There are no absolute truths in conversion optimization.

Reading case studies or list posts filled with tests other people ran that improved their conversions won’t necessarily work for you.

That would be using someone else’s solution for your problem.

However, there are some rules of thumb that usually produce positive results & I want to share some of those with you here.

The True Goal of Conversion Optimization….

The true goal when running tests is not just hoping to increase your conversion rate with the test but also to learn something about your visitors based on the outcome of the test.

That may be main thing that separates experts from novices in optimization – – as experts run more and more tests, their picture of what visitors to a site want becomes clearer. As more tests run, the expert’s advantage grows larger and larger because they have learned so much from the previous tests.

But that is something more advanced that we’ll cover sometime later. For now, we’re still focused on getting you started, getting your first several tests running, & getting those all important initial victories.

Rules of Thumb For Higher Conversions

Copy

There have been multiple studies on readability & the effect is has on conversions.

If your site is hard to read, people aren’t going to squint or use the enlarge shortcut to make it readable.

This seems obvious but a lot of people get it wrong. I remember when I worked at Rise, one of our clients is a HUGE company that mostly caters to retirees. The text on the page was small, they had one big block of text, and there wasn’t a lot of spacing between lines.

They could have been offering the location of the Fountain of Youth and their conversion rates would have remained terrible because no one over the age of 55 could read the words on the page.

Feel free to deviate from this a bit & let the style of your copy fit your/your site’s personality but here’s the best practices from a conversion standpoint:

• 16 pt font size
• Very large headlines and calls to action
• Frequent use of images & lists (ordered or un-ordered)
• Keep paragraphs short with a healthy amount of white space between them
• Sub-headlines every few paragraphs
• Keep lines of text under 75 characters

The majority of people online are scanners rather than readers so structure your copy to be scanner-friendly.

Web Forms

Web forms are a good place to optimize as they are closely linked to high value conversions (leads, inquiries, sign up forms, checkout forms, etc).

Think of web forms as being a sales clerk in a brick and mortar store. To help facilitate a transaction or giving you the information you want, the clerk asks you questions.

If the clerk right off the bat fires off a lo-o-o-ng list of questions like:

• What’s Your Name?
• What’s Your Address?
• What’s Your Email Address?
• What’s Your Birth Date?

But all you want to know is which Shake Weight is the right one for you! You probably don’t want to answer all of those questions unless it’s clear why the clerk needs that info.

Web forms are the same – – they often ask for too much and it creates a lot of friction, causing people to leave your site without filling out the form.

How do we reduce friction on web forms?

1. Set clear expectations

This can be done in multiple ways. Just be transparent up front about what information you’re going to be asking for and why you’re asking for it.

Sometimes it helps to break your form up into multiple pages (get their email first!) and ask related questions together. This usually beats one long form as people don’t see everything all at once & once they get through that first section they usually think along the lines of ‘might as well finish it now’.

Be clear about what they’re going to get in exchange for filling out the form.

2. Reduce the number of form fields 

This is an easy test to perform in Optimizely or Visual Website Optimizer (you may need to use a bit of Javascript to auto-fill in the deleted fields if your CRM requires those fields be filled) & a test that usually produces positive results.

Ask yourself what information do you really, truly need to get from the visitor to fill out this form. I’m talking about the bare minimum. Start there and then you can test adding some ‘nice to have’ info fields to see if and how they effect conversion rates.

3. Start Easy

Begin with the easiest fields to fill out. If you lead with asking for their credit card number, you’re likely going to have lower conversions than if you start asking for name, email, address ,etc

4. Trust is key

If you’re asking for payment information, it will help to have some trust seals on your form or page letting them know your site is secure, that you are rated by the BBB, etc

Testimonials also work here as does microcopy that ensures there are no hidden fees or that shipping is free or that their email address will never be shared, sold, spammed, etc

Calls to Action

For every page on your site, you should have one action that you want the visitor to take above all others.

You definitely can have secondary (or even tertiary) calls to action but take the time to choose one main goal. Engineer the page around helping the user act on that call. Here are some ways to do that:

Use a button/image

Buttons and images are generally more colorful, larger, & more attention grabbing than text links. This isn’t the answer in every single case but we’re looking at rules of thumb here.

Use a different color from the rest of the site

If the call to action is the same color as  the rest of your site, it will blend in & your visitors won’t notice it as often.

Use the right copy

The main things to keep in mind for call to action copy are:

• Clarity trumps everything – – make it very obvious what clicking the call to action will do
• Convey a benefit
• Contains a trigger word

And so we conclude Part 1….

I see that I’m just over 1,000 words here so I don’t want to overwhelm you early on. Part 2 (and likely a Part 3) will be on the way in the future for more rules of thumb where we’ll cover things like….

• Home pages
• eCommerce category + product pages
• Sign Up Pages
• Pricing & pricing pages
• Checkout & cart pages
• And more

What To Do Now:

1. If you’ve been following this blog series and have gotten your first A|B test win (or broke your old record for largest lift in conversions) – – let me know in the comments so I can give you some proper recognition!
2. If you know someone who has some busted copy, web forms, or calls to action – – throw them a bone by sending them the link to this article.
3. Continue on to the last part of this blog series with a list of conversion optimization resources