Convert Visitors to Customers with These Key Web Design Factors

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Let us crush a common misconception: an eye-catching website is not the be-all and end-all of your digital marketing efforts. While a modern website design is considered ideal, it still won't do much if it does not generate any conversions.     

A web design specialist knows the primary goal of any website is to generate conversions. That said, your website should be designed with turning visitors into paying customers in mind.

The lowdown on conversion rate

In the digital marketing space, conversion rate is defined as the "percentage of the total number of website visitors that completed or took the desired action." When it comes to website conversions, there are two distinct categories: macro and micro conversions.

Conversion Rate of Your Business Website

Macro conversions

Macro conversions are designed to help complete actions that can affect the company's revenue growth. Examples include signing up for a free trial, requesting a quote, making a purchase, and filling out a contact form.

Micro conversions

On the other hand, while micro conversions have a lesser impact on revenue, they are still considered beneficial to the brand/business. This includes social media engagements, free downloads, and blog subscriptions. 

Key web design factors that can impact conversion

Structure of the website

When it comes to converting visitors, how your website is structured can make a huge difference. Come to think of it, even the most visually appealing website won't help generate conversions if visitors can't find what they are looking for quickly or will have difficulty purchasing your products or services.

When designing and structuring your website, following The Rule of Thirds is recommended. Based on the principle, the website should be divided into thirds, horizontally and vertically. That means you will have nine equal squares. 

The four middle intersections are known as the strategic points of interest. Your website's critical elements like call-to-action, key features, etc., should be placed in the strategic points of interest so visitors can find them right away. 

Look in your prospect's website

It is also crucial that your website structure is straightforward and user-friendly, with critical information situated in areas where visitors can easily spot them. Also, if your website has a complex structure, it can be intimidating, and visitors might hit the x button before they even make it to the purchase section.

Navigation

When it comes to navigation, the goal should be to ensure visitors can move from one page to another seamlessly, regardless of where they started. It is also crucial to remember that not all of your visitors are tech-savvy. If they can't find a specific product or page right away, they might just leave your page and look for another provider.

One very effective trick you can do to boost conversions is limiting user decisions. According to Hick's Law, a popular web design principle, the more choices you provide to your visitors, the longer it will take for them to make a decision. The danger here is your visitors can get overwhelmed and confused and might check out.

When designing your website, it is best that you follow the three-click rule. This website navigation rule suggests that visitors should find whatever it is that they are looking for within three clicks. Otherwise, they can become impatient or frustrated and leave.

Content

A superb copy can also help boost your conversion efforts. While promoting your product or service is one of your primary goals as a business, you need to put effort and time into providing valuable content for your visitors.

What content marketing is

Like other marketing tactics, your content strategy should start by finding out who your target audience is. Knowing who your audience is will allow you to write content they will find engaging and interesting.

Writing content should go beyond providing information. More than anything, your content should be used to establish trustworthy relationships between your brand and your target audience.

It would also be best to keep your content fresh, engaging, and practical if you want to attract more visitors and convert them into loyal customers.

Aesthetics

The images, fonts, and colors you use are considered vital design considerations as they are a few of the things visitors will notice when they visit your site. One great approach to website design would be to keep things as straightforward as possible.. If your website is too stuffy or crowded, it might turn visitors off.

A minimalist and clean website is more likely to boost conversions as it keeps the attention on the crucial elements. Also, when the non-essentials are removed, you will have more space for your call-to-action. It is also recommended that your choice of imagery and colors should tie all the aspects of your website together.

You also need to make sure that you choose colors that will clearly complement your brand and convey your brand message. When it comes to images, it is ideal that you only use images that are of high quality. Many visitors also are more likely to click on search results with compelling images.

Website readability and layout

It's safe to assume your website visitors will not be reading everything written on your site. Typically, they will skim the pages looking for headings and keywords that can lead them to the information they are looking for. Understandably, they are also likely to skip anything that is not relevant to their search.

Considering this user behavior, you need to ensure your website layout can make your content as readable as possible. Otherwise, you won't be able to entice your visitors to take any action. Countless research has indicated that visitors scan web content in an F-pattern

In other words, most visitors tend to read the first few sentences on the page to have an idea of what the page is all about. From there, they scan downward and make small forays into the left side of the content. The bottom right area of your website will get little to no attention at all.

With the F-pattern, it will be easier for you to create a web page layout with a superb visual hierarchy. You can also make this reading behavior by putting essential and powerful information and headers at the top of the page. Other essential elements should also be placed along the F-shape lines.

