User experience is important for a number of reasons, but what is most important to business owners is conversion optimization. A great looking website is nice. Without a purchase, call, email, or contact form filled out, though, is your website doing what you need it to do? Ultimately, you need your customer base to interact with your website directly and actively. Passive views do not cut it.
Let’s get this out of the way, people are impatient online. To make the most of your website once someone has found you, it is key to get them to contact you. So what is your strategy to capture these users? Here are three of them to consider:
Navigation
Does your website have any dead ends, orphaned pages, or links that take users off of your website? The flow of your website should be as seamless as possible. This may sound obvious, but in the months and years after a website launches, businesses add to their websites. Many times there isn’t a clear strategy for the new page placement. This can cause the navigation of the site to get convoluted and cumbersome resulting in poor user experience.
Contact Forms
Does your website have a contact form and/or request for quote? The answer should be yes. Further, the form should be available on multiple pages. In addition, adding a simple call to action on all pages is ideal. What fields should you require on the contact form? The fewer fields the better! Only have what is absolutely necessary for your team to follow up. This will allow you to open the door for conversation with each potential customer and make the sale.
Click To
Many websites have phone numbers and emails listed. To help increase conversions these should all have the ability to be clicked on. Having this built in will allow the user to contact you in one click, whether that is sending an email or calling by telephone. These can and should also be tracked with your website analytics data.
The above three suggestions are only the basics of conversion optimization. There are many more things you can do, but these will go a long way to invite your audience to interact with your company directly. The old K.I.S.S. principle – Keep It Simple, Stupid – is still valid, though. It is easy to point and shoot, but real, repeated success is made by guiding users’ experience toward outcomes that benefit your company.
