A lot of the time, your website will provide the first interaction that a prospective customer has with your business. This means you need to make sure you’re following the best practices for website design if you want to make a good first impression and improve your chances of making a sale.
Your website’s design has the ability to affect your site’s conversion rate as, if a visitor does not have a good experience on your site, they’ll be unlikely to become a customer. That’s why, in this guide, we are going to take you through five different design tricks you can implement to improve your site’s conversion rate.
Make it as easy as possible to contact you from any page
When prospective buyers have a question or concern about your products or services, they’ll want to get in touch with your business. And, if they find it difficult to do this, they might leave without buying anything.
So, you need to make sure you provide multiple contact options on different pages of your site so people can easily reach you. For instance, you could offer an email address and phone number so prospective customers can contact you if they have any questions. You could also provide a contact form or install a live messaging feature on your website so people can get in touch with your customer representatives quickly and easily.
Once you’ve set these options up, you should also try to ensure that they’re clearly highlighted on your website so visitors can easily find them. This could mean placing them at the top of your web page so people can see them immediately when they land on your site. Or, you could make use of animated elements like arrows to draw attention to the contact options you’ve provided.
To give you an example, let’s take a look at a company that makes it easy for visitors to contact them from any page.
Sleeknote is a lead generation tool that makes it easier for businesses to engage visitors and turn them into customers. And, if you take a look at their website, you’ll see that they’ve done some work to make it easier for people to get in touch with their team.
You’ll find that they’ve installed a live messaging feature that pops up on every web page to let visitors know that they can always contact the company should they need any help. This makes it super easy for people to ask questions and it increases their chances of converting more visitors.
Another thing you can noticde in this example and possibly replicate on your site is the way they draw attention to their phone number with the use of a simple design element in the form of an arrow and text that says “call us”. This makes the contact option more visible and gives visitors another way to get in touch with the company.
Ensure it’s very clear how people can take the next step
If you can make it easier for people to take the next step with your business, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase.
You can design your site in a way that makes sure people know exactly what to do if they want to get to the next stage in their buying journey with you. For instance, you could create interactive tools that take people through the buying or ordering process.
Another way you can help people take the next steps with your business is by providing a downloadable brochure or guide that provides all the necessary information and actions required from people who want to use your company’s products or services.
Now, let’s take a look at how some businesses are making it easy for people to take the next step with them to give you some inspiration.
Looka is an online logo maker and they employ use of an interactive tool to channel people into their sales funnel. As soon as you get to their site, you’re asked to enter relevant information about your business, like the company name, industry, brand colors, and slogan. And, after the last question, the tool starts to generate various logos based on your answers, and you’re able to customize the ones you like best.
They’ve done a great job of designing the interactive tool because it guides visitors through each question up until the last stage so people are never left wondering what to do. It’s a very engaging tactic and it could also help improve Looka’s conversion rates because of how clear and simplified the process is.
On the other hand, Victoria University provides a downloadable brochure for people who might be interested in enrolling at the university. For instance, take a look at how they encourage visitors to download the brochure they’ve created for their VU Online Master of Public Health program.
Looking for a suitable school and study program can be a stressful task, and there’s a lot of information that prospective students have to consider. But, by creating a brochure, Victoria University has made it easy for future students to get detailed information about this course, the entry requirements, and what they need to do if they want to start applying. This makes things much easier for prospective students and could contribute to an increase in enrollments for the program.
Add eye-catching calls to action to your product or service pages
A call to action (CTA) is a prompt that tells visitors exactly what they need to do on your website. And, if you add calls to action to your product or service pages, they can guide prospective customers through their buying journey so they never feel lost.
To do this successfully, you’ll want to make sure your calls to action really stand out on your site. One way to do that is by using strong command verbs that can prompt a response from your visitors. Examples include “subscribe”, “sign up”, “save”, “build”, or other imperative verbs that encourage people to take action.
You should also try to place your CTA copy on bright and colorful buttons that will attract the attention of people who visit your page. You could use colors like red, purple, or green, but the main idea is to make sure your CTA buttons contrast against the color of your website’s background.
Let’s study how one business effectively uses CTAs on its website so you can get some inspiration for your own.
FreshBooks is a company that provides accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses. On getting to their website, you’ll first see that they’ve made sure their CTA buttons contrast well against the background of the page, making them much more noticeable to first-time or returning visitors.
