I thought I'd start a thread for conversion tips, just post your top one here, I'll start:
- Use a bright colour to accent only the (relatively few) things you want the visitor to click on, against a relatively dull page background, so that their eye is drawn to the clickable item.
OK, in an effort to get more people to contribute, here's another:
Use heatmaps and eye tracking studies to work out what the most important areas of your page are and make sure you have your key affiliate links there.
Heatmaps etc aside, it's important to actually make sure that the contents of your page turn out to be what your visitors are looking for.
Analyse your weblogs to see what most of your visitors searched on when they arrived, and use Google analytics to see how visitors are responding to yer page.
Nah, I saw the URL in the bottom of the window and it didn't interest me
Call-to-actions are important though, particularly colours. The most prominent action (buy now) should be the brightest and in your primary colour. Less prominent actions (e.g. continue shopping, more products in this category etc) should be in your secondary or third colour, which should be less prominent.
Also, an important factor is the little tweaks to your site. For example, on one of my sites I have a call-to-action in a white font on a black gradient background. Of course, the background is an image so if it hasn't loaded, the user couldn't actually see the call-to-action! A CSS tweak soon solved that problem, but it's the little things that matter!
Breadcrumb menus provide a valuable sense of place and help users quickly understand heirarchy. Provide multiple opportunities to interact per page, but ensure the transaction is the main action
Don't be scared to try things that you don't like the look of, and would put you off - such as big bright buttons in clashing colours that I think look awful, but the general public seem to love
Keep experimenting with different formats of landing page, and keep detailed notes as to what works and what doesn't. Over time you can put the best bits together, and come up with landing pages that offer excellent conversions!
Make your site useful, don't just put up the description from a product feed. Give extra info on the product, that makes your page genuinely useful. Don't rely on the merchant to sell the product, sell it on YOUR site. Make going to the merchants site just a formality to buy the product.
Linear Mode
