Website Conversion Cheat Sheet

Qualifying Questions – Life is too short to work on lousy projects

  • “Sell ability” – Does the offering have compelling competitive benefits?
  • Morality – Will the world be a better place if I help this person succeed?

Logical Flow – Lead people through a logical sequence

  • Is there a logical flow from traffic source, through landing page and into conversion?
  • Will any page in the sequence confuse the user?
  • Is the navigation and structure of the site easy to follow?
  • Is the checkout process simple and logical

Basic Website Structure – Don’t renovate a site that is fundamentally flawed

Expected Metaphors – Offer the best version of the site a user expects to find

  • Do people have to stop and think before they can use this site (yes = bad!!)?

Market Segmentation – Match offers to customer segments

  • What different customer segments exist? What is there relative value? Do they have different motivations?
  • Can we split landing pages and sell with greater relevance?
  • Can we increase or duplicate our best performing channels?

Clear Value Presentation – Simple, clear presentation of value is critical

  • Is the key value proposition clear?  Am I engaged even if I don’t play the video?
  • Is headline punchy and believable?
  • Are key benefits obvious (use great bullet points)
  • Do graphics reinforce value claims or distract?

Specificity / Believability – Be specific

  • Am I vague or specific? (specific numbers can be good)
  • Are my claims ‘fluff & hot air’ or are they believable.  (check headline & bullets)

Personality – People buy from people, not faceless websites

  • Can we humanise the site? (intro video, about us, bio box, smiling face photo)
  • Can we adopt the persona of someone they’d trust to buy from?
  • Have we respectfully guided customers  (without assuming industry knowledge, acronyms etc.)

Best Competitive Models – Learn from successful competitive models

  • Can any great ideas be learned from competitors?

Skilled Sales People – Gain insight from those who sell this product most successfully

  • Is there an awesome sales person who sells this stuff that I can talk to? I want to know what the customer is like, specifically ‘who makes the decision to buy and what are they really looking for?’

Scarcity / Urgency – People buy scarce resources for fear of loss

  • Is there a legitimate (& believable!) scarcity tactic I can use like limited stock or time?

Social Proof – People feel comfortable following the crowd

  • Can I add or make better use of social proof (testimonials, social media feeds)

Authority – Use Authority to legitimise your offering

  • Are there authority figures that use this product? Can I use their logo? Can I get a testimonial?

Distractions / Friction – Don’t distract users as they’re doing what you want, don’t ask people to think

  • Am I clear about the main purpose of the page (vs. the secondary and tertiary purposes)
  • Will I confuse users of my site?
  • Is the checkout process cluttered?
  • Am I tempting my users with dancing cats on YouTube

Risk Reduction – Reducing Risk increases sales

  • How can I take the risk of purchase away from my customer? (guarantee policy, guarantee seal)