Do you want to increase the number of conversions your website produces? Do you have a plan for making your site a lead generation machine? If so, your plan may include focusing on your search engine optimization, creating meaningful content and starting a pay-per-click campaign. While any one or all of those things can certainly help increase the conversions your website yields, you may be overlooking one critical thing that may be even more effective. And that’s your website design.
Unless you work in web development or you’re a web designer, you may underestimate how important the design of your website is when it comes to conversions. Your web design shouldn’t be just a “pretty face” that people view when they navigate to your site. When done properly, your website design can make or break your site in the context of getting visitors to convert.
What Is a Conversion Rate?
Your website’s conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit your site and complete a desired action out of the total number of individuals your website attracts. A high conversion rate indicates that your digital marketing and web design are successful whereas a low conversion rate implies your marketing and website design may need some work. It’s important to note that what’s considered a high, average or low conversion rate will vary by industry and business model.
How to Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rate
Did you know that people who visit your website will judge the visual appeal of your site in as little as 7 seconds? That certainly demonstrates how important it is for your website design to make a visually appealing first impression fast, doesn’t it? While your site must show off its good looks immediately, your design must also incorporate elements that will retain people’s interest, keep them on your site and get them to convert.
Abide by Hick’s Law
If you’re a web developer or designer, you’re probably familiar with Hick’s Law, which is named after a British psychologist. Hick’s Law asserts that the amount of time people need to make a decision is proportionate to the number of options that are available to them. Put even more simply, Hick’s Law says that people will need more time to make a decision if they have more options to choose from.
To apply to Hick’s Law to your website’s design, you should limit the number of options people have if you want to increase your conversion rate.
Use the Rule of Thirds to Position Your Most Important Design Elements
The rule of thirds is often used in photography, but it can also be applied to the design of your website. To use the rule of thirds, divide your webpage into thirds vertically and horizontally. This will create nine equal squares.
The four places where your lines intersect naturally attract the attention of your site’s visitors. For this reason, you should place your most important design elements, such as your calls to action and buttons, in these locations to improve your conversion rate.
Improve Your Page Load Speed
It’s common knowledge that your page load speed influences the user experience your site provides and where your website lands in search engine results pages. Those aren’t the only things your page load speed impacts, however. How quickly your web pages load also affects your conversions. A delay of just one second can drive a significant number of your visitors to a competitor’s website.
To increase your conversion rate, you should do everything possible to improve your page load speed. You should start by using Google Page Speed Insights. This handy online tool will tell you how long it takes your pages to load and it will provide actual tips to improve your load times.
Be Consistent with Your Colors
You don’t have to be a website designer to know how important it is for you to be consistent with your use of color. The colors on your website must be in line with the colors you use to represent your brand in your logo. This can be difficult, however, if you have strong colors in your logo.
If your logo has strong hues, you can use them as highlights instead of using them as the base of your website design. You should use one color for all of your CTAs as well. Doing that will make them easier to recognize across your web pages, which can lead to more conversions.
Vary the Size of Your Fonts
If all of the text on a webpage is the same size, nothing on the page will stand out. You should vary the size of the fonts you use to relay your message, using larger fonts to emphasize the most important parts of your message like your CTAs.
Avoid Using Stock Photos
While it may be tempting to use stock photos because they’re easily accessible and affordable or free depending on the site you source them from, you should avoid doing so whenever possible. When you use a stock photo, you have no way of knowing who else is using the same image. This means one of your direct competitors may be using the identical photo to promote their goods or services.
To increase your conversions, you need to demonstrate how your products or services stand out from the pack. You can do this with original photography that shows off the things you sell in a unique way.
Hire a Website Design Company
If you lack the vision, time or in-house talent to design or redesign your website so that it converts as many visitors as possible, it’s advisable to hire a website design company. Our web design company creates conversion-capturing websites for small and midsize business in a wide variety of industries.
If you want a website that’s made to perform like a lead generation machine, you should put our team of web design experts to work for you. We encourage you to read about our website design services now. Once you’re convinced we’re the team for you, contact Beyond Custom Websites to schedule a consultation. We look forward to designing a website that converts for you soon.