27 tips to boost your website's conversion rate

A great-looking website that doesn't convert is a missed opportunity. That's why we're sharing 27 practical tips to make your site more effective right away. Every tip is actionable and based on what actually works.

Looking for sustainable growth? Then this is just the beginning. With a strategic approach and a custom website, you build lasting impact. And of course, we'd be happy to help you with that 😉!

Improve your website's technology to increase conversions

1. Make your website work on every device

The days when a computer was the only way to get online are long gone. Mobile devices have taken over, from smartphones to laptops and tablets. How often do you visit a website on your phone, and how annoying is it when it doesn't work properly? Chances are you leave and head to a competitor. So make your website responsive. A responsive website automatically adapts to the visitor's device, so all content is always easy to read.

2. Make sure your website loads fast

A website that takes forever to load is frustrating. Visitors are impatient and click away quickly. That's exactly what you want to avoid: people find your website, click through, and then drop off because something on your site gets in their way. The faster your website, the better. Google recommends a load time of 1 second. After that, users lose interest and are more likely to leave the page.

3. Give your website a professional look and design

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it count. For many people, the look of a website decides within seconds whether they stay or leave. How do you feel when you open your own website? If you're not excited about it, chances are your visitors will leave disappointed and go to your competitors.

Increase conversions by meeting your audience's needs

4. Know your audience

Who are they? What brings them to your website? What do they need? The better you know your audience, the better you can meet their expectations. The best way to map out your audience is to work with personas. A persona is a complete profile of a user of your product or service. It comes to life with a name and a personal background, and it captures the person's behavior, goals, needs, problems and frustrations. That way, you reach the people who benefit most from your product or service.

5. See things through your audience's eyes

You're in business for your audience, so put yourself in their shoes. You might be happy with a page as a business owner, while it's still unclear to (less informed) visitors what problem you solve for them. From their perspective, that's a reason to leave. So clearly define what triggers your audience and what problem they're facing. Once you've done that, look at how you can solve that problem for them. Use these descriptions as the foundation for all your messaging.

6. Show the value of your product or service

Most decisions are made on emotion and then justified with logic. So start by describing the benefits of your product or service instead of listing its features. When your content focuses on the value you deliver, you'll see conversions go up faster. Visitors get the sense that their problem is truly being solved.

Optimize the images on your website to increase conversions

7. Use a header with a single image instead of a slider with multiple images

A slider lets you promote more content without taking up more space on your page. Yet the numbers show that sliders don't work. No visitor takes the time to look at every image in a slider banner. It's highly distracting and gets in the way of what visitors came to do: find what they're looking for. That leads to frustration.

8. Use high-quality, sharp photos

Visuals leave a strong impression, so use images to grab your visitors' attention. Knowing your audience matters here. Things like gender, age and interests determine the emotion your image should convey. Image quality also plays a big role in the impression you make. Low-quality images make a company look unprofessional, and that can cost you the very first step in earning your visitors' trust.

9. Limit the use of stock photos

Stock photos are royalty-free images you can buy on various websites. They can easily feel fake or reinforce clichés. So try to use them as little as possible, especially on the most important pages of your website. That's where you show who you are as a company, and that feeling is much harder to capture with a stock photo.

10. Use photos to point to your calls to action

When the people in your photos look toward the most important elements on your page, such as calls to action, visitors will notice those buttons sooner and click them more often. People naturally follow the gaze of others in an image. The same goes for objects: always angle a photo of an object toward the key information.

Increase conversions with strong calls to action

11. Describe the result of the action in your calls to action

The goal of a call to action is to get visitors to do something. You want to nudge them and influence their behavior so they take a specific step. “Click here” says nothing about what to expect and doesn't give people any sense of certainty. You can activate visitors with action verbs such as subscribe, request, download, start and get. These words invite people to take action. Writing in the first person also has a positive effect on click-through rates: “Sign me up” works better than “Sign up,” for example.

12. Place an immediately visible call to action on every page

Make sure the call to action is visible as soon as a page opens, without visitors having to scroll. Research shows that the most viewed area is just above the fold. Add your call-to-action button at the bottom of the page as well. Visitors who reach the end of your page are clearly interested in what you have to say or sell. All you need to do is win them over, and you do that by ending with a call to action that stands out.

13. Use a color that complements your brand colors for your calls to action

Calls to action (CTAs) come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They're meant to prompt visitors to act, but first they need to stand out. A call to action that blends into the background of your page is guaranteed to get fewer clicks. To make your CTA pop without clashing with your brand, choose a complementary color: the color on the opposite side of the color wheel. Is your website purple? Use a yellow call to action. Is it blue? Go with orange.

14. Point all calls to action on a page to the same action

Every page has just one primary goal, and therefore just one primary call to action. So point all calls to action on a page to the same action. If you think multiple calls to action on one page are useful, use an alternative button style that clearly differs from the primary one. That way you distinguish between your primary and secondary calls to action.

