Knowing how to increase website sales and conversions is critical. You may have a great idea, product, or service. There may be a huge demand for what you offer. However, if your website does not effectively convert online traffic into customers, you will struggle with online marketing. It does not matter how much advertising you do. If people do not enjoy their experience on your website, you will waste plenty of time and money.

What is a website conversion? A website conversion is the act of converting website visitors into a desired action. This could be someone filling out your contact form, downloading an eBook, signing up for an event, or making a purchase. In this blog, we will give you 6 tactics that will help you increase website conversions. Implement these tactics into your website strategy and watch sales increase.

You will struggle with increasing your sales volume without increasing your website traffic. In how to skyrocket your online marketing, we provided you with a road map to follow. A strong social media presence along with a mix of blogging, advertising, and high search engine rankings can deliver tons of traffic to your website. Below is a snapshot of our own website traffic that we’ve generated from this same strategy. You can do this too.

SEE ALSO: The Ultimate List: 75 Benefits of Social Media Marketing

A website funnel is the path that website visitors take through your website before hitting the “purchase” button. For example, there may be specific pages of your website that bring website visitors closer to wanting to buy your products. Identify those pages and include call-to-actions (CTA) that direct traffic on one page to the next page. We have found that the more pages people visit on our website, the more likely they are to buy from us. There may be a similar correlation for your business.

There may be pages on your website that turn potential buyers off and ruin all of the efforts it took to bring traffic to your website. Using Google Analytics you can explore your visitors’ journey through your website and identify pages that need to be improved.

For example, in the screenshot above you will see two statistics, through traffic and drop-offs. Through traffic is how many people viewed the page and continued to progress through your website. Drop-off traffic is the how many people viewed your page and exited your website. Your goal should be to minimize your website’s drop-off traffic as much as possible, while increasing through traffic. Again, you can do this by having well-written content and strong CTA’s that drive people to related pages.

In order to increase website conversions on your website, you need to set up your analytics system to track conversions. When you can see what traffic sources are bringing you the most conversions, you can make smarter advertising decisions. For example, traffic sources that bring you most website traffic may not bring you the most sales. It is important to install conversion tracking to truly optimize your online marketing efforts. To learn how to track your conversions using Google analytics, read How to Track Conversion Rates in Google Analytics.

In addition to measuring conversions, you should also measure other metrics such as the following:

The first 3 tactics to increasing website sales and conversions are more advanced and technical, but necessary. The next 3 tactics deal more with the overall presentation of your website.

First impressions are everything and the design of your website is the first impression. It is 2015 and your website should look like it. Make sure your website has an attractive design that makes your visitors to want more. The design should be consistent with your logo and branding.

VIEW CASE STUDY: Personalized Care New Website Design

Also, 60% of website traffic is mobile. If you’re website is not mobile-friendly, you’re already losing half of your website traffic. The design of your website should be fully functional with mobile devices, tablets, and desktop computers. Fully responsive websites, such as this, will dramatically improve the user experience.

The language used on your website should be simple and understandable. Make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to understand your product or service. Have a clear value proposition that helps prospects establish a connection with your brand. Within the first 20 seconds of browsing through your website, it should be clear how your website solves a problem or provide unique benefits.

Actionable tip: Ask 3-5 people, who is not affiliated with your business, to review your website. See if they understand and depict the same message you were hoping to portray. We did this and learned that some of our own website pages could be much easier to understand. What makes sense to your business may not be as clear to your website visitors. And if it is not clear, it will negatively impact your conversion rates.

Establishing trust and credibility on your website is a must. If people do not trust you, they will not buy from you. There are a few ways to establish trust on your website. You could add the following:

Another way to establish trust and credibility is to distinguish your business from your competition. How is your brand different? Your website should illustrate this. One way you can do this is by developing a unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is a statement that clearly differentiates your business from similar competitors who offer similar products or services. Including a USP on your website will help your customers in their purchasing decision.

Learn how we increased conversions by 45% by adding images of people from our company to our content. Read how to increase conversion rates by humanizing images.