You know what I’ve come to realize? It can be so easy for us to focus on getting new website visitors through different marketing tactics like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. But sometimes we don’t need MORE traffic, we just need to optimize for the traffic we are already getting.
Once you know that your website is optimized, then you can focus on getting more traffic to your site and have peace of mind that the increased traffic will actually convert to paying customers!
For months I had known that my website desperately needed a refresh. I had added new offerings and I knew that my current website wasn’t speaking to my current goals.
But I was busy and I was still bringing in sales… so I kept putting it off. Sound familiar?
Here’s a snapshot of my conversion rate for the month before my website refresh:
Here’s a snapshot of just the 10 days after my new website launched (with no sales, special promotions, or ads) This was just from organic traffic.
You can see that the traffic didn’t increase, but my conversion rate went up significantly.
Diving In:
So, you’re probably wondering. How did I do it?
Here’s a few things that I did, that you can steal, to increase your conversion rate today.
1. Put a button in your header that leads to the main goal of your website
When people click into your website it needs to be easy to navigate and lead them to the things you’d like them to see. Grabbing their attention quickly is important as most people will click away if they aren’t initially engaged and what they were looking for isn’t readily available.
Most traffic is brought to your website through social media posts promoting a blog post, a sale, etc. After the viewer has visited the page that brought them to your website it is important to have strong options in the header that will encourage them to stay and explore a bit longer.
2. I know that people hate on pop-ups, but they work
Pop-ups get a bad rap. I get it, they interrupt your scroll. I personally hardly ever optin to a pop-up. But when I looked at the numbers.. other people were! And numbers don’t lie.
My pop-up was one of my top-performing opt-in forms. And surprisingly when comparing a long-form opt-in page to a pop-up, the pop-up performs better in this case.
The long-form opt-in page lets people know what they can expect to learn, it has some story-telling in, and it’ll let others know that I understand where they are now and how this opt-in is going to help them.
And then there’s this very short pop-up. All that this tells them is that I have a free video training for designers. It doesn’t tell them what they are going to learn, why they should opt-in, or anything about me. BUT it’s performing just as well. And it took me much less time to put together.
3. Review your analytics and revise
From reviewing my Google Analytics I know that one of the main traffic sources to my website is Pinterest. And their general experience is this: they see a pin that catches their eye. It’s usually a pin about a blog post they would find interesting, so they click it to read more. They are taken to the blog, they read it…but then, they leave.
That’s a huge missed opportunity. If I’m already creating content, creating Pinterest graphics, and spending time promoting it…I want to make sure all of those efforts are actually working for me. So in order to encourage people to stay longer, I decided to optimize the bottom of my blog post page to lead to the product that is my number one priority for my website.
Now I have four CTAs for the funnel on my blog post page! I know, I know, it sounds a liiiitle excessive. But it works, and it’s done in a way that isn’t overwhelming or spammy.
Wrapping It Up
When all is said and done, make sure the time and effort you are putting into your website is paying off. As all of us have come to know, time is money, so make sure the time you put into your website isn’t going to waste.
The posts made to Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, while yes they are fun and interesting. They are not all for nothing, they bring viewers to your website and if not properly optimized are essentially going to waste.
So before putting in the effort of making these posts ensure that the organic traffic coming in is productive and providing your intended outcome. Take my experience and learn from it so you don’t make the same mistakes as I have.
Want to hear more of my experience that you can learn from to optimize your website? Check out our latest article all about why you should optimize your showit blog.