What High Converting Websites Do Differently (& How to Copy Their Success)

You’ve done everything right. You hired a (costly) web designer and now have a sleek website you’re proud of. You implemented SEO to help you rank higher. People are visiting your website… but they’re not buying.

What gives?

Having a well-designed, or even well-optimized website is one thing. Getting traffic to convert from one is another. You’ve got to constantly pay attention to your audience and how they’re responding to what you have happening on your website.

Looking for inspiration? There are dozens of sites that have this formula down for you to take notes from. Here, get lessons from high-converting websites that you can apply to your own.

1. The Website is Designed for Visitors, Not Web Designers

Web design can be an echo chamber, and designers can often be guilty of designing for design’s sake, and not for the end user or SEO purposes.

An example of this is Flash. Now nearly extinct (but not quite), Flash at first turned the heads of web designers, programmers, and businesses because it provided new visual capabilities for websites. However, in this era of imperative SEO and mobile-friendly websites, it simply no longer stands up to what is required of it.

A user-friendly website, on the other hand, has an impressive — but simple — design. It’s easy to navigate, and the user never has to wait for images to load. The technology is certainly available for these functionalities right now, so companies still relying on older, clunkier design elements would do well to upgrade.

2. The Website “Asks for It”

Even the most perfect web copy, balanced with just-right keyword density, may fail to convert customers without this critical element: a solid call to action. Visitors can read your amazing web copy, but after that, what do you want? Without a nudge in the right direction, they may go to another site where your competitor will be happy to tell them what to do.

A well-targeted call to action (CTA) drives people to take a specific action. Smart websites use one CTA on a page to avoid confusion. Certainly, a web page (especially the home page) should have multiple instances of that CTA, but the drive should be to complete one single action, such as:

• Buy now
• Sign up
• Click to learn more

The CTA should, when possible, create a sense of urgency. You want your visitor to feel like they need to act this instant, not later, to take advantage of the incredible offer you’re presenting. And given that our attention spans are shorter than those of goldfish, now may be the only chance you get to capture their attention.

Here’s an example: on subscription company BirchBox’s page, you see, front and center, a button enticing you to Shop Now. For the visitor that doesn’t want to browse the offerings on the home page, he (or she) can click that button to get down to business. The button is repeated a few other times on the home page.

Sure, a visitor may dedicate half an hour to reading all your web copy, but for those who want shortcuts to the action, place highly-visible calls to action throughout your website.

3. It Uses Buttons That Put the Visitor at the Center of the Action

There’s a new trend in website buttons that go beyond the standard copy of “subscribe now” to highlight the benefits of actually clicking them. These buttons sometimes provide mocking alternatives to clicking the positive one (“Yes, I want to make more money” versus “No, I have enough money.”), making visitors smile. Who wants to be the dummy who says they have enough money and couldn’t use more?

Neil Patel, founder of QuickSprout, has perfected the art of these next-gen buttons. His websites use verbiage that puts the visitor front and center, and provide reasons to click in a few simple words strategically placed on that button.

Test out new wording for your own buttons and see if you can’t increase conversion as a result. You can also test different colors for your buttons to see which have the higher conversion.

Continue reading %What High Converting Websites Do Differently (& How to Copy Their Success)%

by Aaron Agius via SitePoint