We've said it before and we'll say it again, you can have the most beautifully designed website in the world, but if it's difficult to navigate and no one can find it, you won't get the sales you had hoped.
Over the years, we typically will see business owners who are either super focused on the design of the website, or they're focused on optimizing the site for search engines.
To see real success online, there needs to be a healthy balance of both, user-friendly design and optimization for search engines.
You can have a nice looking design with some animations and functionality, but don't let the website distract a visitor from converting. It's easy to overdo it, and you can end up making a visitor feel overwhelmed and leave the website.
In order to make sure we convey the importance of a conversion, let's quickly cover the basics.
What is a conversion?
A conversion is an event that happens when a visitor completes a goal on your website. This can be signing up for your newsletter, contacting you through the contact form, booking a consultation, or purchasing a product.
A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who visit your website and complete a desired goal. This is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of visitors to your website, and then multiplying by 100.
(Conversions / Total Visitors) * 100
So let's say your website gets 500 visitors per month and of those visitors, 15 book a consultation through your website.
(15 / 500) * 100 = 3% conversion rate
A good conversion rate is above 2%. So in this example, a 3% conversion rate is a good sign that you're getting the right traffic to your website, they are responding to your messaging and your website and they are then deciding to take the next step.
How to Optimize Your Website for Conversions - 5 Tips
1. Keep your header, navigation and footer simple
We briefly talked about the importance of keeping your design simple in the beginning of this post, but let's dive more into the specifics. The most important (and repeated) sections of your website are the header, navigation and footer.
With this in mind, it's important that you include key information (contact information, social icons, your logo, links to important pages, next step buttons, newsletter signups, and trust badges) so a visitor can see and access it as easily as possible.
The last thing you want to do is make a visitor have to hunt for what they're looking for, as this can lead to them getting frustrated and leaving your website.
2. Pay attention to how visitors navigate your website
In your Wix dashboard under Activity > Insights, you will see your top performing pages, and the last page people often visit before leaving. This can help tell you what information visitors are looking for, if they're finding it, and recommend opportunities for improvement.
In Google Analytics, the "Users Flow" report is a great way to see what order visitors view your pages. This indicates where most visitors go after first visiting the homepage of your website. By understanding this behavior, you can focus your efforts on the most important pages, and make sure you're guiding a visitor to those key pages.
3. Regularly analyze your data
Installing Google Analytics and checking your Wix dashboard every once in a while is not enough. It's important that you understand what your data is telling you, and that you check it regularly.
Google Search Console can show you what keywords visitors are using to find your website. Make sure that the keywords are relevant to your offer, so they can easily find what they're looking for when they get to your website.
4. Repeat conversion focused strips throughout your website to make converting easy
If you are looking for a visitor to book a consultation through your website, for example, create a strip in Wix that encourages them to complete this action.
You can then either right click and save the strip to "My Designs," or add the strip to your footer so it shows on all pages of your website.
The same can be done with a strip that includes a newsletter signup, or featured products if you have an ecommerce store. Repeating strips is also useful for building trust with a visitor.
Testimonial strips and trust badge strips (that feature years in business, certificates, and other achievements) are also great to repeat on key pages of your website to set expectations.
5. Write your copy with a specific audience in mind
You only have a couple of seconds to convince a visitor that they're in the right place when they land on your website.
By featuring engaging messaging on your website, you can quickly convey to a visitor:
What you do
Who it's for
Why they need it
Why trust you
What to do next
This is incredibly important because these 5 questions are usually what someone needs to have answered before they decide to take the next step. If you can answer these on the homepage of your website, you'll already be ahead.
Focus on Making Progress, Not Perfection
When it comes to designing your website and getting online, done is better than perfect. We believe that getting something up, and refining as you go is the best approach because you can start making money through the website as soon as possible, and gathering valuable data.
Holding off on launching isn't doing you any favors, so if you've been putting it off, we encourage you to start simple and get online!
Need help getting your Wix website online?
We can help! We're Wix Legend Experts who build and deliver websites fast (as quick as 1 day). We also provide marketing coaching where we teach our clients how to update and market their websites themselves. Book a free strategy session with our team to get started.
