As a startup, you would naturally like to get a leg up on your peers to make it to the next stage of the game on your way to success. One of the best ways to do that is to devise a well calibrated CRO (conversion rate optimization) strategy.

There are many ways you could go about doing this with complex tools and metrics, but at times you can get a bigger bang for the bucks you spend by simply easing customer interaction on your website. So, whether you are resource-strapped as many startups are, or otherwise, spare no effort to make the UX a fun thing.

1. Make your website user-friendly
A key element that helps drive traffic to your site is the speed at which it is able to load pages into the user’s browser. Not only do websites that are slow to load drive down Google ranking, but they also shoo away potential customers. Users expect websites to load within two seconds and you need to make sure that your site performs on that score.
Speed issues can be effectively addressed with tools like Pingdom and Google Page Speed Insights. Image compression also helps in a big way. Your website should be easy to navigate, clutter-free and well laid out.

2. Prompt users to make that purchase
Sometimes incentives like discounted rates, cashback, etc do not quite work to get users to click on the ‘Buy’ button. They need a bit of a push like a counter which counts down the minutes left to avail a discount on a product. The timer, of course, keeps going but the prompt helps some customers make a purchase.

3. Don’t make customers sweat the small stuff
Keep it simple. Don’t make customers jump over hurdles like signing up, account creation to make their purchase. Marketing and customer relations would frown at the prospect of losing out on adding to the mailing list, but whether to sign up or not is the customer’s call. And making then provide and think up passwords is likely to put them off the purchase.

4. Trust is the key
For obvious reasons, online purchase still does not inspire quite the same trust in the mind of the customer as a brick and mortar store purchase. Go all out to win the customer’s trust by keeping your website up to date and attending diligently to housekeeping tasks. Other proven ways to build trust include creating an online social presence. Social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, etc not only help advertise your brand but also help in projecting the right image for your business.

5. Leverage the mobile paradigm shift
Mobile is where the action is and will be for the years to come; it makes good business sense therefore, to optimize your website for mobile browsing. What this means is that your pages need to be optimized for visitors on the go. There are tools to help you achieve that and ensure fast loading as users browse your site on 3G or 4G signal.

Also, do not forget to compress images and keep your content lean, as lean websites make for better browsing and interaction.