Reduce bounce rates, increase conversions

Improving your shop or website, and steering your traffic (your visitors) in a targeted way, is not always as difficult as it first seems. In this article we want to give you a glimpse of how we continue to support our clients after launch.

Stop flying blind

To know where visitors come from, where they go and where they don’t go, you need to record the visitor flow. There are tools for this, such as Piwik or Google Analytics.

In our work we prefer Google Analytics: firstly, we don’t need to set up our own installation, and secondly, we can later transfer the data to Google AdWords for remarketing.

Once Analytics has been running for the first 30 to 60 days, we can already get a first impression of what is happening on the website. Visitor flow data, time on site and devices are the decisive figures for us. With online shops in particular, we see again and again that the mobile bounce rate is many times higher than on desktop, even though the mobile share of traffic is usually much larger.

So check whether your calls to action, meaning the buttons and menus you use to guide your customers, are well positioned, or whether there are even display errors.

Look at every relevant page and check its bounce rate. With good positioning and true to the KISS principle (keep it short and simple), try to present content so that visitors don’t feel overwhelmed. In shops especially, price is not everything; presentation and service matter. In the end, people sell to people, and someone will always be cheaper.

Perfect your landing pages

Now that we know where the problems are, it is time to optimise the pages that matter. As a rule, these are the contact pages, product pages and the checkout.

In the contact form, focus on the essentials. Everything else can be clarified in conversation with your potential customers.

On product pages, the product must be explained well and the photos have to be right. Customers can’t touch the product and often buy on emotion. Good product photos and an individual product description are essential to evoke those emotions. Always try to highlight your USPs (unique selling points).

Checkouts: here too, only ask for what is relevant and offer enough payment methods. Customers are often annoyed when one-click payment methods such as PayPal, instant purchase or pay by invoice are not available.

Trust is good, and it needs to be built

Place your trust badges correctly and visibly. Do you have certificates or special features such as “30-day returns” or “X years in business”? Visitors don’t know you yet and are only just beginning to trust you. Help them along and make the decision easier for them!

With these basics you can achieve a lot in the medium term.

We wish you every success!

Image rights / author: neyro2008 / 123RF stock photo