I understand the importance of increasing your blog's conversation rate in order to grow your business.
That is why I wanted to invite Rick Riddle, the head content manager at SmartPaperHelp.com, and an up-and-coming blogger, to write a guest post about the 7 essential blog fixes that you can make in order to drive up more conversions to your blog.
Take it away, Rick!
Did you know that for every $92 spent garnering new customers; only $1 is spent converting them? Did you also know that 52% of B2B marketers say that conversion rates are the most effective metrics of measuring the performance of landing pages?
Well, I thought you should know. I bet you can now agree with me when I insist on the importance of conversion rates. They are not only expensive for your company, but also very crucial. All businesses, engaging in any form of online marketing, need not take this issue lightly.
Every visitor to your website is a potential customer. We only need to harness this potential by making it easy for them to sign-up or take the next step. Of course, we all want them to become subscribers, leads, and eventual customers, but how do we do it exactly? It might not be a walk in the park but I’m not saying it’s hard either.
Just sit tight and go through these 9 fixes to make on your blog in order to improve your conversions.
Low blog speeds
Do you know how important your blog speed is? Amazon reported a 1% revenue increase after a 100millisecond improvement to their site speed. A different report from the Aberdeen Group showed that site delay by just a second yielded a 7% conversion rate loss.
If it takes too long for your customers to get to your blog, then most of them will quit before even getting there. If you want to know the importance of site speed, here it is; your users are obsessed with it, so is Google. Actually, speed is one of the factors used to rank sites by Google (although not as much as its content).
That being the case, how do you go about improving your site speeds? There are probably more than five ways to do this. You could start by reducing the redirects on your page, reduce the number of plugins, optimize the images and the CSS delivery.
Reducing the server response time would also go a long way in improving the speed of your site. Imagine the number of potential clients you lose every day by having a slow website.
Cluttered site
Remember the power of first impressions? They’re pretty powerful, right? If your site has a lot of texts, images, videos and CTA’s, it might not be appealing as you think it does. Actually, it might just push a potential lead away. Ever heard the phrase “less is more”? I bet you have. Sometimes, simplicity is just the way to go.
Adopt a simple dressing, simple lifestyle, and definitely a simple site. When it comes to content creation, you need to strategize. Don’t just paste walls of text in your blog.
Simplify your texts and make sure the keywords are just enough in order to get you better rankings. Make better use of image formats such as JPEG. Images are important, yes, but they should never outdo the content/ the solutions you provide. Use them sparingly, crop them to the right sizes, and you could always reduce the depths for better speed.
Improper image/video use
Content creation has more to do with just plain text. You could always have some images, video, infographics, memes, and so much more. These are not only exciting, but they also reduce the monotony of doing things. Images need to be informative, yet appealing to a visitor.
However, it should complement the message of the site and offer value to the visitor. Nowadays, memes and infographics are widely being incorporated into many sites. When it comes to infographics, always have a qualified graphic designer to do it for you. Memes may not need professional or special skills, but just make sure they’re good enough.
The same goes for other images. They need to be crisp, high-quality images. Some editing should be done when using the image for a mobile site. Scale them down, but make sure the value/ quality is not altered/ lowered. A video of your Chief Operations Officer won’t do you any harm.
Poor navigation
Easy to navigate pages attract more visitors and make it easy for your users to get to the CTA’s. Why take so much time looking for some link in a certain site while they can make use of search options? Both the menu bar and the navigation bar should be easily visible and accessible.
Make good use of contrast to make these important details visible. Navigation is especially important when it comes to mobile devices. Other important details such as CTA’s, contact information, and product information should be accessible to all the visitors into the site.
CTA’s should be well situated and have some bright colors (for clarity). They should be precise and not just some general, unspecific information. For example, tell your customers to “download a brochure”, “start your free trial” or “request for today’s quote”, instead of “buy now” and so on. Also, use CTA’s sparingly on your blog. After all, it’s not the number that matters, but rather the effects of their use.
Lack of mobile designs
Mobile searches surpassed their desktop counterparts in 2015. This is a very interesting discovery for all marketers out there. As smartphones are widely being adopted in developed and developing countries, most people conduct mobile searches than they do on desktops.
That being the case, we need to create mobile-based designs. These should be mobile responsive and fast enough not to bore the users. It’s time we understood that mobile and desktop traffic are two different things.
Each needs its own content, ads, and so on. John Hiemstra argues that real friction in mobile sites is the actual reason why mobile conversion is lower than on a desktop. This is against the common belief that responsive design is mobile conversion optimization.
Lack of clear customer testimonials
The world is full of doubting Thomases. We need to see proof to believe in something. Having some customer testimonials eliminates any doubts that may have arisen along the way. The same is the effect we achieve by posting some customer testimonials. We all hate to be fooled. Why give your customer the thought, while you can post some genuine/ verified purchaser reviews for them to see?
Complicated forms
Have you ever attempted signing into a site and thousands of questions popped up? What was your next move? I bet you did what I normally do. I back off immediately! This is not good for your business. We want our visitors to sign up easily and fast enough. At times, we complain of having low conversions, yet we’re the sole purpose of why this is happening.
Keep it simple from now on and you’ll be surprised at the influence that this has on your site. There you go. You don’t have to adopt all of these tactics. Whether you choose to simplify your forms, develop some mobile sites, or simplify your site; invest your best on your choices.
Rick Riddle is a head content manager at SmartPaperHelp.com and an up-and-coming blogger whose articles aim to help people with digital marketing, blogging, entrepreneurship, and career. Feel free to follow Rick on Twitter and LinkedIn.