James Robertson is a passionate digital marketing expert who has worked alongside many great companies. He currently writes for CoFlex Marketing and is passionate about helping his clients succeed. In his spare time, he enjoys going to the gym and working out.

Your website, while being your asset in the digital sphere, also forms an essential part of your business strategy. In short, it helps build your brand equity, communicate with your target audience and drives sales.

As a result, driving traffic to your website is an important focus of your marketing efforts. However, traffic alone will not help your business thrive. Sales, the very lifeblood of your organisation, makes the difference between success and failure. And ‘conversion’ is what transforms visitors into revenue. Conversion can mean visitors entering their email address to download an e-book or book a trial of your product, make an enquiry about your offering or buy what you sell. It goes without saying, you must give ‘conversion’ its due importance when you design your website.

4 powerful web design tips to transform your website into a conversion-drive success:

1.       Pay attention to your landing page

When a visitor arrives at your website (via social media, Google search or simply keying in your URL)

• What does he see first?
• What is his first impression?
• Does he know what step to take next?

An effective landing page helps answer these questions. This web page is possibly the most important aspect of your conversions strategy, as it helps the visitor to take the next logical step in the ‘decision to purchase’. Some key factors to consider on your landing page are:

• Have one single Call to Action that directs the visitor to the next step, rather than confuse him with various messages
• Go for a full-screen landing page, as it helps hide all the other content of your website which can distract
• Divide the landing page into 9 squares and place your key message and visual along the center squares (center and left)
• Clean, crisp copy - Forget about clever wordplay and ensure the copy clearly states the key benefit you offer for the visitor if he chooses to take the next step. Also, the copy must clearly tell him what to do. Never underestimate the power of phrases such as “Buy Now”, “Click Here”. Although they seem simple, they have been tried and tested, and have been proven to work. The world’s best websites have mastered the art of clean copy to drive conversions.
• Aesthetics - Use an ‘easy on the eye’ color scheme and branding on the landing page. Also, visuals of human faces have been known to help improve conversions.

2.       Don’t give too many options

This may sound counter-intuitive, but think of websites such as Google and Apple. They don’t serve up a plethora of options. They offer limited options on the website, so as not to confuse the visitor with ‘information overload’. When a visitor lands on your site, they think:

• What do I do next?
• Where should I click?
• Should I read all this information or can I skim through?
• Why are there so many options?
• How can I finish what I came here for?

With all these questions running through the visitor’s mind, it is your job to make his life easier by gently taking him through with limited options. Unless you’re Amazon or eBay, it’s best to keep one objective for each web page and tailor your content accordingly.

3.       Speed is king

On the road, ‘speed thrills, but kills’. When it comes to your website, speed is of utmost importance. If your website takes ages to load, your audience is going to grow impatient, and within seconds, will switch to another website, often your competitor’s. Studies have shown that website loading speed is directly correlated to conversions. Use the following tips to ensure your website loads fast:

• Refrain from using extremely heavy content
• Optimize images based on size and format
• The number of elements you have on your website result in an equal number of HTTP requests, thus affecting download speed. Lesser the better! This means, less plugins too!
• Aim for a server response time of less than 200 milliseconds.

The above aspects are of a technical nature. If you are not a competent website developer, don’t cut corners. Hire the best help you can afford to get the job done right.

4.       Write good copy

You wouldn’t believe the number of businesses that overlook the importance of good copy! Don’t fall prey to the notion that users don’t read. Yes, they do skim through, but good, clear engaging copy makes them pay attention. And, take action! From the moment a user lands on your website, your copy must get to work to connect with him. Keep these tips in mind when crafting copy to improve conversions:

• Use clear headlines that outline the key benefit of your product/service
• The headline should also tell the user what the page is about
• Use words such as “YOU” to speak to the user
• Use a clear Call to Action to tell the user what to do next
• Don’t write long paragraphs of copy. Keep it scannable by breaking your copy into paragraphs of 4-5 lines maximum. Each paragraph should have one underlying goal or message. It is also a good practice to have sub headings which will help users scan through your copy and gauge what you are trying to say.

Conclusion

We’ve only scratched the surface of web design to transform your website into a conversion driven success. The above 4 tips are a good place to start. Do drop us a line and let us know how they worked for you