Website Engagement Best Practices: Design Strategies for Site Headers
Ensuring your website converts hugely depends on your ability to engage web visitors. And, if you look at the research surrounding people's online behaviour, you'll discover that investing in your site header could allow you to significantly boost site performance.
Firstly, data shows that people spend more than half of their web-browsing time looking at the first screenful of a site. The impact of your site header becomes even greater if you consider further research on web-browsing behaviour.
For example, we know that people form first impressions about sites within 50 milliseconds, effectively impacting their decision to convert. Moreover, research from Yahoo suggests that the first place people's eyes land on a site is the top left corner of the page (aligning with Nielsen's claim that most people look at web pages according to the F-pattern).
So, if you're looking for effective design strategies for site headers to boost website engagement, here are a few best practices to help you capture and retain your audience's attention and convince them to convert.
Make Your Value Proposition Clear and Relevant
What do consumers want from your brand? At the end of the day, they expect a solution to a pain point they're experiencing. However, while you may offer a product or service that genuinely benefits your target audience, you can only capture your prospects' attention if you know how to market that solution.
With this in mind, one of the most essential design strategies you can apply to your site header is understanding how to present your value proposition.
First and foremost, do your best to prove that you comprehend and care about your audience's needs. Research from Adobe reveals that 78% of people think that brands need to show they understand and care about their customers if they are to consider purchasing. So, as you approach the design process for your website header, try to design it in a way that shows your organisation's commitment to solving your target audience's needs.
For example, one excellent way to do this is to use the hero section of your site to address a common pain point your solution removes. If you check out OneBlade, you'll see that in advertising "the closest shave known to mankind," it does precisely this — the brand identifies its target audience's pain point and sets the scene to show how and why it's got the best solution.
Do you operate in an industry or niche slightly more complex than basic personal hygiene? In that case, you'll need to consider product understanding when designing your site header. Try exploring design elements that will increase product comprehension while allowing you to deliver a clear and relevant value proposition.
For instance, if you check out the Reverse Contact header, you'll see that it includes a clear value proposition and an in-app screenshot to instantly demonstrate the product's capability and value.
In addition to presenting web visitors with a value proposition that promises to remove their frustrations or fulfil their aspirations, do your best to back up your claims with evidence. Especially when trying to engage consumers who are on the fence about investing in your solution.
Creating a site header that appeals to your target audience's emotions is great. After all, a large portion of people's purchase decisions are influenced by subconscious motivations. Nonetheless, to maximise your site's engagement and sales potential through credibility, you should also provide evidence of your ability to solve consumer pain points.
With this in mind, make your header promises measurable whenever possible. And no, you don't have to make impressive claims to convince prospects to convert. All you have to do is show that your organisation offers a solution that's been proven to work.
For example, check out this Going page. This brand states that its service allows users to find flight deals "40-90% off normal prices." Note how the value proposition doesn't advertise the best possible outcome of signing up. Instead, it provides a range of savings new customers can achieve, properly setting prospects' expectations and convincing them to try Going's solution.
One of the easier ways to upgrade your site header to boost website engagement is to re-think your design decisions regarding the high-value elements in the topmost section of your website.
And, no, this doesn't necessitate elaborate (or expensive) design changes. Ultimately, even tiny visual tweaks can help transform a site element into an attention-grabbing, conversion-inspiring feature.
For example, something as simple as surrounding your value proposition and CTAs with sufficient negative space can help these elements stand out.
Or, you can do something similar to Usercentrics and employ colour to engage your audience. Note how this SaaS brand uses the colour orange to encourage free trial sign-ups — a highly logical design strategy, considering that orange is a complementary shade to the light blue used for the background of the header section.
Do you know how today's consumers make purchase decisions? When trying to ensure they get the best solution to their needs, people generally conduct online product/service research. Then, they go on to buy via their preferred channel.
But while this data shows how essential it is for businesses to provide proof of their competence to solve consumer pain points, it also reveals a simple strategy for maximising website engagement during the pre-purchase stage of the buyer's journey. The info shows just how essential it is for brands to prove that they are, indeed, the most qualified entity to help prospects solve pain points.
One excellent way to accomplish this goal is to use your website header to double down on everything that sets your brand apart from its competitors.
Highlight any unique selling points. Address the specificity of your offer. Don't try to spread your messaging too thin across many concepts. Instead, stick to what sets your product apart and hit the note hard.
For a great example of how you can do this, check out Transparent Labs. This brand uses multiple visual elements to highlight its products' "natural" aspects. It says that the ingredients are "natural and grass-fed" and points out that the supplements contain no artificial sweeteners or colouring. Moreover, the brand emphasises that each formula is clinically dosed and third-party tested, using trust signals to further underline its credibility as a business that puts customer safety before profits, unlike many others in the fitness and health industry.
