When all your opponents are trying to launch paid advertisements, you can switch your attention to web design. Mainly, explore this opportunity to understand how it can boost your conversion rate. Good design always captivates a viewer’s attention.
So you click all day on the links and scroll, but then, you stop – at the first user interaction, an amusing photo, or at a detail that you have not seen before. Whatever it was, the eye caught on. Why did it happen so? The current trends in Web Design are attached to the user’s visual experience.
Like all trends, web design trends are changing. If you are running or promoting business, your website should attract attention, engage, and sell. This is the primary mission: to catch the user’s attention, keep it on the page, and increase conversion.
Before diving into the magic pool of web design principles, there is one crucial topic worth mentioning. We want to underline what mistakes and issues may be causing your conversion rate to drop.
Web Design Mistakes to Avoid
Over the past few years, web design standards have changed one after another. Professional designers imagine both the structure and all the features of the landing page. For this, you do not need to know programming languages or HTML coding.
Unfortunately, there are always pitfalls that can spoil the overall impression. Conversion may suffer from attempts to increase visual attractiveness. The website’s design should be consistent with the purpose of the landing page. It includes attracting visitors, subscribing, selling goods, lead generation, and so on.
But whatever your goal, a high conversion rate is a key to achieving it. Simply put, the visual updates for your website can decrease the conversion rate.
Mistake #1 – Conversion & Creativity
Every designer wants to impress the visitor by creating an impeccable landing page. However, people do not like all sorts of difficulties and incomprehensible creativity. That is why most online stores are arranged in almost the same way as real markets: the content must be neatly organized. The landing page should be a full-fledged presentation of the product from the first to the last window. Otherwise, the landing page becomes a field for gaining user experience, which affects the site’s conversion, not in the best way.
Perhaps this is not an option for your business: you offer a modest assortment and cannot afford a first-class design. In this case, your landing page should involve the visitor in the purchase process at a glance. The landing page must be converting, and your goal is to receive a new lead.
Mistake #2 – Your Website Functionality Is Difficult
Thanks to numerous widgets and plugins, new landing features can be added with a single click. It doesn’t matter if you are engaged in optimizing lead forms for customers, implementing a more convenient mobile version of the offer, or creating a lightbox: improving the landing page or even the whole website has been simplified.
The essence of the second mistake is the following: users may not like your new ideas. The number of triggers and fashion effects on the landing page should be minimized and, if possible, verified using a split test.
Mistake #3 – Enormous Images
It is not surprising that images form the basis of any design layout: modern Web users are too sophisticated with visual media. As you may have noticed, all sorts of visuals have shown tremendous promise in content distribution recently. Nowadays, pictures can replace thousands of words. The average landing page’s optimal size is approximately 320 Kb, of which only 206 Kb falls on the images.
“Supporting your content with visuals is a great idea, but you should remember that flaws in optimization will slow down the landing. That is why the decision to apply big images may become the reason for your decreased conversion rate,”- says Ben Grant, a marketing manager and a writer for Adsy guest post service.
Mistake #4 – You Are Not Trying to Be Original
At first, it might be a little scary to show your originality in content creation. Well, different groups of users have different goals and preferences. But this does not mean that you have to forget about being original and show something special to your visitors.
Your web resource should attract attention not only due to excellent design solutions. Simultaneously, design elements should not push the originality of copywriting of landing pages or websites into the background, but rather emphasize it. If not enough attention is paid to creating content, the conversion will be low.
Of course, design elements that focus on content will not work if the content itself is not impressive. Headlines, calls to action, CSS styles, and other details are essential components of a sales funnel. Jazzing up these elements can help you to achieve the best conversion for your resources.
Now that we have tackled the mistakes you must avoid, let’s discuss the main web principles that will enhance your conversion rate.
Significant Web Design Principles to Employ for Your Website
First Principle – Users Prefer Fewer Options
This is because of an idea known as Hick’s Law. Hick’s Law says that the more options and choices someone has, the longer it takes them to decide. Now, the longer someone takes, the more distractions and second-guessing they may encounter. Having more options will lead to a decrease in conversion rates.
If you have too many options and choices on your website, visitors are less likely to convert! Click To TweetWith the call to action (CTAs), which is a straightforward button, this is simpler to do. When you need to have more information or more choices, try to find ways to structure the information into a few different sections or pages to reduce the mental load in any one section.
Second Principle – Apply CTA Buttons With Contrast Colors
The problem is that most call-to-action (CTAs) mix with the rest of the design and become incredibly difficult to view. When you use contrasting colors for your CTA, you will draw the attention of visitors to the CTA, exactly where that attention should be.
For every website build, it is better to assign the color of the action. This action color will not be used in any other part of the structure and will contrast with other parts of it.
Third Principle – Implement Chat Bots
Bots can read and write messages almost in the same manner as a human would. They can be programmed to perform automatic actions, initiate actions on their own, and also respond to requests from other users. Nowadays, you can choose different types of bots to automate negotiations, transactions, and workflows.
Although chatbots are no longer a technical novice, companies are finding increasingly sophisticated ways to use bots to engage customers. Various websites use bots to provide the best customer service, generate sales-ready leads, and optimize the user’s purchase path – all on autopilot. This practice can be an example to follow.
Fourth Principle – Animated Characters Are Funny & Interacting
As you know, large exciting photos and videos attract attention on the landing page, but animated characters increase the likelihood of this, literally clinging the user to the hook. Partly a photo, partly a video – the animated character can cause an instant interest, but few people use such a feature. Place your elaborate CTA button on top of the image for maximum impact.
Fifth Principle – Annoying Overlays Are Working
You may love or hate it, but pop-up ads increase conversions. However, they do not have to be intrusive. Many users have formed a slightly negative attitude towards pop-ups, so now they should be used wisely. This year, you should pay attention to pop-ups that bring value to customers. This can be a free delivery notification, a free trial version of the product, or a coupon with a code.
Sixth Principle – The Scrolling Menu
In 2020, scrolling landing pages are widely recognized, as it makes the part of the page “above the fold line” less significant than we used to see it. More important than just the option of posting content in the first window, now you may engage your visitors in a fascinating story, overcoming objections and offering them a tempting call to action – all on one page.
This tactic allows you to turn the navigation of users on the site into an exciting journey (with a focus on conversion), rather than leaving them to roam on their own.
by Ahoy
