10 Quick Tips to Improve Your Website Performance
In the current market it is essential that every growing business has a website. When people are becoming more active online and getting more digital marketing-savvy, properly optimised websites will dramatically boost income and boost future development.
There are two words that should be at the forefront of your mind when improving website performance: exposure and motivation. Expose your website on as many relevant locations on the Internet as possible, whilst providing motivation to interact and convert visitors to buying customers.
In a nutshell, you can increase the performance of a website with:
▪ Increased conversion rates
▪ A higher position in Google search results
▪ Increased traffic to the site
▪ repeat website visits and Return on Investment (ROI)
Only once you have applied the above at every possible stage of your online sales funnel, will you see website performance improve. In more detail, here are 10 Quick Tips to get you reeling in those valuable enquiries and sales:
1. Make it easy to get in touch
It’s an incredibly simple concept, but is often forgotten. Put your phone number, email address and office address in the header or footer of every page of your website and at the end of emails. When people visit a website or read their emails, they want quick, easy solutions. If a website visitor wants to make an enquiry, they don’t have to look too hard, or try too hard to do so.
The same applies for including a quick enquiry form on every landing page and clear links to your social media pages.
2. Know how much information you need
For most websites, all you need in a contact form to encourage visitors to enquire is an email address field. People often get put off when a company asks for too much too soon, so simply asking for their email address is a more inviting, no-pressure approach that really does work.
Fact: Enquiry forms with just 3 fields have the highest conversion rate; an impressive 25%.
You can start requesting additional information once you have secured that initial contact. Enquiries and sales will come in quicker if you take down unnecessary barriers.
3. Get a conversation going
If you want to increase the chances that a visitor will enquire or make a purchase, try installing Live Chat. It works like any other live chat feature on social media, except you answer questions from potential customers – as the voice of reassurance.
This mainly applies to businesses who sell an expensive, high speciality or high risk product or service. As long as you have someone available in the business to provide expert advice, people will get an instant confidence boost from messaging you directly. This means you’re more likely to secure a sale.
4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
If you want more enquiries and sales in the long-term, SEO is definitely the way to go. It costs nothing to set up. All you need is website content, resources and links that closely match the keywords typed in by target customers. The more relevant and well-optimised your website is, the higher in the search engine rankings it will appear. The more relevant keyword searches it is seen for, the more exposure you have. The more exposure you have, the more people you will attract who are looking for your exact product or service. Keep your website updated with continuous optimisation and you will see enquiries and sales increase steadily over time. More information on Search Engine Optimisation can be found here: 5 Tips To Improve Your Google Ranking.
5. Well-written website copy
Another tip for improving website performance is great copy. If your website copy doesn’t motivate people to enquire and buy, then what’s the point in having a website?
Tying in with SEO, one of the best ways to get to the top of search engine results pages and improve the impact of landing pages is to have well-written copy. The trick is to write with a helpful, clear, engaging and inspiring tone, whilst using your preferred keywords as often as possible without looking unnatural. Make sure to write a clear call to action at the end of each page to encourage enquiries.
6. Social media leverage
From small niche businesses to brand giants, every marketer will notice dramatic improvements in website performance if they link to their social media pages – and vice versa.
Fact: 63% of companies say that social media increases marketing effectiveness, and 50% say it increases customer satisfaction.
Of course, to acquire these enquiries and sales you must regularly interact in a genuine way with the right audiences, promoting competitions, special offers and discussions to build stronger relationships. The best social media platforms to use are Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn. As a tip, keep the tone and subject matter of social media posts as closely related to your website as possible. It will attract the right audience and improve identity.
More useful tips on Social Media Marketing can be found here: Social Media Marketing
7. Create specific landing pages
If you’re running a marketing campaign for a specific product, the worst thing you can do is direct its ads to your home page. Instead, direct online traffic to a page dedicated to that individual offer. Very soon you will see conversion rates go up. The page is geared towards converting traffic into actions: buying a product, downloading an e-book, filling out an enquiry form.
The secret here is to provide value-added content and a clear call to action.
8. Give reasons to come back
Want to significantly improve ROI? Then create compelling incentives for your website visitors to return. After all, studies show that most website visitors don’t convert to sales first time round. It also costs less to keep customers than it does to attract new ones.
To successfully get repeat visits and more likely conversions to sales, try one or more of the following:
▪ Useful and relevant articles for free
▪ Regularly updated blog
▪ User-generated content e.g. reviews
▪ Newsletters or RRS feeds
9. Have a clear message
Another way to improve website performance is to have a clear website message, meaning you must know your USP inside-out. Reflect this in every area of your website, while providing clear pathways to internal pages that meet customers’ needs. They key here is to remember what your target audience values and finds useful when making a purchase. If your message “speaks” to them, they are likely to trust you – leading to enquiries and sales.
Fact: 64% of people who have strong loyalty towards a brand/company say it’s because they share the same values.
10. Monitor progress
The final tip for improving website performance is to regularly measure, monitor and improve on all website changes made. Using a combination of free software Google Adwords and Google Analytics, you can manage website marketing campaigns and analyse their performance instantly. Use them to answer these questions:
▪ What kind of traffic am I getting and where from?
▪ What is my conversion rate?
▪ What is my bounce rate?
▪ What is the last page someone visited before leaving?
▪ How long do visitors spend on my website?
If you fail to act on and monitor any of the points above, you will miss out on fantastic opportunities to gain maximum website performance.
Article by Laura Wootton