Sometimes, designing an engaging and conversion-inspiring site header isn't about the claims you make. Instead, it's got more to do with how effectively you can demonstrate that you have your audience's best interest at heart.
If you look at why consumers don't trust brands, you'll find that most people see businesses as profit-oriented. For instance, Gen Z thinks a brand's values must align with their own to trust it. Moreover, research shows that consumer trust reduces by 144% when consumers believe a company uses AI, highlighting the importance of human connection when engaging clients.
In addition to working on your organisation's credibility, one way you can improve the effectiveness of your site is to lower the stakes on CTAs — especially in the header section, which is the first part of your page people see.
By employing microcopy to point out that your visitors don't have to commit to anything in the early phases of their buyer's journey, you can effectively encourage them to enter the mid or lower stages of the sales funnel without risking the possibility of losing their trust.
Check out how ShopSolar does it on its site. Instead of inviting web visitors to "shop" or "browse," this business encourages prospects to "start a free proposal." This wording doesn't just communicate that they'll receive a personalised offer. More importantly, it emphasises that the offer doesn't require a commitment, making it much more likely that people will convert into leads.
Another great way to instantly engage your web visitors and encourage them to convert is to enrich your website header with urgency elements.
For instance, consumer psychology research states that most people will increase their purchase intention if they're presented with a deadline. So, doing something similar to Tentree and stating that web visitors can get 50% off until a pre-set date can be a great way to engage potential buyers and encourage them to move closer to a conversion.
Or, if you don't want to rely on offering discounts to engage your target audience on your website, you can explore alternative ways to create a sense of FOMO, whether by pointing out scarcity or leaning into the hype surrounding your newly released solutions.
Provide Instant Access to Core Functionality
Sometimes, the best way to use your site header isn't to make promises and claims. Instead, it's to let your product speak for itself. After all, if it delivers unmatched value, works seamlessly, and is easy to use, it's guaranteed to win over your target audience.
One excellent way to engage web visitors — especially those who aren't yet familiar with your brand and solution — is to provide instant access to your product's core functionality. This engagement-boosting strategy works because it allows you to deliver your value proposition and immediately back it up with proof.
Plus, interactive website elements are highly engaging (52.6% more engaging than their static counterparts, to be precise), making them the ideal website header element to play around with.
One excellent way to incorporate this design tactic on your website is to do something similar to Australian Business for Sale. This brand offers a database of for-sale companies in Australia. But, instead of forcing buyers to browse through thousands of listings, Australian Business for Sale allows web visitors to search for the type of brand they're interested in acquiring, making the entire purchase process fast, convenient, and, most importantly, user-friendly.
Last but not least, as you explore the site header design strategies that will help you engage web visitors, don't forget that, in most cases, retaining your audience's attention comes down to convincing them that they can trust your business.
Now, if you look at how most buyers evaluate brands, you'll find that social proof plays a tremendous role in convincing people to put their confidence in an organisation. In fact, over 99% of people read reviews to inform their purchase decisions, so emphasising these elements in the most prominent section of your website could be the best way to encourage engagement, inspire conversions, and speed up your prospects' movement through the sales funnel.
The best part about emphasising social proof is that there are almost endless ways to do it, meaning you can opt for a result that aligns with your site's visual appearance and your brand's personality.
For example, the bottom part of the Checkout header features the logos of the brand's most famous customers, building brand credibility via association.
On the other hand, Pot Gang takes a slightly more traditional approach. The brand shows off Google and Etsy ratings, knowing that these two instances of social proof say more than enough about the reliability of its products and services.
Designing a perfect site header — even one that performs exceptionally well — doesn't have to be challenging. Ultimately, creating an engaging and conversion-inspiring website depends on understanding your audience's needs and your willingness to prove that your brand offers the best solution to their pain points.
The design strategies outlined in this article are all excellent ways to achieve your goals. Don't hesitate to customise them to your brand's (and prospects') needs to ensure you're getting the highest engagement (and consequently conversion) rates you can.
Search Engine Optimisation is best achieved when built into a website and digital marketing strategy from the start. This avoids the hit and miss of creating content and then tweaking, adjusting and adapting, trying to improve it once the site is up. Here are the basic ways to lay the foundation for SEO when starting your business and marketing online.
Consider User Experience
Consider your website from the user’s point of view. Design your website so that it gives customers the information they want as quickly as possible.
If you have an e-commerce site, design it along the lines of the old retail adage of separating them from their money as soon as possible. Streamline checkout so that they click as few buttons as possible to seal the deal, whether ordering online or scheduling service.
Don’t forget to make sure the website loads within three seconds so that search engines and customers are happy with the site’s performance.
