Conversion Optimisation: 6 Little Ways To Make a Big Difference

“Such a little thing”, Manc miserablist Morrissey once sang, “makes such a big difference”.

The same is true for designing websites. The littlest tweak to a landing page can have a substantial effect on bounce rates, conversions and, chief of all, sales. Most important of all, these potentially-lucrative amendments don’t cost the earth either.

It’s all about understanding your site, and your audience, better.

How to make a big difference with the little things:

#1: Find out how strong your site search box is

Recently we mentioned how important search boxes are for mobile browsing, but they also play a key part in improving the performance of desktop sites too.

Site search isn’t always good news. Some search functions provide irrelevant and unhelpful results, or no results at all, which causes visitors to leave a site and never come back. If you have a site search that’s causing problems it might be worth removing it completely and allow your customers to navigate their own way to the product they’re looking for.

Split testing a website with and without a site search box could inform whether it’s hampering or benefitting your site.

#2: Trial psychological pricing

This may be an idea that’s solely applicable to eCommerce businesses, and a section of eCommerce businesses at that, but it’s a great idea to split test pricing strategies.

For instance, changing product prices down to .99 and .49 is a tried-and-tested technique that can make products subconsciously more alluring. Change a set number of products down to a .99 number for a set period of time and then compare with the same period of time at the initial price.

Chances are you’ll see an uplift in sales, just as happened in a study by the digital product seller Gumroad. The chart to our right compares the conversion rates of round numbers with their .99 counterparts Besides, even if you don’t see a spike in sales and page views, you’ll still walk away from the process a little wiser about your customer base and what’s important to them.

#3: Improve your checkout process

According to the Baymard Institute, an average of 67.91% of all shopping carts are abandoned before the payment. That’s a lot of missed revenue.

Therefore it makes sense to examine even the most minor aspects of the checkout stage and see how little tweaks could optimise performance:

• Perhaps your customers are currently dissuaded against purchasing by a protracted sign-up process?

• Maybe there are too many steps involved?

• Do shoppers have the option of a guest checkout?

• Are there hidden fees turning people away at the last?

• Does the process feel a little impersonal?

• Could you do with one last call to action?

Whatever it is you’ve identified, conversion optimisation can allow you to ascertain whether your will drive sales.

#4: Spruce up your navigation

Every webmaster wants their site to be as easy to navigate as possible. You can use Google Analytics to see which pages have particularly high bounce rates and exit percentages and then work to improve navigation in specific pages.

Perhaps you could improve the copy, make the design less invasive or try to add in links and banners to relevant pages and offers. Once you’ve identified a problem, conversion optimisation allows you to ascertain how to improve the customer experience.

#5: Trial the perfect product page

How much effort do you put into your product pages? Conversion optimisation allows you to trial different ways to deal with how you’re communicating with customers on the product level. You could try to see if a more image-centric approach works over compelling sales copy on individual pages, or ascertain whether a specific call to action improves engagement.

Obviously, product pages make up the bulk of a website, so if you’re making sweeping changes and committing plenty of man hours then you want to be sure you’re making the right decision. Conversion optimisation ensures you’re investing time, money and effort in the right place.

Check out our guide to writing the perfect product description.

#6: Don’t discount the little things

The beauty of conversion optimisation is that it can cover the littlest to the most substantial things. So don’t be afraid to think small. Even things like changing a font to increase readability can have a huge effect on usability, engagement and profits.

Want to find out how to spruce up your website down to the very last detail? Talk to expert eCommerce developers at TheGenieLab today.