Web Design Tips to Double Your Conversion rate

It is very important for all businesses to have a conversion-friendly website to boost conversion rates. In such a tech-savvy world, it has become essential for businesses to have a presence on the World Wide Web and therefore a website is crucial to reach vast audiences and improve sales.

But just having a site is not enough; it needs to be designed properly to attract consumers and it needs to have unique, high quality content for search engine optimisation.

Getting customers to your site is a job in itself but if they don’t stay there, what is the point? The internet is so vast and full of millions of resources that you need to make the most of the platform and make your site stand out from the crowd- otherwise the reader will just flick to the next site and it could be your competitor.

There are various techniques which you can implement to ensure the web design is fully optimised. Here are 2 web design tips to double your conversion rate:

Search box

According to Econsultancy.com, up to 30% of visitors use the search box on e-commerce sites. Many users use the feature to find more information on a particular product or code with the intent to purchase.

• Reputation

Improving the user experience can improve your brand’s reputation as customers will be more satisfied and more people will use the site because it offers a better experience. An increase in site usage can lead to a higher conversion rate.

• Retention rates

They say that it is harder to get new customers than retain existing ones so improve your customer retention and loyalty by allowing them to navigate around the site easier. Effective usability will boost return visits and sales because they will be able to find what they are looking for easily.

• Position

The position of the search box is key though so ensure it is easily accessible across all navigation features and that it is visible on every page. Prominent positions on the page include the top right and ensure it is labelled clearly such as ‘Search’ or a magnifying glass.

• Speed

It is an option to include narrow searches within the box in the form of drop down menus to help the search relate to a specific section. Furthermore, some sites use an auto-complete tool to offer suggestions when a few characters are entered which aids to speed up the process and avoid misspellings.

Content

Content is king and the word is on everyone’s lips nowadays, especially given the latest algorithm changes by Google. The content on a website is crucial to give the consumer the information they need but it needs to be conversion-friendly to engage on an interactive level.

• Informative

First of all, it needs to be unique and informative. Content needs to be distinctive and it needs to be persuasive. But the trick is to time it right in order to sell your product/service. If you try to be too promotional too early, it will put them off.

• Appealing

Be short, sharp and precise. They need to know why should they use you but they don’t want to be given blocks of text that look complicated and boring. Grab their attention with a bold heading/ quote and make the page look visually appealing with bullet points. If it looks lengthy it isn’t approachable and it isn’t easy on the eye.

Rule of thumb: Short paragraphs get read, long paragraphs get skimmed, really long paragraphs get skipped.

Jason Fried July 9^th 2012

Rafal Tomal, lead designer at Copyblogger Media, also advises to reduce the overall line width and increase the line height between sentences, spreading content out so there is more white space.

• Headline

According to reports, the magic word to use in headlines which is clever and sells is the word ‘get.’Encyclopedia Britannica boosted its conversion rats by a whopping 103% when it replaced its headline and started it with the word ‘get.’ Sub-headlines can be influential too.

A compelling headline is crucial so use a long font for the headline, a smaller font for the subheading and then your normal sized font for the body of text. A big bold headline captures more attention than an image.

• Language

The key is to relate to the consumer- what can they get out of your site? Entice them by tempting their curiosity. There is evidence that suggests call to action verbs is best. You may be telling the trust but the copy needs to be believable to gain your audience’s trust. So instead of telling them to do something such as ‘click here’, tell them what they will receive.

Instead: ‘Sign up for a free site audit’

Do: ‘Get a site audit for free’