Do Keyword Research
It is important to conduct keyword research before you start building your website. The keywords people use to find your business should be integrated into the content of your website without seeming excessive or awkward.
Keyword research determines the search terms and volume of keywords relevant to your services and products. The services people seem to want as revealed in your research are the ones you should highlight on the website, and the keywords that are closely correlated to your high-value customers are the terms you need to build into your on-page SEO.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to search engine optimization for your website. For example, the key search terms that matter most to your customers should be integrated into the title and content of the page.
Furthermore, the key search terms and secondary search terms should be part of the page meta descriptions that come up to explain what the webpage is about. Use short title tags that still contain the key SEO terms.
Quality, Unique Content
Content must be both unique and high quality to rank well in search engines. One issue e-commerce sites run into is a lack of detail on product descriptions, such that search engines see the minor differences between product serial numbers and colour as insufficient variation, and, in the worse case scenario, hit the pages with a duplicate content penalty.
One solution is adding model numbers, compatible connectors, manufacturer serial numbers, and any additional product details customers are interested in.
Another way to add quality, unique content is to add both frequently asked questions and the answers to each product page. Now you have natural language queries on product pages that capture significant traffic and make each page unique.
Internal Links
When someone discusses links and SEO, the initial thought is external links back to your website. However, you need to address internal links as well. One version of this is studying the landing pages visitors are arriving on versus the ones they seem to want, and providing an immediately obvious link to the destination page on the landing page.
For example, searches on your flagship product may capture traffic on the older pages for version A, but a portion of the traffic is interested in the more recent version B. You can leave the version A page alone but put a prominent link near the top of the page clearly directing them to the product B page. On the product A page, you can include specs and technical support information for version A.
It is important to add relevant page links in your content, for example, if you have a main service that relates to another service which you mention in the content, it is best practice to add an internal link. Additionally, if customers are landing on content marketing pages, ensure that they can immediately move on to the shopping cart if they want to buy the item you’re selling.
Conclusion
All of these steps are essential if you want to start off your SEO efforts on the right foot. This will ensure that your site remains compliant with Google’s guidelines and allow you to slowly, but surely, start gaining positions in their rankings.
If you are interested in finding out more about SEO or want to inquire about how Matter Solutions can provide SEO services for your business, contact an expert today and discuss what we can do for you.
Finding a WordPress hosting company that can be trusted and reliable can be difficult, thankfully, we came across Pressidium and never looked back. Their reliability and speed are unmatched to anything else we have found. They come highly recommended for secure and scalable WordPress hosting and for very good reason.
Even before you get started with your site being hosted by them, the first thing you notice is the amazing service received. They take the time to get to know the business. Your website goals suddenly become their website goals. It’s great to have them working with you doing all they can to help you achieve those. You’re working with actual engineers, not salespeople. They’re on call 24/7 too!
The infrastructure is unbeatable. It is designed never to fail. It was built from scratch with N-tier architecture with no single point of failure. This makes it one of the most reliable servers, offering a powerful performance with maximum security. This gives businesses like ours peace-of-mind on many levels.
Even better are the Singapore servers, giving extra back-up that is done daily. In the event of disaster striking, we’d still be up and running. In fact, Pressidium is global with different data centres around the world and even more strategic edge locations.
What also adds to peace of mind is the security, Pressidium constantly scans for vulnerabilities and malware threats. Additionally, they make the process of installing a free SSL certificate easy, with full Let's Encrypt support. This ensures website visitors keep their information secure, it also is a positive signal for Google rankings.
The servers are also incredibly fast. We’re pleased with the continued performance of our site which increases positive user experience thanks to the ease and speed of it. Pressidium does this by sending the requests to the least busy server.
Medium to large businesses will love Pressidium, including the user dashboard. It is so easy to operate and can even be worked on mobiles or tablets thanks to the responsive design. Instant backups are made so if we made a change that ended up breaking an element of the site, we can go back to an earlier version with one click. We love the cache management that allows us to clear the website’s cache easily. One of the main features we are really excited about is the option to create a staging website very easily. This allows us to do testing of new features and then push it to the live website. If it works out great, we don’t need to spend the time replicating it – we just send it to Production. The Cloning Tool helps us create templates to use again. Of course, as with the other features of Pressidium, domain mapping is made simple. All you have to do is update the DNS settings and Pressidium did the rest. Any questions we had about our site were answered thanks to the Knowledge Base.
The real-time analytics has given our team great insight into our audiences, which we have already been able to use to our advantage. Pressidium has saved us a lot of time, to say the least. No doubt that companies like ours, including the Fortune 500 companies that use Pressidium, are finding their website operations a breeze and nothing that needs to be played around with too much. It’s very straightforward and easy to navigate.
