally do not use automatic animation. For example, ideally don’t use sliders. Do not use sliders. So anything on the website that is not giving full control to the visitor … and these are things like things that automatically change. I mean you will see that a lot of websites have sliders that change. So this is not a good idea and there’s a lot of research that I can point to that confirm this. Don’t use anything on the website that automatically changes and then makes the visitor lose control. So don’t use sliders. Don’t use other things, other animation, on the website that changes without the user’s control. So for example, if we look at this page, right, everything is static. The user is in full control.


Another thing is, show one thing at a time. Again, it makes it clear, makes it easy. So for example, now here, if you scroll down on this page, right on the top, it’s one segment. Right? The headline, sub headline, call to action. If you scroll down, again, we are seeing one segment: how we can help. Right? Again, when we scroll down, we are seeing … they’re telling you to download this ebook and so forth. Show one segment at a time.


Then minimize the work for the visitor. So what this means is ideally don’t use elements like accordions. So accordion is a element that sometimes you might see on websites where you have to click to reveal additional details and text. Minimize the work. So don’t use elements like that, because that means for the visitor to see the additional text they have to click. So don’t provide any additional clicks or any additional work for the visitor. So in this website, for example, as you scroll down you’ll see all of the relevant information. So that’s another important element that we need to have on the website. Make it very easy to the visitor. Don’t get them to do any additional click at all unless you want them to do the call to action, to take the next step to, basically to get in touch with you.


So these are a couple of items that are really important in terms of conversion. So basically we looked at thinking from a visitor’s perspective, and then being clear and not clever. These are not very hard to implement on your site, but if these items are implemented it’s going to really increase the conversion on your website by a lot. So, hope this helps, and then if you have any questions let me know.

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