We’re all online. In one form or another you have a presence in the digital world (I mean, unless you’re a monk living in the Paro Taktsang Monastery… then how are you seeing this?!). In the quarantine era it’ll be through your online presence that customers come to your business, so now more than ever it’s important to maximize conversion rates to your website.

With this in mind, we spoke with Clusterian and CRO specialist, Stuart Heggie of Wunderman Thompson, to get his thoughts on what practices and tips can help improve conversion rates. When asked what’s the biggest mistake most make is, without hesitation he responded…

SPEED

The speed at which your website loads is key to whether someone will engage with it or not. No one wants to wait around for a page to load like its 1999!

Many things can affect this, but according to Stuart, one of the most common is simply file size. Especially when it comes to photos. Most people will get a photo or design file from whomever created it, and chuck that up without paying much attention. This rush can lead some to unknowingly upload high resolution images over 12mb. When you think that the average webpage is roughly 4MB, you can understand how drastic that could be!

So, keep it simple with small JPEG or PNG files that will keep the quality of the image,but won’t leave clients with the spinning colour wheel of death! A handy onlineresource for this is https://tinypng.com/  which can optimise PNG & JPG images for web (try to keep images under 500kb)

Another factor that can slow you down depends on which plug-ins you’re using on your site. Unnecessary plugins on some websites often come bundled with extra JavaScript files adding to your page load times. To keep an eye on this, Heggie recommends building a test website (if you can) and test those plugins make sure that everything is working smoothly before making anything live to clients

LOW HANGING FRUIT

 

The trend in ecommerce is 60 – 70% of online traffic comes from mobile devices, a ratio that is likely to be similar for most websites.

“Ensuring that your web-app works well on a mobile has to be the number one priority. More broadly, ensuring that mobile users can digest your content easily, or find relevant content easily is vital,” Heggie explains. He offers up the following points to keep in mind when building/assessing your site:

·       Reduce competing messaging

·       Have one goal per page

·       Prioritise important content above the fold (what’s first seen on your device)

·       Optimise your site speed: Ensure images are web-friendly, remove old and unused plugins (wordpress)

·       Clear navigation (Mega Menu/Hamburger Menus/Breadcrumbs etc)

MANAGE EXPECTATIONS

 

In the current climate, a lot of companies won’t be able to supply what they normally can. Especially true for sectors like Ecommerce who rely on products made overseas.If you can’t provide a service or product at the same speed as usual, let your client know early! If you manage their expectations sooner rather than later,you can avoid the passive aggressive emails you’d inevitably get when the that pair of sunglasses someone bought arrives in 4 weeks rather than 2. We’re all going though the same crisis at the moment, so understanding and compassion are at an all-time high!

NEED MORE HELP?

If you’ve read all of the above and still feel the need to know more, or perhaps you want advice more tailored for your company, then Stuart and a whole gaggle of CRO specialists have set up a great resource for you! It’s under the label, #COVIDCRAP, and they are pledging an hour of their time each week to any business who could use FREE CRO advice to improve their conversions. No obligations, sales pitches or hidden agendas, just a bunch of willing and able specialists who are wanting to help!

To take advantage of this amazing offer, check out the website: https://covidcrap.org/ or search for #COVIDCRAP on Linkedin or Twitter.

RESOURCES

You can also get a better picture of your website traffic and how visitors are digesting your content with the tools below:

Google Analytics – Free Tracking tool, measure goals & conversions

Google Tag Manager – Free Tool , add tracking tags & custom code

Google Optimize – Free AB Testing & Personalisation tool

FullStory Session Replay – Free trials available

HotJar Session Replay – Free trials available

BrowserStack: Free trial available for testing your web app across multiple devices

 

The following browser plugins are commonly used by CRO specialists to help with debugging and developing:

Tampermonkey: Direct javascript editor

BrowserStack: Browser and device tester

DataSlayer: Datalayer and events display

Google Tag assistant: Tag-checker

EditThisCookie: Cookiemanager and editor

Screencastify: Screenrecording for bugs or new interactions

SEO META 1 click: Metadata inspector

3whitehats: Structured data testing tool

Thanks again to Stuart Heggie for sharing his wisdom with us, as well as his home work station!