It’s apparent why Pressidium is recommended above the rest. As far as managed WordPress hosting goes, Pressidium is by far the best available. We feel completely confident that our website is in good hands. Pressidium just feels part of our brand, they work with us, to make our site the very best it can be. We don’t feel like another customer, but instead a valued client. Pressidium can do the same for you as they have done for us.
When you come across a page that says 404 page error, then you have stumbled upon a broken link or a page that doesn’t exist. This can be frustrating, and often makes you think the page doesn’t work. A standard 404 page error is a bit cold and just makes the page look “broken”. However, a custom 404 page error can really make all the difference when it comes to keeping visitors to the site.
What is a 404 page?
A 404 page error is shown when you go to a page that does not exist on an active website. It often shows up when there is a broken link or the user inputs a URL that doesn’t exist. It means that the site you are on is active, but the particular page you are looking for is not available.
404 responses have an effect on your SEO efforts
Having broken links on your page often means a poor user experience. Search engines like Google will see the site as low quality and will not rank it very high at all on results pages.
Links are a significant player in the SEO game. If a page comes up with a 404 response, Google will drop it from its PageRank. If there are quite a few links that render the 404 response, then you are you are missing out on opportunities to rank higher. Your whole domain can suffer if important links bring up the 404 page error response. It is essential that you check that your links are working or have them permanently redirected with a 301 redirect.
It also has an effect on visitor behaviour. If there is no link to another page like the homepage, then it appears to be a robotic response showing a “broken” page leaving the user at a dead end. Users are more likely to click out of it rather than stick around.
Go for a custom 404 page
A custom 404 page is the perfect way to help save your SEO efforts and potentially keep visitors on a website. A custom 404 page error can be the chance to show off your creative and witty side, often appealing to audiences more than a cold 404 standard response. It doesn’t seem like a dead end like the standard responses do. It doesn’t dampen the user experience. Take our 404 page as an example, it's pretty simple yet effective.
Custom 404 pages also give you the opportunity to showcase links to more popular pages, driving traffic to some of your more popular pages that may be what the user was originally looking for.
What else can I do to make my page more user-friendly?
Custom 404 pages are great, but it should be more than just a witty saying and picture. Having links such as back to the homepage and a custom search engine will also help site visitors find the information they need. It shows visitors and search engines that there is still an active page and access to other pages of the site.
Make sure your SEO efforts are not wasted. Scouring your page for all the broken links yourself can be very daunting and excruciating. Why not leave this to the experts to sort for you? Matter Solutions can help check for broken links and help create a fun and creative custom 404 page. We will give your brand the chance to shine, even on a 404 page error, keeping both your page visitors and search engines happy. Give our team a call to discuss how we can help your website.
Beginning October 24th, Google is making a significant change that will see the majority of small business websites affected. From this date, the digital giants are flagging all sites without an SSL Certificate as “not secure” when a user interacts with a form on the page. If you operate a small business, there is a good chance that this will have an impact on your website and spring a lot of questions and doubts about website visitors.
SSL Certificates are small files that keep cryptographic keys of a business or organisation’s identifiable details. It creates secure connections between the web server and to the browser being used. It is commonly used for websites that might require a log-in, data transfers, credit card transactions and more recently, social media browsing. SSL will encrypt all user inputted details in an attempt to have them safely delivered to the server and is essential for protecting information from hackers and identity thieves. When you come across a website with a valid SSL Certificate, you will see a padlock in the browser.
Do I need an SSL certificate?
Yes, and Google thinks so too! All websites that require the user to put in some type of data should have an SSL Certificate. This is especially true for any sites taking credit card transactions. In this case, an SSL Certificate is an absolute must according to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. By being able to encrypt and protect user data from potential hackers and identity theft, you create a sense of trust with your visitors.
How Google is taking a stand
Google will now flag up any page that does not have an SSL Certificate when a user goes to input information into any type of form. They warned site owners by sending out notices earlier this month who have not switched from HTTP to HTTPS. These warnings said that any page that did not switch by October 24th would be marked as “NOT SECURE.” Even if a user enters a website under “incognito” mode, the same message will flash up in Chrome.
This means that HTTP websites with forms with text inputs will be more difficult to find in Google searches. This change mainly focused on text input of credit card details and passwords, but it will now have an effect on those sites with search engine bars, contact forms, and login panels.
Google is making these changes to help warn website owners and visitors of the vulnerability of the web and hopes it will encourage the switch to HTTPS.
What websites will be affected by this?
A Google report last year showed that 79 out of 100 of the top non-Google websites did not use HTTPS by default, even though it is considered a fundamental security feature and a must-have. That means millions of other sites, especially those belonging to a small business, that do not have the SSL Certificate. This is usually only down to not bothering with the extra effort, as implementing an SSL Certificate is seen as just making things more complicated.
