25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions
25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions
How the site is developed, along with the underlying coding structure, plays a significant role on whether your site meets the usability requirements of your audience. Below are a number of individual elements that must be considered in every website design. While each plays a minor role over the total usability of a website, together they add up to be much more than the sum of their parts.
*** Look and feel***
The overall look and feel of your site must meet your target audience’s expectation. It's not enough just to look good, you will have visitors with industry specific wants and needs. Meet them.
***I ndustry best practices ***
Site must be consistent with best practices and usability guidelines established by other sites in the same industry.
*** Design simplicity ***
Reduce visual noise as much as possible. Keeping the website design simplified keeps visitors interacting with your website rather than hunting through unnecessary design elements.
*** Searchability ***
Information on your site, including content, navigation, product categorization and site-search, must be clearly laid out and easy to understand and be effective at getting visitors to areas of the site they need.
*** Link descriptions ***
Adding descriptions such as link titles and alt attributes within each link can help overall usability, providing a reference to what should be expected if the visitor clicks the link. Encompassing more descriptive text within the link text is also highly valuable.
*** Links organized with lists ***
When referencing specific areas of your site and/or products all in a single paragraph, it can be beneficial to break the content into bulleted lists. This allows for easy scanning for desired information.
*** Breadcrumbs ***
Using breadcrumb menus provides an easy reference to the current page a visitor resides on, as well as their location in the overall site structure. These visual cues enhance the user's experience, even if not actually used.
*** Contact and support info ***
Links to contact, about us, and other customer support pages must be easy to find and obviously accessible to all visitors regardless of page or architectural location and obvious to access.
*** Font size ***
Font size should rarely be less than 10 points. Larger fonts are easier to read which can help gain conversions.
*** Font face ***
The Verdana font was developed specifically for web use for its ease on the eyes when viewed on a computer monitor. Serif fonts such as Times should be avoided. Also keep the number of fonts used to a minimum.
*** Font scalability ***
Allow visitors to resize the text size in their browser by using scalable rather than fixed-width fonts. This allows visitors additional convenience based on their needs.
*** Short sentences ***
Long sentences can often be difficult to follow. Sentences should be kept short (under 15 words) in order to enhance overall comprehension.
*** Paragraph width ***
Using a fixed-width website design can improve readability of content. Variable width designs cause sentence stretching, making it more difficult for the reader to maintain their place as they read.
*** Color usage ***
Important visual cues should not rely on color only. Site must be able to maintain navigation effectiveness without color dependency.
*** Contrast ***
Provide significant contrast between text, background and other elements on the page. Dark text on a light background is preferred for easy reading.
*** Saturated colors ***
Avoid the use of saturated colors. Such colors can quickly cause eye fatigue, forcing the visitor off the site looking for more browsable websites.
*** Animated graphics ***
Repetitive animated graphical content is distracting and reduces retention. Avoid any animations that don't specifically enhance the user-experience and keep visitors focused on what's important.
*** Action objects ***
Areas and objects of your website that request/require action should be visually different from other objects. Linked images and text should stand out significantly from non-linked.
*** Graphics, multimedia & plugins ***
All additional components added to the website must be more than mere eye-candy. Each graphical and multimedia addition should enhance rather than distract from the visitor's experience.
*** Link formatting ***
Standard link formatting (blue and underlined) should be used for textual links and it should be apparent when a link has been visited.
*** Text coloring ***
Standard paragraph text should not be the same color, or near the same color, as standard link text. A clear distinction should be made between the two.
*** White space ***
Site should use white space liberally and avoid cramming pages with too much information, causing unnecessary clutter.
*** Horizontal scrolling ***
Site design should never require visitors to scroll horizontally when browser is in full-screen mode. All information should be assessable with only vertical scrolling required.
*** Printing ***
Pages should be designed to provide easy-to-read documents when printed. Printer friendly pages or a print version of the CSS file should be considered.
*** Browser functionality ***
Site should not disable visitor's normal browser functionality such as right-click mouse, back button navigating, and forcing links to open in new or resized browser windows.
When it comes to improving usability to achieve higher conversions, there is no more obvious place to start than in your website design. More often than not we've seen websites undergo a complete re-design and then find their conversion rates jump overnight, without any additional traffic being brought to the website. Usability should not be an afterthought to the design process, but should be on the forefront driving the design from the ground up.
25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions - To learn more about this author, visit Stoney G deGeyter's Website.
