What is the ultimate goal of a business website? To drive the conversions, of course; to turn the website visitors into buyers. Sounds so simple. Then why so many Phoenix web design companies are struggling with a low conversion rate?

Assuming there is only one reason behind this will be like asking a movie lover to name one favorite movie.

The reasons why your website is not converting could be many; poor web design, lack of a good product, lack of success guarantees, lack of social proof, or even something as (seemingly) minutiae as lack of payment options.

So this week, the in-house detectives at Phoenix Nextfly decided to go deep and uncover some of the often neglected reasons behind a conversion-failure-fiasco!

The results were…surprising, to say the least. We found out that a lot of websites (even the visual-masterpiece ones) have overlooked some major hacks. Hacks that can start increasing your conversions within a week!

Take notes people, these tips can give a total makeover to your brand visibility and thus, the conversion rate.

Distinguish Your Brand

The biggest overlooked point; businesses often fail (or forget?) to promote the unique selling point (USP) of their product. What distinguishes your product or services from the competition? Why should they buy YOUR product? What are you offering them that nobody else is?

Strong Calls-to-Action

Your every web page should be designed and written towards achieving one and only one goal – that is to convince the customer to convert. The color scheme of your website, the sales copy pages, the blog posts; everything should tell the customer which step to take next. This is non-negotiable.

If you leave them wondering about the next course of action, you will lose their attention. And valuable conversions.

Reducing the Risk

According to research, businesses that offer a refund policy to buyers have much better conversion than those that give no guarantee at all. If you have an ecommerce website, a guaranteed refund policy on new purchases will attract new customers easily. The promise of reduced risk will push them towards making the purchase, hence increasing your conversion rate.

Powerful Above-the-Fold

The upper half of a webpage (a.k.a. Above the Fold) is something all visitors see, whether they are using a mobile device or a computer.

This is the part where you should focus your resources to create the “Sign Up”, and opt-in boxes. Also, don’t forget to include a strong CTA here; this is the primary location in a web page.

Using Testimonials

When you go to Amazon to check out a product, what’s the first thing that you do? It’s not checking out the available variants or the length of the cord – you glance over the customer testimonials. And if you are extra smart, you specifically look for reviews by customers who have “Verified Purchase”!

This is the power of testimonials which can be credited to the changing times. With millions of similar products and services available in the market, buyers have become skeptical and careful. And that’s why you need to offer customer testimonials on your Home page.

This helps customers see that your product has been bought tested by people before. Also, testimonials left by happy customers can single-handedly raise your conversion rate through the roof!

Multiple Payment Options

This should be obvious, but sadly, it isn’t. For example, a lot of the US based businesses miss out on great sales opportunities in Asia because they only accept credit cards, which are still not so common in many Asian countries.

Or it could be that some buyers only have VISA and your website only accepts MasterCard.

So, always always (because it needs to be stressed twice!) include as many payment options as possible; VISA, MasterCard, Wire Transfer, PayPal. Hell, even accept Bitcoin if you can!

Optional Info

While doing our research, we came across these gems of businesses that have made it ‘mandatory’ to fill out the gazillion input fields! If you’re trying to annoy away the customers, why not just auto (blast) play Justin Bieber at your web page?

The hard reality of online businesses is that site visitors give you exactly 3 seconds to impress them. After that, you need to make the purchasing process as buttery-smooth as possible. When using information for sign-ups or opt-in pages, only ask them to fill out the critical fields.

Honest Customer Reviews

This is different from the testimonials; these can be good as well as bad. Make sure to include both of them on display. Reviews must be honest, left by real people with verified purchases.  Make them all good, and you’ll come across as a trickster.

If there are bad customer reviews, respond to them politely and update them what steps you have taken to solve their issues. This builds trust with new customers.