A lot of new website owners think that the only role of web design is to be the face of your content. They treat it as if they are models on a magazine – they look beautiful donning the clothes that you have made for the public, so you hope that it is enough to convince the public to purchase any item from your line. This is a big misconception about web design, and one that might cost significant audience loss.
Indeed, web design should be treated more than just a catalogue or brochure. It should be helping you work towards being top-of-mind and achieving more sales or leads. The best web design should be able to boost conversion rates on your website and help increase people’s engagement with your content.
A clean layout with compelling content
You have a few seconds to make a good first impression when a visitor loads your website. Once it does, what will they see? Would the website be cluttered with content? Will navigating your website be intuitive? How about the images, are they high quality?
Users need to be able to digest the content and the aesthetic in one fell swoop. So you need to make sure that your website uses only compelling and high quality images. Try to limit your navigation tabs to five, at the most. Since they will be seeing the home page first, try limit the whole content to 300 words, then convince them to read more and provide a link where they can be redirected. The trend with clean layouts is a grid format. The main reason behind it is because it allows the visitor to see an overview of what the website is for and what content they should expect in it.
Make sure your website follows a logical flow
This just means that when a visitor goes to your website, it is clear to them which pages to click on to get the answers they need. Usability is key in making sure that you do not lose significant traffic. If being on your website is intuitive – meaning, the navigation is easy to understand – it can lead to higher traffic and an increase in conversion.
Other than limiting the number of your navigation tabs, see how quickly people can find information on your website by beta testing your design. The goal is to be able to lead them properly from the first fold to the pages that they want to visit. When you do this, think about these three kinds of visitors:
- Top of the funnel visitors – these are people who know nothing about the products or services that you provide for them and are looking for more information.
- Middle of the funnel visitors – these are people who has an idea about what you are offering and are close to becoming a client.
- Bottom of the funnel visitors – these are people who know a lot about what you provide and are basically just comparing reviews and prices.
Use the proper typography
Remember that some people will not spend a lot of time checking out your website. So when you create a concept of your design, make sure that it is readable even when visitors are just skimming. This is also the reason why home page content should be concise, so that it would be easy to read through when customers are rushing. There are font styles recommended for optimal speed reading, you can test out which ones will work best for your website.
These are tried and tested ways in making sure that each element of your website is a conversion opportunity. Take advantage of these and see how it can help increase your sales and engagement significantly.