We’ve all been there when starting in our business ownership journey: you set up your website, connect your analytics tools, schedule promotional campaigns to your professional networks, and then… no one shows up.

What do you do when your website isn’t broken, but it’s not converting either?

Building and refining a business website that hooks visitors and converts leads into loyal customers takes more than just adding dynamic images and a sizable “Contact Us” button. It involves elevating your User Experience (UX), honing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and coordinating cohesive branding and marketing strategies across platforms. While that might sound like a complicated laundry list of technical tasks, it’s really just running down a quick checklist to make sure you’re using all the appropriate online opportunities at your disposal. To help, here are my top five website conversion optimization tips and insights.

Fix #1: Lead Generation Optimization

For potential customers to convert on your website, they must be able to get there. Your marketing program likely has several strategies in place to do this, such as social media promotions and Google Ads campaigns. One of the primary strategies to get people to your website, though, is ensuring that your SEO strategy is working. 

My favorite tool for this is Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, which lets you review the Search Terms people type into Google that lead to your website being found. These include hidden keywords that even Google Analytics will not show you!

See if the keywords revealed there are the ones you expected or intended. Are your SEO settings aligned to the Search Terms that are proving to work? Google Search Console is also a helpful option for improving your team’s understanding of what keywords to add to your website. 

Other tools I recommend for optimizing website SEO include SEMrush and Google Ads Keyword Planner. These can also help you build a list of relevant keywords for your website so that leads can find, follow, and frequent your brand’s website. Optimizing your Google My Business profile can also help improve your organic Google Search ranking. Apply the same principles of traditional SEO when managing your business listing so Google can more readily suggest your website in its search results. This can be especially helpful for businesses looking to attract the local community around their brick-and-mortar location. 

One other SEO strategy you’ll want to think about is Voice Search SEO. Retune your crucial keywords for how they may be spoken rather than typed, and make sure they’re implemented in both your webpage summaries and in featured content blocks. This is another important strategy for locally focused brands, as many voice-activated searches include the words “near me.”

Fix #2: Optimize Your Website Conversions with Clarity

When I work with a new client and dig into their online marketing presence, especially for Website Rebranding clients through my company, Go Getter Marketing Group, I’ll immediately go to their website first. What I’m looking for in my search is instant clarity.

• Is it clear what product or service your business provides?
• Is it clear how your business wants to be perceived by its target audience?
• Is it clear where you intend for a website visitor to spend their time on your site?

If the purpose and design of your website are unclear, visitors are less likely to spend time figuring them out. If a website visitor doesn’t understand your objectives and goals – or worse, fulfilling those intentions isn’t even possible with your current configurations – that leads to lost conversions (whether that be purchases, email sign-ups, contact messages, or whatever conversion is important to your business) and, thus, revenue.

So, whether your website is a single landing page or has branching pages of products and resources, a visitor should be able to find and identify three key things easily: 

1. What you do.
2. Why it matters.
3. How they can get involved. 

Make sure your most important Call-To-Actions (CTAs) stand out and are available on every page, that your navigation (both the menu and the vertical scroll on any page) is unambiguous, and that your branding style (visuals and voice) matches your target audience and your other marketing channels. By streamlining these aspects, website visitors are more likely to spend more time, attention, and clicks on your business.

Fix #3: Optimize Your Website Conversions with Data

It’s possible that the intentions you have for your website and your audience’s expectations might not be in harmony on a UX level. This is where your website analytics and how they align with your UX come in.

For example, if your website data shows that most of your visitors are browsing on mobile devices, even the most beautifully designed website on a full-size computer will have disappointing conversion rates if it’s not optimized for mobile. Images and text structures could be jumbled, buttons could be too many scrolls down, and important headers could be transformed into unclear icons.

This is even more important if your target audience skews younger, as 27% of American young adults rely on smartphones for internet access (10% or more higher than any other age demographic). Having a modern appearance that appeals to digital-age audiences means optimizing for multiple device types.

Take a look at how you’re measuring website conversions and if you’re using them to their full potential. Having a comprehensive view and understanding of your website data is key to optimizing your conversion strategy. I recommend using a web tracking tool like Google Analytics, so you always have a full view of your website visitors’ behavior, trends, and sources. Your website data will reveal which strategies are working successfully and inform decisions to optimize your website going forward. 

I recommend reviewing those Google Analytics reports that are important to you, such as “Traffic Acquisition” and “Pages & Screens,” on a weekly or monthly basis to identify trends in user behavior. Then, on a quarterly-to-annual basis, conduct a Digital Marketing Assessment to give you a full 360-degree view of how your online marketing strategies work together. 

