Increasing your website’s conversion rate is crucial as a foundation of high sales volume. Conversion rate is essentially a measure of the number of potential customers that proceed on to buying a product or service you offer on your website. Website owners usually focus on increasing website traffic while having quite simple problems with their websites.

If solved, they would have an enormous effect on improving their conversion rate and the overall quality of their websites. Increasing your conversion rate from 2% to 3% conversion means a 50% uplift in results, and sometimes only a small tweak separates you from significant conversion rates improvements.

#1 – Test, Test, Test!

When talking about conversion optimization, it is all about testing. A/B testing is a technique used for increasing a website’s conversion rate. It all comes down to creating two versions of your page (A and B), each with a different headline. Testing software then directs the incoming traffic – 50% to both pages A and B. Both of these pages have call to action, and at the end of the test all you have to do is count how many visitors took the action. The main things you should test are: headline (should be convincing and strong in promoting the main offer), navigation and page layout, offer, the size of the wording of call-to-action and order buttons, and radical change (comparing two completely different approaches). Try using Google Content Experiments or Visual Website Optimizer.

#2 – USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

It sets you apart from the competition.  Answer this: why would a visitor decide to buy something from you instead from someone else? Low prices, free delivery, excellent customer service, or great support – these are all USPs. Be aware of it and tell the visitors what your Unique Selling Proposition is.

#3 – Don’t Waste Time

Asking for too much information is one of the biggest mistakes websites make. If there are things you do not need to know, do not waste the visitor’s time by asking for them. For example, there is no need to ask for a user’s email before letting them download a free PDF, or their phone number in an email inquiry form.

#4 – Offer Different Payment Options

There should be a reasonable selection of payment methods offered on your website. Not everyone has a credit card and those who do, don’t not always want to use it online, so it’s always good to have an alternative payment method. It will make your customers purchase experience better and easier.

#5 – Buying From You Should Be Easy

One of your main goals should be to make doing business with you as simple as possible. The process of purchase should be self-evident and intuitive. Guide the user towards actions you want them to take in every page. Do not give them too many options, but build better filters for identifying the right ones faster. They should be asked to fill as few fields as possible and not forced to sign up in order to buy. Also, offer free shipping because it is among the most popular motivations for purchasing a product or service online.

#6 – Help The Visitor Trust You

People are always careful when conducting an online purchase. They are mindful of various frauds, risks of giving away credit card information and identity thefts. Thus, you should give them reasons to trust you. Show a privacy policy, give phone number and addresses of bricks and mortar, and explain shipping procedures. Also, poor website design tells your visitors that you perhaps cannot afford a decent website, so they will probably question whether their order will be treated the right way.

Do not think of your website as finished the moment you have built it. Instead of going on to build another one, keep your focus on the one you have and some more effort in increasing its conversion rate. Instead of doubling your visitor account, work to double sales from existing customers, and it will increase your sales, speed up the cash flow, and finally result in business growth and expansion.

Author Bio:

John Stone is a business consultant and regular contributor to Bizzmarkblog. He believes in the notion that form should always follow function and that thinking outside of the box is a prerequisite of being a successful entrepreneur.