Powerpoint and Notes from 3/19 Meetup

How to Maximize Conversions on Your Website

Conversions are some action that you define. Typically they're when someone fills out a form, completes a transaction, or goes to a specific page. It can be anything, but these are the most common conversion goals.

Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your site or a specific page (also known as a "landing page") that complete your defined action.

Some general tips to improve conversion rates are:

• Make your site as accessible to as many users as possible. Take into consideration things like site speed, browser compatibility, page widths, and file size. 
• Present your site in a credible way. Good design, consistent page layouts, association logos, and ratings or reviews go a long way to making your user trust your site. 
• Make your user feel secure. If you're collecting sensitive information, you'll want to make sure your page is encrypted with an SSL certificate and you disclose your privacy policy.
• Make your site and yourself available. Invest in a good hosting company with solid uptime, and inform your user when they can expect to hear back from you. The sooner the better.

More specific things you can do are:

• In a sentence or two, explain the purpose or goal of the page your user is on so they can immediately identify if what you're offering is relevant to them. For example: "Are you interested in learning more about online marketing? Attend our monthly Meetups!"
• In a short paragraph or bullet points, make the value proposition in easy to understand terms. Example:
  • Get free tips on how to promote your site
  • Meet with other business owners in your area
  • Enjoy a free lunch and learn from professionals
• Provide clear instructions for your user. Tell them what they should be doing on your page and the expected result. Example: "Fill out this short form with your contact information"
• Limit distractions. Get rid of unnecessary links so the user can focus on completing the task of filling out the form, checking out, or reading your information.
• Tell what stage they're in if you're collecting multiple pages of information. Let users know what's next so there's no surprises.

Track your progress with tools like Google Analytics. Follow the instructions under their "goals" section to see how your site is performing. For more advanced testing, you can use Google Website Optimizer to automatically perform A/B split testing and determine the best elements to use on your page.