How Better Web Design Helps Increase Conversion Rates

How Better Web Design Helps Increase Conversion Rates Web Design is a term that is used to refer to the overall process of designing and developing a website by making use of several steps, procedures and tools. Web design is not just the visual design that we see on websites but is the entire structure, architecture, user interface and website layout of the site which is done with the help of using colors, contrast, images, as well as typefaces. The design of a website not only represents a company but also has a major influence on the success of the company sales generated via this website. Depending on the web design principles and other creative techniques applied while creating a website higher or lower conversion rates can be achieved through the website. © Shutterstock.com | Rawpixel.comThis article is hence focusing on the topic of how web design influences conversion rates and explores 1) the importance of web design, 2) how to increase conversion rates with better web design, and 3) web design mistakes killing conversion rates.IMPORTANCE OF WEB DESIGNWebsite creation has become a highly important way to promote your business and to bring it infront of the eye of consumers. A website has become the first means of communication between you and your potential customers and hence one cannot overestimate the importance of a good web design. It is the medium using that a consumer understands who you are, what you do and how they can purchase your products / services. You may sometimes ask yourself why it is important to create a website from scratch or update it. Well, not working on your website or web design could land your potential customers into the domain of your competitor’s business and may reduce your sales. A well-built web site can generate high customer traffic, and a good user interface can result in better conversions. It is only through a website that one can reach a wider audience and deal with the competition in the industry. Without a good web design, it is impossible to display information effectively and attract consumers to your products and services.There are two types of web designs which you can choose from, and they are static design and dynamic design. Static web design is a kind of a web design which uses basic HTML code whereas dynamic web design is the one which uses refined and advanced technologies. Web designers make use of several techniques and principles like usage of white space, layout, colors, contrast, hierarchy, programming languages as well as a quick response rate to create a website and all these factors encompass an effective and rich web design.HOW TO INCREASE CONVERSION RATES WITH BETTER WEB DESIGNDid you know that the website navigation, its colors, usability, contr ast, layouts, images and graphics, etc. have a strong impact on the number of visitors you are converting into buyers? This is the reason why a website must be created with a lot of precision, consideration and by paying personal attention to its development and designing. A successful website is one which offers the best experience for the visitors and follows some technical and aesthetic rules. Besides the factors that bring together the visual appeal and look, it is highly crucial to pay attention to the rules that make the website function properly as well. After all, no one wants to browse through a website that responds slow, is difficult to read and does not provide the information the visitor is looking for.In order to make your website instrumental in increasing the conversion rate, it is important to follow some steps that can help you tick the boxes of a good web design. Here are the steps to improve conversions through web design:Step 1. Pay attention to the usabilityThe first thing that you will need to take care of to ensure that visitors can be converted into buyers is to create a web design that is highly usable and accessible. To ensure that your website has a high usability factor, you will need to ask yourself and some of your customers whether it is user-friendly and intuitive or not. A user forms an opinion about the usability of the site within the first few seconds he/she spends on it. The following are some factors that may help you improve the usability of your web design:High speed The responsiveness of the web design must be quick. If your webpages take a long time to load or if your drop down menus are hard to open, then this could turn away the visitors within seconds.Hierarchical order Make sure you offer things in such an order that your customers can move from one block of information to another without having to think. The hierarchy of your website should be very obvious and intuitive so that every visitors would spend least amount of time to get to his/her target.Readability Another factor that contributes to the overall usability is the readability of the content. Make sure it is legible, easy to understand and highly informative.Step 2. Pay attention to web design aestheticsThe next step that you need to follow in order to increase conversion rate is to pay sufficient attention to the aesthetics of your web design. You must remember that your site is the communication channel between you and your consumers. The welcome, the stay and the departure of the visitors on the website must be pleasant in order to make them come back again. Some factors that can help you create an aesthetically pleasing website include the colors used, the contrast offered, the images placed and the use of white space, etc. The following tips will help you work on the aesthetic design with ease:Using directional cues. Directional cues are the intuitive hints and subtle things that lead visitors from one point or block of inf ormation to another, in the most obvious and natural way. First time website visitors may often be clueless about where to click, what to do next and which information to read first. As a designer or website owner, it is your responsibility to lead them in the right direction. Hierarchical structure plays an important part here which means that you can use hierarchical of size and content to create a natural flow of user experience. This means that the most important information can be of the maximum size, followed by the less important one in the second largest size and so on. Some directional cues that you can use include arrows and pointers.Using encapsulation. Encapsulation is a method through which you can capture the eye of the visitor and make it move into the direction of what you want it to see. Simply put, encapsulation creates a tunnel vision effect that makes you look at what is inside the tunnel rather than on its boundaries or outside. This helps to prevent the eye of the visitors on your website from getting distracted and makes users focus on what is most important. But while following this method, one must be subtle and not aggressive. Using dynamic shapes or borders around the information that you want consumers to view is a subtle tip to use this effect to your benefit. For example, if there are certain blocks of