How to Optimize Your Website for Lead Conversion

Driving traffic to your site might be easy, but winning over those visitors and seeing them convert is where it gets tricky. If your website traffic is steady but your conversion rate is low,  it might be time to revamp your website to optimize for lead conversion.  

So, what is lead conversion anyway? Hopefully you have a general idea but in short, lead conversion is an action that a prospect or visitor takes while on your site. Many people define conversion as a visitor making a purchase, but that’s a common misconception. 

When someone makes a purchase on your site, it certainly constitutes as conversion, but there are many other ways a prospect can covert. For instance, if someone comes to your site and downloads a lead gen offer or signs up for your newsletter, they have taken a desired action and converted in some way.

Even if those lead conversions seem small, they add up over time. Prospects who seek out your content, opt into your lead drips, and download your resources have a vested interest in your company and will likely convert to a paying customer soon. 

Your website is the digital face of your company and is often the first impression someone has of you when considering whether to buy your offering. If you optimize it effectively, you can increase lead conversions and create a loyal customer base for years to come. Here’s how. 

Leverage Basic Web Design Principles

You may not be a graphic designer or web developer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a stellar website. Whether you build it yourself, hire someone to do it on your behalf, or utilize a template to get started, each option needs to meet a few key web design criteria in order to make a first impression that sticks.

Be sure your site includes these best practices for website optimization:

• Rule of thirds: The concept is a staple in the photography world, but it applies to website design, too. It isn’t enough to slap a “Click Here” button to the center of your page. You’ll need to arrange your page and calls to action (CTAs) to guide visitors and draw them to one spot. 
• Hick’s Law: The basic principle here is the more choices someone is offered, the longer it takes for them to make a decision. Don't go all out with offerings. Limit options in the header to just a few items so you can get people where you want them to go.
• Human touch: Behind the software, tech, and computers, we’re all people. For the prospect, it establishes a feeling of trust when they see the people behind the product. Even on social media, tweets that have photos with human faces perform better. If you have an About page, include photos of company employees. If you have a live chat, include a profile photo of whoever is responding. 
• Brand consistency: No matter where visitors see your content—think ads, website, social media—they should immediately recognize you. Nothing is worse than blending in with all the noise, so be consistent and you’ll become recognizable to consumers and be seen as a trusted source. 
• Clear CTAs: Make sure your calls to action are short, concise, clear, and most importantly, obvious! Your CTAs should be the center of attention and those should draw your prospects to convert. Use a bright color—that’s still on brand—and put them in obvious places. 

By making it clear what you want your prospects to do, you’ll create the simplest and easiest path toward conversion. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study proved more isn’t always better when researchers found people were less interested in a table full of 24 different offerings than they were of a table with just six. 

Use a Variety of CTAs to Capture Leads

Visitors to your site are at all different stages in the buying journey, so your CTAs should speak to them wherever they are. 

For instance, if you’ve put together a beginner’s how-to guide, it probably isn’t best to end it with a “Sign Up Today!” CTA. They’re not quite there yet. Be considerate of where your prospects are in their journey.

Maybe they are just becoming aware of the topic or concept, maybe they need to be nurtured a little more, or maybe they’ve already done their homework and are ready to buy. Either way, if you want to capture leads, your CTAs need to speak to them. 

If you need some inspiration, try incorporating some of these CTAs and best practices:

• CTA placement: If you aren’t seeing your CTAs convert, try moving them to the header or sidebar where they tend to perform better.
• Contextual CTAs: These are the kinds of CTAs you’d typically see at the end of a blog post or article that guide the visitor to another page that has relevant content where they can continue to learn more. 
• Live chat: Try utilizing a live chat option when a visitor lands on a particular page and sweeten the deal by enticing them with a special offer. 
• Pop-ups: Use them sparingly, but if you do decide to add a pop-up to your website, make sure it has an offer for your visitor so it doesn't come across as a nuisance.
• Form submission: Usually found on landing pages, form submission can be a great way to capture lead information and start to nurture prospects through your funnel. But forms aren’t only for landing pages, they can be used virtually anywhere. 

Audit Your Site for Lead Conversion Opportunities

To optimize your site for lead conversion, you have to know where your traffic is coming from, right? Start by performing a simple audit of all of your lead generation efforts to get more insight. Analyze your email newsletter, social media, landing pages, live chats, and SEO content. You can do this through tracking URLs or campaigns you’ve created through an analytics tool, depending on the platform you use. 

Once you’ve identified all the potential opportunities for lead conversion, dig deep into which pages are highly trafficked and continuously optimize those first. In a lot of instances, the most trafficked blog pages are often outdated. Make sure you update the content on those pages to be relevant, accurate, and engaging.

Bonus tip: highly trafficked pages you’ll want to add a submission form to. 

Have the Right Tools in Place for Lead Conversion 

Now that you have a deeper understanding of what lead conversion is, how to capture and accomplish it, and ways you can optimize it, you need to make sure you have the right tools in place to make it all happen. 

There are a variety of tools you can incorporate to better engage customers and get them to convert, like those basic web design principles and CTAs, but you should also incorporate more advanced tools like:

• Appointment calendars: Make it easy for customers to talk to you by allowing them to book time on your calendar. 
• Online payments: Again, make it as simple as possible for customers to not churn. This is a must.
• Mobile optimized: Who isn’t constantly looking at their phone? Be sure your website is optimized to run seamlessly on mobile. 

You might feel like you have a lot of homework to do to get your site optimized for lead conversion, but GoSite can do the heavy lifting for you. Get everything you need to optimize your website for lead conversion in one, easy to use place. You’ll be on your way to connect your business with more customers in no time.