Less relevant objects like cookie policies and sponsored ads should be placed in areas with lower visibility. Another critical point to remember when designing a web page layout is the use of negative or white space. When you pay attention to negative spaces, you can keep everything legible, avoid clutter, and direct user attention where you want it.

Website speed and responsiveness

One of the factors that can directly impact the overall user experience is page speed. Some surveys have indicated that site visitors are less likely to visit slow-loading websites again.

Website usability tools you can’t ignore

Search engines consider mobile friendliness and site speed when ranking web pages. 

This means websites that load faster tend to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Also, when you rank high in SERPs, you are in a better position to generate traffic, and ultimately, conversions.

In today's era, where almost anyone can access information through their phones, it makes perfect sense that you ensure your website can adapt to tablets and mobiles. If visitors have to zoom in and out because your website is not optimized, you can lose visitors and conversions.

If you want to turn visitors into paying customers, creating a mobile-friendly and responsible website should rank high on your list.

Call-to-action

One of the most straightforward ways to ensure your visitors complete specific actions is to tell them. However, you also need to know how, when, and where to do it if you want to achieve the results you are looking for.

High-converting websites have something in common - they have strategically positioned call-to-actions (CTAs) all over the website. The CTA is one of the most crucial web design elements that can affect your conversion rate. Once you have your visitors hooked, you can easily invite them to make a purchase.

A call-to-action can come in various forms. It can be a video, a button, a text, or an image that will entice consumers to perform a specific action. Ideally, a CTA should use action-oriented language that will explicitly instruct visitors to do certain actions like call, learn, check, download, and buy.

You can also make CTAs more effective and powerful by demonstrating or creating urgency. Using certain words that indicate a limited-time offer like now, limited, or today will entice consumers to take action.

Color

One web design element that's often underrated is color. This might not be common knowledge, but color can play a crucial role in usability. It can also help convey the meaning of the brand and the overall mood of your website.

The Best Free Landing Page Builder

It is also important to remember that different color combinations can evoke various reactions and emotions. That said, when picking a color scheme for your website, make sure you pick a combination that will evoke the emotions that your brands would like to convey.

Pop-ups

According to a study, the average conversion rate for pop-ups is 3.09 percent. However, done the right way, pop-ups have an average of 9.28 percent conversion rate. Undoubtedly, pop-ups can boost your conversion rate dramatically. If you want to make the most of your pop-ups, keep the following tips in mind: 

  • Try several offers (different products, premium content, PDFs, etc.) until you find something that will work for you
  • A 30-second delay timer on your pop-up can keep them from becoming annoying
  • Ensure your pop-ups are easy to close
  • Set a cookie, so the pop-up will only appear only once per user (many pop-up tools will allow you to do this)

Landing page

Nothing is worse than a landing site that pulls users in various directions. Your landing page should be concise, clear, and easy to navigate. As a general rule of thumb, do not include anything that is not essential. Stick with the basics and don't include anything that will not serve any purpose.

When possible, you can implement the following: 

  • Features and benefits
  • Headline and subheadings
  • Reviews and testimonials
  • Visual with context (this should highlight what you are offering)

While there are other things you need to incorporate like social proof, videos, and a live chat box, the bottom line is this: you need to eliminate all distractions. Ideally, your visitors should be able to focus on what you have to offer and nothing else.

Value proposition

Consumers are more likely to support or purchase products that appeal to them. With that in mind, all your design and marketing efforts will be considered futile if the offer does not create any value for the customers.

Every business should have a unique selling point (something that sets them apart from others) that can make them stand out from the rest. One great way to establish your value proposition would be to present the benefits of the products and services you are offering.

In today's highly competitive and crowded market, differentiation is vital. A great web design strategy should highlight the brand's value so consumers can easily differentiate you from the others and distinguish what makes you stand out.

To attain your desired conversion, your value proposition should be manageable and precise. Making exaggerated promises that you won't keep can compromise your brand's credibility and image.

Headline

A great headline can make or break your landing page. If you use the wrong approach, your visitors might not read any further and will leave. On average, 8 out of 10 people will read the headline copy. This means only 2 people out of 10 will take the time to read the rest. Imagine that!

WhenA/B testing your headline, experiment with the following variables: 

  • Tone
  • Length
  • Use of numbers
  • Use of statistics

Final thoughts

Boosting your conversion rate can be easy if you know the web design factors to focus on. Start with the critical web design elements laid out above. Also, don't shy away from making tweaks to your strategy now and then until you find something that will work best for you.

About the author 

Gabby Klesser

Gabby Klesser is the Outreach Manager for LA Website Design, a digital marketing agency that has assembled a team of expert web designers and digital marketing strategists. She often writes about web design, UX, social media, technology, marketing, and starting a non-profit.

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