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During the design phase of building a website all too often we find that the end result is really nothing more than what somebody decided "looked good". In some cases it's a combination (or compromise) of what a handful of individuals have determined to be "good enough". What many fail to realize is that web design and visitor usability go hand in hand.
How the site is developed, along with the underlying coding structure, plays a significant role on whether your site meets the usability requirements of your audience. Below are a number of individual elements that must be considered in every website design. While each plays a minor role over the total usability of a website, together they add up to be much more than the sum of their parts.
*** Look and feel***
The overall look and feel of your site must meet your target audience’s expectation. It's not enough just to look good, you will have visitors with industry specific wants and needs. Meet them.
***I ndustry best practices ***
Site must be consistent with best practices and usability guidelines established by other sites in the same industry.
*** Design simplicity ***
Reduce visual noise as much as possible. Keeping the website design simplified keeps visitors interacting with your website rather than hunting through unnecessary design elements.
*** Searchability ***
Information on your site, including content, navigation, product categorization and site-search, must be clearly laid out and easy to understand and be effective at getting visitors to areas of the site they need.
*** Link descriptions ***
Adding descriptions such as link titles and alt attributes within each link can help overall usability, providing a reference to what should be expected if the visitor clicks the link. Encompassing more descriptive text within the link text is also highly valuable.
*** Links organized with lists ***
When referencing specific areas of your site and/or products all in a single paragraph, it can be beneficial to break the content into bulleted lists. This allows for easy scanning for desired information.
*** Breadcrumbs ***
Using breadcrumb menus provides an easy reference to the current page a visitor resides on, as well as their location in the overall site structure. These visual cues enhance the user's experience, even if not actually used.
*** Contact and support info ***
Links to contact, about us, and other customer support pages must be easy to find and obviously accessible to all visitors regardless of page or architectural location and obvious to access.
*** Font size ***
Font size should rarely be less than 10 points. Larger fonts are easier to read which can help gain conversions.
*** Font face ***
The Verdana font was developed specifically for web use for its ease on the eyes when viewed on a computer monitor. Serif fonts such as Times should be avoided. Also keep the number of fonts used to a minimum.
*** Font scalability ***
Allow visitors to resize the text size in their browser by using scalable rather than fixed-width fonts. This allows visitors additional convenience based on their needs.
*** Short sentences ***
Long sentences can often be difficult to follow. Sentences should be kept short (under 15 words) in order to enhance overall comprehension.
*** Paragraph width ***
Using a fixed-width website design can improve readability of content. Variable width designs cause sentence stretching, making it more difficult for the reader to maintain their place as they read.
*** Color usage ***
Important visual cues should not rely on color only. Site must be able to maintain navigation effectiveness without color dependency.
*** Contrast ***
Provide significant contrast between text, background and other elements on the page. Dark text on a light background is preferred for easy reading.
*** Saturated colors ***
Avoid the use of saturated colors. Such colors can quickly cause eye fatigue, forcing the visitor off the site looking for more browsable websites.
*** Animated graphics ***
Repetitive animated graphical content is distracting and reduces retention. Avoid any animations that don't specifically enhance the user-experience and keep visitors focused on what's important.
*** Action objects ***
Areas and objects of your website that request/require action should be visually different from other objects. Linked images and text should stand out significantly from non-linked.
*** Graphics, multimedia & plugins ***
All additional components added to the website must be more than mere eye-candy. Each graphical and multimedia addition should enhance rather than distract from the visitor's experience.
*** Link formatting ***
Standard link formatting (blue and underlined) should be used for textual links and it should be apparent when a link has been visited.
*** Text coloring ***
Standard paragraph text should not be the same color, or near the same color, as standard link text. A clear distinction should be made between the two.
*** White space ***
Site should use white space liberally and avoid cramming pages with too much information, causing unnecessary clutter.
*** Horizontal scrolling ***
Site design should never require visitors to scroll horizontally when browser is in full-screen mode. All information should be assessable with only vertical scrolling required.
*** Printing ***
Pages should be designed to provide easy-to-read documents when printed. Printer friendly pages or a print version of the CSS file should be considered.
*** Browser functionality ***
Site should not disable visitor's normal browser functionality such as right-click mouse, back button navigating, and forcing links to open in new or resized browser windows.
When it comes to improving usability to achieve higher conversions, there is no more obvious place to start than in your website design. More often than not we've seen websites undergo a complete re-design and then find their conversion rates jump overnight, without any additional traffic being brought to the website. Usability should not be an afterthought to the design process, but should be on the forefront driving the design from the ground up.
25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions - To learn more about this author, visit Stoney G deGeyter's Website.
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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