Have you been spending a lot of resources increasing traffic to your WordPress site, but aren’t seeing an increase in sales?

 

This happens often, with studies showing that 78% of companies are dissatisfied with their conversion rate performance.

 

And that’s because too many businesses focus all their efforts on increasing traffic, rather than improving their conversion rates. As a result, that often leads to an increase in vanity metrics without a boost in profits.

 

Regardless of the industry your business is in, improving your conversion rates on your WordPress site is essential for growth.

 

Below are some of the best tools you should be using to help you along your conversion journey.

 

Make search engines love you

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps bring in targeted, relevant traffic – meaning they are far more likely to convert as they’ll be interested in what you can offer already.

 

Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin designed specifically to optimize your website for search engines (Google, Bing and co.). The plugin is incredibly easy to use with WordPress and enables you to optimize all of your content and web pages to reach higher rankings on relevant search terms.

 

Key features: Quick and easy meta description editing on posts, keyword optimization, readability tips for search-friendly writing.

 

Another good SEO tool is Screaming Frog which, despite the random name, crawls your entire website and find broken links, missing page titles, meta descriptions and more.

 

Key features: Finding broken links, discovering duplicate content, identifying redirects, XML sitemaps generation, Google Analytics integration.

 

Nail your on-page optimization

HubSpot’s website grader should be your first port of call. This free tool provides a lot of information on your entire site performance, including speed of loading, mobile-suitability, website security and page size. This information gives you actionable insights to make your site a better user experience for your audience – which will make them more likely to convert.

 

Key features: Visibility of page size, page requests, page speed, render blocking, browser caching, mobile responsiveness, meta descriptions, page titles, sitemap, SSL certificate.

 

Another tool is Optimizely, the leading experimentation platform. This tool helps you to test the various components of your web-pages and optimize them for increased conversions. The tool provides A/B testing to see what works best, website personalization and more. It’s pretty complex but it provides highly detailed results that can result in a significant increase in conversions.

 

Key features: A/B testing on CTAs, copy, images, personalization.

 

If you want to provide a faster and smoother website experience for your audience, which will encourage conversions, use W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket. These two WordPress caching plugins compress and minify your files to deliver speedy page loading.

 

Key features: Page caching, cache preloading, static file compression, images on request.

 

Embrace revolutionary conversational marketing

Conversational marketing platforms allow you to capture conversions while your audience is on your website, in real-time. There are plenty of options you could use, from Intercom to HubSpot, but I think Drift is the easiest to use (and really easy to install on WordPress).

 

Drift appears as a small chat icon on your site and enables you to have real-time chats with your website visitors via the app (on a mobile device) or through one of its integrations – for example, Slack. Using the platform provides the ability to capture and convert your audience there and then – no need to fill out forms, no need for your audience to go searching for what they are looking for, and no need for follow-ups.

 

Live chat platforms are a really powerful conversion tool today, helping increase conversion rates by 4-8x.

 

Key features: Automated chat, real-time messaging, meetings, anonymous visitor intelligence, email integration.

 

Design better landing pages

The sole purpose of a landing page is to convert your visitors with a specific piece of content or an offer. It’s no surprise, therefore, that improving your landing pages can result in increased conversions.

 

The good news is there are plenty of tools you can use to build really optimized pages, designed for conversions. Instapage, Unbounce and Leadpages are three good options – all of which come with simple to use templates that make the design process easy.

 

These tools operate best practice conversion techniques to improve your performance. Your landing pages need to be kept uncluttered, concise and tell your visitors exactly what you want from them. If you want them to fill out a form, tell them with a visible call to action. If you want them to make a purchase, tell them to ‘buy now’.

 

Key features: Test customer landing pages, pop-ups, landing page templates, app integration, A/B testing, drag and drop build, mobile-friendly.

 

Capture attention with conversion forms

Pop-up conversion forms are a nice way to grab attention and capture your traffic, but you need to have compelling offers to get your visitors over the line. OptinMonster is the tool for the job. You can quickly integrate the tool with WordPress to use these pop-up offers to grow your email list, reduce cart abandonment and increase conversions.

 

OptinMonster has functionality for floating headers and footers, slide-in forms and welcome pop-ups – each functionality is designed to capture your audience’s attention.

 

Key features: Visual templates, personalized pop-ups with behavior automation, real-time editing, drag and drop builder, geo-location targeting, exit-intent pop-ups, campaign triggers.

 

Build brand loyalty

If your website visitors arrive at your site and the branding isn’t on point, they’ll be far less likely to convert. This starts with your logo, and your logo must be consistent across your entire website. If you use a Shopify store with your WordPress blog, you need appealing, visual, consistent branding. Shopify actually has a tool called Hatchful that allows you to create stunning logos in seconds.

 

Key features: Branding packages, templates, design studio.

 

When it comes to the full creative design process (social graphics, posters, presentations, etc.), try Canva. Canva is an easy-to-use design tool to help improve your branding and design work (minimal skills required!).

 

Key features: Image cropping, image library, graphics templates, photo enhancer, design grids, free icons, custom graphs.

 

Conclusion

These are some of the best tools you can use to increase WordPress conversions right now. Whether your aim is to convert more sales or grow your email list, using these tools will boost your efforts significantly, as well as your overall user experience.

 

Bio:

 

 

Michelle Deery produces content for Heroic Search, a link building agency based in Tulsa. Her work has been seen in publications such as Entrepreneur.com.The content she writes helps marketers increase their conversions and ultimately profits.

 

Gravatar email: michelle@heroicsearch.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-deery-ba7131123/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/michwriting