information on your webpage but you wish to divert the attention of the visitors to a certain block, then you can put it inside a well-defined box.Using contrast and color. Colors can have an immediate emotional connect with your visitors and play a highly important role in improving conversions. For example, the color orange is considered as one of the colors which generate feelings of positivity and can work well on a web page. Some other colors that belong to this category are greens and blues. But the main trick lies in using different colors in the correct contrast to one another. It is very important that the background color and the color of the text are selected in such a way that the text is readable. In order to come up with the correct contrast, you will have to experiment and try different colors in combination with one another. While some colors that may not look good together otherwise could work brilliantly on your website.Using whitespace. Another very important aspect of an aesthetic web design is the correct usage of whitespace. A lot of web designers fail to understand its importance and may be afraid to let any blank space be visible. But white space can prove useful to uplift the aesthetic design and look of the website since it can be used to create a distinction between the various blocks of data or information. Correct use of white space can focus the attention of visitors to what is important and can help important information stand out properly. But at the same time it is important to understand that uncontrolled use of blank space can be a web design killer. One must balance the text as well as the imagery in the right way to help visitors spot what they are looking for. It can improve readability, create a balanced view and provide for an excellent customer experience.Using placement and copy design. You can also make the use copy design as well as correct placement of CTA to improve the overall conversion rate. A call-to-action statement or CTA is one of the most important parts of any website or web design, and it must be placed on the page in such a way that visitors can easily spot it and click on it. Its right placement and layout can help create a much more powerful as well as descriptive key. Call-To-Action statement must fulfill two main concepts: 1) the statement must be short and brief and 2) it must describe clearly what is going to happen when someone clicks on it. The best way to place and design it is by breaking up the copy into two parts-primary and secondary. The secondary copy must support the primary, and both must be highly effective.Step 3 . Pay attention to SEOAnother thing that can help you raise your conversion rates, traffic and profits is paying attention to the SEO. Of course, creating compelling and informative content is very important for all websites but what puts your site high up on the search engine rankings is the SEO that you incorporate or use. Spend enough time getting to know the principles of SEO and how you can use certain keywords, etc. to result in better traffic to your website. If SEO is improved, the number of people visiting your website will shoot up, and that leads to a chance of better sales as well. Whether you are a small business or a large one, the kind of content and information you provide on the webpages is highly instrumental in making an impression on potential customers.Step 4. Make way for better communicationAnother very important aspect or factor that can contribute to improving the overall conversions is how interactive the website or webpage functions. Having a conversation- centric design can directly impact and influence the conversions, and when such a design is incorporated, you give a chance to the consumers to give their opinion and take actions. It is important to remember that you will have to nudge customers or visitors yourself so that they can click on buttons that matter. Some ways to make way for better communication on your website are given as follows:Use large font sizes and font types for the main headings so that the user attention can be diverted to them. Make them bold and focused.Maintain and use a hierarchy of font sizes and appearance so as to divert the attention of the users first to what is important and then to the second most important thing and so on.Avoid making the page too cluttered and provide users the option to ‘buy’, ‘search’, and ‘click’ often to maintain the conversations.Make use of buttons like social links, sign-up forms, navigation buttons etc. and place them in such a way that the visitors can easil y click on them and make use of them to contact you or communicate with you.WEB DESIGN MISTAKES KILLING CONVERSATION RATESBesides following the above-given steps or tips, it is also important to avoid making some common web design mistakes that could totally be killing your conversion rates. It hardly takes visitors a few seconds to get turned off by a website and press the cross button. Thus, it is important to keep certain things in mind and avoid making mistakes that could prove too costly. The following are the main web design mistakes that could be hampering your profits:Not testing The biggest mistake you could but should not be making is not testing your website on a regular basis. Regular testing makes way for improvements, removing bugs and maintaining the top quality design. So make sure you get the web design tested and checked every few weeks to avoid some major problems with speed and efficiency.Too many distractions Make sure there aren’t too many distractions on t he website and the eye of the visitors doesn’t wander away from what is important. Create a simple and clutter-free design which doesn’t make the user get confused about which direction to go in. Remove unnecessary links, pointless information and inappropriate images from your website to eliminate the distractions as much as possible.Putting call-to-action where visitors can’t spot it As mentioned above, the call-to-action statement is one of the most important statements and it is important to place it where it would be easy to spot. Make it bold but use it subtly so that it doesn’t seem forced or over highlighted. Not doing so and merging it with the other content is also a big web design mistake that people tend to make.Making text and content mistakes No matter how small-scaled your business is and how little information you have to offer to your visitors, it is important that each and every word you say is readable, correct, and effective. Making text and content mis takes like grammatical errors, punctuation errors, using inappropriate words, etc. can put off visitors and may harm your conversion rates greatly.Trying to be too cool While it is fair that you speak well about your products, brand or services offered, flowing a little too much could seem slightly off-place. Avoid sounding too cool and breezy and keep the language and tone formal. Be friendly, but not over-familiar and make sure you don’t make the mistake of sounding obnoxious. The last thing visitors want to experience on your website is an overconfident supplier.