One essential metric to monitor on your website is the conversion rate. Building a website with high conversion rates contributes to your business's success.

Based on research by Straight North, about 84% of website visitors get converted during the first visit and 11% on the second visit. These statistics highlight the importance of the first impression. A great first impression is enough to build an online presence and an excellent brand image. 

Additionally, 96% of website visitors don’t have a plan to buy when they land on your page. Therefore, your website should build trust and guide the visitors along the process of becoming customers.

Every aspect of your website should apply conversion optimization or conversion rate optimization (CRO). It involves encouraging random visitors to take action. 

Let’s explore some strategies on how to build a website that converts. 

Start With a Great Website Foundation

Every successful website starts with a solid foundation. If the beauty of your website is only visual, you’ll chase away your leads. Conversions will not come from the visitors who bounce after a few seconds.

Look out for qualities such as having a captivating Design. People make judgments on the first impression in about 1/10th of a second. A study by Google shows that it only takes visitors 0.05 seconds to decide whether to stay or leave your website.

The study also shows that most people consider websites appealing if they have visual simplicity. They also prefer a design that aligns with a specific type of website. 

Potential customers are more likely to convert if your website portrays professionalism. Think about it like a physical store because first impressions matter. It needs to be well organized, de-cluttered, and with an excellent design. 

Maintain Optimal Performance

Website maintenance ensures it runs seamlessly and at optimal performance. Some maintenance best practices are:

• Update your software accordingly, including themes and plugins‍
• Use a CDN for script files and images to enhance speed, crash resistance, and user experience
• Update website security
• Save images in the correct format and optimize them for your website based on your theme's dimensions
• Replace videos with thumbnails on your homepage
• Essential Features are Easy to Locate

It's essential to ensure that the crucial website pages are easy to locate. For instance, the product and service page, the contact page, and other pages with leads play a vital role in website conversion. 

The buying process and getting in touch with you for assistance should be as easy as possible.  

Optimize the Website for Search Engines

High traffic to your website increases the chances of conversion. Optimizing your website involves SEO best practices and website development. 

SEO practices provide more visibility by ensuring your website appears on the first page. The design aims to attract quality leads as the visibility generates more traffic and more chances of conversions. 

Ensure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly

Statistics show that 57% of the global web page views are from mobile devices. Each day, more and more people start using mobile phones. It’s therefore vital to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.

The website loading speed also affects your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Using Google's mobile website tester, you can evaluate how mobile-friendly your website is. It shows how your website looks and functions on various mobile platforms. 

Ensure you’re attracting The Right Traffic

Generating more conversions relates directly to the quality of traffic. It’s best to ensure that your visitors provide quality leads. Some questions you can consider are:

• Whom would you like to come to your blog?
• Why are they coming?
• What will they get out of it?

Knowing whom you'd like to attract guides how you'll implement SEO practices. It also helps determine which ad platforms to invest in, such as Facebook Ads and Google AdWords.

Have a Clear, Prominent Call to Action

A call-to-action (CTA) can be a text or a headline that guides the visitor to your objective. It should make them feel understood and provide information on how you can assist their current needs.

The homepage is among the best places since it's the first point of contact and the most visited section of your website. The words should address the visitors’ pain points using words or phrases they would use. 

You can place call-to-actions in strategic positions such as:

• At the top of every page
• Sidebar
• Footer
• Popup

Ensure the CTA directs them to the next rational move. 

Apply Split-Test to Calls to Actions and Headlines

The headline is a vital part of the first impression. It’s therefore essential to test and determine what your visitors prefer. Hubspot illustrated how one company managed to raise conversions by 105.9% using clear call-to-action. 

One of the most efficient ways to test CTAs and headlines is using A/B testing. It involves comparing two types of both to see which one performs better. 

For instance, you can use two versions of the landing page. Have similar content but slight variations of the headlines and CTAs to assess the success rate. After running some ads, the analytics will show the best version. 

Have an SEO Audit for Your Website

SEO can assist in determining various aspects such as:

• The revenue you generate from organic traffic
• Your website’s listing on search engines
• Whether it appears in the search results and the number of views

You can use SEO tools to determine the number of keywords you appear in search engines. The goal is to have many terms to maximize your visibility.

Advance Your Email List

Your email list is among the essential assets for your business. It gives you a direct connection to the people willing to receive your information. 

You can quickly learn how to leverage your email list as a sales channel. You can build your numbers using a simple offer proposition to future customers. 

Ensure the offer resolves a common issue they are likely to have. It should be actionable and considerate. However, it should only be helpful enough to make the recipient more curious and suggest contacting you for further assistance. 

You can also build your email list by sharing new content consistently. You can send insightful tips, previous content, real case studies, or weekly newsletters. The goal is to build confidence in your brand by showing you understand the customers' issues and have the skills to sort them. 

You can use several email marketing automation tools to make the process painless. 

It's Time to Roll up Your Sleeves

Building a website with high conversion rates is an art that requires a particular skill set. These tips will assist you in improving your website to attract more traffic. Start with simple improvements such as CTAs and enhancing the loading speed. 

If your website still has low conversion rates, it’s best to use an experienced web designer, such as Hppyhour, a Web Design agency based in Toronto. They have more elaborate ways to make your website user-friendly, faster, better, and goal-oriented.