If you’re trying to increase the conversion rate of your website then knowing what NOT to do is probably just as, if not more important, than knowing what to do.
Broken down here are 5 big no no’s for your site to make sure that you’re actually achieving what you set out to. And that (should be) sales.
Your Store Platform
Probably the biggest and most important no no is having a poor online store platform.
E-Commerce and shopping online is meant to be simple, fast and easy for consumers so make sure that your platform:
- Isn’t hard to use
- Doesn’t use a heavy server to run
- Doesn’t run at snail slow pace
Don’t go off-piste with your store developer; Stick with recommended platform providers, like Magento or Woo-Commerce, that will provide your store with plenty of optional features at a reasonable price.
Don’t think that the most expensive equates to the best. It doesn’t!
Domain Name
www.don’t-make-your-domain-really-really-long-like-this-and-with-a-million-hyphens.com
Long domain names are annoying and consumers don’t like being annoyed. Keep it short, sweet and simple.
Site Design
Remember that you don’t have to cover every single piece of the screen with information on your site, a cluttered website is a lot like a cluttered shop. They don’t look good and they put customers off.
This includes pop-ups! A constant bombardment of pop-ups will leave your customers in a very bothered state. This is something you want to avoid if you’re trying to increase your conversion rates.
Don’t clutter your site with unnecessary buttons, links and input fields. They make your site hard to navigate, a lot like turning a department store into a maze (not a good idea unless you’re in the maze business).
Don’t cut corners with the design of your logo, it will likely form the basis of your customers first impression of the brand. Avoid any clip-art-like nonsense!
Customer Support
Don’t leave your customers out alone in the dark! Don’t be foolish enough to disregard the importance of customer loyalty, lifetime value and how much customers will value being promptly replied to or helped out when they’ve got an issue with the product.
Keeping your customers happy and informed will go a long way to boosting your chances of them returning and buying something next time they are on the site.
Marketing
If you aren’t interested in increasing the conversion rate of your site, then don’t incentivise your customers to purchase anything. A good way to avoid this is by ensuring that you don’t offer them any special offers or discounts like free shipping. To help with this don’t view sales as an opportunity to connect and even invest in your customers, instead view it as if you are just simply giving stuff away for free.
Similarly, to avoid an increase in conversion rates, don’t invest in the use of online ads to market your website further.
But, if you decide that in fact an increase in conversion rates is for you then don’t carry out the laborious marketing groundwork yourself, let a bot take over some of the marketing reigns. These bots will market your business to those that are interested automatically and at the click of a button. Bots like Hubspot, Marketo and Autopilot will eliminate countless hours of manual work for you and your team.
Now, go and make sure that you and your site have avoided all of the Don’ts mentioned here and you should see your conversion rates head on an upward trajectory.
