The Most Common Conversion Mistakes – Part 1

Joe had a problem: His lead generation website wasn’t generating very many leads. When a website expert took a look, it was easy to see why not. His site included more than half of the most common website conversion mistakes!

To maximize your website conversion (i.e. the percentage of website visitors who actually take the action you want them to take), be sure to avoid these common conversion mistakes:

Asking too soon

You get to a website, the page loads…and immediately something flies in your face telling you to SIGN UP NOW! Ugh. It’s way too early. You haven’t been sold yet. Heck, you haven’t even seen the landing page. Why in the world would you want to sign up now? The most successful sites allow users to take things at their own pace. Instead of trying to shove things down their throats, try using elements such as persistent buttons that float off to the side (like the buttons you often see asking if you want to participate in a live chat), so that users can decide for themselves when they’re ready to take action.

Asking too many times

On some sites it seems like you just can’t get away from that button. BUY NOW! BUY NOW! BUY NOW! It’s overwhelming. It’s annoying. And it’s more likely to cause visitors to go elsewhere than to buy anything at all.

Poorly worded action buttons

You need to give some thought to the words on those “click here” buttons. Don’t just say CLICK HERE. Let people know what will happen if they do click here. 

Better options include:

• DOWNLOAD NOW
• START FREE TRIAL
• REQUEST A DEMO
• ASK AN EXPERT

Keep it short (or else it won’t look like a button), action-oriented and informative.

Being inconsistent

The first call to action buttons that your visitors encounter on your site will “teach” them what call to action buttons look like on your site. When they get to the next page they’ll be subconsciously looking for buttons that look like those. But if the buttons look different on every page, your visitors will have to keep relearning how your site works.

Lots of distractions

A website should have just one overriding purpose: to drive people towards taking a desired action (clicking, buying, calling, downloading, etc.). Taking that action should be the most obvious path to follow.

 Unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of thinking that every element on a webpage is of equal importance. The navigation is screaming for attention. The pictures are screaming for attention. Secondary actions (such as playing the video on a site where the real goal is to request a quote) are screaming for attention. The result is a lot of visual clutter that distracts visitors from doing that one thing that you really want them to do.

If your website isn’t giving you the results you want, it could be that, like Joe, you’re making a lot of these conversion mistakes, too. Fix them, and see the difference that doing it right can make!