Make your website user-friendly

15. Make your content easy to scan with short paragraphs, subheadings and bullet points

Visitors don't read, they scan. They glance at the most eye-catching elements on a page to quickly find what they need. When a page is easy to scan, visitors find what they're looking for faster and remember the key information. So avoid long paragraphs without subheadings, and keep the visitor's reading order in mind. People don't want to work to figure out where the content continues.

16. Create a logical navigation structure

With an illogical navigation structure, visitors struggle to find the content they need and will likely leave before reaching their goal. Whether you're informing visitors with blog posts and news articles or selling products, you want as many visitors as possible to complete a goal. Together with your search bar, your navigation is the most important part of your website for making that happen. A clear, logical menu helps your audience quickly find the content they're looking for and gives them a good overview of everything your website has to offer.

17. Use no more than 7 items in your main menu

Ideally, your menu has no more than 7 items, because our short-term memory can't process more than that. This lets visitors quickly scan the structure and take in the most important items. It also forces you to stick to the most relevant items. Too many options overwhelm visitors and make them leave sooner. If you still want to show more items, you can create a secondary menu.

18. Avoid drop-down menus

Many visitors find drop-down menus annoying because they often don't work well on devices without a mouse. Sometimes you have to hover over exactly the right spot to make the submenu appear. Miss it by a hair and everything collapses, so you have to start over. Very frustrating! Drop-down menus also make it easy to keep adding menu items, which can confuse visitors with too many choices. You're better off replacing drop-down menus with a category page.

19. Offer a search function that works well

Site search can make or break the customer experience. Visitors who can't find what they're looking for within a few seconds leave your website unhappy. A user-friendly search solution helps visitors get to the information they need as quickly as possible. People who use the search function already intend to convert. If it doesn't work well, they drop off, and you lose some of your most valuable visitors.

20. Make it easy for your audience to contact you with a contact form

A contact form is a user-friendly way for visitors to leave their details, get in touch, book an appointment, request more information, check out and more. Adding a contact form to your website makes it easier for visitors to reach you, since they don't have to send an email from a separate mailbox. A contact form also looks professional.

21. Keep the number of fields in your contact form to a minimum

Most people hate filling out long forms and drop off as soon as they see one with lots of fields. The most effective contact form asks only for the information you truly need. In many cases, fields for name, email and message are enough. Don't ask for a phone number unless you need it. A phone number is personal, and people don't readily share it with strangers.

Set up your pages smartly to increase conversions

22. Publish client cases that explain the goal and results of the project

In a client case, a client shares what working with you has delivered for them. It makes the success visitors can achieve with your product or service tangible. A case shows what you have to offer from the perspective of someone who was in a similar situation to your visitors. Visitors recognize themselves in the problem you solve, and they're moved because they want that success story too.

23. Add client testimonials to your website

Testimonials provide validation and build trust. By featuring testimonials on your website, you prove that other people have bought your product or service and were happy with it. A positive testimonial can be just the extra push visitors need to take the action you want. It can also include valuable information you hadn't thought of yourself.

24. Create dedicated landing pages

A landing page is a standalone page built specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It's where visitors land after clicking a specific ad or link. Landing pages are designed with one goal: convincing visitors to take action. A strong landing page leads to higher engagement and better interaction with visitors. Unlike a regular page, with lots of content, links and extensive navigation, a landing page guides visitors straight to the end goal.

25. Set up your 404 pages smartly

First of all, try to prevent visitors from ever seeing a 404 page. But if someone does end up on one, be prepared by setting it up smartly. For example, add a link to another page so visitors don't drop off and can easily get back into the conversion process.

Measure your website's performance & run A/B tests

26. Measure your results

Where do your visitors come from? Which pages get the most views? Where do visitors drop off? If you want to increase conversions on your website, you need to know where to focus. By measuring your website's performance, you can see what works and what doesn't, and identify realistic improvements. Google Analytics is the best-known tool for measuring website results. It shows you exactly where your visitors come from, how long they stay on a page, which page they leave your website on and what they clicked.

27. Test what works best

A/B testing is used to improve conversions on your website. In an A/B test, you create a new variant of an existing page. Visitors are split randomly but evenly between the original (version A) and the variant (version B). The version visitors respond to best is the one that drives the most conversions. It also helps you learn what does and doesn't work for your visitors.

From checklist to real growth

With this checklist, you have everything you need to make your website more conversion-focused. Even small changes can make a big difference.

But do you want to get the most out of your website? Then it takes more than a handful of tips. You need a strategy that fits your goals, and a website that delivers on it.

We'd be happy to think along with you. Take a look at our custom websites page, where we go deeper into our approach and way of working.