Websites are like horses: they need to be kept clean, attractive, and healthy, but a mistake in the care and keeping of a website could spell disaster. Some mistakes are more serious than others. Small, simple mistakes need to be corrected, but they probably won’t cause any major issues. However, conversion killing could destroy a site’s chances of success. A serious, conversion-killing mistake must be fixed as soon as possible.
Continuing with the horse comparison, websites, like horses, all have jobs that need to be done efficiently, and in some cases, people invest a lot of money on those jobs. Making a site too pretty, like putting a tutu on a champion racehorse, will only lead to failure. Too much focus on aesthetics will serve to hinder the site’s job.
Remember, your site’s job is to convert, not to look pretty. A good site looks attractive, but not attractive enough to prevent success.
Have a clear call to action
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Every site, as mentioned before, has a purpose. Visitors to a site won’t care very much about the site’s design – they’ll want to know what the site does, and how they can use it. It’s important to make this information clear right away.
For example, if a site is meant to sell a product, the product should be prominently featured, so readers know what it is, and information on how to buy the product should also be featured. Otherwise, visitors will become confused and leave the site.
Don’t use multiple call-to-action buttons
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Visitors to a website will look for simple, obvious instructions on what they should accomplish by visiting the site.
One or two large, brightly colored buttons, saying “Buy Now!”, “Call Now!”, et cetera, will grab their attention and, hopefully, persuade them to “Buy Now!” or “Call Now!” However, a multitude of buttons, saying “Subscribe to the Newsletter!”, “Follow on Social Media!”, “Win a Puppy!”, et cetera, will distract them from the goal of the website and the most important call-to-action button.
A site should have one clear, attention-grabbing goal for higher chances of success.
Visual hierarchy
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In many elementary schools, daycares, and factories, color-coding is used to organize materials. Over-stressed kindergarten teachers may spend hours reminding children that red crayons should be placed in red boxes, and orange crayons in orange boxes, and so on. Color-coding is also used in designing a website, in the form of visual hierarchy.
Visual hierarchy makes a site easy to understand and navigate. Links should all be the same color, to avoid confusion, and base text should be a different, usually more boring, color, to contrast the site’s background and the links.
Fitt’s law is an important and simple part of visual hierarchy. The law points out the obvious fact that the bigger and more obvious something is, the more likely someone will click on it. You can infer that, because of Fitt’s law, important things on a site should be big and obvious.
Don’t put lots of features on the site
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It’s natural to want a really cool, really fast, really advanced website with all sorts of bells and whistles. But it’s also possible to have too much of a good thing.
If a website is given every possible upgrade and feature and what-have-you, it may be cool and advanced. But how many times is a visitor going to use any given feature? If you don’t need to add something, don’t add it. It’ll be useless and distracting. Visitors won’t appreciate superfluous additions.
Before adding something to a website, consider whether adding the improvement will actually make the site easier to use.
Don’t mess up the navigation
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Imagine a website for a doughnut shop. The creator of the site has added all sorts of lovely links and buttons so that visitors can read about the history of doughnuts, the history of the doughnut shop, the care they use in lovingly creating each doughnut, a menu, and everything else he could think of. However, visitors to the site are confused and bored by these things – they just want to buy some donuts, but the site’s mediocre navigation prevents them from knowing how.
When making a website, it’s important to keep from making the same mistake as the doughnut-shop-website-creator. A site’s navigation is pivotal for the site’s success.
A good site provides just enough navigation to guide visitors around the site – no more, no less. An over- or under-complicated navigation will damage the site and annoy visitors.
A good form of navigation is a navigation bar at the top of the page. It should be easy to find, and easy to distinguish from the rest of the page.
Don’t use page speed burdening images
Everyone loves pictures. They can make you laugh or cry, and they’re easy to understand, even to those who can’t read. A large percentage of the world can stare for hours at pictures of cats in boxes, or pigs wearing rain boots, or really any baby animal doing anything out of the ordinary.
However, no one loves how much space pictures take up. And excessive images can cause a webpage to load at a snail’s pace or slower.
Everyone knows the helpless, frustrated feeling of waiting for a page to load. Many times, when a page takes too long to load, potential visitors will simply sigh and leave the page before it’s even halfway finished loading.
Don’t let this happen to you – keep your images small.
Use high quality photography
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Pictures can make or break a website. If a site has nice, well-taken pictures in brightly lit settings, the pictures can lend an aura of professionalism to the entire site. However, photographs from strange angles with not enough light can make any website, no matter how professional, look like a teenage girl’s blog.
If you’re selling a product, it’s important to keep in mind that visitors to the site will want an accurate representation of the product. A less-than-professional picture will make them think twice about buying the product.
For example, imagine a pair of shoes for sale. Visitors to a site will steer away from a low-quality, dimly lit picture of two shoes on a stained carpet. However, the same visitors may admire a better-quality picture of the same shoes placed neatly together in a clean, well-lit setting.
Invest in nice pictures – it’ll pay off in the end.
Create a clear value proposition
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A value proposition tells potential customers why they should buy your product. Consumers need to know why YOUR product is the best, why they shouldn’t buy from your competition, why they need to buy YOUR product AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
In your value proposition, use pictures sparingly. When dealing with this sort of thing, pictures have to be worth more than a thousand words.
A good site has a value proposition with:
- A headline. Like a movie trailer, the headline is meant to attract your interest. Use clever slogans and attention-grabbing announcements in order to turn people’s heads.
- A body copy that explains why your product is unique. This part of the proposition explains why your product is better than the competition, and why everyone should buy it. Emphasize your advantages and your competition’s weaknesses.
- More persuasion to buy the product. Things like free shipping, guarantees, and positive customer reviews will make people want your product more.
- Positive images showing your product in a good light. Good photography (see above) is necessary.
People won’t care about your product unless you explain to them exactly what it is and why they should care about it. It’s important to communicate clearly with potential customers.
Don’t make your site cool, make it usable
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A website could be considered a work of art. But unlike a statue or painting, a website does not sit uselessly in a museum. It must accomplish a job. Your site should be both interesting and functional, but functionality is more important.
When trying to improve a site, remember that customers will be impressed by cool navigation and graphics, but sometimes cool additions make the site harder to use. If customers cannot easily access your call-to-action buttons, they probably won’t buy your product.
Website testing tools are good ways to learn how certain advancements will affect a site. Before adding an upgrade to your site, use a website testing tool to understand what visitors will think of the advancement.
Ending thoughts
Websites can be flashy and fun, but they must first be functional. As a web designer, your job is to get results for your clients through a well-planned, carefully created website. It’s important to be innovative. However, remember the site’s purpose. Never lose sight of the ultimate goal of the website, whatever it may be.
Returning to the horses-to-websites comparison above, both horses and websites should be neat and attractive, but they have important tasks that must be carried out. Don’t let decoration get in the way of fulfilling those tasks.
Remember that your site is meant to produce conversions. Be ready to correct your own mistakes, listen to constructive criticism from others, and always focus on improvements. You have the tools for success; now all that matters is how you use them.
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