Whatever type of business you have, boosting the conversion rates that you get via your website is always a hot topic. But one thing that many marketers don’t appreciate seriously enough is how your web design can have a massive impact upon this; in fact it can be the difference between getting plenty of sales and not enough.

With research showing that as many as 46.1% of people base a company’s credibility upon the design of their website, if yours is not top-notch, you could be in for some nasty surprises. Make sure that your site looks attractive otherwise 38% of people will leave yours and go elsewhere!

Whether you are looking to build a website yourself via one of the many online sites available or are looking for a professional site to be built by a web designer in Birmingham, here is our take on the best ways to boost those conversion rates, keeping good web design at the top of the agenda.

Don’t provide too many choices – or as Hick’s Law states, action is lost or reduced if there are too many options available. By limiting the number of choices that you offer to users (such as in the navigation bar) they will make a decision quickly rather than lose interest. This rule can also be applied when they are deciding which blog to read, whether to purchase now, look for product reviews or even browse more of your items for sale. These are just a few of the common decisions made frequently so, as can be seen, your viewers are faced with many. One idea is to install a full-screen welcome gate – this can work well as it immediately provides just one focal point and call to action. A good website designer will decide which events should take priority and will provide one key objective on each page; by limiting the choices available, your conversions should automatically rise.

Never forget that your viewers have limited patience – if your page loading times are slow – even by one second – you face a 7% reduction in those valuable conversions! Check your page speed by using one of the many online tools available i.e. https://testmysite.withgoogle.com/intl/en-gb or ask your website developer to sort this out for you.

Negative space is valuable – don’t let the word fool you as ‘negative’ space is in fact very positive; this term refers to all of the white space on your pages and makes a big difference as to whether or not your content is easily readable and quickly scannable. Some of the things to focus on are leaving enough space between letters, breaking up large blocks of text in smaller blocks and including plenty of white space when it comes to your headers, footers, sidebars and body of the page.

Colour is king – even if you want your website to be in fairly neutral tones, don’t forget that colour can influence moods and feelings as well as actions and reactions. Think about your brand and choose suitable colours that communicate the right message. It is also essential to use contrast correctly for not only text but also headlines and any CTA (call to action) buttons; font and button colours should contrast clearly against the background.

Engage quickly – literally in 8 seconds! That’s how long you have to get your viewer’s attention; after that, they might be gone and looking at a competitor site. But the question is, how do you do this? Here are just a few well-proven and often used attention grabbers: use great headlines that are short and targeted, ensure that images are eye-catching and inspire action, make your sign-ups unmissable and clear, ensure that your copywriter uses powerful words and if they do go to exit, use an animated pop-up that might make them think twice!

Feature faces – no matter who views your site, they will respond to a face. Depending upon the face you use and the emotion that it displays, they will recognise it and connect accordingly. Use faces to create familiarity not only on your main pages but also within case studies, blogs and customer testimonials. If you decide to put your own face on the site, as the name behind the brand, get a photograph done professionally and leave space beside it to add a comment that includes a call to action. If you decide to use stock photos, make sure that they clearly convey the culture of your company so that viewers can relate to the face portrayed in the way that you want them to.

Images must be high quality – anything less is website suicide as it will convey poor quality generally which would-be buyers may see as applying to your products and services to. Images go a long way when it comes to generating instant appeal with 23% of viewers saying they would be far more likely to get in touch with a business that uses images. But steer clear of bland – make your images compelling, attractive and persuasive and your views can jump up by as much as 94%! No matter which industry sector you are in, don’t go down the corporate/stuffy route. Take a chance and use imagery that is enthralling and makes viewers not only look your way but remember you for all the right reasons.

Action plan
So there you are – plenty of good advice and principles that you should adhere to and employ when putting your website together. Even if you have a website at the moment, take a fresh look at it and see whether or not it ticks the boxes when it comes to providing the number of conversion rates that you need. If not, it definitely needs a good makeover or more significantly, a total revamp. Sometimes websites just need to be ditched and started again from scratch and this may certainly be the case if your conversions are nowhere near the level that they need to be.

Get thinking about it now; make a list of features that you want your website to have and put together an action plan. By finding an experienced and proficient web designer Birmingham to do the work for you, you are assured of not only a great looking website but a massive boost in conversion rates. At the end of the day, visitors to your site have to want to do business with you, and it is only when they are buying that you can safely say that your website is working as well as it should.