In this day and age, a website is mandatory in business. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, lack of a working website is one of the top ten reasons why many businesses fail.
Having properly optimized website properties can help attract a steady stream of new leads to your business, leading to a significant impact on your bottom line. And among the various things that go into website optimization is website design. The right design can make or break your optimization efforts.
If you have ever designed a website yourself or had someone else design it for you, then you probably know a thing or two about website design. Website design is all about things like the structure of the page, placement of the content, and design trends.
Besides website design, you also want to adhere to certain design principles when it comes to your company’s website. When executed properly, these design principles can help you achieve the ultimate goal – high conversion rates of your web visitors.
With that in mind, now let’s take a look at 6 design principles to help you boost your conversion rates.
1. Increase Your Website’s Page Load Speed
Did you know that your lagging page load speed could be costing you business? That’s right! According to Kissmetrics, every second your site takes to load counts. In fact, for every second your site takes to load, your conversion rate decreases by 7 percent.
The following are some interesting statistics on page load speed as per recent research.
- Pages that load within 2 seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%, while pages that take 5 seconds to load have a bounce rate of 38%. (royal.pingdom.com).
- 79% of web shoppers who have trouble with a site’s performance say they won’t return to the site to buy again. (neilpatel.com).
- 72% of mobile users have encountered websites that take too long to load. (neilpatel.com).
- On average, it takes 15.3 seconds to load a mobile landing page. (thinkwithgoogle.com).
With that in mind, what is a good page load speed? While dependent on the specific industry, the average page load speed is around 3 seconds.
To check the exact speed of your site, use online tools like Pingdom and GTmetrix.
2. Choose the Right Combination of Colors
Ever heard of the psychological effects of color? Well, you see, the color you choose can evoke different reactions and emotions. It can help create an idea, express certain messages, spark interest, and generate certain emotions.
Bright colors, for instance, are associated with positiveness and happiness. Dark colors, on the other hand, are associated with malevolence or sadness.
Also, some colors hold a universal significance. Red, for example, is usually a sign of warning while green means go. However, when these two colors are combined, people associate them with Christmas.
So, when it comes to designing your website, stick to colors that convert visitors as opposed to those you fancy.
3. Keep it Simple, Stupid
Remember the K.I.S.S. principle? According to it, systems work best if they are uncomplicated. In other words, choose a website design that is as minimalistic as possible.
Here are some of the reasons why you should go the minimalist way. A simple design is:
- Timeless
- Won’t distract your web visitors
- Will load much quickly
- Looks professional and trustworthy
- Easy to adapt
- They are effective, with Apple being a great example
4. Remember the 8-Second Rule
As humans, we have a very short attention span. As a matter of fact, it’s just a mere eight seconds, according to Time.com. Thus, you have a very short time to engage with your web visitor from the moment they land on your website.
Below are some tips to help you grab your site visitor’s attention quickly before the eight seconds lapse.
- Make your content more engaging and enticing
- Make use of audio or video to make your content interactive
- Use large, simple, and clear call-to-action buttons
- Use high-quality images that are relevant to your content and fit your website’s overall aesthetics
- Optimize your headlines by making them short and to the point
5. Include Faces in Your Content
Naturally, as humans, seeing other familiar faces is something that we love. With that in mind, form a habit of using faces in your content such as case studies, testimonials, opt-in pages, landing pages, and articles.
In fact, according to Hubspot, photos showing faces get 30% more likes than photos without faces on Instagram.
And as with any other image, make sure the faces you use are of high quality. If you are the face of your brand, this may be a rather simple thing to do. You will just need to take some photos of yourself and then have them edited by a professional. However, if you aren’t, then you may need to hire models or use stock photos.
6. Use High-Quality Pictures
Remember what we said about the human retention rate? Well, low-quality pictures will only mean one thing – a high bounce rate. In other words, it will mean that your web visitors will look at the webpage, conclude they don’t like it, and then leave immediately.
Understandably, low-quality images are boring and scream a lack of professionalism. To help boost your efforts in converting your web visitors, always use high-quality images.
According to research done by Skyword, top quality images can help a site net up to 94% more views. Additionally, another survey found that up to 60 percent of consumers are more likely to click on search engine results that include an image.
Thankfully, finding high-quality images is easy. Here are a few places to help you get started:
- Unsplash
- Superfamous studios
- Negative Space
- Gratisography
- Little Visuals
- Picjumbo
- Kaboompics
- Pexels
- StockSnap
- Death to Stock
The way your website is designed can have an impact on your conversion rates. Luckily, you can take your online business to the next level by following these 6 proven design principle from the pros.
* This article was originally published here
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