Website didn’t rank as well as you had hoped? Read on!

That’s okay, that just means there’s more room for growth. Grab a coffee and keep reading because there’s a few different aspects we can look at to improve your website’s search rankings. Remember, don’t be frustrated if your website isn’t doing as great as you thought it would. The tips in this posting will help, but don’t expect to see immediate results. Even small changes take time to update in various databases across the web.

Let’s get started!

Keywords

Keywords are arguably the most important part of the search process, so it’s a great place to start. In order to gain a footing in the search rankings, Forbes’ Jia Wertz recommends spending a few days doing some homework to identify the best keywords for each product/page of your site. It might take some time, but the better and more accurate your keywords are, the better your page will rank and visits will increase.

In addition to knowing which keywords to use, Wertz also strongly recommends optimizing for Long-Tail keywords – a [search] phrase containing three or more words. She details that identifying and applying Long-Tail keywords significantly help search engines to more easily rank your website. The more easily it can do that, the higher your site will rank.

Relevant Landing Page

A common pitfall both new and old search entries face is accurately sending searchers to the correct landing page. For example, if I was the automotive tire company GoodYear, I would be extremely careful to match landing pages to their search terms. A search for “What are the best tires for Subaru BRZ” should link to a search page on GoodYear.com displaying only the tires that would fit specifically on a Subaru BRZ. In this age of digital marketing, it’s simply not enough to link a specific keyword to a generic landing page. Customers who don’t land on the page they were expecting quickly become alienated and hit the exit button. If you are specific in your keywords, it should link to that specific item.

Fix Broken Links

Speaking of alienating customers and risking their departure, having dead or broken links is another bad practice that ends up being a huge turn-off to potential customers.
Luckily there are services available online to ensure your website is up-to-date and watertight, with no dead or broken links. A few services recommended by WebSolutions are Online Broken Link Checker and Dead Link Checker.

Test, Revise, and Apply

As the digital age evolves and consumer preferences change, it’s vastly important to stay flexible and change with them. It could be as unnoticeable as one color being preferred over another, or as small as a single word change, but utilizing A/B Testing is a great tool to figure out exactly what works and what doesn’t – with real, hard data.

A/B Testing can be incredibly useful – learn more about A/B Testing by reading QuickSprout.com’s Beginners Guide To A/B Testing

 

What are Conversions?

 

               Defining exactly what a Conversion is will depend mainly on the type of business, and how that business is set up. For instance, an e-commerce web store might be concerned with what percentage of viewers actually hit that BUY NOW button and purchase their product. An author of an email newsletter might be concerned with how many viewers enter their email to sign up. Maybe you are writing your own blog and want to know how many people are clicking ads on your page. Whatever the industry, your Conversion rate is essentially your goal, or a desired action you want the viewer to do once they’re on your page.

 

Attention-driven design

 

               The design of your Landing Page can directly make or break your targeted Conversion rate. Overly complicated website design, Too many pictures, and simply not enough information are some common practices that turn-away Conversions.

               On the other hand, an attractive design that captures the viewers attention and keeps it, will lead to the viewer clicking more and staying on your page longer. Finally, consider page elements that add value to your page, while being minimally distracting.

 

Call to Action Buttons

 

               Utilizing Call to Action (CTA) Buttons is possibly the most important aspect in increasing Conversions. Three Deep Marketing tells us that bold CTAs can increase conversion rates, and provides great details on how to do it well. Consider against generic CTAs – like “Buy”, “Shop”, and “Okay”. Instead, use fun, friendly, and unique buttons that are boldly colored, clear, but not overly aggressive. For example “Shop” could easily and effectively be replaced with “Discover our New Flavors!”. It checks all our boxes, while still communicating where the link goes and what the button does. Another great example is how Three Deep Marketing changed the “Enter” button and replaced it with “Stir up Sweetness”.

 

Mobile/Desktop

 

               With Statista reporting over “120 milion mobile buyers in the U.S. alone in 2015.” And the belief that number will increase to over “162 million” by the end of 2019, it’s now more important than ever for your site to be mobile-friendly. For the best possible chance of Conversions, every action you can do in a desktop browser, should be achievable by mobile-device users. If you still aren’t convinced, check out some statistics below.

 

Test to impress

 

               It’s no secret that today’s digital world moves faster than ever before. The wants, needs, and values of consumers can change at a moment notice. For this reason, it’s incredibly important to stay on-top of what works and doesn’t work for your consumers. The best way to do this is though testing. Aren’t sure if you should name that CTA Button “Enter Here” or “Join the Party!”? A/B testing is your new best friend. By looking at the data gathered from running your site with either Button-text, you can directly compare the effectiveness and impact to your Conversion rate.

 

 

 

… still here?

 

Want to know more about Conversions and tools to help analyze your Conversion rates?

 

Check out Shlomo Trachtenberg’s article at Big Commerce

 

More Sources

 

“MRKT 484 Ryan on Testing Landing Pages.” OSU MediaSpace, Oregon State University, https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_j1xoorhb.

“The 7 Principles of Conversion Centered Design.” Oli Gardner, Stukent.com, https://www.stukent.com/expert-sessions/the-7-principles-of-conversion-centered-design/.