Written By: Steven Clarke
Even though the amount of traffic your website receives may be an important thing, it is definitely not the most important one. This place goes to the number of conversions you are able to make since this thing has a direct impact on the sales/subscriptions you manage to make. Now, according to some estimates, you have about 8 seconds to make first-time visitors stay on your website. Here are seven attention grabbing design tips that might just help you out on this front.
1: Minimalistic Approach
Even though you may feel anxious to include as many elements to your homepage, this is seldom a smart move. First of all, this will fall quite heavily on your website’s resources and significantly damage its responsiveness. In turn, this will make people abandon you in droves before they even give you a chance. Because of this, you might want to take a minimalistic approach and make your landing page into a gateway into your website, instead of trying to display as much as you can on it.
2: Intuitive Navigation
Another thing you may want to do as early as possible is deal a bit with the navigation of your website in order to improve visitor’s browsing experience. There are actually two ways to do so, one is with the help of a sitemap and the other one is by making the overall navigation as intuitive as possible. Few things are as frustrating as not seeing where you should click next, so it is your job to make this more than obvious. According to experts from a prestigious SEO Sydney-based company, intuitive navigation helps your Google rank as well, since it also helps crawlers get around your website.
3: Left Side Gets More Views
According to some recently conducted surveys, it was determined that the left side of the screen gets significantly more viewing time than the right one. To be a bit more specific, the area around 400 pixels from the left edge of the screen is the place where you should put the most vital piece of information you have since this is where your visitors will spend most of their time looking at.
4: Focus on Call-to-Action
Keep in mind at all times, that you have an agenda from the very start. Ask yourself: “What do I want from my website’s visitors?” Do you want them to subscribe, buy an item you sell, learn more or just share your content on social media? Regardless of which you choose, you need to have a clearly visible and sensible call-to-action button, they will be able to click on.
5: Adequate Images
Some of the latest published surveys once and for all revealed the ugly truth that 21st-century audiences simply don’t read enough. Sure, if the content peaks their interest, they might still give it a go but 8 out of 10 readers won’t go past headlines. Because of this, you need to find another way to animate them and one of these ways is the use of adequate images. Here, you need to find the right combination of quality, resolution, and theme, but at the same time make sure that it is properly optimized for the web.
6: Video Homepage
In order to stimulate your visitors to get involved, you may want to appeal to all of their senses at once. The easiest way to do so is through a cunning use of a video. There are numerous benefits of this approach, such as the fact that it gives you a great first impression, boosts your click-through rate and it makes your visitors stay on your website much longer. One more thing that is worth mentioning is the fact that this particular method is quite mobile-friendly, which is always a plus.
7: Use Testimonials
When forming a relationship with your visitors (later your clients) it is vital that you recognize the importance of trust. Well, you can start building this on your website, with a cunning use of testimonials. While some people may be skeptical towards website testimonials, this method can be quite effective when done right. Word of advice, however, there are some legal issues you should consider when you decide to make this move. For example, if the testimonials are inaccurate, you may be accused of falsely advertising your brand. This can not only lead to an increased abandonment rate but even be a cause for a, particularly inconvenient lawsuit.
In Conclusion
As you can see, boosting your conversion rates through web design isn’t a simple matter. Still, seeing how the results can turn your business around, this might be more than worth any effort invested. Needless to say, the above-mentioned seven pieces of advice are just the tip of the iceberg of all the options you have available, still, they are as good place as any to start this journey of a thousand miles.
Author bio: Steven Clarke is digital marketing specialist/business consultant. In his spare time, he likes to write about his ideas and share them with the world. Steven is a regular contributor to several websites.