Admit it! Most websites are not really working for the business.
They report no traffic; few leads and little or no sales. Website conversion is low and it’s just basically flushing money down the drain.
BUT if you think your website’s a bit rubbish or a bit broken, you may want to have another look.
You might realize there’s gold in that website that you have yet to mine! Opportunities that could be making you sales.
How you can find those existing golden nuggets in your website and take advantage of them?
You’ll need to jump onto the website and have a look at what’s going on behind the scenes. Luckily, there are some easy to use (free) helpful tools that can help you get a picture of how well your website is working.
Link up your website Google Search Console and check on the performance tab. The queries will tell you what people are actually typing into Google to find your website, how many people are finding you and what they need help with.
Website Gold! Case Study
Let’s take a look at one of my clients’ websites, Sarah Fisher from Connective Family. Her main concern was that her website wasn’t bringing in new leads and the website conversion rate was really low. Her business was growing but the website was not pulling its weight.
The website performance tool, Google Search Console, revealed her website was actually working at bringing in the right traffic. Her wonderful blog writing efforts had produced some really wonderful opportunities BUT as Sarah had no idea she just wasn’t taking advantage of them!
Google Search Console performance results showed that other than her main keywords, people found her website by searching “Coke Bottle Effect”. The Coke Bottle Effect is a well known problem her ideal customer would be dealing with and an issue that her business can really help with. The perfect leads!!
Her blog post was so helpful that Google has chosen it as a featured snippet that appears right on top of the results when people search for “Coke Bottle Effect”. Isn’t that amazing?
But as she had no idea she was getting lots of traffic from her excellently written blog post – she wasn’t converting those visitors into leads – getting them onto her list, into the warm community she had built or converting them into sales.
Getting traffic is wonderful but it should not end there!
Sarah’s blog post was getting lots of traffic but it wasn’t really converting visitors into paying customers. The blog post has lots of helpful information but the reader isn’t encouraged to continue deeper into the site, to carry on reading and to build trust with her business or to get help from her team.
Here are 5 ways you can optimize a simple blog article
…. and convert your reader into a paying customer!
Layout the article so it is much easier to scan
Most website visitors do not read everything. Most, if not all, scan through the article. We might read the titles. We might have a look at the pictures and then, we’ll press the big button at the bottom.
- Make your post easier to read and scan through by making a bigger titles. You can write the title in a question form using your key terms – that way it will give the reader the impression that this article is going to be helpful and will answer the same question they had as in the title.
- Be mindful of your font sizes and spacings as you don’t want to make your text too tiny or too cramped.
- Evenly distribute your headings and subheadings through out the posts. This will break down your post into sub-topics that’s easier to read and will not give your reader information overload.
- Use lists to break down information into easy chunks … like this one!
Use more picture, imagery and icons
Adding appropriate and helpful graphics is a must. Fun and attractive pictures related to your topic can help pique your reader’s interest.
- Make sure your images tell part of a story. Don’t just load up pics to decorate your blog.
- Infographics can be really helpful to emphase or summarise your points in a quick glance.
Link other related articles on the blog
Let’s say your website visitors have read all your post and has gotten some helpful ideas, they may need more information on the specific topic mentioned in the blog.
If you already have articles related to the topic, add those links under the main blog! That way, you can keep them longer on your website and keep them reading and learning with you. This is how you build that “know, like and trust” that’s going get you leads; turn them into sales; and increase your website conversion.
Boost your list
OK, we’ve all been told the importance of building our list, but many of us miss the prime opportunity of our blogs to get these conversions.
Add a (relevent) opt in below all your blog posts. You can tailor each post to drive traffic to a helpful freebie, or point your visitors to the next step in buying from you – whether that’s joining a free group, enquiring for more information or downloading an extended version of your blog post. Always consider what the next step should be!
Make these sign-up forms a lot less general and a lot more focused.
Keep monitoring!
In order to find out if your strategies are working, you need to keep monitoring! The most common tool for this is Google Analytics. However, Google Analytics may be a bit overwhelming, especially for beginners. Another helpful option is getting a plug-in that works on your website so you can view the data you need directly in your WordPress dashboard, such as MonsterInsights that will help you connect up and get the info you need.
What you need to look at are how many people are landing on this specific page; how they’re getting there; and where they’re moving off to.
Monitoring and knowing your KPIs and how many website conversion you’re getting on that particular page will help you understand how well your website is doing.
Still unsure if you’ve been taking advantage of some of the gold nuggets in your website? Are you still lost on what exact steps to take to move your business through the next level using your website? Hop onto a short FREE curiousity consultation call with me (Kat Reynolds) to make sure that you don’t try and throw your gold nuggets out of the window.
Kat x
