You don’t have to spend fortunes to increase sales/leads on your website. Here are 10 tips to ensure you make the most of our website:

1. Clear call to actions

Giving clear ways to make contact not only make it easier for the user but also increases conversion rates. Second guess your user: if you feel they would want to download a brochure on your about us page, create a link. If you are displaying products make clear buttons to “buy now” or “add to cart”. If most of your users contact you by phone make sure it is easy to spot and on all pages and use HTML so they can copy and paste it.

2. Make big hitters easy to find

If you are marketing a “hot product” make sure it is easy to find and promoted on the home page, especially if users don’t land on specifically designed landing pages. Users “eat with their eyes” so make it visual and draw attention to it.

3. Mind reading is a good thing

Answer questions that you feel users will want to ask without them searching for the information. If they are investing in overseas property make sure they know about your due diligence process, make sure they know that their deposit is held in an escrow account and is refundable. By answering these questions with well-honed content and well-designed contextual areas you will constantly be funnelling your user to your contact point.

4. Know your client

By identifying your target market you can adjust your site accordingly. If your visitors are English-speaking men over 60 in England you would perhaps look at font size issues and also a simple check on colours to make sure you are not using colours known to cause problems for the colour blind or visually impaired. If 70% of visitors are looking at your website on a mobile device maybe the time has come for you to produce a mobile version of your website.

5. Use A/B testing on your website

Write two versions of a page, direct the same amount of traffic to both pages and then use analytics software to analyse the effectiveness of each page and adjust as necessary. This technique can be used for product pages, checkout pages, graphical headers and even banner advertising.

6. Simplify your contact points

The simpler you make your contact points the more contact you will receive. Decide if you really need an email address and a telephone number on forms. If you only have an email link as a means of contact you are alienating potential users in internet cafes and on friends’ machines.

7. Display your USP (unique selling point)

If there is a clear reason why your services or products are the best, shout about it.

8. Install analytics software and track visitors

By understanding your visitors you can start to make changes (including some of the above) to increase conversion rates and make the website experience more engaging for your users.

9. Test your website in all browsers and all operating systems

Seems obvious, but we come across websites all the time the don’t work on some browsers. Testing your website across all browsers and making sure your visitors can see your website as intended is a must. If you don’t own a PC or a Mac get friends to test it for you or use some of the online services that deliver screen shots to you.

10. Test your contact forms after every web update and periodically.

We have taken on new clients that had web forms that didn’t actually work! Make sure all forms work and send to the correct address after every amendment and periodically. If you are using a catch-all email account ensure this is not full.