15+ Methods to Increase Conversion Rate (2024)

If you want to learn how to increase conversion rate results on your website, you’ve come to the right place. With so much advice available on the internet, we get it: it’s hard to know where to start.

We’ve distilled that advice into a comprehensive list of the most valuable methods to consider.

To improve conversion rates, you must first know your goals. What is your web page designed to do, and how well is it doing that job so far?

Once you have a baseline, you can use the following as a focused checklist for how to increase your conversion rate.

Let’s dive in.

1. Optimize Your Forms

 Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Visitors to your site do not want to spend an enormous amount of time filling out forms. 

And privacy is becoming increasingly of concern to internet users.

Make sure that you are only asking for necessary information. Forms on your site should be as concise and easy to complete as possible.

The easier it is to do business with you online, the more likely conversions will increase.

2. Social Proof

Customers and potential customers want to know that other people trust you. 

It’s highly beneficial to include testimonials from satisfied customers on your site. 

Reviews of your products and customer service are also helpful forms of social proof. 95% of online shoppers use reviews when making buying decisions.

Links to your social media pages are another plus. But only if you are active on those sites. Visitors who check out your Facebook page don’t want to see that your last post was two years ago.

High ratings from companies specializing in reputation and credibility reporting are an additional way to increase conversion rate results.

3. Implement Live Chat

Integrating a live chat tool into your site gives your patrons an immediate way to get questions answered.

Good information on your peak use periods is essential to ensure you have enough staff available at the appropriate times for this tool to be genuinely effective.

When using this tool, qualified people must be available to answer questions about your products or services without making your customers wait too long.

A wrong answer is worse than no answer at all.

4. Testing and Optimization

This method integrates with the data analysis mentioned above.

Use analytical testing to determine the effectiveness of the elements on your pages. 

Try different headlines and compare the analytic reports. Move your price around on the page to find the placement that gets the most positive responses (sales).

If you have special offers, use banners at the top of the page to get immediate attention. Test the use of various colors, formats, and animations to determine what has the most beneficial impact.

In other words, test everything. 

Don’t forget that it is vital to verify pages and elements before deployment.

Testing the features on each site page ensures that your customers have a frictionless experience.

5. User Interaction and Data Analysis

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It is crucial to track how users interact with your site. User behavior is a big help in determining areas for improvement.

Several analytical tools are available for marketers, including Google Analytics, SEMRush, DashThis, and HubSpot.

Plan changes by collecting data about which pages receive the most or fewest visitors.

Start with your least visited pages. Make changes and review your new analytics. Then, iterate to get your best results. 

Improving your conversion rate is more than just a one-and-done event.

6. Email Campaigns and Reminders

One of the worst conversion failures comes from abandoned shopping carts. 

When abandoned shopping carts become a thing, there has got to be something steering your potential customer away at the point of purchase. However, you may never know what caused the dropoff, resulting in a halted sale.

All is not lost.

Consider implementing an email campaign to remind prospective buyers about the items in their cart.

Effective emails should include quality images of the items in the cart to reignite the shopper’s desire to purchase and allow them to check out quickly.

7. Communicate Value Proposition

Are you effectively communicating the value you offer to your prospect?

A value proposition identifies why your product and company are the best suited to solve the customers’ problems. 

For example, “We offer the best marketing ideas to bring your customers running through the doors” would be a value proposition a marketing agency offers clients looking to increase foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores.

This example defines what we do, explicitly directed at a particular audience.

Redefine your value proposition using different terminology and test to determine which conversion rate is better. 

Remember, raising your conversion rates is a continual process.

8. Utilize Multimedia

If a picture is worth a thousand words, ensure it’s good. Quality images improve credibility, too. 

But image quality can be a double-edged sword. The higher the image quality, the longer it takes to load. 

Remember to balance quality and load times for optimization.

And many online users like video. Provide how-to videos for products that require assembly or training. Provide video walk-throughs of how your service can benefit the user.

Using video is also effective at showcasing product lines of complementary merchandise. 

Video testimonials from satisfied customers hone in on credibility.

9. Strong Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Ensure your CTAs stand out. 

If you are using buttons for your CTAs, have the text on the button reinforce the positive action the user is taking. Instead of “Click Here,” try “Buy Now” or “Enroll for Immediate Access.”

Simplify the CTA. Make taking action a no-brainer. 

If the copy on the page has done its job, the next step will seem logical. Ensure that the CTA isn’t a stumbling block. 

It should seamlessly move the transaction to the desired conclusion (a sale, enrollment, etc).

Test the effectiveness of your CTAs, and change those that don’t convert well.

10. Minimize Distractions

Image by Richard Duijnstee from Pixabay

 A website visitor has an attention span of eight seconds or less. 

Refrain from adding to the distractedness by having unrelated things on the same page. Make it easy for the user to focus on your product or service. Use the Rule of One, where the page has one purpose, one call to action, and one focus.

