A large portion of the human brain is devoted to sight alone, especially when compared with our other senses. Subconsciously we decide very quickly whether we’re seeing something we like or something we don’t, and the same goes for our experiences online. Your website’s visual design – both how it looks and how it feels – can make all the difference when it comes to your sales.
Subconsciously we decide very quickly whether we’re seeing something we like or something we don’t, and the same goes for our experiences online. Your website’s visual design – both how it looks and how it feels – can make all the difference when it comes to your sales.
So, what are the key factors involved in designing a website for increased sales?
1. Presenting your content
Regular, high-value blog posts are among the most effective ways to attract traffic to your website. Your blog’s look, feel and layout play a major role in whether or not your content actually gets read – so make sure your articles and their images are presented attractively, responsively for mobile and with their value made clear in the title. One of the best ways to present your blog content is with a custom WordPress design, which can be tailored to your branding and type of content, and integrated with the rest of your website. Use photos taken in-house for your articles, not stock photos and make sure your blog includes an up-to-date search function for users to find the content they need quickly.
Attractive, high-impact videos are another fast and effective way to get your message across in an engaging way – especially if they’re well designed and produced, and displayed clearly on your site, which will help win over your visitors and convert your traffic into customers. Above all, the more regular your content, the better. If people come to know that you produce high-value content on a daily basis then they’re much more likely to come back to your website every day for more valuable information… boosting your traffic, your sales and your consumers’ trust, and promoting you as an expert in your field.
2. Clear hierarchy of graphic information
It’s crucial to put yourself in your visitors’ shoes and understand their user experience (UX) of your website – or use the UX expertise of your web design and development team to dictate your site’s design. Simple but effective calls to action make your visitor’s journey around your website less tiring and confusing, and you’ll want to reduce the amount that they’ll need to click around your site to get what they came for.
Crucially, avoid information overload. Make effective use of space around your site’s typography, imagery and layout, and don’t be afraid to use blank space in your design! Lots of websites cram their content and products right up in the top section of their website, “above the fold”, in the hopes of winning over customers. However, this really just ends up having the opposite effect – confronting the customer with too much, too soon. There’s nothing wrong with blank space or scrolling down, so use it!
3. Brand consistency
If you use brand guidelines then it’s always best to stick to them, to establish consistency across your website – and your wider presence both online and offline (just look at how consistent the world’s biggest brands are across their entire presence in the marketplace). Consistent design throughout your website will dispel any possible confusion for your visitors and create a stronger perception of your brand, which is more likely to win you more sales. Strive for consistency in the style of your images, your colour palettes, any filters or effects used on your images and in your typography. Your typography should be up to date and easy to read, and it’s advisable to use no more than two fonts, which should both complement each other and help to communicate the nature of your brand.
4. Mobile-responsive design
A responsive website adapts its layout to fit different screen sizes, from smartphones to widescreen TVs, to provide the best user experience on any device. Having a responsive website designed for mobile screens could drastically increase your traffic and your sales – especially now that smartphones are the number one device among UK internet users according to Ofcom, and we’re now spending nearly twice as long browsing on our phones (almost two hours a day on average) than we do on laptops and PCs. People no longer wait to get home to make their next online purchase – so if it’s hard to buy from your website on their phone or tablet, then they’ll buy elsewhere.
5. Design with a target audience in mind
Understanding your target market lets you design a website that will catch their attention, chime with their desires and beliefs, and increase your sales. Don’t be afraid to move away from common-denominator design and exclude a share of the market that isn’t buying from you already – they may never buy from you anyway! Instead, look to go all-in with your target audience and design your site to appeal to everything they stand for. To do that you’ll need to understand your audience in-depth and know the problems they want to solve when they come to your website. Make it clear and simple through your website that you want to solve your visitors’ problems, and they’ll gladly pay you to solve them.
Take a look at Nublue’s blog for more expert advice on web design, development and hosting for your business, or click here to find out what they do for brands including Teva, T.H. Baker, Penfield and Nutricia UK.
