7 Actionable Conversion Rate Optimization Tips You Need to Try

Our websites have something in common. 

It's not necessarily the color scheme, or the service being offered, but rather our website's share the potential for improvement. 

(There's always room for improvement.) 

Whether it be a simplified navigation, a tweak in the text, or a fresh new visual, there are seemingly limitless opportunities to progress our website visitors towards a particular action. 

So to ensure that we're both getting the most juice for the squeeze, we collected a list of proven conversion rate optimization tips aimed at inspiring positive change. 

While results will surely vary depending on your industry, product, or service, these concepts should serve as a guide to help you get started. 

1. Invest in a responsive design

After noticing that a large majority of their traffic was coming from mobile devices, Walmart Canada decided it was time to adopt a responsive design to ensure a quality experience across multiple devices. 

Thanks to their new design, they were able to achieve an overall conversion boost of 20% on all devices. Not to mention, on mobile, orders went up by 98%. (Source: GetElastic)

2. Experiment with social share buttons

When the Finnish-based hardware store, Taloon.com, removed the social sharing buttons from their product page, they saw a 11.9% increase in conversions (clicks on the "Add To Cart" button.) (Source: Visual Website Optimizer)

So while many experts will urge you to include social share buttons on your page to increase visibility, this test reveals that they could, in fact, be distracting the visitor from the intended goal. 

To determine if social share buttons are helping our hurting your page, you'll want to test both variations.

3. Focus on specificity

The online retail community, Fab, wanted to experiment with the appearance of their "Add to Cart" button to determine if it had any influence on their conversion rate. 

In doing so, they tested two different variations against their current button (an image of a shopping cart with a "+" next to it.) The first variation simply said "Add to Cart", and the other said "+Cart." 

According to their results, the "Add to Cart" button was able to increase cart adds by over 49%. (Source: Optimizely)

In terms of application, you'll want to explore different variations of button text to ensure that you're clearly defining the action to effectively encourage the visitor to click. 

4. Explore different search functionalities

The Brazilian real estate company, Casa Mineira, wanted to provide their website visitors with an easy way to navigate through their property options. 

While their current website employed a large search box above the fold, experimenting with a drop-down search functionality that allowed visitors to specify the type of apartment as well as the location from a menu proved profitable.

In fact, the new functionality brought the Casa Mineira 57.25% more leads. (Source: Visual Website Optimizer)

Point being, don't hesitate to explore different avenues in terms of search. Finding a way to further simplify the discovery of information could seriously improve your lead generation efforts. 

5. Address pain points

Unbounce's Michael Aagaard wanted to determine if addressing the time it takes to read an ebook up-front, but help to set the visitor's expectations, and ultimately increase conversions. 

He took to the landing page to test these two bullet points:

Version A

“Insights and experience from 4 years of research and over 350 A/B tests distilled into one 26-page free ebook” 

Version B

“Read the book in just 25 minutes and get insights from 4 years of research and over 350 A/B tests”

As a result, he found that addressing the timing helped to increase conversions by 18.59%. (Source: Content Verve)

6. Cut the copy

Looking to increase conversions on their landing pages, Assessment Day, a supplier of practice aptitude tests, decided to break up some of their lengthy copy.

In doing so, they saw a 62% improvement by eliminating the FAQ section, and a 56% improvement by removing the screenshot section. (Source: Visual Website Optimizer)

But before you go deleting anything, it's important to make note that copy still has its time and place. In fact, Assessment Day found that when they deleted both sections (FAQ & screenshots) their conversion rate dropped by about 3%. 

7. Make it actionable

The personal hygiene retailer, L’Axelle, was looking to increase clicks on their "Add to Cart" button by experimenting with different headline copy on the page. 

In doing so, they compared the following lines:

Version A

“Feel fresh without sweatmarks." 

Version B

“Put an end to sweatmarks."

As a result, they found that the action-oriented headline converted 93% better than the original. (Source: Picreel)

If you're looking to persuade people to carry out a particular action, test out different actionable verbs, as they often times works to create a sense of urgency that visitors can't ignore.