4 Quick Tips for Optimizing for Increased Conversions

A conversion happens when visitors to your website complete a desired action that you want them to take. On your law firm website, that could mean downloading a piece of content, registering for a seminar, filling out a Contact Us form, or even calling your office.

Your conversion rate is a simple calculation: the total number of visitors to your site, divided by the number of visitors who act. Conversion rates vary widely by industry.
What’s a Good Conversion Rate?

Generally, a 12% conversion rate is considered good, but in reality, it varies from industry to industry. According to Unbounce, a leading landing page platform, 3.2% is the median conversion rate for the legal industry. However, the top sites are performing much better, with an 11.2% conversion rate.

To maintain a high conversion rate and turn a large number of your website visitors into leads and clients, it’s important to understand what actually prompted those visitors to take the first step towards sending an email or picking up the phone. Was it a specific Call-to-Action or a particular report? Was it the headline or the design of the form on a certain page? Google Analytics is going to provide the answer to what works.

By looking at the Analytics data, you can learn what resonates with your target audience and then continuously optimize your web pages to do what you’ve learned is best to attract and engage that audience. This process is called Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

Analyzing the Data for CRO

To increase your conversion rate, you have to start by understanding what your current conversion rates are. You can get all of the info you need from site statistics. Pay attention to:

• Current website traffic: Find out how many people are coming to your site, what pages they are visiting, and how long they stay
• How leads find you: You not only need to know the total number of leads you have but should also be aware of how each of them discovered you. Analytics will provide a breakdown of how many visitors found you via search, social media, and referrals from other websites.
• How many prospects contact you: Tally up your phone calls, live chats, and contact forms from your website on a regular basis. Tracking total contacts lets you more easily see how often online interest translates into giving your firm actual cases.
• Visitor behavior on website: What page did they land on when they first visited your site? What pages did they look at before taking action? How long did they remain on your site? Which pages were least visited or quickly dismissed?  All of this information will give you insight into what interests and motivates your prospects.

You also need to understand who is visiting your website and online pages, whether they make up a part of your core audience, and what exactly they’re seeking when they find your site. Did they come via Pay-Per-Click ads, or because your site ranked highly due to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Once there, are they looking for specific answers to questions, are they just trying to figure out what type of attorney they require, or are they actually ready to hire? You need to be prepared to have something to offer everyone.

Optimizing for Increased Conversions

• Optimize Your Content – Which keywords are generating the most leads? (You can find this information in your Google Search Console.) Add those top keywords to your website, not only in the copy itself, but also in the title tag, meta description, headers, and sub-headers.
• Optimize Your Website Design – There are certain key website elements that have proven to impact conversions, so pay close attention to:
  • Homepage header with great images and inspiring copy
  • Social Proof, including testimonials
  • A strong call to action that clearly points potential clients in the right direction
• Optimize Your Forms – The easier it is for people to complete your form, the faster they’ll get to your offer, and the more likely they are to follow through. Request only a minimal amount of information, such as name and email address. The more information you ask for, the less likely someone is to fill out your form.
• Test and Tweak – It’s important to test one element at a time—a headline, a testimonial, a color, a call to action— then measure which version performs better. If the green “Submit’ button on your form results in more leads, make sure all of your buttons are green, then move on to testing the next element.

Getting Help with Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization can be confusing. It may be difficult to understand how to collect the data you need, or to analyze the data you have, so you can find new ways to get people to reach out. CRO professionals can provide you with the assistance that you need to make certain that your site is optimized to give you the maximum chance of converting a visitor into a client.

Rita Chaires

Director, Web and Online Marketing Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com