It’s no secret that small businesses can reap great benefits from Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO). However, this is easier said than done. Here are some popular techniques and tips for optimising your website’s conversation rate. This can help small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners unlock the greatest gains from their websites.

Set fewer goals

It can be tempting for small business owners to try everything to boost their website conversion rate in order to drive sales. But this approach often has the opposite effect. Try to make people purchase products, sign up for emails and download ebooks on the same page, and you're more likely to turn them away.

Instead, set fewer goals. Defining a single conversion objective for each page can be much more powerful.

Run A/B Testing

While there are countless ways to alter your website for CRO, A/B testing is one of the most effective methods. This involves comparing two versions of a web page to see if particular changes are working towards increasing the conversion rate.

A/B testing is used to examine every feature and component of a website – from images and headlines to checkouts and sign-up forms. If you’re handy with coding, you can even use free A/B testing tools such as these from Airbnb and Facebook.

Strengthen calls to action

Minor changes on a website can make a remarkable difference to its conversion rate. One of the simplest ways to do this is to strengthen calls to action (CTAs).

CTAs are powerful marketing techniques that urge people to act, for example by purchasing products or signing up. Nature Air used A/B testing to measure the impact of including a CTA – in their case, a button to book flights – next to travel information. This simple change increased their conversion by more than 590 per cent!

Cut confusion

Confusing websites are conversion rate killers. To make your site easy to understand and navigate, you need to optimise your website design. Various design elements and principles can improve website navigation and ensure people find information quickly.

Repeating key elements throughout your website is another way to make it simpler for people to navigate. For example, having CTA buttons the same size and colour on every page makes them easier to recognise.

Ensure mobile friendliness

In today's digital age, people expect to be able to shop hassle-free on mobile phones. With smartphone penetration above 100 per cent in Singapore, consumers increasingly use mobiles to research and purchase goods – MasterCard found a third of surveyed smartphone users shop online. This is why making a website mobile friendly is key to increasing its conversion rate.

Use Google’s Mobile Test to see if your website is mobile friendly. If it isn't, you need to reorganise content so it loads fast and is easy to view.

Make sure your website loads quickly

Slow loading caused by network problems can also drag down your conversion rate. One survey found 40 per cent of consumers would simply abandon a site if it took more than two seconds to load.

You can reduce the impact by preloading information to keep users engaged, or using animated visuals to camouflage lag.

For small business owners, CRO is a potent tool that unlocks the full power of websites to increase profits. Before putting techniques into action, review your website's performance, set clear goals for improvement and remember – minor changes can make a major difference to your conversion rate.