The conversion rate of a website is the percentage of people who take a desired action, whether that’s registering, buying a product, or some other action.

Improving conversion rates is a hugely neglected area of online marketing, with websites notorious for having very low conversion rates, usually in the region of 1-2%.

People will spend hours testing and optimising pay per click campaigns and yet neglect their website where a few simple changes could double their conversion rate, thereby doubling the effectiveness of their marketing.

Below are 5 ways to get your website on the right track:

1. To begin with you need to be clear about what the purpose of your website is. Is your aim simply to provide valuable information, generate registrations, or produce sales? Far too many websites don’t focus on what they want visitors to do. It’s amazing how much a large ‘Register Today’ or ‘Buy Online Today’ graphic can increase your conversion rate.

2. Get the wording right. Focus on what customers want instead of making it about your company. Use the word YOU to create the feeling that you’re content is talking directly to customers.

3. Collect peoples’ email addresses. Don’t have a dull ‘sign-up to our newsletter here’ box. Tell them why they should sign-up. Maybe they’ll receive exclusive discounts, be entered into a competition, receive a brochure, or all three? Either way, make sure people have a valuable reason to give you their email address and they will.

4. If you had told people in business twenty years ago that with the click of a button they could instantly reach their consumers at no cost they would have bitten your hand off. Twenty years on you can do exactly that through staying in contact with customers via email, and yet far too many businesses don’t bother.

For example, if you own an e-commerce clothing store send out a promotional code via email offering a 10% discount on your latest clothing selection. Or simply send out valuable information and special offers from other companies in a monthly newsletter to your members each month. This will help to keep your company in their mind, important for when they next decide to purchase the product or service that you provide.

5. Use automated emails. These also cost nothing but are still barely used. If someone purchases a pair of gloves why not have an automated email sent out showing them your selection of woolen hats and scarves.

There are two types of website copywriting. The first refers to copywriting for existing customers or website visitors with the purpose of encouraging action, usually to buy a product. It can be used for all marketing material, ranging from direct mail to websites.

The second type of copywriting is often termed search engine copywriting. This is the process of writing website content with the primary purpose of achieving high rankings in search engines. This involves accommodating keywords and keyword phrases into the content.

Naturally these two types of copywriting are not mutually exclusive. There’s no point having content written purely for the search engines if it’s not going to make any sales when people actually visit your site. Similarly, you can have the most persuasive content on your website but if no one is visiting it you’ll make no sales. Therefore the art of copywriting is often being able to combine the two – persuasive copywriting which also accommodates relevant keyword phrases.

Many people say that if you’re in business then you’re likely to have competent writing skills. So why spend money on recruiting the services of someone to write or reword your website? Quite simply, because they know how to sell. Professional copywriters know what works and what doesn’t, thereby making your marketing more efficient through converting more potential customers into actual customers.

However, small businesses aren’t renowned for having plenty of cash and are likely to have more pressing concerns initially. Therefore if you are in charge of writing the content on your website follow the basic ground rules below:

• Step into the shoes of the visitors to your website. Why are they visiting? What do they want? Write the content to meet these expectations and explain why they should use your site.
• Related to the above point, far too many web sites talk about themselves, how they’re based in nice new offices, and have been around for the last 5 years. Why do your visitors care? They don’t. Make the content on your website customer-focused, talking about their needs, not your achievements.
• The key word – YOU. All the content on your website should be written in such a way that it appears as if you are speaking directly to the visitors of your website.
• When describing your product or service focus on the benefits rather than the features. For example, if you’re selling a skin care product don’t say that it’s rich in vitamin D and as a consequence is good at removing wrinkles. Tell them that they could look 10 years younger.
• For search engine copywriting don’t forget your visitors. Every other word does not have to be a keyword. Just write the content as you normally would and then add in appropriate keywords at the end.
• If you have a logo strapline reassess whether it correctly portrays your business as people look at straplines almost as much as the logo itself. If you don’t have a strapline consider introducing one.

If the copyrighting is for your website then this should be just the start of making your site more productive. For a range of other ideas check out our 26 ways to increase your website’s conversion rate.