Don’t get caught out and lose potential customers! Get your SSL Certificate in place, so your visitors know their information is kept safe, giving a good sense of security and building trust with your brand. Matter Solutions are here to help sort your SSL Certificate needs. If you’re unsure where to start getting that SSL Certificate or have any questions about your site, call one of our experts today, and we will get your site safe and trusted by visitors.
You know how people say that you will never get a second chance to make a first impression? This sentiment is also true for web designing. Website visitors can very quickly decide whether or not to stay on your website. Thus, as much as possible, you want to make sure that their first impression on your website is positive. We’ve outlined the 10 biggest web designing mistakes and how you can easily avoid making them.
1. No Mobile Version
A customer’s impression of a website will highly depend on how it looks like from their smartphones or handheld devices. Nowadays, people rely on their handy devices to browse the web for the reason that it is convenient. This web designing mistake can be easily avoided by considering a responsive web design to give your visitors a mobile-friendly experience.
2. Inconsistent Interface Design
Some designers take web designing to another level by their excessive creativity. They create different designs for every web page within a website. This is confusing to the users. The overall look and feel of a website must be consistent. Use a standard consistent layout for every web page. Be consistent with fonts, colors, and images. Your website must have a seamless flow when going from one page to another.
3. Flashy than Helpful
On the same note as having a consistent interface, you also have to avoid being too flashy. You want your website to look appealing and professional but don’t make the mistake of going overboard with your animation, graphics, images, and colors. Avoid making this website designing mistake by putting a balance between the website form and function.
4. Poor Readability and Legibility
This simple element of web designing is very crucial. Your visitors have to read your content and find the information they need. Some websites use strange font styles, colors, and inappropriate sizes that make reading a stressful task. The right color scheme and font will improve your website’s readability.
5. Static rather than Dynamic
Static websites are no longer relevant nowadays. They’re too basic, plain, and boring. There’s not much for users to get excited about. A static website’s content is also not shareable; thus, it doesn’t go far. Today, websites integrate content, social media, and blogging. This creates an interactive and positive user experience. This is why building a dynamic website is crucial.
6. Non-optimized Website
Website optimization refers to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO makes a website as functional as possible in order to get the most traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. When a website is optimized, it’ll show up higher in search results.
7. Missing Search Box
A website is an archive of information. Whether your site is company website or simply a blog, a search box is important. Your visitor might be looking for some information that is hidden within your website. With the search box, your visitors will easily find what they’re looking for.
8. Missing Contact Info
Some website owners don’t display their contact number in the header and footer of their website. If you’re using your website for business, your customers will need to get in touch with you. So, make sure your direct contact number and email can be easily found on your website header, footer, or on a dedicated contact page.
9. No Call to Action
Some website owners easily let go of their visitors without a call to action. Also known as CTA, a call to action will get your site visitors to the next step. Present a strong call to action to drive your users down the path of getting started, signing up, or even purchasing.
10. Complicated Registration Form
Users don’t really like filling out a long registration form. So, forms should be as simple as possible. You might want to try a tiered approach in web designing by presenting questions in sequences instead of presenting them all at once.
Author bio: Jessa Camacho is part of the Marketing team of Convertbetter and she has a good grasp of all the essentials of building and promoting a website. Her skills and knowledge in her field makes her prominent in the company.
Sometimes people are very persistent on what features they want added to their website. One of the most commonly requested features are sliders, otherwise known as carousels.
It’s easy to see why companies want sliders on their websites. They seem to appear everywhere, even on the websites of the biggest brands, including Apple, McDonald's and Qantas, to name a few.
So if the biggest companies are using sliders, then why are we recommending that you don’t? There are lots of reasons why using a slider could damage your website and negatively impact your SEO.
Some of the biggest reasons why you shouldn’t use a slider are:
1. People don’t interact with them
The point of including a feature at the top of your website is to get people to click on it, right? If you’re going to include a slider, you would want it to result in conversions. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Only around 1% of users click on sliders. Of that 1%, 84% click on the first slide. If people aren’t clicking on the rest of the slides, then why bother having the rest of the slides on your website in the first place? People simply aren’t seeing the other slides, and aren’t taking any action. Instead, choose your best image and display that on the home page instead.
2. Sliders aren’t mobile friendly
More and more people are using mobiles, so you want to make sure your website is appropriately optimised. Unfortunately, sliders don’t always work on mobile websites. If it’s the main feature on your landing page, and it doesn’t work, chances are people aren’t going to continue browsing your website.
As a result of Google’s ‘mobilegeddon’ algorithm update, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you could see your search engine rankings drop. Not only will you have decreased traffic, but you’ll have lower rankings as well.
