Five Pillars of a High-Converting Website
What you need to change on your website to book more work
If you're a small business owner, there are probably a lot of things on your mind. You might be feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of running a business, and a website is the last thing to worry about.
But one thing we know for sure is that there's nothing more important than getting your website right. And we don't mean "getting it right" as in making it look nice and having it work well — we mean getting it right in terms of helping your customers understand what you do, why they should care about it, and how to buy from you.
That's why we've made this list of five pillars of a high-converting website: the things that every great online presence has in common. We hope they'll help guide you toward building something amazing for your business.
Focus on the customer journey
A high-converting website is answering questions of your customers in the order in which they arise – this is also called a customer journey.
The first question you need to answer is what problem are your customers trying to solve? Are they looking for information on a particular topic? Are they looking for a solution? Or maybe they just want to see what others have said about a particular topic. If you can answer these questions and create content that helps people solve their problems, then your site will be more likely to convert visitors into buyers.
In order to build a high-converting website, you need to understand where your customers are in their journey and what they're looking for at each step along the way.
Action point:
Next time you get on a sales call with a potential customer, jot down the questions they are asking you. Is there a particular order in which they want to know certain information about your business? For example, if you’re a photographer, they want to know your availability right away or the conversation doesn’t make any sense. Your customers will tell you how to structure your site so it follows their thought process.
Accurate and complete information as basis for high-converting websites
A high-converting website is one that presents all the relevant information. It is easy to find and doesn't leave any doubts for customers. The information is well-structured, easy to navigate, and presented in a logical order.
The web is full of websites that fail this test. They're typically hard to digest, or it’s impossible to find anything on them because the information is buried in a series of links that don't make sense or are badly organized. Outdated websites are jammed with unnecessary content.
The problem with these sites is that they don't give users what they're looking for. Customers want quick answers and clear instructions; they don't want to waste time searching through pages of unnecessary content just so they can find what they came for.
Action point:
Are you sure you answer all of your customers’ questions without holding anything back? You can do a really simply UX testing for your website. Ask a friend or someone who doesn’t know your website to sit down with you and do certain things on your website. They should see it for the first time. For example, ask them to find a way to contact you and make a reservation. You’ll see how they will interact with the website and if there’s a problem. Focus on the next logical action.
Highest converting websites: tasteful, simple branding
When it comes to branding a website, you want it to be simple. You don't want to be able to tell that the website belongs to you just by looking at it. The branding of a high-converting website is tasteful and on point. It doesn't look like it's overdone. It's even unnoticeable.
Visual branding compliments your content and helps drive visitors directly toward the information they're looking for. It's just right for your audience. Your readers will be able to identify with the design, which helps them engage with the content more deeply. They will tend to stay on your site longer if there are visual elements like images or graphics that make them feel comfortable within the context of their own personal space.
Branding for websites is also simpler than other kinds of graphic design because reading on screen is harder than looking at a page with two columns of text, which is why more websites use them nowadays (and why more people gravitate toward those sites).
Action point.
Does your website pass the eyebrow test? When one of your customers sees your website for the first time, do they raise their brows? It’s a good sign. It means your branding is on point.
Social proof
Social proof has a powerful effect on the customers' decisions.
With the growing number of information and communication technologies, many people are looking for trustworthy websites. It's not enough to just have a website; you need to make it look good and sound good too.
You can't just put your site up without any social proof at all. It's just like saying: "I'm not sure if I should trust you."
A high-converting website builds massive social proof – it presents information in such a way that your customers trust you. It adds credibility.
The most powerful way to build social proof is by adding testimonials from real customers who used your product or service. For example, if you're selling an online course and you have a testimonial from someone who took the course and said it helped them save money on their car insurance premiums (or whatever), then people will be more likely to buy from you because they know that other people were helped by your course as well.
The more trustworthy your online presence is, the more likely people will buy from you – because they know that what they're doing is safe with you.
Action point:
Sprinkle testimonials, reviews and case studies throughout your website. Add them to your home page and internal pages. Don’t have a lot of testimonials? No problem! You need just 2-4 good reviews to get started.
Offer value
A high-converting website is focused on presenting engaging and helpful content. Your customers should feel that they are being helped by just visiting your website.
You can use your blog posts and other content to:
Give away some free value in advance so your visitors are hooked. Write blog posts and create helpful content for your niche.
Position yourself as an expert in your field by sharing tips, tricks and hacks that help people resolve their issues quickly.
Encourage people to subscribe to your email list, so they’ll receive new blog posts directly in their inboxes each week without having to look for them on social media.
Action point:
Content is still a king and SEO is far from being dead. The best way to promote your business is to publish helpful content consistently. Get started by brainstorming a bunch of blog posts for your website using techniques we share in this post: Complete SEO Strategy for your Squarespace Website.
Dating instead of marrying
A high-converting website is asking you to go on a date instead of offering marriage right away, meaning, you should give free value in exchange for contact information in a non-intrusive, genuine way.
A website is one piece of the puzzle – you usually don't see what's happening in the background. You need to capture your visitors’ information in order to continue marketing to your customers in a form of retargeting ads and email newsletter.
So go on a date before asking for a sale.
The best way to do it is by offering something that can help your visitor solve their problem or answer their questions before making any sales pitch. The most popular example is providing an ebook about your company’s niche content with the goal of driving traffic back to the site for more information (free content).
In order to build a high-converting website, you need to know what people want and how they want it delivered. Start collecting leads and sales will follow!
Action point:
A website is not enough. It’s just a tip of the iceberg. In order to get the conversion machine up and running, you need to add email marketing to the mix. Start collecting visitors data into an email list or CRM. You can amplify these efforts by adding retargeting later on. Send out weekly emails to your leads to get them back to your website and see magic happen.
Your website is your online virtual office
Every site can benefit from the elements we've discussed above. Being aware of these elements will help make you a better, more informed designer or business owner, and will also help you provide a better user experience to your visitors as well. We firmly believe that when it comes to websites — especially websites that will be cranking out conversions — every little detail matters. And with that, we leave you to go create some high-converting sites!