Despite the fact that the internet has been around for over a decade there are still far too many poorly designed websites still in existence. And not just DIY web sites – some big brands make fundamental usability errors.

There are some ground rules that all web businesses should follow:

Where Users Click:

To fully understand how to create a website that works you need to know where people are clicking. Look at the heat map for web pages in your analytics package to see what links users are clicking the most.

Your website content should then be adjusted to reflect the results – place the most important content and links where people are most likely to see them and similarly expand and improve the content which people are viewing the most.

General Website Tips:

Get the colours right, both for branding and readability. If you’re producing a web site based around providing valuable content stick to black text on a white background.

For branding choose colours that reflect the image and feel that you want your web site to portray. In general, blue is seen as authoritative, yellow as innovative, with red a tricky colour often best avoided as the primary colour of your site.

To choose colours that blend in well with each other the colour wheel is a helpful tool. Colours opposite each other work well together.

Avoid 100% flash web sites. Flash may look nice but it looks nice for developers rather than users. People are interested in being able to read what they want instantly, rather than having to wait for a clever flash-animated graphic to load.

It’s also important to note that search engines find it difficult read flash, so if search engine optimisation is a marketing channel that you’re planning to use steer clear of flash-only web sites.

Avoid flash introductions. Waiting for them to load is irritating for visitors, especially for those people who have visited the site before. Often a ‘skip now’ button is available to click on – this simply tells your visitors that the introduction is of no value to them. So why include something of no value in the first place?

Don’t have sound playing in the background. When people are surfing the internet they are either at work where any sound is disruptive (or the speakers are automatically turned off), or they are at home in which the TV, radio or music is playing in the background. Having sound suddenly appear on a web site that’s been loaded is just plain annoying.

One exception is music sites but as a golden rule – if you aren’t in the music industry don’t include music on your website.

Have a content management system. This doesn’t affect users directly but it will indirectly through being able to quickly and easily edit and add new content to your web site. It’ll also save you money – having to ask web developers to make small changes to your site all the time is costly, not to mention unnecessary hassle.

Clearly name links on your web site. People don’t like surprises – they like to know where they are being taken, so don’t have links that just say ‘click here’. Describe the link – using keyword-rich text will also help your search engine rankings.

Have a Site Map. People may not use site maps to navigate web pages but search engines do. Having one will help ensure that the search engines crawl and fully index your web pages.

The Home Page:

People are impatient and aren’t willing to wait ages for your site to load – the home page should take no longer than 4 seconds to load.

Don’t clutter your home page. If people become confused the research shows that they will simply leave your site rather than try to work out what it has to offer. Similarly, try to have most of the content on your home page above the fold – in other words, in the part of the web page viewable without having to scroll down.

Keep the navigation simple. As an example of what not to do take a look at Tampax’s web site – no one wants to have to turn their head to read the navigation links.

Secondly, never go for so-called Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN), as coined by usability expert Vincent Flanders, which tends to be particularly prevalent in Flash web sites.

MMN refers to websites where it’s especially difficult for users to work out where the navigational links are going to take them. If users aren’t sure where they’re going to end up they simply won’t click on the link.

Allow room for at least 50 words but more preferably 100 words on your home page if search engine optimisation is an important marketing channel for your web site.

Search engines regard the first 100 words on a web page as the most important for evaluating what the page is about and subsequently where to rank it for particular keywords. Therefore use this space to explain how you can help visitors to your site, whilst incorporating important keywords and keyword phrases.

1. Web Statistics Packages – most web businesses have one but most don’t use it to its potential. Find out how long people are spending on your site, what keywords people search by, which page they leave at, and where people click on the screen. An excellent free option is Google Analytics.

2. Eyetracking – where do people look on your site? Maybe many don’t see the important registration button or spend too long looking at the ads instead of your site? ClickHeat is a free open source heatmap statistics application.

3. Click Mapping – this refers to where people click. What action do you want people to take when they visit your website? Are too many people clicking on unimportant links? Or are people skeptical and clicking on your ‘About Us’ page to find out more? Click Mapping can provide an invaluable insight into what your visitors do and what they are thinking.