Another thing you’ll notice is how the CTA copy tells prospects to try out their software for free without making any payments, and this is a great way to capture the interest of people who may not yet be ready to make a financial commitment. It will still encourage them to enter their details and begin their journey through the company’s sales funnels, thus increasing the probability that they’ll convert in the long run.
Regardless of the type of business you run — product-based or service-based — you can use these same techniques on your own website by using bright colors for your CTAs or making sure to mention it in your CTA copy if you offer a free trial or free consultation.
Always dedicate space to reviews or testimonials
Customer reviews can be very effective at boosting conversions because they show new prospects that you’ve helped past clients get positive results and can do the same for them.
If you’re not sure how to collect these reviews, you can simply send a polite email to past customers asking how they enjoyed your products or services and if they would recommend you to any family or friends. You can also create a survey form that asks specific questions about your services, include a comment box, and send it to people who have bought from your business.
When you’ve gotten these reviews, you can display them in a section of your homepage and product or service pages. Alternatively, you could even dedicate an entire web page to showing off all your reviews.
To give you a better idea of how to display reviews from past clients, let’s take a look at how iCASH does it.
iCASH is a financial lending company that provides an easier and faster way for Candian residents to get assistance. To show some social proof of their work, they’ve created a section on their site to highlight customer ratings, which currently average out at 4.8 out of 5, based on data from Trustpilot, an independent review site.
They also let visitors know that 4.9 out of 5 customers say they would recommend iCASH to their friends, and then there’s also some specific information about the company having more than 500,000 members and approving 93% of applications submitted. All of these details do a great job of letting people know that they can trust the company, which will make it easier for potential customers to convert.
Ensure your website’s imagery will help you reach your goals
As a business owner, you need to make sure that your website is designed in a way that allows you to include quality and helpful imagery of your products, services, and even employees. If your website doesn’t currently have enough space to do that, take a look at some of the website templates W3 Layouts has to find one that suits your images and type of business.
You also need to put a lot of thought into the type of imagery you use on your website as images can help boost conversions for your site. Also, note that different images will work for different businesses so you shouldn’t just follow what other sites are doing. There are different ways you can use imagery on your site. For example, you might choose to showcase photos of your staff that will humanize your business. If possible, try to make sure that you use images or videos that show your employees smiling or laughing so it’s easier for visitors to feel a connection with your brand.
If you sell physical products, try to make sure you use images that show people using your products so you can help customers imagine themselves doing the same. You could also invest in high-quality product photography that shows the different features of your products so people can see what they’re buying from various angles. And, if your company sells services, then you can create animated videos or graphics to help people understand your offerings. You can use design tools like Canva or Visme for this.
Now, let’s take a look at an example of a business that’s already using the right website imagery to generate more sales.
SchoolLockers.com is a company that specializes in providing different types of lockers for gyms, schools, companies, and even storage warehouses. And, on their website, you’ll find they’ve invested in quality product photos that show what they sell. These images show different angles of the lockers, as well as the various colors they come in. This is a great way to make sure that prospective customers see all the types of lockers they sell and it could also lead to more sales from prospects who like what they see on the site.
If you also sell a variety of products that come in various colors or even different sizes, make sure that you try to provide high-quality images of them all on your website, as this can allow people to get a better idea of what they want to buy and possibly help you increase your conversion rate.
Now let’s take a look at Zendesk, providers of an award-winning customer relationship software. If you look at their site, you’ll see that they’ve taken the time to include several photos of their team members to increase the chances that website visitors will make a connection with their business. They’ve made sure to use photos that show people smiling and having a great time at the company and this does a great job in humanizing their brand so prospective customers can put a face to the people behind the business.
On your website, try to include friendly and endearing photos of your company’s employees as this can help people feel more comfortable with your brand and make it easier for them to reach out if they want to work with you.
Summary
Your website design is incredibly important, as it can significantly affect your conversion rate. So, you need to make sure you’re doing what you can to get it right. From using clear CTAs to displaying reviews and testimonials or providing multiple contact options, these are all tactics that you can start implementing right away.
And, if you need some more help with designing your website, W3 Layouts has themes and templates for businesses in different industries, so make sure you check them out!
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Author bio & headshot:
Adam Steele is COO and co-founder of Loganix, which is an SEO fulfillment partner for digital marketing agencies and professionals. The company provides the SEO services that businesses need to grow and achieve their goals. If you enjoyed this article, you can find more SEO guides and templates on the Loganix blog.