3. Slow down your site speed
No one wants to sit there and wait for a website to slowly load. Instead, they’re going to leave your website, and you’re going to end up with a high bounce rate. Sliders dramatically slow down the speed of websites. This can negatively impact your SEO, as speed has been a factor in Google’s algorithm since 2010. If you’re adding a slider, you’re only going to slow down your website.
4. Unclear message
Sliders often have a different message on each slide, and link to different pages. This can confuse the user. What are you actually trying to communicate to them, and what action do you want them to take? By the time people have read all the offers in your slides, chances are they have forgotten the original one. If your slider automatically rotates, people often don’t get time to fully absorb the message and understand what you had to offer. Instead of confusing your customers, just chose the best image and offer instead.
5. Negatively impacts your conversions
Your slider is generally the first thing displayed on your landing page, and takes up a good proportion of space. However, often people aren’t interested in sliders, as they are perceived to be similar to ads. People want to be reading content, not looking at ads. Using a slider means you’re missing out on potential conversions.
If your slider is taking up too much space, you will be pushing down your content. This means you will be damaging your SEO. Back in 2012, Google announced an algorithm that centred around page layout. Users get frustrated when they click on a result and can’t see any content. If you’ve got a slider, it’s blocking your content, and your website could end up affected by this algorithm.
So not only will you lose conversions from having a slider, but you will damage your SEO as well.
Still convincedyou need a slider on your website? If you want to achieve the best SEO and conversions rate, consider perhaps using one image and displaying one offer, rather than confusing your customers with multiple offers in a slider. If they’re not going to read it or click it, what’s the point of having it there anyway?
If you’re wanting to see results on your website, you’re going to need a good landing page. After all, you don’t want people to just land on your homepage, you want them to take an action. If visitors don’t take that action, you’re not going to end up with any conversions.
No matter what action you’re wanting people to make on your website, there are some common elements that everyone needs on their landing page to increase conversions.
1. A clear call to action
The only way you’re going to get conversions on your website is if you have made your call to action clear. After all, if you haven’t made the call to action completely clear, people simply aren’t going to do it. It doesn’t matter what your call to action is, whether it be sign up to an email list, contact the store, complete the shopping purchase. All that matters is the call to action is clear and obvious to the site’s visitors.
To make sure your call to action is clear, make sure you don’t bombard viewers with other requests. This can be too distracting and make people want to leave the website.
There are a few ways to make sure your call to action will be seen:
Don’t keep people guessing - make the call to action button obvious and clear.
If you have multiple call to actions, make sure you make the buttons for those smaller than your main call to action.
Draw attention to the call to action by using visual aids such as arrows pointing to the button.
Always make sure it’s easy for the visitors to undertake the call to action. Study your own website and look at all the elements. Is it obvious what action you should be taking? If it’s not obvious to you, it’s not going to be to your visitors either.
Netflix is an example of a website that has a clear call to action. Best of all, the call to action is to join free for a month, rather than directing new customers to pay right away:
2. Headlines and subheadlines
Often it’s the content on your landing page that will make visitors stay. It’s what lets the visitors know what the page is about, and whether it’s relevant to what they’re looking for. So it’s important to make sure you get your headlines and subheadlines right.
Your headlines need to be short, to the point, and be able to grab the reader’s attention. It needs to describe what your product or service is about. If it’s not doing this, then re-evaluate your headline.
Your subheadline should complement the headline. It works to help make people stay on the website by being persuasive. This can be longer and more descriptive than the headline. Both the headline and subheading should leave no questions about what your business does. If this still isn’t clear, the visitor isn’t going to stay on your website.
3. Images
You want your website to be aesthetically pleasing. If your website is just a wall of text, or overcrowded with too many images and links, it won’t be user friendly or encourage people to complete the call of action.
When you’re going to use images, make sure they are:
Relevant: include photos of the product or service you’re selling. People don’t need to see photographs that aren’t relevant to your products, service, or brand.
High quality: you don’t want your photographs to be out of focus, pixelated or not on the right position on the landing page.
Large: consider using one image across your whole background, or a large proportion of the background to give your website a smooth and professional look. Look at Apple’s website as an example of a website that includes relevant, high quality and large photographs on its landing page:
4. Design
Consider the overall design of your landing page. There are a few things you need to do to make sure your website is designed well:
Make sure your headlines are in large enough font to be eye catching, and it’s still easy to read the rest of the font on the landing page.
It is mobile user friendly. Check if the mobile version of your website looks the same, and it’s just as easy for people to navigate. If the buttons are too small to press or the page is covered with annoying ads, potential customers are going to leave your site.
