Conversion Rate Optimization Guide

Christian Velitchkov

Christian Velitchkov

Marketing

This document is intended for relationship managers to provide better advice to clients on conversions. At any time, you can pull this document to the side and use any of the tips listed here to attempt to improve conversion rates.

As Google and other search engines evolve to be more user metrics focused, CRO will become a more and more critical part of your business as well as ranking on search engines. Meaning CRO is a critical part of SEO.

When do you need CRO?

CRO when you aren’t getting traffic isn’t the best use of resources. So the best time to start on CRO is when you have consistent traffic to your website.

Tip 1 – Personalize the value prop above the fold

Copy like “Twiz generates leads through SEO” is not personalized. Remember we’re not the hero, we’re making them the hero and we’re just the guide.

Example of good copy optimized for conversions:

Twiz helps you generate more leads through SEO

See how using the word you changed how the content sounds and feels?

Tip 2 – Change buttons to bright colors

The problem with dark CTA’s is that it blends with the background and it doesn’t really stand out. Brighter colors stand out more and tend to be clicked on more.

Tip 3 – Use words like “FREE” when applicable

People are always wondering what the cost of something is. If it’s free then there’s nothing to lose than 2 minutes of their time (signup).

Example of using the word “FREE”:

START FREE TRIAL

Tip 4 – Add a call to action in the meta description

Meta descriptions should be 144 characters minimum to 155 characters maximum.

Example of a CTA in meta description:

Optimizing meta descriptions are a great way to improve click through rates. Read our article to learn more!

Tip 5 – Make sure the Call to Action Buttons Match

You don’t want to confuse the reader of the website with different call to actions. You want to be pretty consistent with the ask. There are exceptions to this but it’s always best to do more testing. If you have a button that says “Get Started” you usually don’t want the next button on the page to say “Sign Up Today.” However, using transitional CTA’s are a must. It’s Okay to use transitional CTA’s like “Learn More.”

Examples of CTA’s

  • Sign Up Today
  • Sign Up for Free
  • Get Started
  • Buy Now
  • Apply Now
  • Start Free Trial
  • See Pricing

Examples of transitional CTA’s

  • Learn More
  • See my options
  • Read my story

Example of CTA buttons matching:


Tip 6 – Add a phone number to the menu bar and make the menu bar “sticky”

For a lot of businesses that service an older demographic prefer to speak on the phone. A good way to accommodate them is to leave your phone number so they can directly call you and not have to try and navigate your website to find your phone number.

Quicken loans example of phone number in menu bar:

Flowr increased conversion rate by .5% by adding a phone number on the home page.

Tip 7 – Add spin the wheel on Ecommerce stores

Don’t do this for luxury goods. But for most other cutesy, price conscious, startup ecommerce stores we highly recommend it.

Spin the Wheel Popup for Shopify

Spin a Sale

Spin the Wheel Popup for WordPress

WPoptin Wheel

Example of spin the wheel popup:


Tip 8 – Add Linked and CTA in the Footer

It may feel weird to add links inside the footer, but it improves user navigation tremendously. It’s really hard to find everything in the menu bar so adding links to your most important pages will help improve navigation as well as help index the pages better for the end user. If someone uses the footer, you can always show a CTA there as well.


Examples of CTA in footer from Chobani

Examples of links in footer from RingCentral

Tip 9 – Properly format pages

A website with improper formatting will turn off a lot of people and it would be extremely hard to follow.

What does a properly formatted page have?

  • Font that’s not too small
  • Proper heading tags (H1, H2, etc)
  • Good amount of white space
  • Properly sized images
  • Call to actions

Tip 10 – Show Urgency on Website

A great way to show urgency is showing a clock or making it clear that a product or service sale is a limited time or has limited availability. If you have a sale going on, throwing a popup with a timer that ticks down will help tremendously. If you’re in a shopping cart, show low quantity or a limited quantity available to improve conversions.

Examples of Urgency

  • Limited Time Only
  • Countdown of Sale
  • Limited Stock
  • We only have 3 available

Expedia using Urgency


Tools for CRO

1. Google Optimize

2. Hello Bar

3. VWO

4. Optimizely

5. HotJar

Christian Velitchkov

Hi there. My name is Christian Velitchkov, and I am the co-founder of Twiz. I recently stepped into this role, and I hope you get a lot of pieces of information from my articles.

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