A website is the backbone of any business, regardless of which type of online marketing you are focusing on. Every type of advertisement, content or information that you put online will direct users back to your website so it’s vital that it gives them a clear idea of your brand and the types of products or services that you are offering.
With businesses transitioning online, it’s important to make your website stand out from your competitors to encourage visitors to purchase or get in touch.
One of the biggest issues that we spot with websites is that those creating them choose the designs based on their personal preferences. The website isn’t about you, it’s about your potential customers because, at the end of the day, it’s them who are vital to your business. Of course, having your own input into your website and how it looks is important but it is critical to understand how users interact with your website based on previous data and how they may possibly react to new changes. It’s nothing personal!
Why is the design of the website important?
Simply put, people don’t trust poorly designed websites. Having a site with a poor design or outdated information can lead people to question the authenticity of your business/website, therefore stopping them from getting in touch or purchasing. With a professional website, audiences will feel more comfortable when on the site and in buying from or contacting you. It is absolutely vital to build trust with your audience so that they remain on your website because, when visitors remain your site longer, it creates many more opportunities to capture leads.
Additionally, it is the first thing that your audience will see when coming into contact with your business. Within seconds of being on the site, they will judge your business so it’s important that you make a positive impact on them. The impressions that you make on them will be the difference between them remaining on your page or leaving to visit a competitor. After all, first impressions count!
Learn how a user acts on your website
To understand user behaviour, you can use tools such as Google Analytics. This allows you to review how many clicks certain buttons have received, how many users have visited particular pages, how they found your website in the first place and lots of other variables. This data is incredibly important to gain an insight into the performance of your website. There is even a behaviour flow chart to show you how people move around the site, indicating where they drop off the most.
Information such as the above gives you a clear indication of particular pages which could be causing your users to decide to not get in touch or purchase. This is where you then can make changes or run tests to increase the conversation rate of these pages.
Additionally, there are heatmap tools out there that allow you to really get a picture of how users are moving around the website. You can see where people are spending the most time on each page and what sections they interact with the least. When amending or redesigning websites, this type of information is especially useful to give you a better understanding of what people are doing once they land on your website – whether it’s what they try to click on, where they scroll to, what they highlight and much more.
By using these types of tools, you can spot consistent trends in user behaviour. For example, you may find that you have some text on your website which many users have been trying to click on. With this information, you can then change this into a button directing them to a specific page to encourage them to complete an action that you value.
Get opinions!
Did you know that you use platforms to get opinions from many users online?
Crowdsourcing allows you to build a platform for your business that allows your customers to give their feedback to you. For example, you can use this to get users to provide information on the usability of your website. This will allow you to gain an insight into a large audience and how they feel about the website itself.
There are many websites out there that can help with crowdsourcing opinions and there are even some who create an open marketplace where some can submit their web designs and then you can choose which one you like. Doing this allows you to pick from a design which is already approved by many online users.
Your customers are your best advisors so asking them for more information on your website and how they found their experience can provide you with some surprising insights that you may not have found before.
The key aspects of a highly-converting website
As it can be difficult to know what should be where on your website, there are some fundamentals aspects that you should have in place.
- Having visible calls-to-action (CTAs)
These are arguably some of the most important elements on your landing page so it is absolutely vital to ensure that they are clearly visible to all visitors. Therefore, having them above the fold (the section of the page which is visible without scrolling or clicking) can encourage users to complete the action you value as it’s one of the first things that they come into contact with. This is because it has been shown that drawing more attention to your CTAs can significantly boost conversion rates.
- Increasing the “sense of urgency”
Conveying a sense of urgency encourages customers to convert on the site. However, it’s important to not push this too far – after all, there is a fine line between the two. Based on a previous post from Marketing Land, creating a “sense of scarcity is a good way to start”. This is because people are more inclined to buy an item if they are under the impressions that there are only a few left, therefore pushing on them to act immediately. Although this may be specific to e-commerce industries, pushing on “limited-time deals” across services can also increase this urgency. You can also users timers or countdowns on pages to convince customers of this to encourage them to act a lot quicker then they may have done previously.
- Making a clear path through your website
Having a clear navigation path on the site makes sure that users can find their way to the pages that you require. For example, pushing them towards their cart or basket to complete their transaction. Basically, minimising the amount of work that a user has to carry out to find what they want and get in touch/purchase is incredibly important. This kind of method has shown to be especially important to large eCommerce companies who are selling a significant amount of products as it can be quite overwhelming for users who are seeing too many “layers” in navigation bars.
To conclude…
Now is the time to set aside any preconceptions that you may have about your website, or how it should look, and listen to the data that’s in front of you. Never stop testing or improving your website, there will never be a “finished product”.
Do you still want to learn more about this? Get in touch with our digital marketing experts today!
