Conversions are the key to business success. Without conversions, a business has no customers and thus no revenue. You might not realize it, but your website design may be impending your conversion rate. Numerous elements in a website design impact the user experience (UX). A negative UX means that customers would prefer to shop elsewhere. Research indicates that users take less than a second to form an opinion about your website, and the opinion is primarily based on website design. Therefore, it is imperative that the website design is effective and attracts the target market. This blog will list top tips for an effective web design to boost conversion rates.
What is the Conversion Rate?
The conversion rate measures the total number of people who have taken the desired action. It is calculated by dividing the people who have taken the desired action by total visitors. Suppose an organization is running a Google AdWords campaign for “web design Toronto” keyword. The total impressions are 100, and 50 people click on the ad. Thus, the conversion rate is:
50/100 = 0.5 or 50% conversion rate.
What is a successful conversion rate? It depends on the campaign metrics and organizational key performance indicators. A 50% conversion rate may be perfect for one but poor for the other. Therefore, whenever launching a campaign, it is essential that you come up with success measures. It will help monitor the campaign’s effectiveness.
Tips for Improving Web Design
Let’s focus on the top tips to boost your website design that improves conversion rate.
1. K.I.S.S
It is an acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid. The idea is to keep the website design simple so that visitors have no trouble navigating it or finding the relevant information. Unfortunately, many web design companies in Toronto and elsewhere have the habit of including irrelevant information or creating a sophisticated web design. Why? They believe that it will help the website stand out. It will stand out from the rest but for negative reasons. The target audience will have trouble finding the relevant information, which can lead to negative UX. Hence, they will prefer a competitor’s website.
Research shows that users only read 20% of the content, meaning they just skim through it. Therefore, divide the content in a manner that is easy to read and helps them find the relevant information. For example, if you are ranking your website for “web design Toronto” ensure that the content is based around this. Keep the rest of the information minimal as it will only distract the visitors.
2. Don’t Forget the White Space
Do not clutter your website with images, call to action (C.T.A.) buttons, images, and other information. Respect the white space, which is the blank space between different website elements. Without empty space, users can become overwhelmed and would rather exit the website than continue browsing it. There is no specific measure to determine the right amount of white space. The best tip is to keep experimenting with the website design until you find the right balance.
3. Website Speed
More than 50% of the users close a website if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load. 80% quit after 3 seconds. These statistics highlight the importance of loading speed. Most people think that website speed only depends on the hosting provider. But that’s incorrect. Although the hosting provider does determine a significant portion of the loading speed, the design also plays a part. You need to optimize the media. Videos, images, GIFs, and audio lead to slower loading times. Therefore, use them only when you need to, and do not forget to compress them. Numerous tools can compress media without impacting its quality. Lastly, optimize the website code.
4. Optimize for Mobile Users
Up to 65% of the website traffic now comes from handheld devices such as mobile phones and tablets. This number will only grow in the coming years. What does it mean for your website? You need to optimize your website for mobile users! If a website does not load correctly on a mobile, you are losing out on a majority of the traffic source. You will need to invest in a premium WordPress theme or talk to your web development agency for mobile-friendly design.
5. Keep in Mind the ‘F’ Pattern
Research shows that people browse the website in an ‘F’ pattern. What is it? People focus on the top left corner before continuing straight to the right. Then the focus is on the letter’s middle line. In short, your most critical content must fall along with this pattern. Therefore, if you need users to read something or click on a C.T.A., it needs to be here. It will help you get the best results.
6. Minimize Choices
Lastly, minimize the choices available to a user. If you want the users to complete a particular action, the content and website design must compel them towards it. If users are given other choices, it will distract them, causing them to lose focus. So, limit the options.
Conclusion
It concludes our blog on improving website design for a better conversion rate. We want to conclude by saying that there is no best design. It would be best if you continuously experimented to determine what works best for your target audience. Once you do that, the focus should be on continuous improvement.