Everyone is always looking for a quick win or the low-hanging fruit. To be honest, you should be, these are the easiest things to execute that will make the most impact.

So lets dive in on how to optimize your website for conversions! Below are 5 years worth of knowledge summed up into quick dot points that will help you identify the easiest changes that will have the most impact to your website.  

Speed

Optimization 1 – Image size

Upload optimal images sizes. Make sure your images are resized to fit the size you intend to use the image on your website.

Or at least keep them under 500kb and under the maximum width of your website, usually 1400px wide. Here is a good plugin if you use WordPress, If you are using Shopify, take a look at this app.   

Optimization 2 – Hosting

Use a good hosting company. It is worth paying an extra $20 a month as the difference can be a page load of 2 seconds compared to 10 seconds.

If you have a little extra to spend, take a look at WpEngine, they are probably the best (get 20% off using “WPE20OFF” here). If you are on a budget, take a look at GoDaddy, they have super cheap plans to get started. You can also use a service like Pingdom or Googles own speed test to see the performance of your current load time.   

Optimization 3 – Lazy Load

Try and use pagination or lazy load to make sure your pages are loading as early as possible. E.g. your website may have a blog with 30 posts but instead of showing them all on 1 page, break them up to 5 posts per page. Same goes for image galleries or comments.  

Navigation

Optimization 1 – Focal Point

Make sure you are highlighting the number 1 thing you want people to do. If that’s shop, have that at the top of the navigation, highlight it, make it stand out. If it’s to signup or creates an account, make a dedicated button in your navigation bar.

Optimization 2 – Declutter

Remove anything that is not helping you directly achieve the sale, lead or signup. Move these links to the footer. Some common ones are “contact”, “FAQ’s etc.

These are important links but are not directly driving people to the conversion. If people want to know these things all they have to do is scroll to the bottom. The goals is to reduce distraction for people are looking to convert as fast as possible.  

Optimization 3 – Remove Distraction

If you have landing pages that you are sending paid traffic to only, remove all navigation and have visitors focus on the content of the landing page (this can also be called a squeeze page). You will see a lot of people using tools like Click Funnels, Lead Pages, and Instapage to do this.

Optimization 4 – Limit

Try and keep your navigation items under 7. Also for an eCommerce store, use a mega drop-down menu for fast browsing for shippers.

Page Structure

Optimization 1 – Layout

The order in which you display content and call to actions (CTA) is super important. You will want to think about the layout of your page before you build it.

Below is an example layout that has worked well in many of my marketing campaigns.  

• Header – Includes who you are (1-3 words) then subtitle in what you do or problem you solve
  
• CTA 1 – Under the subtitle, you should have 1 CTA for people who want to convert fast. (e.g. Get started for only $27)
  
• Problem + Solution – Use this section to highlight the problem your product or service is solving and why it’s solving it better than anyone else. Use numbers and statistics in this section if possible.
  
• Benefits + Features – Clearly highlight the benefits & features your product or service has.
  
• CTA 2 – have a call to action under this section, this is usually a tipping point for people shopping around and comparing features.
  
• Validation – use this section to validate how good your product is with testimonials. These can be video testimonials, quotes from customers, tweets about the company or even a list of people using your service (e.g. used by apple, google and 150+ other tech companies).
  
• Pricing Chart – this is depended on the type of business you have, have it comparable and tell people which plan/product to choose. This can be swapped out for top products or best sellers for an eCommerce store.
  
• CTA 3 – always have a CTA under any section that mentions pricing.
  
• Overcome Rejection – This section can be used to answer and argue the 3 most common reasons people do not buy, you have probably already seen this strategy before but not recognized it e.g. Q. Do I need design skills to use this product? – A. No, because…. // or //  Q. Does this product work if xxx. – A. yes, because…..
  
• Security – Add money-back guarantees, accepted payment options, and security badges. This does not need a whole section but deserves an honorable mention so make sure you include it.

You can pick a choose which sections are relevant to your business but try and create a structure that makes sense for your ideal customer and product.

E.g. a more expensive product will need more information compared to a cheaper service or product.  

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Optimization 2 – Contact

Try and use images of real people that have eye contact with the camera, this makes the page much more personal. The closer the person on your landing page aligns with your target/ideal customer the better.

If you have a product that appeals to male and female customers, try and include an image featuring both.  

Call To Actions

Optimization 1 – Stand Out

Make sure your CTA’s are BIG and a color that stands out. Having a highly visible call to action is one of the most important things you can do when designing your page.

Also, make sure your CTA’s are consistent in size and color so visitors know when they see that color that they need to take action.   

Optimization 2 – Hierarchy

Have a primary call to action that you want people to take, but still give them a less obvious second option if the first option is too soon.

Conversion Optimization

Optimization 1 – Simplicity

Make sure you keep your website very minimalist, this makes it much easier for your visitors to focus on the conversion CTA’s you have set up.   

Optimization 2 – Visuals

Make your site visual, if you can explain something with an image, chart or dot points instead of text, DO IT. This will save the website browser time and they will love you as people want two things from you! To save TIME and MONEY!   

Optimization 3 – Video

Use video when possible to explain the problem you are solving and the solution you are providing. This can get a lot of information across in a short period of time.   

Optimization 4 – Scarcity

Add scarcity when possible. This can be in the form of a limited supply or a limited time. Below is an example of how Amazon ads a huge amount of scarcity to get people to buy from their “daily deals” section.

Checkout

Optimization 1 – Simplify

When possible, remove as many data fields as possible. If the information is not important, remove it (this is things like “company name, separate billing address and shipping address etc.”).   

Optimization 2 – Two Step

Try and make the checkout process only 2 steps. the reason we break this into 2 sections is to capture people’s email to then send abandon cart emails. Step 1 – Name and email Step 2 – Shipping and billing info Step 3 – a Confirmation page   

Optimization 3 – Abandon Cart Follow Up

Make sure you are sending abandon cart emails, these will be the most profitable email drip you ever set up!

The customer just needs a tinny little push and they will cave into buying something. Follow this email drip structure as you will definitely want to send more than 1 email.

Email 1 – 2 hours later (follow up with a reminder they left something in their cart)

Email 2 – 24 hours later (give a discount, gift or free product) Email 3 – 2 days later (create scarcity, they have 24 hours to claim their discount)

Another trick is to also use an app that will send abandon cart notifications through SMS, Facebook, WeChat, etc.

Putting It All Together

So it really does not take too much extra work to optimize your website. These are all super quick wins that you can apply to your store to get huge results.

Don’t just stop here though, let me know if you need some more ideas on how to grow your business! Comment below with your number 1 struggling in growing your business.