Although our blog is about PSD to HTML conversion, this time we’ll speak about another type of transformation: the website’s ability to convert a visitor into a person who performs specified actions such as to Like your content, buy your goods or subscribe to your newsletter. If design to markup coding is an important but intermediate stage of the website development, the website conversion is a final and ultimate goal of it.
In order to effectively improve the website conversion you should learn of lot of different and somewhat sophisticated subjects: psychology, color theory, user experience, and so forth. When optimizing the conversion rate, it is not easy to achieve the best result from the first attempt, and usually numerous tests are necessary. That’s why it’s important to collect and analyze the conversion improvement case studies.
In this post we’ve gathered some recent tips and case studies on how to improve the website conversion rate.
- General Tips and Recommendations
- Case Studies
- Landing Pages
- Call To Action (CTA)
- Article Round-ups and Collections
- Appendix: How Reducing Options Can Increase Your Conversions
General Tips and Recommendations
1). How to Be the MacGyver of the Web: 9 Ways to Boost Your Conversion Rate on a Shoestring Budget
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/11/25/how-to-be-the-macgyver-of-the-web-9-ways-to-boost-your-conversion-rate-on-a-shoestring-budget/
by Neil Patel: “One of those ways in which you can grow your business is conversion optimization. Although it is still a new concept in the marketing world, you don’t have to hire consultants or employees to squeeze more money out of your existing visitor base. Here is how you can optimize your conversion rate on a shoestring budget.”
2). Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic
http://moz.com/blog/holygrail-of-ecommerce-conversion-optimization-91-points-checklist
by CueBlocks.com: “This article will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real money lies – Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you bring to your website?”
3). >>> 10 Design Tips That Will Boost Your Online Credibility
http://blog.usabilla.com/10-design-tips-that-will-boost-your-online-credibility
by Sabina Idler: “Here are 10 expert tips how to boost your web credibility through personality.”
4). >>> 7 Simple Copywriting Tweaks That’ll Shoot Your Conversion Rate Up
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/08/05/7-simple-copywriting-tweaks-thatll-shoot-your-conversion-rate-up/
by Neil Patel: “The beautiful part about these tweaks is that you don’t have to be a professional writer or a wordsmith… these are simple changes that anyone can make. Here are 7 simple copywriting tweaks that’ll increase your conversion rate.”
5). 21 Conversion Optimization Best Practices for Beginners
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/conversion-optimization-best-practices/
by Smriti Chawla: “…all methods to increase website sales and leads come down to better relevance, improving clarity, fewer distractions, reducing anxiety, and increasing urgency. When you take care of these, you should have good hypotheses to start off your tests.”
6). How to Improve Conversion Rates on Your Website
http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2013/11599/how-to-improve-conversion-rates-on-your-website-article-4-of-4
by Sean Ellis: “I’m going to cover ways to implement those insights in the conversion rate optimization process while avoiding the all-too-common trap of getting bogged down by minutiae.”
7). Top Ten Conversion Optimization Tips for Marketing Success
http://www.slideshare.net/chrisgoward/top-ten-conversion-optimization-tips-for-marketing-success
by Chris Goward: “Based on experience running thousands of tests on hundreds of websites globally, here are today’s Top 10 Tips for Marketing Optimization success.”
8). 3 Unconventional Ways to Boost E-Commerce Traffic & Sales
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/11/28/boost-e-commerce-traffic-sales/
by Drew Kobb: “There are many ways to improve upon your strategies to bring more exposure and, more importantly, more conversions, for your brand. Check out these three strategies that are sure to boost e-commerce traffic and sales.”
9). How to Get More Leads by Optimizing Your Website Images
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-get-more-leads-by-optimizing-your-website-images
by Diana Urban: “…sometimes there are simple optimizations you can make that can have a big impact on your conversion rate that aren’t so obvious. Here’s a not-so-obvious one: By decreasing the file size of the images on your landing pages, you can increase conversion rates and get more leads.”
Case Studies
1). How We Increased Our Conversion Rate By 311%
http://blog.statuspage.io/how-we-increased-our-conversion-rate-by-311-percent
by Steve Klein: “When we launched StatusPage.io in mid-March of 2013, our conversion rate was pretty terrible. …At the beginning of July, we started investing a serious amount of time into increasing that number and I’m happy to report that we’ve increased from .136% to .424% — an increase of 311%!”
