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The most common website goals revolve around getting more conversions. You might want more people to sign up for your newsletter, more contact form submissions, more social media shares, or more sales. Whatever that conversion goal is, a well-designed website will make all the difference.
All your marketing efforts will eventually lead consumers to your website. If they get there and discover a poorly functioning, confusing, or ugly website, they’re likely to leave before doing anything. Consumers are still skeptical of the internet, and they often judge a website harshly upon first entering it.
In fact, research shows that first impressions on a website mean a great deal to customers. Research collected by John Kramer Marketing shows that it only takes website visitors half a second to form their opinion about your website.
Most of the time, the complaints involve design, mobile use, speed, content, and lack of contact information. If you want to see more desired actions on your webpages, focus on these five areas for increasing conversions.
1. A Few Basic Design Features
Let’s look at some of the basic design must-haves for a high-functioning, converting website. You’ll want to examine the following categories and make sure they look good and function well for users.
Beauty: They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but with websites, there are some standards to beauty that you’ll want to keep. Avoid anything ugly, gruesome, or otherwise unappealing that could drive customers away.
Social Media Integration: Place social media buttons on multiple pages of your website, especially landing pages where a desired action can take place. Don’t forget Instagram! Even though it’s a mobile-only platform, it’s the third-largest social media site and a huge tool for growing your business. Along with placing it on your website, build a powerful profile. You can buy engaged Instagram followers, create organic content, and buy advertisements on the page. Making your social media platforms desirable will increase conversions exponentially.
Navigation Placement and Functionality: We’ve all been frustrated by a wonky navigation bar. Some websites put it in a strange place to try to be original. Others have tabs that are difficult to access and click. Stick with familiar website conventions and put your navigation bar at the top. Then, perform user testing to make sure the bar works well and is glitch free.
Color Scheme: Never underestimate the power of a good color scheme. More than half of website visitors say they won’t return to a website with a bad color scheme. Furthermore, color influences about 85 percent of a consumers say they buy products based on color. Choose two to three aesthetically pleasing colors on your website for ultimate appeal.
Images: The use of high-quality images goes beyond pixel count. It means that you’re using the right subjects, good lighting, and originality. Increase the use of faces to build trust and give visitors a sense of familiarity. Try to use faces of your team members or customers rather than stock photos.
2. Improve Responsive Design
Now that we’ve covered the basics of design that usually make or break a good website, let’s look at some of the more essential aspects of your site. First, examine your responsive design. Most websites are designed for mobile use, but how mobile-friendly is it really?
Sometimes, a template that’s advertised as mobile-friendly is still very difficult to use when put to the test. For example, your images may take up the whole screen and make it difficult for consumers to see the text.
It’s also common to find mobile websites that are difficult to click. A consumer may want to subscribe to your newsletter, but the CTA button is not reachable or easily clickable for their thumbs, inhibiting conversions.
Most consumers won’t take the extra time to open your website on a desktop so they can complete a desired action. It’s important to improve your mobile design now to avoid missing out on conversions!
3. Speed Up Your Site
The speed at which your website loads holds great bearing on customer opinions. According to statistics gathered by Unbounce.com, nearly half of internet users say a slow website bothers them more than any other design feature.
When it comes to conversions, a rapidly loading website is integral! A delay of just 100 milliseconds can cause a 7 percent drop in conversions! And 80 percent of those who visit a very slow-loading website say they won’t return.
Site speed on mobile websites is especially important. With more than half of online shopping taking place on mobile devise, it’s essential to have a fast-loading website. But the average mobile webpage takes 15.3 seconds to load.
To speed up your website, there are several things you can do including caching files, removing unnecessary plugins, switching web hosting, increasing bandwidth, and optimizing images. It may cost a little extra to improve your website speed, but the resulting conversions will be well worth it.
4. Improve Your Content
Once a consumer gets over the initial impression of your website’s appearance, they’ll look more closely at the text and content on your page. Everything about your content should exude value for your customers if you want them to perform a desired action.
Start by matching your content reading level with your target audience. If you’re targeting young parents, you’ll use different vernacular than you would if you were targeting corporate executives.
You’ll also want to improve headlines and section descriptions. Each word should be carefully crafted to grab attention and encourage an action. The value proposition should be clear and compelling from beginning to end.
Additional media like videos and graphs should follow the same guidelines. The content should be simple to comprehend for your intended audience and interesting. It should promote your company while engaging its customers.
Most importantly, focus on your calls to action. For example, on ViralRace’s blog they have a call to action on their blog posts. Every content piece on your page should provide the information and enticement necessary to direction customers to your calls to action. Use buttons that are clickable and brightly colored to capture attention. Then, utilize strong phrasing that encourages people to act immediately. It should be short and to the point.
5. Make It Easy to Contact You
While focusing on all the details required to create a fantastic website, it’s easy to forget about the most important component: the contact information. Most standard website templates come with a built-in “Contact Us” tab, so you likely have that on your website. But making it easy for consumers to contact you requires additional steps.
The highest-converting websites provide contact information on multiple pages and in multiple avenues. They have a header and/or footer containing a phone number, email, or contact form. There may also be a chat box at the bottom of the page that pops open when a consumer enters the website.
As mentioned above, you’ll also want clear social media integration. For many consumers, social media is a preferred method of contact. They feel it’s a more personal way to connect with a business, not to mention, it’s more convenient for them.
Altogether, these five steps will lead you to create an amazing website. The opportunities to connect with customers will only maximize from there, and you can always look for more ways to improve your conversions as you go.
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