10 Design Tips to Increase Your Site’s Conversion Rate

Did you know that your site’s design can help or hinder the site’s conversion rate? The way your site looks will determine whether or not someone stays on the site long enough to make a purchase. So, if you’re having trouble with your site conversion, you may need to make some changes to your design.

1. Review Your Colors

Image via Flickr by yyq123

Take a look at your color scheme. There are a lot of color options, and it’s possible that your colors are keeping people away. There is a psychology to color, and you need to make sure that your website is projecting the correct feelings. When considering the colors on your website, take a look at the background colors, accent colors, and font colors.

2. Show Security Certificates

Image via Flickr by FundScrip

One of the best things you can do with your design is to help build trust with your customers. Many people get nervous about purchasing things online. There are so many stories out there about credit cards being stolen and more. Because of this, you need to make sure you show as much as you can that your site is secure. If you have security certificates, BBB accreditation, or any other security measures, you need to have these displayed prominently.

3. Have Great, Relevant Images

Images are important to your website. No one wants to stay on a site that is all text and no images. However, you need to be careful about the images you use. They should be clear and show the subject in a great way. They should also be relevant to your website. If you’re selling product, you should also have a few emotional image. However, make sure that they look good with the site and promote the emotions you’re trying to evoke.

4. Cut Down Loading Time

Image via Flickr by dpstyles

You need to ensure that your site’s loading time is as short as possible. This is important whether the majority of your visitors are on desktops or on their cellphones. Loading time is one of the biggest reasons for high bounce rates. There are a few things you can do to ensure that your loading time is as short as possible.

Check the coding on your site. Is there anything that could be causing a glitch in the loading? Another thing you’ll need to check is the images on the site. Though you want great quality images, you also need to ensure that you don’t have too many, and that they aren’t impacting the amount of time it takes for the site to load.

5. Simple Navigation

Image via Flickr by Rob Enslin

Make sure that your navigation is not only simple to follow, but simple to understand as well. When you have basic navigation that looks good, people are more likely to stay on your website. If you make it confusing or difficult for people to get where they want to go, they’re going to get frustrated and leave.

Take a look at your site as if you had never been there before. Is it simple to understand where you need to go? It might even be a good idea to get a fresh set of eyes on it for a new perspective.

6. Take Advantage of White Space

Image via Flickr by meddygarnet

White space is an important part of any design. It’s no different with your website. You need to make sure that you have a decent amount of white space in your website design. Otherwise, your site is going to look cluttered. When a site is cluttered, people are more likely to leave without making a purchase. So, if you’re looking for conversions, make the site simple with effective use of white space.

7. Get Rid of Unprofessional Items

Image via Flickr by TORLEY

In the 90s, stats counters were all the rage. However, if you want your site to be taken seriously, you need to make sure to get rid of this. Of course, you want to have access to the analytics of your site. However, this needs to be in the background, not visible to viewers. Other unprofessional things that you may feel are fun but simply don’t look good include blink tags and scrolling banners.

8. Get Info Above the Fold

Image via Flickr by spraints

What is the most important thing that your customers need to know about your website or product? This information needs to be immediately visible. All crucial information should be above the fold. What this means is that the information should be seen before your customers have to scroll down the page. This ensures that your customers will get the information that they need to see right away to keep them on the site.

9. Be Enticing

If you’re offering a sale or other incentive, you need to make sure that your customers know this immediately. One way you can do this is to put your incentive in your heading. Another option is to put buttons and other text information about it around the site. However you let your customers know, you need to make sure that the information is enticing to your customers.

If you’re offering free shipping, let them know. You can create buttons stating this information. If you have the incentive in your text, make sure it stands out. Consider putting the text of the incentive in a different color. This helps customers see it more easily.

10. Have a Strong Call to Action

Image via Flickr by edkohler

One thing that is too often overlooked is your call to action. Many website owners think that a simple “Buy now” is good enough. However, the stronger and more unique your call to action is, without being ridiculous, the more likely it is to get conversions. That is not to say that “Buy now” isn’t going to work. Having that on your site is still a good idea. Just take the time to mix it up with a few other calls to action, as well.

Website conversion has a lot behind it. Your design is only one aspect of whether or not your site is going to have a good conversion rate. It’s always important to test different design elements to see the effect they have on your users.

By Jon Correll