Fix #4: Optimize Website Conversions with the Marketing Funnel

Your website should be able to take visitors through the stages of your marketing funnel, conversions being one of those stages… just one, though! There are five in total that you need to keep in mind when optimizing your website:

1. Awareness: prospective customers learn about your business, perhaps through lead-generation campaigns on social media or through web searches for the products or services you offer. 
2. Consideration: prospects compare your business against your competition, and when you nurture these new leads by demonstrating how your business can answer their questions and help them solve their problems.
3. Conversion: Prospective customers usually “convert” at several points through the customer journey. This could include things like downloading content, visiting a product page, or making their first purchase.
4. Loyalty: There are probably as many ways to retain new customers’ loyalty as there are businesses that retain it. Among the more common are offering special discounts for current customers and providing outstanding customer service.
5. Advocacy: These are customers so impressed with your business that they’re eager to recommend you to their friends and family. Transforming customers into brand advocates ensures you’ll have a steady stream of new leads entering your marketing funnel.

By planning your website optimization strategies to fulfill all five stages, you’re more likely to propel your website visitors through them and turn them into enthusiastic, repeat customers. Use your brand goals and website user behavior data to outline the Before and After of a conversion to set yourself up for success.

Fix #5: Optimize Website Conversions with Retention Strategies

This is also an area where your website data can come to your rescue. Consider this example.

If your website data shows that visitors spend ample screen time browsing your product listings and adding items to their cart, but then leave without making a purchase or signing up for future promotional notifications, this is a great opportunity to optimize your purchase page to help them make quick, easy conversions. Are there too many redirects to get from the cart to confirmation? Does the page offer a way to contact them about their cart status, even when not signed in to a customer profile portal? Do you have your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use accessible in the footer to help bolster trust?

Another strategy to boost website visitor retention, conversions, and repeat patronage is to provide high-value content on your website. This could include product demonstration videos, educational blog posts related to your industry, an email newsletter sign-up for discounts, and useful testimonials from past customers and reputable influencers. If website visitors know that even more content and/or products will be available to them if they come back to your website in the future, they’re more likely to engage with your avenues for keeping up with those updates.

The Forever-Fix for Website Conversions?

Website optimization is never a one-and-done project. As the online face of your business, it should not only align with your business’s growth but also with the evolving digital landscape. The conversion strategies that worked ten years ago may not carry the same weight now, and the same could be true in another ten years, especially as the increasing prevalence of AI tools changes how people spend their time, clicks, and cash across the web.

That’s why I recommend booking regular training on the current conversion strategies in your industry. The internet is a cultural landscape with distinct rules and best practices across fields, platforms, and audiences. It’s a lot to stay on top of, but it’s necessary for sustained business growth and success in our digitally focused world. A seasoned digital marketing trainer provides personalized guidance that prevents you from making costly, time-consuming missteps, plus offers insights and insider knowledge that only experience and expertise can provide, and helps you reach your goals faster. 

I’ve trained 1000+ busy professionals, business owners, and digital marketing teams, and the one thing they all have in common is that they are very smart and savvy, but they want an expert to come in and help them assess where they can improve. In my trainings and consultations, you get a highly customized learning experience that will make your work life easier, get conversions rolling in faster, and help make your business marketing more efficient. Schedule a discovery call to discuss a marketing course or audit/strategy options.

---

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Website Conversion Optimization

Is there a specific type of website design or hosting platform that will drive more online conversions for my business?

The short answer? No.

Many factors can affect website conversions beyond the strategies discussed in this article. It can depend on your brand’s field, your business goals, your ideal customer persona, and even your location. For example, if you work in a highly regulated industry like finance or real estate, there will be certain legal requirements and industry integrations that can make designing a smooth UX around website conversions a little trickier. That’s where you need to analyze your website visitors and client data to tailor your UX to their online behaviors and expectations, and align your other digital marketing strategies accordingly. There’s no single quick-fix to increasing website conversions, no matter which company you use behind the scenes to create your website.

Can I use AI to optimize my website to increase conversions?

There are ways AI can help you optimize your website to increase conversions, but it’s not a replacement for creating a comprehensive, data-driven online marketing strategy. Some tasks AI can help you with during your website optimization process include:

• Auditing your current website for visibility and usability issues with tools like SEMrush.
• Designing websites, landing pages, and even apps (no coding required) with tools like Lovable.
• Researching data on industry best practices, searchword statistics, and your customer demographic’s online behaviors with tools like ChatGPT. (Just don’t forget to fact-check its sources.

What if I’m doing everything right and it’s still not working?

There might be a deeper reason why your business’s online marketing strategies are missing the mark with your ideal audience. To dive into the intentions, mechanisms, and results of your current website and digital marketing efforts, let’s schedule a VIP Power Day to build a custom plan for your brand.