Use bullet points. If you’re looking for an easy way to describe the benefits of your product or service, bullet points are a good thing to consider. It also cuts down on the big walls of text on your website.
Including videos on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%. Just make sure your videos aren’t too big, and consider whether you want it to autoplay or not.
Flow: make sure there’s some form of logical flow to your landing page. Are items in some order? Have your heading and subheadings first, followed by benefits, any necessary testimonials, and a call to action.
5. What's in it for me?
That’s what customers want to know when they visit any website - what’s in it for me? This is what’s known as a unique value proposition. It’s a way to let customers know what you have to offer them, what benefit they get and why they should buy from you.
This value proposition does not clearly explain why people should choose Grand Canyon University over any other university. Where is the benefit to the customer? The landing page also places too much emphasis on the form to fill out, rather than redirecting customers to a new page to fill out the form.
What a value proposition isn’t is long-winded jargon. People need to understand exactly what you’re communicating. Clearly list all the benefits of your product or service to help people decide whether to continue on your website or not.
6. Social proof
Our everyday decisions are often influenced by the actions of those around us. You’re more likely to do something if someone else is doing it too. Social proof is an important factor for business owners. If you’re able to show that people have used your product or service, you’ll be more likely to gain new customers.
You can include social proof on your website by including trustworthy testimonials. If you’re going to use testimonials, make sure you pick people who are relevant to your target audience. If you can, include a photograph, as this will make the testimonial seem more real and trustworthy. Make sure your testimonials give some specifics - what exactly was done, what was the results. Using numbers and data in your testimonials is even better.
Freshdesk has a page dedicated to testimonials, with the logos of customers included, and written testimonials from many happy customers:
Other forms of social proof include press mentions or usage statistics. Businesses often quote how many people have signed up, or have downloaded their service. Having some form of social proof on your landing page will show other people have used your service, found value in it, and that you can deliver results. It will make people be far more likely to complete your call to action and become a conversion.
Every website is different and has varying aims when it comes to what makes a conversion. The most important factor is to make sure your call to action is clear, otherwise you won’t see any conversions.
The use of mobile devices is increasingly growing. In fact, in 2016 mobile usage overtook desktop for the first time ever. With that in mind, it’s important for businesses to ensure they have a mobile version of their website, and to make sure it’s user-friendly.
If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, you not only risk losing customers, but you could incur SEO damage. In 2015, Google rolled out an algorithm update known as ‘mobilegeddon.’ If Google considers your website to not be mobile-friendly, you’ll see the website decrease in search engine results. This essentially rewards businesses who have created mobile websites with the user experience in mind.
Want to avoid receiving a penalty from Google for your mobile website? There are a few ways you can optimise your mobile website to improve the user experience:
Run tests
Trying to improve your mobile website but don’t even know where to start? Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test will help you out. This tool will let you know whether or not your website is mobile friendly. To see the result, all you have to do is enter in your website’s URL. You will be told whether your site is mobile-friendly or not, and if not, what is the problem. The tool will also show you how your website looks on a mobile.
Decide on a mobile-friendly design
The first thing to do is to decide how your website is going to be mobile-friendly. You have several options:
Responsive design: this option is recommended by Google. Having a responsive design means your website will all be on one URL, which makes it easier for Google in regards to indexing. If you’ve got a WordPress website, your theme will more than likely already be responsive.
Separate site: some businesses choose to have a separate site for mobile users. Every time someone on a user accesses their website, they are redirected to a mobile-specific URL.
Apps: apps are rising in popularity and are a great option to consider. However, an app is generally used in combination with other options.
Optimise your website
If you’re wanting your website to be considered mobile-friendly by Google, there are a few criteria you should meet. These include:
Text size: it’s frustrating when you load a website and have to zoom in to read text. Make sure your text is scaled correctly. Google offers some helpful advice regarding legible font sizes.
Page size: when on a mobile, users want to be scrolling vertically, not horizontally. If they have to scroll horizontally, you’ve created a bad user experience. Make sure your pages are not too wide in order to display correctly on a mobile.
Links: you want users to be able to click the right links, and not accidentally click on another link that is too close. Make sure all of your links are spacious enough to create a good user experience.
Other elements that you can’t forget about when improving your mobile website include:
Website speed
This is an important factor, as it could not only lose you customers, but also impacts your SEO. People don’t want to wait for a website to slowly load - especially on their mobiles. If users know your website loads slowly, chances are they won’t return to your website again.
Website speed is also an important factor in regards to Google’s ranking. If your website takes too long to load, you’ll notice a drop in rankings. To avoid a decline in rankings, test the speed of your website, particularly after making any big updates.
There are a few things that cause your website to run slow, including:
Image size: if your website is image heavy, chances are it will load slowly. Make sure to scale your images to speed up your website.
