One of the simplest changes people can make to improve the conversion rate of their web sites is to make their forms simpler. When people realize that they have to enter a lot of information, it feels more like a test than a request to get more information.

Sometimes you might want to ask additional questions to gauge customer views or collect marketing data. In this case you need to be very careful. Is the additional information worth the drop in sales you might create from expanding the length of your form?

We did a test recently where we removed 3 questions from a form on a site we were upgrading. That simple change resulted in almost a 10% higher conversion rate for those who visited that page. That might not sound like much but if each lead was worth $200 to your business, is that additional information that you could get on the phone worth that much money.

We’ll often see subscription forms that ask for a title like Mr. or Mrs. and a last name. These are almost always useless so avoid asking for them.

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