2). 100 Conversion Optimization Case Studies
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/100-conversion-optimization-case-studies/
by admin
3). Evolution of a Landing Page
http://www.planningforaliens.com/blog/2013/06/02/evolution-of-landing-page/
by Sean Fioritto: “At the end of the conference Patrick McKenzie suggested doing a few teardowns and I was one of the lucky few selected. What followed was 20 minutes of Amy Hoy, Patrick McKenzie, Nathan Barry, Brennan Dunn and Marc-André Cournoyer dismantling my landing page. …Here is all of their advice and how I put it to use.”
4). Why Best Practices in Conversion Rate Optimization Aren’t Always Best
http://speckyboy.com/2013/06/04/why-best-practices-in-conversion-rate-optimization-arent-always-best/
by Darren G: “Conversion rate optimization is one of those cases where your guts can lead you astray. Even best practices, as described here, occasionally fail to produce results. Today we’ll explore some examples of some counter-intuitive findings in CRO where best practices weren’t always ‘best’.”
5). Case Studies: 20 Ways to Boost Website Conversion Rates
http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/inbound-marketing/boost-conversion-rates/
by Jerry Low: “Regardless of whether you are looking to invigorate a stale or failing strategy or to launch a new successful one, there are a multitude of things that you can do to boost website conversion rates in no time.”
6). How to Improve Your Conversion Rates with a Faster Website
http://moz.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-conversion-rates-with-a-faster-website
by Zoompf: “What may be surprising, though, is just how big of an impact a slow performance can have on your conversions.”
7). 6 Lesser-Known Ideas to Improve Conversion Rates of Your Website
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/lesser-known-ideas-to-improve-conversion-rates/
by Smriti Chawla: “…instead of pestering you about how ‘it’s all in your mind’ that you do not have anything to test, let me give you a few quick lesser-known ideas you can use for your tests and see how they work for you.”
8). >>> Why 55% of Potential B2B Buyers Might Not Trust Your Website Content (April 3, 2014)
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/04/potential-b2b-buyers-website-content-trust/
by Dianna Huff: “…content that most of us don’t even think about – play a huge role in helping B2B buyers move forward with a vendor. In fact, the lack of this type of content can cause prospective buyers to leave a website annoyed and frustrated… To which content am I referring? Contact information and ‘About’ pages. Simple stuff that all businesses include on their websites, right? Well, not exactly.”
9). >>> 8 Powerful Takeaways from Eye Tracking Studies
http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/04/16/8-powerful-takeaways-from-eye-tracking-studies/
by Neil Patel: “I’ve summarized the bottom line results of some of these eye tracking tests and placed them into your hands so you can start seeing better results in your businesses.”
Landing Pages
1). 7 Things Every (Great) Landing Page Needs
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/09/26/7-things-every-great-landing-page-needs/
by Neil Patel
2). What Is a Landing Page? [FAQs]
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-landing-page-ht
by Corey Eridon
3). 12 Tests to Increase Your Landing Page Conversion Rate, Starting Today
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/07/11/landing-page-conversion-rate-guide
by Johnathan Dane: “The goal of this post is to give you proven ideas to test and try on your own site to increase your landing page conversion rates and lower your cost per acquisition.”
4). Landing Page Trivia Which Will Give You A Massive Conversion
http://www.instantshift.com/2013/05/14/landing-page-trivia-which-will-give-you-a-massive-conversion/
by Sanket Patel: “…clear information about the basic knowledge of landing pages covering the fundamental steps whichever preferred most.”
5). >>> Landing Page Design Trends for Selling Digital Products
http://speckyboy.com/2013/05/09/landing-page-design-trends-for-selling-digital-products/
by Jake Rocheleau: “In this article I hope to introduce a series of ideas for constructing great landing page layouts. It may take a bit of practice utilizing a series of alternate design patterns.”
6). Seven Steps to a Great Landing Page
http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/07/31/seven-steps-to-a-great-landing-page/
by Vishal Gumber: “The more your potential customers must make an effort to comprehend the value of your offer, the more likely it is they will get confused and be more than happy to click the back button. So keep it ‘wow-ing’ and ‘simple’ at the same time by following seven simple steps.”
7). Exploration of Beautifully Designed Product Pages
http://speckyboy.com/2013/04/15/exploration-of-beautifully-designed-product-pages/
by Alex Black: “We’ve brought together some examples of thoughtfully designed landing pages for hardware products. Each one does an impressive job of showing off the product, with copy that fits well and helps build demand for the hardware.”
