Your website is often the first interaction that a user has with your brand. That is why we give so much attention to impressions when we get started with a strategic foundation, UX design and the front end design. First impressions are crucial, emotional design, mobile friendliness, an intuitive interface and usability are paramount.

Even with all these issues in mind, the website cannot live up to its potential if it does not encourage visitors to take action.

Conversion Rate Optimization

The conversion rate of your website directly influences your return on your investment. It is therefore worth investigating and discovering how much your current website encourages its users to take the next step in your business relationship. Conversions are simply actions that you want the user to take on your website, such as filling in a contact form or pressing a call to action button.

1. A clear Value Proposition

Our goal is to quickly and effectively convince the visitor that your company is the solution they are looking for. Companies often fall for the “peacock” trap – they try to fill their home pages with what makes them different and effective, causing you to lose the user (and thus your message / objective).

A better approach is to write a clear, concise value proposition for your homepage. Add this to a minimalist, well-designed homepage with an attractive graphic, and your user is encouraged to continue to the next step.

2. Demographic responsive design

Nowadays everyone is familiar with the concept of responsive design and the importance of this on conversion rates. According to eMarketer, more than half of respondents reported to a recent survey that they would not buy from a brand that offers a poorly designed mobile experience. In our era of data and personalization, designing goes far beyond mobile web design; demographic-responsive design. Considering that each generation has unique characteristics that we can respond to. For example, we know that in general millennials are idealists and generation Z is more cynical. With the power of demographic responsive design, we can take both features into account.

3. Is the homepage dead?

We are already through this paradigm shift, the homepage is dead. In today’s marketing landscape, the homepage has become less relevant, especially when combined with demographically based responsive design. Rather than a central home page, consider creating landing pages that are indexed around demographics, location, or other relevant metrics. In practice, landing pages are made for different goals and demographers, so you can be sure that you are providing relevant information.

4. Clear Call To Actions

If your website does not make conversions, it may just be because your Call To Actions are not clear enough. A good CTA leads the user to the next step in the goal they want to achieve and tells them that they are on the right track. There can be several reasons that your CTA is confusing or ineffective;

• It’s too confusing. If you put too much information in your CTA, your users may wonder if they are doing the right thing. Even worse, they can be convinced that you are not what they are looking for.
• It’s too random. “Find out more.” “Contact us.” “Get on.” While these CTAS are simple, they don’t offer as much to a user as a more descriptive CTA opportunity. Enticing users to continue is an important aspect of your CTA.
• They are too hard to find. Suppose you have a well-worded, descriptive CTA, but your design gets lost due to poor design. This problem can be solved by using dominant colors, animated buttons or typography that distinguishes it. Don’t let your user search.

5. Keep it simple

In design, we talk a lot about simplicity and how important it is for a successful website or user experience. The reason for this, in addition to aesthetics, is scientific evidence.

The people of marketing or design background are no doubt familiar with Gestalt psychology and principles, which aim to explain how our brains maintain order and perception in our chaotic world. One of the main principles of this discipline is Pragnanz’s Law, or literally translated from German, “the law of conciseness”. This principle says that we desire a logical order, and thus organize our experiences in the simplest way. Instinctively, we like simplicity because it leaves less room for the element of surprise.

If you want to have an example of this concept, you can take the “fear” associated with a major purchase, such as a house or a car, which requires a ton of paperwork and which (especially for someone who has never done it) often the steps are unclear compared to a purchase on a website like bol.com or amazon. Here you can view the order history, print return labels and even set the delivery time, even for large purchases or orders arranged by third parties without further insight.

Final word

The internet increasingly focuses on user behavior and real experiences; understanding users and engaging in dialogue with our users is more important than ever. Websites must be more than functional, while remaining attractive and clear, with a user experience that focuses on conversion optimization.

Simplicity will always win from pages inundated with information, this “information overload” will confuse the user. Of course, we always include this quest for simplicity (less is more) and the importance of conversion optimization in our design process. For us that is a “website that works”.