4. Surveys – don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your customers. No one knows why they bought your product better than them.

5. Copy Your Competitors – this shouldn’t be your main strategy but if one of your competitors is doing something right then don’t be afraid to copy it. Copying their good points and improving on their bad points can be an effective strategy in the short-term.

6. Product Placement – identify your top selling products and make sure that they are positioned at the top of the relevant product pages. These products are obviously popular so make sure visitors to your website actually see them.

7. Top Sellers Web Page – go one step further and create a web page of your top-selling products. It uses the concept of safety in numbers. People feel reassured when they know that other people have purchased the product that interests them.

8. Have a Guarantee – buying online is still seen as risky by many people, especially when it’s something that traditionally needed to be seen first and tried first, such as clothes. Have a guarantee and make it as generous as possible. Many people won’t take it up, but the increase is sales could be significant.

9. Phone Number – display a phone number in a prominent position, preferably on the home page and not tucked away on the ‘Contact Us’ page. People like to know that if they are any problems they can speak to someone so make sure they know that you have a contact phone number. Don’t worry, hardly anyone will actually call the number.

10. Testimonials – many businesses don’t bother with testimonials because they say that anyone could fake them so their customers wouldn’t believe them anyway. The evidence actually shows that people do value testimonials, particularly those from the media. To increase the credibility of your customer testimonials try to include their full name and even a photo if possible.

11. Information Above The Fold – research shows that people expect all the important information to be right there in front of them when they visit a website. In fact, many people never scroll down meaning that if important information is down there it’ll never be seen by them. Take into account different screen and resolution sizes when evaluating what aspects of your website are above the fold.

12. Images – vitally important if you’re selling products, don’t leave anything to guess work. You wouldn’t expect people to decide to buy a t-shirt in a store having seen it lying flat on the ground. Try out different images or, better still, offer a selection of images, including different angles, the product being used or worn, and so on.

13. Don’t Have Tiny Images – let people zoom in on images so they can clearly see what they’re buying.

14. Image Captions – one thing that research shows is that people do read image captions. This is valuable information and something that should be used to your advantage. Display captions under products reaffirming the benefits of the product. For example, if you’re selling large gloves insert ‘Never let your hands feel cold outside again’ in the caption.

15. Adopt A Customer Mindset – what are the common objections or worries from your customers? Bring peace of mind by addressing them all.

16. The Registration Form Length – do you really need all the details that you’re asking for? Long registration forms are an obstacle. Don’t let them be one for your business.

17. Timely Reassurance – whenever you ask for information or a booking confirmation provide a timely reassurance, such as ‘We’ll never sell, rent or share your personal details” and “Product is fully refundable if not satisfied.”

18. Accept Telephone Orders – people like to have a choice when deciding how to purchase a new product. Some people are still concerned when it comes to buying over the internet, partly illustrated by the huge numbers of people who research products online before setting off to the shops to buy them. Therefore start accepting telephone orders. May businesses don’t realise how easy this is to set up through getting a PayPal Virtual Terminal.

19. Discount Deterrents – boxes such as “Enter your Promotional Code” can actually turn away people who don’t have a code. If possible remove this.

20. Credibility Logos – if you’re a small business the chances are that someone who finds you through the search engines has no idea who you are, and as a consequence you need to build their trust. One excellent way of doing this is to piggyback on the credibility of existing brands through displaying their logos on your site.

21. Show Your Face – people actually like buying from small businesses. Show who’s behind the company in the ‘About Us’ page instead of portraying your company as a large faceless organisation.

22. Small-Scale Viral Marketing – after an order is placed low cost viral marketing techniques can be used, such as “Recommend us to 5 friends through entering their email address below and we’ll give you 10% off your next order.” It won’t increase your conversion rate but it will increase the value of each customer to you through having them spread the word and encouraging repeat orders.

23. Different Browsers – is everyone seeing what you see? Check what your website looks like in different browsers.

24. The Length of Tests – when testing two different ads or layouts don’t end the test too soon. Quick judgments can lead to wrong assumptions. Split Tester is a good tool for this.