Caching: if you’re using browser caching, the browser will know page elements don’t change often, and will therefore save them into its cache. This makes websites load faster, as only new and dynamic content has to be downloaded each time.
Redirects: if a page is moved or deleted, a redirect will be put in place. However, if there are too many redirects in place, it will make the website slower, or the page may not load altogether. To reduce the risk of problems occurring, avoid endless redirects and use direct links.
Blocking JavaScript, HTML and CSS
Blocking these elements makes it harder for Google to access your website. This means you could see a dip in your rankings for both your mobile and desktop websites.
404s
Sometimes you’ll notice a page looks fine when on a desktop, but then returns a 404 on your mobile. To avoid this, make sure you always redirect users to the mobile version of your pages.
It’s a good idea to always test your website to see how it displays, as well as if there are any 404s.
Easy to use
The main thing with mobile websites are that they need to be easy to use. This means your design needs to be fairly simplistic, with easily recognisable symbols. You want your users to be able to easily access the menu, contact us section, and social media share buttons. Including these, and making them highly visible, will ensure your customers can easily navigate around your website and will continue to use it.
Considering the continual rise in popularity of mobiles, it’s important to ensure your website is fully optimised, not only for Google, but for your users. Always focus on creating a great user experience, and you will be sure to see an increased traffic flow to your mobile website.
Does the speed of your website actually have an effect on your sales? If surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com are anything to go by, then the answer is yes. 47% of consumers expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less, with 40% of people leaving the website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Faster speeds ensure there is still a high user experience. If users aren’t having a good experience, they’re going to leave the website and visit a competitor’s instead. In fact, a one-second delay in page load time will account for an 11 percent drop in pageviews.
So what impact does a slow website have on sales? Walmart decided to test what difference page speed made. They increased their speed performance and found:
Every one second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions
Revenue grew by up to 1% for every 100 ms of improvement.
Going by this test, it was clear there is a direct correlation between even a small improvement in website speed and amount of conversions.
Impact on Google
Page speed doesn’t only matter to the customers, it matters to Google as well. Back in 2010, Google’s algorithm changed to include page speed as a factor it measured. That means websites with a slow load speed would be penalised and see their search engine result slip. However, you don’t need to panic - the algorithm change does not drastically affect rankings, unless your website is extremely slow. After all, this is just one of the many factors that affect a website’s ranking. Other factors, such as relevance of a page, is far more heavily weighed than page speed.
Google also announced that page speed may become a factor for mobile pages as well. A future algorithm update is set to continue making websites more mobile-friendly. Businesses cannot simply think about the speed of their desktop website - they also need to consider whether they are mobile-friendly and whether this is fast and responsive. Kissmetrics found if a mobile site takes longer than 10 seconds to load, 30 percent will abandon the website. This is a huge percentage of potential customers who are abandoning a website before it’s even loaded, just because it’s too slow.
If your page is loading slowly and costing you conversions, you’re going to want to know what you can do to fix it. Some factors that cause a page to load slowly include:
Themes and plugins: both the theme of your website, and any plugins you use, can greatly change your loading speed. Make sure your themes and plugins are always updated to the latest version, that your theme isn’t too complicated and you’re not using too many plugins.
Web hosting: you get what you pay for, and the same goes for web hosting. A cheap web host could potentially lead to a slower pagespeed. When you’re looking at hosting, consider the size of your business and your website’s size and functionality before choosing a host.
Images: a website full of images is always going to be slower to load. Instead of using HD images, consider if you can compress images, while also maintaining their quality. This means your website will still look aesthetically pleasing while not compromising page speed.
Ads: not only will too many ads annoy you customers, it will also slow page speed. Consider what ads are necessary and how many you want on each page.
Once you know what you can alter on your website to improve its speed, you need to know how to measure its speed.
While your rankings won’t be overly affected by a slow website**, it will have a big impact in traffic and conversions. It’s best to continually monitor your website speed, and determine what is causing the slow page load. Doing so will ensure you have a user-friendly website which will continue to rank well and receive high conversions.
Updated March 2022
**I wrote that in 2017 when it wasn't 100% clear what Google did with the "UX data" - we now know.
Rankings WILL be affected if your website is slow and this clearly been the case for a couple of years. The User Experience (UX) of Google searchers is aggregated into "long click" and "short click" data from, this is also referred to as "dwell time". This is clearly an important ranking factor and you must consider speed as part of the UX effort to make your website as good as it can be. The Following Video from our YouTube channel explains "Pogo Sticking" the situation where Google searchers hop in and out of websites and how that can impact rankings of each website.
Articles about Website Engagement Best Practices: Design Strategies for Site Headers
Author bio: Jessa Camacho is part of the Marketing team of 