Utilizing elements that make scanning easy, like bullet points, makes the user more likely to view the information.

Here again, pertinent images help retain the users’ attention. But don’t overdo it. 

Resist the urge to have flashing animations or auto-play videos. And while pop-ups can sometimes help conversions, they can distract from the page’s main focus, so use them sparingly.

Minimalism is much more visually appealing to the average web user.

11. Personalization and Understanding Your Audience

Know what your target audience wants. Delivering according to the audience’s expectations is much easier when you know what they require.

Does your sales department have an ICP (ideal customer persona)? Writing your pages to appeal to this ICP makes anyone who fits the description feel like you are talking specifically to them.

Use descriptive elements that put the user in the middle of the story, using your product or service to showcase how it will enhance their life.

Deliver personalized experiences. Every contact with the patron should make them feel like they are the center of the universe.

Everyone wants to feel special. Making sure your customers do is another solid way to increase conversion rate.

12. Website Performance Optimization

Site performance is a big concern in how to increase conversion rates. Functionality is another test of your visitors’ attentiveness.

If your site is too slow to load, potential customers bounce. Users don’t have the patience to wait for images and videos to show. 

Make sure to balance text and images so there is something for the user to read if they must wait.

Don’t forget mobile users. Ensure that your site is mobile-responsive. A site that looks awesome on a laptop might look atrocious on a mobile phone. 

Some sites have a completely separate set of pages explicitly devoted to portable devices.

More and more users are visiting on devices like smartphones and tablets. Ensure they have a great experience also.

13. Trust and Credibility

Photo by Adam Jang on Unsplash

You’ve heard the marketing maxim, “People buy from those they know, like, and trust,” countless times.

Cliché? Yes, but it is still valid.

Broadcast your company values through cohesive language, branding, and transparency. Ensuring a unified message across all platforms provides strong credibility in the marketplace.

Buyers must feel safe parting with their hard-earned money for your product or service.

An additional method of securing the trust of your site visitors is ensuring that your About Us page identifies your brand identity and values.

Contacting the company should be painless through a Contact page and your site map on the page footer.

14. Purchasing Process and User Experience

KISS. 

Keep it super simple. User experience has become a  buzzword in the marketing industry, and for good reason. 

Online shoppers have become increasingly savvy over recent years and will only continue to do business on a site that is easy to use.

Allow guest shopping. Don’t require a login, but make it only a click or two to create an account if the user wants one.

Keep industry jargon away from your sales pages. Ensure that the information on your pages is clear and concise.

Remove unnecessary steps that might slow down the process. 

Optimize the layout of critical pages.

Users with a seamless, frictionless buying or signing up process will be happier and more likely to return. 

They are also more likely to provide complimentary reviews.

15. Competitive Analysis and Strategy

You should review your competitor’s sites. Your customers do.

Use one of the same tools used to track the customer activity on your site to measure traffic on your competitors’ sites, including SEMRush, Hubspot, or Google Analytics. 

Or check out different tools like Ubbersuggest, Ahrefs, or MonsterInsights.

Inform your choices of modification by learning what is working for your competition. Remember, you can learn much about what not to do from their lower-converting pages, too.

16. Urgency and Incentives

The fear of missing out is alive and well.

Create a sense of urgency by using countdown timers for your special offers. People will procrastinate and forget about special offers without a reason to order immediately.

Another method of coaxing the process is to offer an incentive to act promptly. 

Such an offer might include a discount on the upsell of a compatible product. “Buy this now, get 10% off a companion product.”

If the visitor is already utilizing a discount or coupon, highlight the potential loss if said discount is not used sooner rather than later.

17. Objections and Risk Management

Creatively address potential objections proactively. Talking a prospect out of their objections before they can make them improves conversion rates.

If overcoming their objections isn’t enough, remove any potential risk in taking the plunge. Offer money-back guarantees. 

Be sure to avoid being taken advantage of by using a balanced guarantee policy.

18. Sales and Copywriting Techniques

Although there are many elements to consider when figuring out how to improve your conversion rates, the basics are always good to review.

Have you written quality copy? 

Do you write your descriptions about the benefits of your product or service instead of merely the features?

Are you engaging? 

Always write in clear, understandable language. 

Seek to evoke an emotional response. Make your potential buyer feel what it would be like to have this product or engage with this service.

Although “show, don’t tell” is the mantra of fiction writers, you can use this methodology to activate the prospect’s imagination. Make them consider “what if I do” as much as “what if I don’t.”

Use This As A Checklist

Improving your conversion rate is an ongoing process that requires changes, testing, and updating your site pages. 

The user experience ties intimately to your conversion rates. Analyzing your users’ experience and modifying the site based on your findings will improve the shopping experience and conversion rates.

These 18 methods for how to increase conversion rate results are by no means exhaustive. But it’s a good checklist as a place to start.