With anybody and everybody talking about SEO and Social Media, a lot of people have forgot about conversion. Conversion is how good your web site or page is at getting a visitor to take action and either give you their information or make a sale.

No matter how good a marketing plan or campaign maybe, it all relies on the ability of the site to actually do it’s job and make the visitor take action. In this post I’m going to cover some tried and true best practices when trying to increase your conversion rate of a web property, email, or other marketing piece.

First things first.

1. Keep it Simple

Don’t over complicate things. If you want them to buy, tell them to buy. If you want them to sign up, tell them to sign up.

2. Keep it Above the Fold

There should be minimal to no scrolling for the visitor to do to perform the action you want. The “fold” is the bottom of of the screen where the website you are viewing in your browser ends unless you use the scroll bar(or arrow keys).

This doesn’t mean you should never make a page or site that goes below the fold, this page and site goes below the fold on almost every page. It means that on your contact, purchase, sign-up or conversion pages you should make sure the visitor doesn’t have to scroll or take ANY unneeded action during the crucial final stages of the buying process.

Here is an example, in our Realize Report.

Notice how the page doesn’t reload when the visitor hits next. There is also no scrolling(on most size screens).

3. Make Your Call to Action Stand Out

This sounds obvious. But sometimes you just have to take a step back and ask yourself. “Did I make my call to action stand out enough?”

Now, don’t go ridiculous with this one. There is such a thing as going to far. Use common sense. Make sure the call to action stands out but isn’t annoying.

Here is an example, on our Homepage

Notice the call to action above the fold and that the visitor can still decide to scroll down and read more if they want. This balance of suggestion and options is what gives the page it’s effectiveness without being over bearing.

4. Have a Good Offer

Give people something extra. It doesn’t have to be a discount. Try developing a white paper, or other downloadable resource you can offer to subscribers/buyers. At Realize we worked with a partner to develop a Link Indexer to offer our visitors that fill out a Realize Report. We don’t make the Realize Report about the Link Indexer. It’s simply an added bonus just for using our free Realize Report tool.

By adding onto your offer without overshadowing it, you make your place of  conversion/sale a unique business proposition.

Having a good offer is just good business sense. There are plenty of resources out there, try compiling them into a solid piece of information that your visitors/readers will find helpful.

5. Have a Safety Net

Having a safety net or plan B is key. Say, your trying to sell shoes on your site. If someone doesn’t buy, leaves the page and you have a pop up that asks them for their name and email to sign up for discounts. That’s a Safety Net or Plan B.

You can also go a more subtle route. Try incorporating a sidebar or floating button that can act as a Call to Action or Plan B. This way your Safety Net is still the visitors choice and you don’t seem pushy.

For an example on a Safety Net, you’re going to have to get a Realize Report or Contact Us

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