8). A Showcase of Elegant, Beautiful Landing Pages
http://bloomwebdesign.net/2013/05/a-showcase-of-elegant-beautiful-landing-pages/
by alex black
9). Is Your Home Page Just One Big Cliche?
http://www.sitepoint.com/is-your-home-page-just-one-big-cliche/
by Georgina Laidlaw: “There are literally zillions of articles and resources out there telling us how to create a good home or landing page. And there’s definitely an argument for adopting best (and/or most successful) practices in our work. But when does successful trend become cliche?”
10). 6 Simple Elements That You Can Optimize for More Home Page Sign Ups
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/optimize-homepage-sign-ups/
by admin
11). 10 Writing Commandments: Making Your Landing Page Work
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2014/03/14/10-writing-commandments-making-your-landing-page-work/
by Mike Hanski: “Why do landing pages deserve all this attention?! Besides the homepage, landing pages are the most important aspect of a site’s construction. But in order to be effective, we must acknowledge one important thing: landing pages are unlike any other page on the site. All the other content on your site is about answering the reader’s questions, helping them find what they want.”
Call To Action (CTA)
1). >>> 6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action Buttons
http://www.copyblogger.com/call-to-action-buttons/
by Joanna Wiebe: “We need to stop ignoring the so-called ‘small things,’ especially when conversions depend on them. Instead, apply a few of the following click-boosting techniques in this post, which A/B tests have proven can generate conversion boosts ranging from 20 to 95 percent.”
2). >>> Why Is This Here? Why You See Weird Prices Online
http://speckyboy.com/2013/06/17/why-is-this-here-why-you-see-weird-prices-online/
by Darren G: “Pricing isn’t an art anymore. It’s a science with some well-documented and researched principles on how people think and compare when offered multiple options. …one of the most important principles to help you learn pricing is learning about decoys, or the ‘why is this here?’ effect, a phrase contained by me.”
3). >>> 10 Call-to-Action Case Studies w/ Takeaways & Examples from Real Button Tests
http://contentverve.com/10-call-to-action-case-studies-examples-from-button-tests/
by Michael Aagaard: “Here are 10 examples from A/B tests I’ve conducted, where I’ve experimented with everything from copy and button design over to the placement of the button.”
4). 6 Key Factors To Consider When Designing A Call To Action Button
http://blog.usabilla.com/6-key-factors-to-consider-when-designing-a-call-to-action-button/
by Daniela Baker: “The importance of the CTA button cannot be overlooked, and even small tweaks in design and wording can have a big impact. So before you design or re-design your buttons, consider the these 6 key factors.”
5). What Is The Best Call To Action Phrase For You?
http://blog.usabilla.com/what-is-the-best-call-to-action-phrase-for-you/
by Leanne Byrom: “This article covers the ‘Register’, ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Create an Account’ call to action.”
6). Click Here: 11 Ways to Improve Your Calls to Action
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/03/14/click-here-11-ways-to-improve-your-call-to-actions/
by Neil Patel: “One of the easiest ways you can boost your conversion rates is by optimizing your calls-to-actions (CTAs). Here are 11 ways you can improve your CTAs.”
7). 20 Critical Do’s and Don’ts for Clickable Calls-to-Action [SlideShare]
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34014/20-Critical-Do-s-and-Don-ts-for-Clickable-Calls-to-Action-SlideShare.aspx
by Jessica Meher: “…because we’ve worked with so many marketers over the years, we’ve seen our fair share of lackluster and underperforming CTAs in our day. So to help you get a handle on some of the most critical CTA best practices, this post …will uncover the good, the bad, and the ugly of calls-to-action, so you can learn what works (and what doesn’t) with CTAs.”
Article Round-ups and Collections
1). 666 Fresh Conversion Rate Optimization Tips – Curated by Oli Gardner
http://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/666-conversion-rate-optimization-tips/
by Oli Gardner: “Almost every post is from 2013 so you know they contain the latest thinking on the subject of conversion rate optimization. I say ‘almost’ because some were so good that they warranted being here even if they were a tad older.”
2). 23 Landing Page Optimization Articles From The Best In The Business
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/01/25/best-landing-page-optimization-articles/
by Ritika Puri: “We’ve assembled some of the best landing page optimization articles from the brightest minds in the business.”
Appendix: How Reducing Options Can Increase Your Conversions
