Go big or go home and do your testing – sometimes you need to make major changes to your site before you will see an increase in conversion rates. Little changes such the color of buttons or link placement (the top, middle, side, or bottom of the page) may not increase conversions much at all. Instead of focusing solely on these little changes, how about making some big, big changes? If these changes fail to meet or exceed your expectations, you can always change your site back to the way it was before.
Brand New Pages
Sometimes a website redesign is necessary to make an impact with visitors – especially those who have browsed your site once or twice, but didn’t make a purchase. Consider revamping your site with new images, better content, or rebranding to make products and services really stand out.
If you don’t want to redo your entire site just yet, consider redesigning the worst page. Test the redesign against the old page for one month to see if any changes occur. Consider making dramatic changes to other pages over time.
New Writing Style
Perhaps it’s not the appearance of your site that’s keeping sales low – perhaps it’s the content or writing style that turns visitors away. Content is still king when it comes to making a profit online. Review current content to see if it does your products and services justice or if you need to replace it. Good content should:
- Be easy to understand
- Clearly describe or explain products and services
- Not offend visitors
- Meaningful and useful
When evaluating content, ask yourself if the content presents your brand, products, and services in the best ways possible. For example, if you sell party supplies or costumes, funny descriptions of products and services would be acceptable. But if you sell medical equipment, you may want to take a more serious or professional tone.
Test one or two different writing styles against the current style to see which converts more visitors into customers.
Patience Please, Testing in Progress
Making major changes to your site will take time, but in the end, these changes may increase sales and help you build an email list full of loyal customers. Give enough time (at least four weeks) to see if your changes improve your site. If not, continue to make changes until you do see some movement. Once you see some improvement, keep testing new ideas and watch your business grow.