Increase Conversions : Surefire Tips to Increase Your Bottom Line

68 tips to use when tinkering with on page factors in an attempt to increase conversions, and subsequent sales.

  1. People tend to read captions underneath images, utilize that space
  2. Outsourced PPC typically has a better success rate vs. in house
  3. Consistency matters when thinking about overall site design
  4. A reset and clear button on forms are pointless, get rid of them
  5. 20% of page views scroll to the bottom of pages and 75% of people scroll a little bit below the fold
  6. fonts should always be 10-12 point font and greater and no more than 50-60 characters wide for greatest readability
  7. putting images at the fold can help entice users to scroll to see the rest
  8. fewer columns outperform more
  9. don't center headlines, align to the left
  10. use bold for sub headlines, not larger font size
  11. if target audience is kids and the elderly use 14 point font
  12. banner ad colors should match the landing page colors to eliminate high bounce rate
  13. if text is longer than 40-60 characters split into 2 columns
  14. make images clickable whenever and wherever possible
  15. customer reviews and video testimonials can really increase conversions
  16. demographic research is key; utilize emails, phone interviews, and focus groups
  17. identify your largest demographic and most important market and create your landing page for the; dont worry about everyone else
  18. you have 8 seconds to convince the user of your landing page
  19. make sure critical elements like call to action buttons are at 300 pixels and above to capture 98% of visitors attention
  20. eliminating the hero shot is a bad idea
  21. make your hero shot clickable
  22. real people hero shots can out perform stock images
  23. Placing copy over images generally doesnt work well
  24. Place hero shot to left of text
  25. Don't use entire shots of people (unless your are selling apparel)
  26. Sexy women shots can actually have more of a distraction than a benefit
  27. testing call to action buttons is absolutely critical
  28. Americans expect to see the word Cart, British expect to see Basket
  29. Designers are NOT marketers, make sure you are involved in the process the entire way
  30. Nearly half of people who convert will typically answer a a short questionnaire, so utilize this for market research
  31. Limit questions on forms severely
  32. avoid drop down boxes when possible
  33. make the entire area clickable on click boxes, radio buttons etc.
  34. two column forms usually have lower conversions vs. one column
  35. link to privacy policy next to email field on a form is always reassuring
  36. copy and creative is the #1 key element that determines conversion
  37. eyetracking studies show that people levitate towards the golden triangle and images. Anything in those areas get read the most.
  38. get rid of words like "we" and "our" and replace with "you" and "your"
  39. most people will read the top and bottom of paragraphs and lists, generally the middle of the content doesn't get that much attention.
  40. paragraphs should never be longer than 4-5 sentences
  41. turn longer paragraphs into charts
  42. duplicate the headline from lead source, both on emails and search if possible for consistency
  43. put a one line sentence in between long paragraphs to give readers a break
  44. free offers should have short copy vs long copy
  45. on average most consumers wait 24 + hours to buy, it has gone up over the last 2 years as well.
  46. price isn't the biggest conversion factor, its actually not as big of a deal as most might think
  47. add "about us" anywhere and everywhere
  48. use real life customer representative photos on the about us page
  49. use shots of the building you work in
  50. grab emails early on before shopping cart if possible s you can utilize abandoned shopping cart emails
  51. give more product information than the competition does
  52. utilize exclusive here only bonuses
  53. figure out a way to offer different, tailored landing pages to return visitors
  54. multiple offers can be a bad idea because it confuses the user
  55. if your homepage is a major exit to your site then you know you have a problem on your hand
  56. if a lot of your traffic comes to internal pages of your site, think about making your homepage a user friendly page with minimal content, and great marketing speak to ensure brand awareness and convey trust.
  57. busy left and right navigation bars can contribute to high bounce rates
  58. short post card style emails can work great
  59. matching emails to landing pages as much as possible will help with conversions
  60. greater brand and promotional awareness affects conversion rates. keep in mind when running campaigns and when coming to short term conclusions
  61. retesting campaigns is important. optimized landing pages will typically slow down with regards to conversions if you do not keep retesting and re-optimizing
  62. "hero shot captions" and "submit button" copy are the most read copy of a site, test these areas first
  63. when a/b testing try and get 100 conversions before making a decision
  64. when doing usability testing, don't use employees. Use target market, unbiased individuals
  65. keep surveys short, 5 questions. make first question real easy and put the hardest question at the end to entice the user to take it.
  66. open ended questions should be used in moderation on forms, typically only 1
  67. consider not asking for phone numbers on lead generating sites, can increase conversions
  68. b to b landing pages should not be worrying about brand education, plenty of time to do that further down the fulfillment piece


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