Web design has become an essential part of making businesses work in this technology-driven day and age. But as many of us are aware, developing a website is a continuous process – not something you can do once and leave alone.
A recent article for Business Matters magazine explained that many companies who aren’t performing to their full potential online could benefit from looking at how to improve their website conversion rates.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or are looking to revamp your existing website, you should make sure you have a plan to share with your web designers in Surrey. This should be more than a wireframe of what pages you want on your site. It needs to explore your goals for your website.
This means working out what purpose your website serves in the context of your business, and what you want visitors to do once they reach your site.
The publication explained that by having a very clear understanding of the purpose of your website, things like the main page elements to focus on will naturally fall into place.
At any stage of the design and development process you should “always be asking yourself, “Where’s my main call to action? How easy is it to see? Is it clear? Is it consistent?,” the magazine recommended.
Another top tip is to make sure that any written content you include on your site has been written for people, rather than for search engines. Years ago, search engine optimisation (SEO) used to be about writing to ‘trick’ Google’s algorithms, but these have become so sophisticated that now you need to write for people, otherwise you’ll be penalised in search.
You should still carry out keyword research to help you understand what people are searching for and how you can take advantage of associated keywords to appear to a wider audience.
Calls to action are another area to focus on, and specifically the wording you use. Testing and thinking about the language you use is vital. “A simple word change could give a 10-15 per cent or more increase in conversions,” the magazine noted.
Earlier this month, Econsultancy shared some top tips from Nick Mottershead, who talked about the importance of personalisation when it comes to ecommerce conversions.
He suggested using something called recommendation engines on your site, which surface relevant products from across an online store to show consumers items they may not otherwise see.
It uses machine learning algorithms to present the most relevant content to users based on their browsing and purchasing history.
Even if this isn’t technology you can afford to invest in at this stage of your business, it’s worth bearing in mind the implications and uses – and revisiting it as an option further down the line if you feel that your online conversion rates could do with a boost.
That said, if you’ve never explored the purpose of your website in detail, or thought about how to make it as efficient and simple for consumers to use as possible, you’ll likely benefit from taking some of the simple steps outlined by Business Matters.
