E-commerce is challenging to navigate when you are competing with others who offer similar products and services. Many small business owners find that it is a constant struggle to keep up with industry best practices such as guiding visitors, engaging, and building a loyal customer base. The gains, though, are exponential when done well which is why knowledge of conversion is essential. Here are 5 ways to make your small business website convert.
5 Ways to Make your Small Business Website Convert
1. Design a Visually Pleasing Website
A well-designed, user-friendly site will lead to dramatically higher conversion rates. Taylor & Francis Online found it takes about .05 of a second to gauge a website’s appeal. Just as you would put much thought into the layout of your brick and mortar store, so should you do the same to create a design that allows consumers to navigate quickly and efficiently.
- Choose a design that represents your industry.
- Do not overcomplicate your design with lots of images or useless text.
- Make your products easy to find.
- Educate customers about additional items. Design an expedient checkout process.
2. Make Your Site Accessible with a Trendy Landing Page
Landing pages serve the purpose of registering new users, guiding traffic, and increasing sales. The difference between a landing page and a home page is that landing pages are extremely specific – they target a specific stream of traffic. If you are running Adwords, Facebook campaigns, banner ads, etc… then that traffic needs to be taken to a landing page instead of just your main page. While a homepage has a conversion rate of up to 3%, a landing page rates as high as 15%. A home page is an overview of your site while a landing page is a direct result of a consumer search for an immediate need.
- Use headlines and subtitles to make it easy to navigate.
- Add a brief description of product or services.
- Add at least one image or videos (Cite to create a backlink).
- Use a call to action (CTA) button to guide users to products or services.
3. Local SEO Marketing
Using a diversified backlink profile will improve ranking and boost leads, but it does not define who your audience will be. Regional SEO strategies differ significantly because of a shift in marketing. Now you are competing with local competitors instead of national businesses, and ranking is key to getting those sales. Keywords should be geo-specific and use language that ranks highly on the search engine results page (SERP). For best results, you should really work with a local SEO company to figure out what keywords to rank for and how to do it. But, if you are bootstrapping, here are a few tips to get you started:
- Create an account on Google My Business. Include name, address, phone, and website information.
- Provide customers with additional business policies like office hours and payment availability.
- Because 92% of sales come from word of mouth, including customer reviews and recommendations. Add a keyword and your city or region to your landing page. Use language like ‘tow trucks near me’ or ‘dentists near me in the city, state.’
- Embed a map like from Google Maps to show a location.
. If you have been unable to boost sales, this article may well help you overcome some of the challenges that more substantial and structured companies have conquered.
4. Analyze your Traffic and Conversion Rates Regularly
As a small business owner, you have probably relied on SEO marketing strategies to rank and boost traffic to your page. Research by eConsultancy.com found that for every $92.00 invested to gain traffic, site owners spend $1 to convert them into sales. Using a tool like Google Analytics provides excellent insight into what you are doing right and while observation of what is wrong. Regular monitoring will allow you to establish a protocol for adverse fluctuations.
5. Develop a Reputation Management Strategy
Forbes found that businesses lose as much as 22% in sales after the first negative online mention, and it can lead to as much as 59% with only three online business references. For small business owners, this data can be problematic because they often lack the personnel to establish an online presence. The ability to engage, elicit feedback, and reply instantaneously to comments helps create authority within an industry. E-commerce is now a regular part of doing business, and companies must budget for personnel to be competitive. Proper engagement builds loyalty, and it directly boosts sales because you have established trust and reliability.
Author: Bruno Souza