25. Content – use the word ‘you’ so that it’s as if you are speaking to your customers.

26. Test, Test and Test Again – finally, don’t be afraid to continually test different formats and ideas. If something doesn’t work your conversion rate may fall temporarily, but for everything that does work you’ll have a higher conversion rate forever.

Choosing a good website designer is one of the most important decisions that you’ll make. Choose a bad one and you could be left out of pocket with a poor business image to promote, but choose a good one and your business will have an excellent grounding.

When choosing which website designer to go with there are certain aspects that require checking and questions to be asked:

Does the website come with a content management system?
If it doesn’t think strongly about whether you require one. Being unable to make text changes without sending over the changes to a web designer is time consuming and costly.

Check their portfolio
Look at the design of their websites, how fast they load, how they look in different browsers, and whether the sites have been a success. Don’t be afraid to ask to able to speak to previous customers – excellent web designers should be more than happy to provide you with references.

Agree on a fixed price for the project, not an hourly rate
Agreeing a fixed price is the industry standard but there are still some website designers out there that claim that they have to work at an hourly rate. Never agree to this. Paying hourly rewards inefficiency and you’ll almost always end up paying more than you should.

What happens if changes are required to the initial design?
Misunderstanding and bad feeling is sometimes created through customers asking web designers to make too many changes to the overall design. Clarify this process before going ahead – you should be able to request as many changes (within reason) that are required.

Never pay for everything up-front
If you’re paying builders to build a house you wouldn’t pay them all the money up-front. It’s the same with web design – the final installment should be due once the website is complete.

If they mention SEO see if you can find their other websites for particular keywords
Many web designers are mentioning that they can provide search engine optimisation (SEO) support as well as web design. In truth, few web designers fully understand search engine optimisation, and even fewer would be willing to dedicate the time to optimise your new site through researching appropriate keywords and working on link building. In short, if they mention SEO take a look in the search engines for yourself.

What kind of after-development support is provided?
It’s all very well having a website designed at a great price but if the after-sales support is priced extortionately then you haven’t got a good deal. Find out how much changes will cost, and if possible try to negotiate one month free support after your website has been completed – there are always unexpected changes that are required.

Ignore the size of the company
The web design industry is not about developing economies of scale. Size doesn’t matter. Often a smaller company will be the better choice as each project they undertake is more critical to their success.

Where are they based?
They don’t have to be based in your local area but it’s usually beneficial to have someone who is based in the same country. Having different working hours causes delays and is particularly frustrating when there’s a problem and your web designers aren’t even awake.

Feel free to ask about academic background and qualifications
Asking about these qualifications is fine but the answer shouldn’t give you your conclusive answer regarding whether to recruit them. Qualifications don’t create great designers – creative flair tends to come from within. Whilst qualifications do help with background functionality people who have taught themselves are often equally capable, and you can be sure that they enjoy what they do.

How long have they been in business?
This is important. You don’t want web designers that are around one day and gone the next.

Can they help with other marketing material?
Web designers will usually design your company logo but find out whether they can design your other marketing material as well, such as leaflets and letterheads.

How do they test on different browsers?
There are so many websites out there that are incompatible with certain browsers, and often the owners themselves aren’t even aware of the problem. Good website designers should check that the site is displayed properly in all browsers.

What security features are used?
No one wants to have an excellent website designed, build up a list of members, only to have a hacker destroy it all. Ask what the web designers intend to do about this.

Is the website database backed up?
Sometimes however much security you have an unfortunate incident or dedicated hacker can delete your database. Therefore check that your database will be backed up regularly.

Will you create your own unique design or customize existing design frameworks?
There are many standard design frameworks that can be used and using them is particularly appealing for web designers because of the time saved. Make sure that you’ll be receiving a unique design and, if not, that you’re paying an amount to reflect this.

What about hosting?
Find out whether the developers can host your site and if they can’t whether they can arrange for reliable hosting with another company.

Look for a rapport
This is very important. The relationship with your web designers is likely to be a long one so it’s vitally important that you get on well with each other.