When undergoing a website redesign or hiring someone to create a brand new website for your business, the sheer number of design elements to consider can be overwhelming. For example, you have to choose the colors and fonts to use, determine how many pages of information you should have, and make the final choice on website layout.
For most businesses, however, the most important function of a website is its ability to convert website visitors into customers. Keep the following small business website tips in mind to help you increase conversions.
#1: Add a Clear Call To Action
When a potential customer visits your website, there is an action that they need to take to buy your products or hire you. The action that you want your website visitor to take should be both easy and obvious. Add a strong call to action in the form of a button above the fold, which is the part of the website a visitor sees without having to scroll down.
Do you want them to call you? Add your phone number in multiple places on the website, especially the upper right corner and in the hero image. Should they fill out a form to get a quote? The button should be in a contrasting color to the rest of the website.
The more calls to action on one page, the more confusing it is for a site visitor, so highlight the CTA that’s going to convert them the fastest.
#2: Choose Images Carefully
In 2019, pixelated, grainy, and poorly lit images simply won’t work. If you’re like most small business owners, you haven’t invested in quality images that represent your business. Your website might be covered in cheesy stock photos, or maybe you threw up some pictures of your staff that you took with someone’s iPhone and called it a day.
Instead, be more intentional about the images you use on your website. Use pictures as a way to depict the solution to the problem that you solve for customers. If you have a dental practice, for example, website visitors might prefer to see a picture of a smiling family with great teeth as opposed to a picture of tooth decay. If you run a beauty salon, pictures of your customers’ perfect hair will work better than a generic picture of a pair of scissors.
If you don’t have the budget to invest in a professional photographer, you could look for stock photos online or borrow a professional camera to take your own pictures.
#3: Offer Free Information
Depending on the type of small business you have, not every site visitor will convert on the first visit. This is especially true if you have a longer sales funnel, if your products have a high cost associated with them, or if your visitors prefer to do research before making their final purchase choice.
If so, offering free information in the form of a lead magnet is a good way to collect their information in case they don’t visit your site again. Some lead magnets that work well for small businesses are free reports, case studies, worksheets, and lists. Whatever lead magnet you choose to use, it should be relevant to the products and services you offer.
For example, if you are a medical professional in a niche industry, you could offer a free report called “How to Choose The Best [Add Your Niche Here]”. Once the website visitor enters their name and email address to get the report, you now have the opportunity to follow up with an autoresponder series that’s designed to win them over.
#4: Optimize for Speed
Making sure your website loads lightning fast is one of the most crucial small business website tips that affects your conversions. Consumers just don’t have the patience to wait for a slow website to load. Did you know that if your website takes longer than three seconds to load, you could be losing up to 40% of your visitors immediately?
Not only does page speed affect the way users interact with your website, but it also impacts your website’s ranking in Google search results. Google knows that their users demand a premium website viewing experience and prefers to rank websites that load quickly.
There are several free tools you can use to test the speed of your website, like GTmetrix and Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Not only will they tell you how fast your website loads, but they also identify problematic areas and ways to improve your speed.
#5: Optimize for Search Engines
Speaking of Google, your small business website should be optimized correctly for search engines if you want to attract leads through organic search. Choose keywords that accurately reflect your business and indicate a high commercial intent. Create content for your website that Incorporates those keywords in the text, headings, alt image text, and internal links. For local businesses, adding your company name, address, phone number and hours of operation is another optimization to implement.
Of course, optimizing your website is only half of the SEO journey. You’ll also need to consider earning back links to your website to secure top rankings in search engines.
At AMJ, we optimize all of our client’s websites according to best practices to set you up for success. Find out more about our web design process here.
#6: Focus On Your Customers
Another error that many businesses make on their website is focusing on themselves instead of the customer in their website copy. It’s typical for a website to be littered with phrases like “We have been in business for…” and “We offer these services…” without focusing on the solution that the customers care about.
Rewrite your website content so that it’s customer centric. How does working with you take away your customer’s pain? What are the major benefits of your products and services? What are the major concerns that website visitors need to have addressed? Frame your offerings in a way that speaks directly to the customer and inspires them to take action.
If copywriting isn’t your forte, we can help. Our experts are trained to create website content designed to convert your site visitors into leads.
#7: Add Analytics
Adding analytics is one of the small business website tips that will help you monitor your site visitors’ activity so you can continue to refine your website and get the best results possible. With analytics, you can find out how visitors found out about your website, what pages they visit, how long they stay on your site, where they’re located, and more.
Reviewing your analytics data regularly will help you learn more about your potential customers as well as identify areas of your website that need to be improved so you can increase conversions.
#8: Split Test
If you’ve reviewed your analytics data and found that a certain page on your site doesn’t hold a visitor’s attention, it might be time to change it. Consider adding more content, revising target keywords, or adding a different CTA. Compare the new analytics data via a split test to measure which one performs better. Split tests should be run regularly on different areas of your website so that you’re continuing to improve conversions.
#9: Add A Chat Box
Not everyone wants to pick up the phone and call your business or wait to get a response via email. Some people want answers to their questions immediately, and offering a chat function is a good way to offer that on-demand service. Statistics show that nearly half of online consumers say live chat is the most important feature a business can offer on their website.
Adding a chat function is simple. It normally involves integrating a snippet of code into your website, or adding a plug-in if you use a CMS like Wordpress. Whatever chat tool you use will come with detailed instructions on how to implement it.
#10: Add Social Proof
Did you know that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from someone they know? Your website should communicate in as many ways as possible that it’s trustworthy, and one of the most essential small business website tips to incorporate is to add social proof to your website. Social proof is a powerful psychological trigger that validates the trustworthiness of your business.
You can do this by adding testimonials to your website, showcasing independent reviews from previous customers, and integrating social media profiles on your website.
Remember, your website exists to get you more customers. Its most crucial function is to make it easy for your website visitors to get in touch with your business, be it through filling out a contact form, scheduling a consultation, signing up for a free demo, or giving you a call. Incorporating the points above will help you improve conversions through your website and ultimately increase your profits.
Are you ready to maximize conversions from your small business website in 2019? Schedule your free consultation with our web design experts here.