Why a revamped website might be the answer to boosting conversions
A website is your 24/7 salesperson. And just like any of your sales staff, you need to make sure that they’re making the most of every opportunity.
The design of your website can significantly impact your conversion rate as 75% of visitors will assess a company’s credibility based on it.
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What is a website conversion rate?
A conversion rate is a record of the total number of people who convert (carry out a desired action on your website, e.g., purchasing or filling out a contact form). It looks at the total size of an audience (the number of visitors coming to your site) and is a metric that many marketers use.
Ultimately, the higher the conversion rate, the better your website is at converting. This number might differ across different channel sources; for example, you might find that users who find your website organically convert at a much higher rate than those who find you through Google Ads.
Why is your conversion rate important?
As well as giving a quick snapshot of your website’s health, it also allows marketers to identify which marketing channels they should focus on.
A website’s main objective is to generate conversions, after all. So a website’s conversion rate helps give us a snapshot of how well it’s doing.
If you’re wondering whether you have a good conversion rate for your industry, then it’s worth checking out Smart Insights guides.
11 Website design elements that affect conversion rates
Wondering where to start with website design to improve conversions? We’ve got you covered.
1. Use colour to highlight important elements
This is a good website design principle to follow. Using colour to contrast key areas is a good way of drawing the user’s eye to things like call-to-actions (CTA), headlines or even buttons.
Just make sure everything stays legible! There’s nothing worse than not being able to clearly see website elements. Or when a website goes overboard and uses so many colours that it almost hurts your eyes.
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2. Design using current trends
Keeping up to date with current website design trends helps make your website feel more recent and up-to-date.
If your website feels like other websites they’ve visited, it helps the site appear more familiar and even credible to website visitors.
On the other hand, it’s important to recognise when a design trend doesn’t have longevity. This is a key benefit of working with an experienced web design company as they’ll be able to guide you through the process.
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3. Focus on fewer conversion points
Don’t be afraid of using a single CTA to encourage users to convert. This method can actually help streamline the user journey to encourage more people to convert.
It can also make tracking conversions a lot easier as there’s only one figure to consider. However, if you do need more than 1 CTA it’s worth focusing on identifying which one is your ‘primary’ conversion.
A primary conversion point is your most important, so for many lead generation websites it would be ‘contact us’ and for e-commerce, it would be ‘buy’.
4. Safeguard conversion rates with quick website load times
You might be wondering what load times have to do with website design, but you’d be surprised at what a difference it can make.
A simple web design with compressed, optimised images will load much quicker. Having lots of unnecessary plugins can also have a huge effect on load times.
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5. Make sure your website design is mobile friendly
Over 62% of all internet traffic now comes from a mobile device. So if you’re looking to revamp your website design it’s important to ensure it’s mobile-friendly.
Not only does this benefit your SEO efforts, but it can also drastically improve your user experience.
Examples of key things to focus on:
- Large call-to-action buttons – perfect for tapping with your finger on a mobile screen!
- The mobile menu is easily accessible.
- Font sizes for heading tags and content are optimised.
6. User journeys should be instinctual
New website users need to be able to find their way easily around your website. You’ll see a big difference in your conversion rate if your website layout is confusing.
A confusing layout and unclear user journey lead to more valuable users giving up on your website. Working with a UX designer can help limit this problem, as they’ll be experienced in creating a clear user journey and positive customer experience.
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7. Grab their attention and keep it!
On average, research has found that you have just 8 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. It’s important to bear in mind this when designing your website.
Using large, benefit-driven headlines can help draw a user’s attention. Other ways you can design your website to catch attention are to make sure your copy is brief and to the point, your imagery is eye-catching and CTA buttons are large, simple and clear.
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8. Improve conversion rate by providing familiarity
People buy from people. There’s a reason why this saying is still popular today. Humans are programmed to connect with other human beings.
This can be used in your website design by using faces to improve familiarity. Bonus points if the images don’t scream stock photo. Utilising these techniques can help to improve website conversion rate.
9. Highlight genuine reviews to improve credibility
Using trust signals like highlighting genuine reviews can boost your website’s credibility. Especially if those reviews were placed on familiar review sites like Trust Pilot or Google Reviews.
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10. Don’t put people off with messy navigation
Your website’s navigation should be clear and easy to follow. A common website mistake is offering customers as many options as possible.
This can quite easily overload people and even overwhelm them causing higher average conversion times.
11. Checkout experiences should be positive
Make sure you’re not falling at the last hurdle with a poor checkout experience. Remember that many website visitors will be looking to purchase using a mobile device, so try to avoid very long checkout forms.
Making sure that the next step is always clear is crucial during the checkout process. Otherwise, you risk damaging your conversion rates hugely.
Want to improve your website’s conversion rate?
Copper Bay Digital is a digital agency that provides website design, custom development, app building and digital marketing. We’ve helped many clients improve their websites to boost their conversion numbers.
The first step is to speak with us to discuss your website brief. We can then put together a quotation for your custom needs.
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