Over the last decade, weโve seen the barriers to entry for web design systematically dismantled.
Platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and more recently Squarespace mean you no longer needย to be an experienced programmer to create beautiful, functional websites.
The natural result of this increase in accessibility has been a dramatic increase in website artistry. Visual designers are able to build and experiment with their artistic vision without the need for coding proficiency.
And of course, easy-access coding tutorial sites like Treehouse, SitePoint, and CodeCademy allow for even more experimentation and implementation.
This is fantastic news for innovation and the internet as a whole, but unfortunately, it also comes with a few significant caveats that often get overlooked.
In the quest to enhance our siteโs aesthetic value, we can actually hinder, if not kill, our conversions. Every website has a goal. It could be to gain readers, add subscribers, sell products, acquire donations, or influence readers to pick up their phone and make a call.
Regardless of what conversions look like for you unique site, the entire purpose of that siteโs existence is to convert. You arenโt actually interested in a better looking site. Youโre interested in a high-converting site, and if you arenโt careful, the same actions that make your site beautiful can also lower your conversions.
1. Window Shopperโs Delight
As a designer, you want to give your customers the ultimate browsing experience. You want to elicitย wonder and awe, or at least, โOh wow, nice site,โ when users reach your home page.
We know people donโt like to be sold; they like to buy. Accordingly, many sites these days are being set up like your typical departmentย store. Everything is neat and organized. Price-leaders and high-margin items are placed up front. If you need any help, just ask theย non-intrusive customer service attendee, Mr. Chatbox.
For companies with inventory at a similar scale toย department stores, this system worksโsay, large online retailers like Amazonโbut it probably wonโt work for you.
Very few businesses offer product numbers in the triple digits. Most offer one primary product/service with perhaps a handful of supplementary options. In fact, according to Forbes, small businesses should actively seek toย limit their product offerings.
For most businesses,ย theย website should be a complete sales presentation, from pitch to close, NOT a browsing experience.
For large online retailers, the odds of a customer buying any single product are very low. The odds of a customer buying 1 out of 1,000 products are much higher. Theseย retailers can afford set up a pleasant window-shopping environment, becauseย they arenโt attempting to sell any single item.
For your business, this probably isnโt the case. You are attempting to sell a very small selection of products/services, and you cannot afford window shoppers.
The moment users hit your site, they should be systematically taken through a highly intentional sales process fromย start to close.ย Your website design MUST facilitate conversion-minded navigation.
You donโt want customers leaving your site with nice feelings. You want them leaving with product shipped or service ordered. Leaving users to their own devices will kill your conversions.
Actionable Steps
- Take a look at your website, starting at the primary landing page, and objectively evaluate where the design navigates you.
- Ask a few people who have never visited your site to click-through, and watchย how they navigate your site.
- Use click-tracking software, like Crazy Egg, to take a detailed look at how users interact with your site and then optimize.
2.ย Too Many Features
Thanks to snippets, widgets, and plugins,ย new website features are only a click away from going live.
Whetherย youโre implementing a lightbox display, creating a custom contact form, or designing mobile-specific menuย systems, the process for upgrading or beautifying your site is now incredibly fast and remarkably simple.
But letโs be honest. On some level, weโre all a bunch of techies. If youโve chosen online business as your career, thereโs a better than average chance that technology excites you, and thatโs great.
The problem is that sometimes, we evaluate a new website feature by how โcoolโย or โcutting edgeโ it is, rather than taking an honest look at how well it facilitates our conversion funnel.
I donโt need to give you examples of new features or applications skyrocketing revenue. You know about those.
But what about the software companyย that significantly increased social sharing numbers by eliminating the social share bar? Or how about the website-monitoring service that removed its advanced pricing-selection application, opting instead for the commonly usedย grid pricing system? Revenue increased by 114% after removing a more advanced feature.
The point is, as much as you love utilizing the latest and greatest, donโt ever assume newer equals more effective for your target audience.
Actionable Steps
- Evaluate each feature. Is it actively facilitating the conversion channel?
- Test each feature. Do conversion rates drop or increase when the feaure is present on your site?
3. Massive Images
Images are a fundamental part of most website designs, and itโs no wonder. Modernย readers are obsessed with visual media. Off the top of my head, I can nameย 10 different websites that generate >$1,000,000 in revenue by simply re-posting images and videos from around the web.
Saving my thoughts on that for the editorial section we donโt have,ย letโs look at the effect this can have on your conversions.
Images are great. Theyโre beautiful. Theyโre interesting. Theyโre worth a thousand words.
Theyโre also BIG files. The average size of a web page today is 320 KB. Out of that number, 206 KB is images. Thatโs average. Images are great, but un-optimized, they will increase your siteโs load speed. As KISSmetrics did such a great job of explaining, low upload speeds WILL kill your conversions.
Itโs actually quite shocking how many websites host massive images. Your high-speed enterprise connection might not miss a beat when loading your design at the office, but users will ditchย your site if hasnโt loaded on their 6mbps connection within 2 seconds. Donโt overlook this, or it will kill your bottom line.
Actionable Steps
- Optimize images to match the pixel size displayed onย aย 1366ร768 screen.
- Host massive images on 3rd party image hosting platforms.
- Implement the tips in this article.
4. Forgotten Copy
As Iโve mentioned previously, your copy is your pitch, presentation, and close all wrapped into one. People donโt simply look at images, colors, and geographic patterns and then decide to buy your product. The copy matters.
While your website should certainly take full advantage of eye-pleasing design elements, these elements shouldย serve to enhance and emphasize the copy, not hide it.
If copywriting is an afterthought in your design process, so are conversions. Users should be able to quickly and easily discern who you are and what youโre offering within moments of reaching your site.
And of course, using your design to emphasize copy wonโt do much if the copy itself is ineffective. Headlines, Calls to Action, CSS styles, etc., are all vital elements of your conversion funnel. For Copywriting 101, visit the experts.
Actionable Steps
- Have a 3rd party review your home page for 15 seconds and then write your pitch in 1 sentence.
- Perform A/B testing onย CTA and headline sizes.
- If your original copy was an afterthought, hire a professional copywriter for at least yourย landing pages.
Conversion-Minded Everything
As humans, we tend to bring our personal preferences and creative ideas intoย the web design process. While thereโs nothing inherently wrong with this, if we arenโt careful, we can lose sight of our websiteโs ultimate purpose.
You want conversions. You want a sales machine, not a piece of art. Your website canโt be your baby and your salesman atย the same time. Be willing to step back and get feedback, and never stop testing.
Read more Crazy Eggย articles byย Jacob McMillen