Every one likes a list especially when it comes to something as actionable as Conversion Rate Optimisation.
SO here is my first foray into the most clickbatey of articles.
- Image carousels/scrolling banners – what ever you want to call them just stop bloody putting them on your site. I have yet to find a site where taking this one element off hurts conversions. You are actually better off having 3/4 images in the same space as your carousel. Here is why they suck the big one, they distract users and they are hardly interacted with past the second image.
- Navigation on landing pages – so the great Oli Gardener came up with something called attention ration. Basically the number of links on your page divide by the number conversion points. So for optimal results this should be 1. You can have privacy policy, about us links just hide them in your footer but on the main page that people will actually use have nothing but your CTA
- Never Submit – No body wants to submit, the entire film 300 was about people who would rather die then submit, so do not ever use this for a CTA. The more generic a CTAs wording is the less it grabs your visitors attention
- Crappy stock photography – here is a top tip before using a stock image Google search for it. If you find dozens of site in your vertical using it then move on. You are better of taking a photo with you phone then using a crappy stock image. If I see another damn headset hottie I will scream
- Enclose your damn form – so you have gone through the pain of getting a user to your site, you have wowed them with your UVPs and have gotten them to the conversion form. Then they see a link to widget xyz and go off form and get distracted. They have now gone forever dropping the conversion rate of your form. All you had to do is enclose your form so there is nothing for them to do but convert. So strip out your nav, remove the link to TrustPilot and put in some damn social proof while you’re at it.