5 Methods to Increase Site Conversions

Every visitor to your website is a potential customer, and whether a “conversion” on your site equals a filled out Contact Us form or a completed online purchase, more conversions equals more business.  So how can you increase conversions on your website? Here are 5 suggestions to try:

1. Make It Clear.
Is your call-to-action getting lost in the clutter of your website?  Make sure that the button or link that leads customers along the path to conversion is one of the most prominent elements on your pages. Try to eliminate distracting bright colors that should be reserved for your call-to-action. Avoid clutter – white space is your friend.  Make sure your call-to-action is the boldest and most attention-grabbing element of your page design.

2. Put It Above the Fold
“Above the Fold” is a phrase that is taken from the newspaper world referring to the valuable, headline news real estate found above the fold of the newspaper.  In web-speak, this refers to the space on a web page that is viewable without having to scroll.  Keeping your call-to-action above the fold helps to ensure that everyone will see it.

3. Red Doesn’t Always Mean Stop
Conventional design wisdom says that the color red sends the message “stop” to viewers.  But Performable.com decided to test that theory on their site by changing their green call-to-action button into a red one.  Conversions on the red button were 21% higher!  That kind of increase warrants at least a test on your own site.

4. If It Moves, It Grabs Attention
This one is a little trickier, since you want to avoid overdoing the spinning, blinking lights (see item #1). However, a subtle bit of movement or animation added to your call-to-action (or somewhere close-by) can help draw your customers’ eyes.

5. Add Human Interest – with Photos of Real People
Having more photos of faces (particularly smiling) is a consistently successful way of catching your visitors’ attention and increasing conversions.  Many different sites have tried adding images of people with measurable success.  For instance, MedaliaArt.com added photos of artists in place of photos of their paintings and made double the amount of sales. CalyxFlowers.com tested images of people with their flowers.  In their test, visitors who saw images with people were 14% more likely to add something to their shopping cart.