When it comes to converting leads, it’s not just your marketing strategies that matter. In fact, your strategies will amount to nothing without a good website design.
According to one study on health websites, 94 percent of comments revealed that design elements of a page heavily influenced the trust of its visitors. The following are a few elements of a good website design that are needed to convert your visitors.
The Aesthetic
I realize that this may sound superficial, but when it comes to online marketing, people do judge a book by its cover. The look of your website reflects the professionalism of your brand.
If it’s not pleasing to the eye, visitors won’t think much of your brand’s professionalism, which will hurt the trust that they have in you and which will make them less likely to convert.
The User-Friendliness
I can’t tell you how often I’ve gone to a site in search of a specific product only to give up after a few minutes because not only couldn’t I find it, I had no idea how to look for it.
A user-friendly site should be easy to navigate.
No matter how strong your marketing efforts are, everything will fall apart if you do not have a good website design.
Mobile Optimization
Most of the time I perform a search online using my smartphone. This is not unique; today, the majority of searches are done on mobile devices rather than on desktops.
If your web design has not been optimized for mobile use, then you are going to have serious problems. If it is not optimized for mobile use, your site is likely going to have trouble loading for mobile users, and even if it does load, it may not be displayed properly.
Not only will mobile users abandon your site within seconds, but also you will be penalized on Google’s mobile search rankings, which will make your site difficult for mobile users to even find it in the first place.
The Readability of Your Content
The first thing I do when I visit a webpage is to scan the content to see if it’s what I’m looking for.
If I have trouble scanning the content because it’s not readable, then there is a good chance that I’ll just move on. This is how most visitors will approach your site.
There are a number of things to keep in mind in order to ensure that your site is readable. They include the following.
Typography. I know that some types of fonts such as cursive-style fonts are very aesthetically pleasing. However, these fonts can be difficult to read quickly and they can make your page look cluttered.
Stick to simple and clean fonts that are easy to read. Additionally, do not use more than two different fonts, one for your headers, and one for your body text.
Too many different fonts will make your website look messy and inconsistent.
Contrast. Make sure that the color of your text is in contrast to the background colors of your site. Choosing a dark purple color against a dark blue background is not a good idea. The background color should be lighter than the color of the text you use.
Blank space. If your text is not broken up, it means that it’s going to be difficult for visitors to scan. I recommend breaking up large blocks of text by using different headers, bullet points, numbers and more. Nobody wants to scroll through a giant block of text.
The Website’s Performance
A web design does not just refer to what you can see on the page; it also refers to how the site runs. For example, if your links do not lead anywhere or are broken, it’s going to hurt the user experience. If I’m having a poor user experience on your site, I’m not going to waste much more time browsing it.
Additionally, it’s important that your pages load quickly. If I’m browsing a new site, I do not want to wait more than a few seconds for it to load, and neither will anyone else. A webpage should take no longer than three seconds to load.
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