Whether it be in New York City, or website design in Dallas, the way that a website is developed and structured makes a big difference between being effective, and not. The whole idea of a website is to provide a great user experience for the visitor while gently guiding them and inspiring them to convert from being a visitor to a paying customer.
It takes a lot more than pretty pictures and nice words to win over the competition out there. Your website has to convey that it is important and trustworthy. A skilled website designer will be able to create an environment that is both friendly and helpful to the people that visit the pages of the site.
Some of the major components that affect users on the site are:
- Colors
- Graphics
- Headings and subheadings
- Call to action placements
The Things That A Visitor Sees When They First Land On The Website Will Influence The Entire Way They Perceive The Site.
High Conversion Rates Are Key Goals
For most websites, the ultimate goal is to accomplish a sale or a sign-up for a service or subscription. Whatever the best outcome of a web visit is defined as will be considered a “conversion” in the eyes of the webmaster.
If the website is an eCommerce site that sells sports memorabilia, each instance where a visitor makes a purchase, will be deemed a solid conversion.
A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that go through with a purchase. For example, if 1 out of every 10 visitors converts there will be a 10% conversion rate.
It is easy to see where the overall design and structure of the website will play a significant role in the way that visitors respond to the options that they are given on the site.
What is CRO?
CRO stands for conversion rate optimization. What this means is that a website can be created, tested, tracked, then mildly altered in order to optimize the rate of conversions that it produces. Without tracking where visitors go when they visit the site, and what they do while they are there, the only option is to guess what might be the solution to low conversion rates.
Some of the changes that webmasters will implement on a site in order to optimize conversion rates are:
- Phrase changes
- Call to action placement
- Direction of flow
- Images
There are literally thousands of tweaks a webmaster could implement that may, or may not, change the rate of conversions. However, a web developer that has a skilled team of data specialists to help them can achieve greatness.
In general, a CRO campaign will consist of analyzing data that is recorded with each visit to the site. With the help of data collecting software such as Google Analytics, developers can determine what is working and what is not working after a certain amount of time.
Some of the tactics that professionals use for optimizing conversion rates are:
- A/B tests
- Performance measurement
- Call to action implementation
While running A/B tests uses two different strategies and compares them to one another with data analytics is one of the most effective strategies, in some cases measuring the performance of a page or a link to a page works wonders.
In any event, the best way to get the most out of every visit to the website is to optimize the way that visitors behave when they land on the pages.
- Attract
- Engage
- Lead
- Convert
The ultimate goal is to build an attractive website that engages people, leads them down a designated sales funnel, then ultimately converts them into customers.
Why the Design of the Website Matters
True designers will understand the power of psychology. Although a web designer is not a psychologist, they will understand the way certain elements will affect people when they see them. Some of the top determinants are:
- The title of the page
- The color scheme
- The font
- Content
- Image placement
The design of a website can be inviting, or it can be unapproachable. If a website looks funky, or if it seems as if it can not be trusted, the visitors will bounce away from it as soon as possible. If the visitors leave the site before they even have a chance to become interested in what it has to offer, there is no hope of them coming back soon.
Each and every successful web designer will have at least a few marketing skills. Websites that convert will be websites that people are attracted to. Every little detail has to be accounted for during the creation of the site, or even something as seemingly meaningless as the font will cause visitors to bounce.
Web Design and Search Engine Optimization
The root of conversion rates is search engine visibility. If a website can not be found on the internet, there is a very low chance that there will be any conversions at all. Unless the agency developed a strategy using off-line media, how else could the website be discovered?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is formulated by a mixture of on-page and off-page strategies. It is up to the designer to create the structure of the website in a manner that is both pleasing to the human eye, and to the eye of the search engines.
What matters most for on-page SEO are:
- Keyword usage
- Page load time
- Title tags
- Heading tags
- Content
- Link structure
- Schema data
- Alt descriptions
In the beginning stages of any web design task, a great designer will take into consideration how the search engines will view the site as well as how people will see it. On the back end of every page on the site, there is a whole other realm of design that people don’t usually see.
Some of the key factors of off-page SEO are:
- Backlinks
- Mentions
- Off-page content
- Social media
The list can go on, but most importantly, backlinks from high authority domains are crucial elements that help to create an environment on the internet that is conducive for higher visibility in the search engines.
The best strategy for backlinks is to have landing pages for the keywords that they will carry. This is where the designer comes in. A savvy web designer will create a structure for the website that will assist in the goal of dominating web presence.
- Landing pages
- Outbound links to relevant sites
- Current contact information
Great search engine optimization starts with great web development techniques. It takes the skill of a creative web designer to look good in search engines, captivate visitors, and develop a structurally sound site that loads quickly and operates soundly.
Effective Websites Are Never Finished
As the world of technology continues to expand and evolve, the way that websites interact with the internet will continue to shift and change as well. When one method of optimization changes, another one will appear. Websites have to be maintained in order to keep up with the everchanging demands of the environments in which they exist.
To optimize something means to make it better, more efficient, and more effective. Sometimes optimizing a website will mean starting over again from scratch and rebuilding the entire framework from the ground up.
In most cases, however, when the web designer builds the site correctly there will always be room for improvement and ways to shift content in a way that is most beneficial for the success of the site.
A great web designer will be able to continually optimize the site for conversion rates and search engine visibility. Quality website design is crucial for ongoing optimization that will keep the site healthy and productive for years to come.