Top Web Design Practices For Conversion Rate Optimization
It feels great to see all your optimization efforts bear fruit. Your hard work is finally paying off, with your website right there on Page 1 of the search engine results pages or SERPs. More often than not, a high ranking means better chances of getting clicked by users, and if the steadily increasing traffic is any indication, the links to your pages are getting a robust amount of clicks. Pretty soon, conversions will follow, and you will be at the top of the world when the subscriptions or sales come in.
Except that your website’s conversions are still few and far between, if there’s any at all.
Then again, you’re not the only high-ranking website with anaemic conversion rates, which can make you feel that all your SEO efforts seem to be in vain despite the high SERP ranking and healthy traffic. In all likelihood, your web design has something to do with it. Perhaps you need to implement some web design practices that will lead to better conversion rate optimization.
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Web design isn’t just for making a site look good.
There is a prevailing belief that web design exists solely to make a website look pretty. Sure, your site’s overall look depends on web design, but it just so happens to play a crucial role in generating leads and conversions. For all you know, some tweaks to your site’s web design can lead to better conversion rates.
Let’s take a look at some of the best web design practices that can help you with that.
A landing page that grabs people’s attention
A good landing page is typically your primary lead generation tool. With a strong headline, a high-quality image, and your offer, your landing page can, over time, grab the attention of visitors and entice them to sign up. It will do just that, as long as your landing page doesn’t have popups and more than one call-to-action (CTA) that might confuse users.
A short contact form
Lead generation will be very difficult without a contact form. However, for your contact form to do its job, you have to make sure it is short and sweet. Lengthy, complicated contact forms that ask for too much information turn people off. You’d be lucky if you can find people who like filling out overly long forms, both online and on actual paper.
Instead of practically asking for a visitor’s CV, your contact form should only ask for a name, an email address, and a zip code to better your chances of getting that much-needed lead.
A clear, well-written offer
So your SEO work has led someone to your landing page. That visitor then reads the offer but immediately bounces off to another site.
It’s possible that that visitor just wasn’t interested in what you have to offer. Or that visitor was interested, but could hardly understand what your offer is saying. Considering that they’re pretty busy people themselves, they likely prefer looking for what they want in other sites than spend a lot of their time trying to figure out what you’re trying to say with your offer.
In anything, excellent communication is of paramount importance. The offer on a landing page needs to be clear and well-written. Use creative adjectives, strong verbs, and simple sentences when writing your offer to get your point across more easily.
Better visibility for call-to-action (CTA) buttons
A CTA button must be highly visible, so put it where visitors can immediately see it. No sense trying to convince people about your product or service only to frustrate them because they couldn’t find the CTA on your page. Also, make it red or orange to make it even easier to find.
Videos
Reading a well-written article about a certain topic is good, but watching a video covering the same subject is even better. It would be easier to digest and is infinitely more engaging. People also tend to stay longer on a page with a 3-minute video, and that should help with your bounce rate.
If you haven’t been putting up videos, then it’s time you start doing so. Videos already make up more than half of the worldwide web traffic today. By 2021, that figure would be at 82%, according to experts.
Improve UX
So much is being made of user experience or UX these days, and it’s only right to give it importance. In fact, making it easier for users or visitors to do things within your website should be a priority of every webmaster.
Making navigation within your website flow more smoothly is one way of ensuring great UX. The same goes for posting more infographics and other kinds of easy-to-scan content. Steer clear of incorporating too many popups as well.
Testimonials
There’s no one in a better position to say something about your products and services than your previous customers. Their feedback could go either way, but if you get authentic and positive comments about your offers, why not use them as testimonials and feature them on your site for everyone to see?
Some may dismiss such testimonials as fake, but as long as you know that they are genuine ones and they say something good about your company, don’t be too shy about sharing them with everyone.
Going mobile
How can you expect higher conversion rates when your site wouldn’t display well on mobile devices? More people already use their smartphones and tablets for surfing and shopping. If your website doesn’t look good on these devices, expect to miss out on that chunk of the market because mobile users aren’t likely to spend more time on it.
If you want to get that share of the mobile market, then go for responsive web design, which is the best way to make your site more mobile-friendly.
To be clear, the tips above do not really guarantee immediate and numerous conversions, but they would give your conversion rate optimization efforts a nice starting point.
