How Design Impacts Your Website Conversions
As we grow up, we are told never to judge a book by its cover. This rule doesn’t apply to your business or website, unfortunately. First impressions are absolutely everything, and the visual appeal of your website will determine whether your visitors instantly click away or convert into customers. People don’t buy from a business if their website puts them off. If a site has a confusing mix of content, poor and lagging graphics, and a cheap, outdated site – it’s going to put your customers off.
Conveying your value when customers open your website, is super important.
If your customers can see your value, they will have more confidence to explore more of your website and your service/product offers. Your site has to make complete sense of what you offer. A confused mind is not a buying mind. It’s important to lead visitors through your site with obvious calls to action. Without this, they will not flow through your site. A key factor when you are crafting a website is to convey an atmosphere of trust and confidence. Appearances truly matter and the way your website feels to customers matters.
Some of the key elements to consider for website conversions in your web design process include:
Looks Matter
The first impression that you give your customers is the most important thing to consider with website conversions. Often, it is your first point of contact with your audience, and how your visitors perceive your brand. People only take 15 seconds to decide whether they will use a particular brand, and you want those 15 seconds to be valuable to your small business. Making sure that your website offers a strong first impression is essential. Take action and review your site, does the home banner set the tone for who you are and what you offer?
Answering Questions
The way your information flows on your business website matters. When your customers are looking for a particular service, they have questions that they need answering. As they scroll through the website, they will be looking for key words and phrases to jump out at them. If your website doesn’t immediately answer those questions, you will find your bounce rates to be high. You should ensure that your website flows similarly to how your customers will think, so getting inside their head matters. If you are building for conversion (such as buying a product or booking a call), you need to have clear calls to action on your site. These should just jump out at your customers so that they can instantly see what they were looking for. It’s your job to answer their questions, and it shouldn’t take your customers digging through your website to get those answers.
How Much Is Too Much?
It’s vital that you think about the level and mixture of design you have on your website. Having too many design elements can be intrusive and look garish, and not enough makes your website look boring. Stocky images and flashing lights aren’t going to draw the customers in. What will draw them in are relevant images that connect you to your audience. Your images are as important as the words on the page, so find the right balance and not go too over the top with them. The best advice I can give is that visuals are there to support the storytelling. Use “white space” as a way for your visitors to rest their eyes on important information.
Clarity Is Everything!
It’s important to make it clear on your site what you can offer. Being vague doesn’t help anyone out, and this will only leave them confused with the services or products they are looking for in order to fit their needs. If you consider that your website blog is showing your content leadership, clarity is even more critical. Your blog (or vlog!) should be a part of that conversion strategy for your website, especially as many of your customers won’t get to your blog via your website homepage. Your social media pages should be just as straightforward as your website for the same reason – people will click through from there to your website, and your words need to be clear to your customers. Confusion rises those bounce rates!
User Experience
User experience is an important factor in website design. It goes beyond designing the site and determines how user-friendly it will be for visitors to find their way around your page, which has a big impact on whether or not they purchase anything from you. Even if you have great content on your page, your website should be able to make users feel secure that they can find what they are looking for. The benefits go beyond making sure you’re designing something that’s aesthetically pleasing because it needs to work well from every angle as well. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes by thinking about this: would you want somebody visiting your store without any knowledge whatsoever of its products? What kind of impression do you think they’ll get?
Your website design will directly impact whether you have any conversions as it has to appeal to your customers. Appearances and use matter and no one wants to use a slow, ugly website and doesn’t offer what they are looking for.
Are you looking for a website refresh? I would love the opportunity to speak with you about what’s been going on and how we can help and support you. Feel free to book a free 30 minute call to chat about your business and website