ARTICLE SUMMARY
It’s easy enough to get people to visit your website, but not as easy to keep them on your page. Unfortunately, if they don’t stick around, you have very low conversion rates, deeming your site low quality and tanking your rankings. When your bounce rate is high, you’re going to get fewer visitors and naturally, fewer customers. This can all take a toll on your business pretty quickly.
It’s easy enough to get people to visit your website, but not as easy to keep them on your page. Unfortunately, if they don’t stick around, you have very low conversion rates, deeming your site low quality and tanking your rankings. When your bounce rate is high, you’re going to get fewer visitors and naturally, fewer customers. This can all take a toll on your business pretty quickly.
Converting site visitors into customers and increasing sales might seem challenging, but it’s possible thanks to two magic factors: psychology and proper web design.
It’s all about the user, meaning you have to cater to the user experience and make the website simple and easy to navigate. Don’t underestimate the power of psychology! The human brain works in mysterious ways, but psychology has shed a light on a few that we use for the purpose of better organization.
The power of an appealing web design ensures that your website is interesting and easily readable, inviting your users to spend more time on it. People will be unable to resist your well-designed website and the psychological methods you deploy will lock them into your site.
1. Use of colors
Colors seem to be used only as a necessary evil. Instead, they can be your biggest asset. Instead of coating your website in boring pastel colors, you can play around with the schemes. This way, stand out from your competition, thus sticking in your customers’ brain. They’ll also absorb much more information this way.
A design can positively glow if the colors pop. It brings a whole new dimension to the website that no other methods can provide. Color can also have a significant impact on the emotions your customers associates with you.
As we all know, color can be responsible for mood changes. Use this to your advantage. Research has shown that yellow is mostly associated with happiness and joy, while green reminds us of growth. Blue, on the other hand, is used for inspiring feelings of calm and serenity.
You can decide what kind of effect you want to have on your customers and thus help them associate your firm with the feelings you’ve provided. Don’t be afraid to mix colors for more fun.
2. Loading speed
If patience is a virtue, not many people are virtuous today. In the age of fast-paced technology, you have no choice but to keep up. If your website isn’t up-to-date and takes ages to load, chances are, people aren’t going to stick around. Update your site regularly and make sure the loading is at optimal speed.
One thing that can help your website load faster is packing it lightly. Instead of putting everything on the main page, try separating things into categories and drawers. This way, your users will immediately see the front page and will be able to easily navigate the website.
There are many programs that improve site speed. Always make sure to follow the latest web design trends for more creative ideas.
3. Mobile optimization
When it comes to great website design, mobile optimization can’t be neglected. Today, people use their phones way more than they use their computers. Most of the things they look up and read online will be through their phones. If your site isn’t suited for their mobile phones, they will vanish. You can be the best website with the most valuable information, but they’re going to look for a different source immediately if you aren’t phone compatible.
The biggest issue for mobile phones seems to be videos and photos. Of course, there can also be trouble with the text being improperly displayed. All of this should be optimized and fixed. Just look at it from a customer’s point of view. If you can’t read an article or see a picture or a video because of site technicalities, will you hang around and wait it out?
4. Quality content
Utilize high-quality content to lure prospective customers in. Filling your site with interesting content can give people the opinion that you are an industry expert. They will be more likely to trust you and do business with you if you gain that reputation. Being authoritative and sharing your expertise is just the attitude customers are attracted to.
You can build this image using different methods. The best one is to have a site blog. Here, you’ll be able to post articles on various topics regarding your line of work. Try and get your articles shared by other industry influencers. Being a reference confirms you as an expert.
Of course, the problem is that most businesses today don’t have the time to devote it to creating quality content. Australian firms have solved this problem by partnering up with marketing firms. For example, a startup in Brisbane wants to build their image through content, but they don’t know the first thing about it, nor do they have the time to put things into action. All they have to do is turn to sources like the Brisbane SEO firm GWM who will do the work for them. These types of companies work hard to make you look like an expert online, and are definitely the key to better conversion rates.
5. Easy readability
When it comes to easy readability, both website design and psychology need to work together. You need to organize your content in the most convenient way. This means that you need to change your website layout according to the way that people read.
The thing is, no one is going to stick to reading a huge block of text when it just seems like words piling on. Paragraphs retain people’s attention. The longer your viewers stay on your website, the higher the chance of them becoming your customer is.
People read in a very specific way. They actually read the first two lines, and then just scan the rest of the text for relevant information. This is why having paragraphs helps them find information more easily and frustrates them less.
Use photos and videos between your subheadings and paragraphs. This way, you’ll illustrate your point better, add a little pizazz to the website and hold your audience’s attention. It’s much easier for the human brain to retain information if it’s followed by a photograph they can associate it with.
As you can see, working on certain factors with the help of psychology and proper web design can have a gigantic impact. In the age of technology, your website is the face of your business. To improve your conversion rates, you need to think like your customers. Magnificent design and logical organizational methods can play a huge part in converting your visitors into customers.
About the Author: Nick is a blogger and a marketing expert currently engaged on projects for Media Gurus, an Australian business, and marketing resource. He is an aspiring street artist and does Audio/Video editing as a hobby.