How to Design a Website: 5 Essential Success Factors
Revamping your website can help you with achieving your online business goals in no time. Unfortunately, many companies find it overwhelming to figure out what changes are best in their context to see positive results with conversion rates. Here are a few tips that should be kept in mind when undertaking research to implement conversion rate optimization:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Your website needs a solid foundation
- Constantly improve the length of checkout process
- Grow lifetime customer value
- Build your email lists carefully
1. Your website needs a solid foundation
Every website requires a strong foundation to promote customer engagement and increase profitability. No one will be persuaded to purchase your product or sign-up for a service if your website is uninspiring or fails to highlight the merits of what your company offers. A few aspects need to be developed if you want the website to be attention-grabbing:
1.1 Attractive design
A well-designed website stands out from the rest in this highly competitive market space. Don’t make the mistake of loading your webpages with a range of different elements that are likely to confuse the customer. Instead, focus on showcasing easy-to-navigate and visually appealing features that will hook any visitor and highlight the essence of your product or service. Sometimes, it may be better to spend extra and invest in a professionally designed website or at least modelling it based on such design layouts. Making a good impression with prospective customers is a must! Keep in mind that an average person’s attention span is approximately 8 seconds.
1.2 Ensure your website functions seamlessly
Websites need to be maintained in order to function seamlessly, like a well-oiled machine. In order to avoid unexpected crashes or snags, tracking the performance of your website with data-driven analytics reports can help to keep the traffic consistent and raise the number of visitors over time.
1.3 Easy navigation and layout
Complicated navigation menus and unclear page organization can be hurting the engagement rate and conversion rate on your website. It is extremely vital to optimise navigation based on audience preference, and prioritising a clear path to knowing more about your product or service, as well as the checkout section. The key is to reduce the effort required by your customers to get what they need; this will assure them of a great customer experience.
1.4 Make your words and graphics count
The type of content on your website can heavily influence how your conversation rates increase with time. Do not go with stale stock photos and boring text when creating a landing page — this will negatively affect the interest customers have. Instead, you want to give an engaging high quality image or video of what your product can offer. Visuals that are clean and make a good impression, will enhance the conversation rate significantly. In addition, focus on the type of words and language used on each page — there needs to be a sense of urgency and it should entice people to take the plunge. Remember, the call to action is not always a button that is placed on a page; it can be reinforced with tactful word usage.
2. Constantly improve the length of the checkout process
If the checkout process is time consuming and unclear, many customers abandon their purchases mid-way and close the website on their browser. Customers value the efficiency and seamlessness of a shopping experience every time. When the checkout is slow or requires too many forms being filled, conversation rates are impacted in the long run.
2.1 Understand the checkout flow
When a website visitor has decided what they want and added it to the shopping cart, they should be able to instantly access the checkout page before losing interest. Ensure that the checkout button is clearly visible no matter which page they are on, and provide lots of payment options for flexibility. Ideally, there should be checkout icons on the top and bottom of every webpage.
2.2 Set a schedule to review the checkout process
A great way to affirm the performance of your checkout process is by running A/B tests from time to time. This will also help you to better understand what aspects are driving high conversions, and capitalize on the same. Start by choosing a specific element on the webpage to test, which will result in 50% of site traffic viewing one version while the other group sees the second version. You can then run a comparative analysis between the two versions to assess which one performed better with visitors.
3. Build lifetime customer value
There’s an old saying that “the customer is king”. Your brand value is determined by happy clients, who in turn will spread the word about their positive experience. Develop a reputation as a reliable and trusted company to ultimately reap the benefits of lifetime customer value.
3.1 Mobile ready
Websites are increasingly offering mobile platforms for added convenience among site visitors. If you have additional resources, you can even offer an app based version to customers who are frequent shoppers. According to Mobile eCommerce Stats in 2018, around 62% people who possess a smartphone have made a purchase online in the past 6 months. The share of mobile retail sales is projected to rise significantly in the ecommerce market over the next few years on a global scale.
3.2 On-page SEO
Developing and implementing an integrated SEO strategy is essential to success, especially if you want your website to appear in various search engines. One part of this process is on-page SEO techniques (i.e. engaging description, attractive visuals, keyword usage and other content), which lets search engines know that the page is extremely relevant and good enough to be featured.
4. Build your email lists carefully
Thorough and well-rounded email lists play a major role as a smart business asset, apart from the website itself. It allows you to share the latest updates directly with customers who have expressed interest in your product or service. The easy accessibility of an email inbox cannot be discounted as a fail proof sales channel. While you may have other successful ways of networking or engagement, a solid email list can make quite a difference.
