06
Mar
40 Things I've Learned from Live Site Reviews
Comments
Being in the conversion optimisation world, it is often very helpful and refreshing to watch another conversion expert review websites.
Late 2012, Peep Laja, creator of conversionxl.com created a series of five videos where around 200 business owners submitted their websites to him from which he spend about 30 seconds reviewing each of them – tackling the low hanging fruits.
These videos are incredibly useful and spark many great ideas. There are many questions webmasters should ask and considerations to keep in mind when creating a website for conversion. They are:
- Do visitors understand what the site is about?
- Is the website clearly is designed for the target market?
- Is is clear to the visitor for what they can do on the site?
- Can visitors see how the site is useful for them?
- Headline needs to be something people care about
- All copy should join the conversation in the customer’s mind
- iStock photos ruin credibility unless they are customised
- Opt-in form – the call to action for this should never be “Sign up for our newsletter”. It does not communicate any value
- All websites need a strong value proposition
- Add emotional pressure near the end of the conversion process e.g. Charity
- Avoid having the coupon code on the first page as it makes people stop and search for coupon codes
- Make it clear for what is meant to happen after the call to action
- Copy writing must always speak with the customer, not to them
- Remember you are selling to humans, not to robots, so avoid all marketing buzz words. Try to avoid words like ‘Conversion’ or ‘Engage’
- Never force a sign-up, allow people to have a taste of your product before asking for name and emails
- The first thing a user sees on your website should never be a promotion
- Avoid automatic playing sound where possible
- Share buttons – question where you are placing them and if the page or product is worth sharing
- Prices – always provide a ball park figure
- Never ever have text as an image
- Always have lots of images when selling a product in different angles, zooms and colours
- The first image of a product seen should show it’s entirety
- Conventions are powerful, stay to the basics
- Always show your products in the hands of a person
- Button should be positive action based. Make it a verb or “I want to “
- Website copy – start with ‘what’; not with what you don’t do
- Avoid making your 3rd party brands too outstanding as they take attention from your main objectives. Make them black and white to reduce attention
- Consistency across all pages is important
- Your homepage should never have too much information about your company, instead store this information on a different page and link to it where relevant. Keep the copy on the homepage about your product
- Always talk about the problem you are going to solve
- Remember people don’t choose to sign-up after reading a few lines
- Pictures need to be genuine and realistic
- Never have a background that is darker than the text
- Clarity Clarity Clarity
- Unless you have hundreds and hundreds of likes, don’t show it – showing a product with little likes causes people to not convert as it is seen as unpopular
- Get your customers to agree with the problem you resolve
- You should structure your website so when people read your headlines and sub headlines, they understand
- Always keep it uncluttered as much as possible
- Never use “Welcome to..” there is no website out there where visitors are unwelcome
- To get more subscribers, you need to give them something of value that is higher than the value of them giving their email to you
So there we go! Now each of these suggestions given was based on experience, so make sure you always test out the concepts.
We’ve been in the digital marketing field for over 18 years and worked with hundreds of Australian (and international) businesses to grow their web presence. Specialising in SEO, search ads (PPC), social media, content marketing, email marketing and conversion rate optimisation.
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