Most bloggers are obsessed with driving traffic to their sites. However, high traffic is pretty much useless if the bounce rate of the site is high and the conversion rate is low. Traffic stats do not indicate how popular or useful your blog is in retaining traffic. You need to consider your conversion rate to understand the profitability of your blog.
The conversion rate indicates how many visitors to your site stay and read the blog posts you write. The conversion rate shows how many people you attract end up becoming subscribers and followers. Your blog can only make money from people who commit to reading your posts, not those fly-by-the-night visitors that come, browse, and leave.
Bloggers should not be too worried about conversion rates that are other than optimal. You can always increase slumping rates by taking only a few proactive steps. Certain factors can slow down the conversion rate as well. For example, if your blog gets ranked right next to a super celebrity blog, your conversion rates might not be the best.
On the bright side, improving your blog’s conversion rate is not that hard. As mentioned above, a few, simple steps can remarkably improve even the worst of conversion rates. What you need to do is be aware of the following methods that will drive up your blog’s conversion rate:
1. Choose a Visually Appealing Theme
Even if you write about the world’s most interesting topic, readers will not be inclined to stay on your blog if it is not visually appealing. In simple terms, ugly blogs do not make visitors convert into followers. This is where the theme you choose for your blog comes in handy. Your overall web layout must be visually oriented, eye-catching and very easy to navigate.
Do not use old or outdated themes for your blog that are either cluttered with components or too focused on text. As a blogger, you know how visually oriented readers can be. Interesting blog titles coupled with stunning images naturally garner more clicks.
When you choose a theme for your blog, pick one that is minimalist and stylish. The theme should also allow you to post pictures without cluttering the post or making navigation difficult. The readers should be able to scroll down quickly without difficulty as well. Once you master these simple tactics, your blog’s conversion rate will incrementally increase.
2. Target the Right Reader Base
If your blog is not converting traffic, perhaps you are marketing to the wrong audience. This happens more often than you think. To get better SEO rankings, some bloggers use keywords and techniques that are trending among the wrong target audience.
It is not important to naturally attract traffic to your blog. You must drive the right kind of traffic to your blog. Otherwise, you will have a high number of people visiting your blog, but also a very high bounce rate. Try to gather data regarding the ideal reader base for your blog. Then, you should market to these users and ignore the others.
3. Make Sure Your Blog Loads Fast
Most bloggers misunderstand or overlook the importance of site speed when it comes to the conversion rate. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes for a minute. Would you want to wait forever for the blog, the images or the pages to load? Of course not.
Websites with the best conversion rates load under 2 seconds. If your website takes longer than 2 seconds to load, your conversion rate could plummet by a whopping 30%. Therefore, take the necessary steps today to make sure that nothing is slowing down the loading time for your blog.
4. Have an Email Marketing Campaign
To increase your conversion rate and make it stay that way, you need to take steps to retain readers. The best way to engage readers and to keep former readers coming back to your blog is via promotional emails. Your blog, like a proper business, needs a killer email marketing campaign.
You should email your existing readers notifications of new posts, noteworthy changes, and special offers. Conversion rates are primarily driven by existing followers and subscribers. Just as it is important to convert new visitors, it is equally important to retain converted visitors.
5. Boost Your Credibility as a Blogger, Writer or a Professional
All businesses, including your blog, require social proof to drive conversion rates. Readers will be more inclined to follow your blog if you have an impressive resume or an online personality. Great posts alone are not enough to convince web users that you are someone worth subscribing to.
You can improve your credibility as a blogger with endorsements from people who already have plenty of social proof. Try to get an endorsement from a celebrity blogger, or an actual celebrity. A much easier tactic to try is to become a columnist. You can certainly build yourself a good reputation by writing columns for web-based publications like The Huffington Post, Yahoo content, and Forbes.
Parting Words
You will not increase your blog’s conversion rate overnight. However, if you implement the above suggestions gradually for a prolonged period, you will be able to significantly improve your blog’s conversions. Driving the conversion rate takes time, so be patient and follow the suggestions explained above.