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Perfect, let’s discuss how to turn your website into a lead-generation machine.
A common issue with many websites is that they were either hastily thrown together as an impulse or were designed as a graphic design masterpiece to showcase the designer’s skills. However, if you want your website to function as an effective tool for generating leads or turning traffic into customers, you will need to break through the traditional approach to designing websites and keep conversions in mind while you are designing your website.
Websites often have one of two purposes: to establish the company as an industry leader or to convince visitors to do some sort of desired action, such as completing a purchase. The most effective websites have a high conversion rate while also projecting an air of authority.
You can’t just put up a website and hope that people will like it. They need to be convinced to take action and give up something of value, whether it be time or money. And to do that, you need to pay attention to a few important things.
How to Design a Homepage That Converts
One of your most effective conversion drivers is your homepage.
If your page appears in a search for a specific keyword phrase, you have every right to expect a high volume of conversions. But, sadly, that’s not how it usually works.
AdRoll claims that almost all of your website’s first-time visitors won’t take any action after viewing the homepage. The organic visitors you’ve worked hard to get are abandoning your site without interacting with any of your content.
When you see an increase in website visitors but no increase in sales, it’s time to take a look at your homepage. The layout of your homepage is important regardless of the business you run or the field in which you operate.
Converting first-time visitors to your site is difficult unless you have extensive experience with conversion optimization or you have the resources to hire a professional.
And so, the question is, what can you do to ensure that your homepage truly converts?
Fortunately, there are certain strategies you may employ to increase the number of people that convert on your homepage.
How to Build a Visually Appealing Website That Converts Like Crazy
In this blog, we’ll go over some tried-and-true techniques for making your website look fantastic and convert like crazy. Design, content, and usability are some of the primary focuses of attention here.
We’ll talk about how important each is and give you some tips on how to improve your own conversion rates.
The guidelines outlined here can be used by any business, whether they run an e-commerce site, a lead generation website, a marketing blog, or an affiliate site, to boost their online conversion rates. The sooner you master these basics, the sooner you can build a site that converts visitors into customers.
Keep it simple
Conversion rates improve when websites are kept straightforward.
Some websites attempt to pack as much content as possible onto their homepages and to that end, they are eager to flaunt anything and everything about themselves, products, services, awards, affiliations, contact information, and so on.
If this describes your home page, you need to prioritize streamlining its layout immediately.
Having a lot of content on your website is fine, but it doesn’t have to be on the home page.
Check out this design from the homepage of Jill Konrath.
Why it’s so good?
- The headline and the sub-headline tell you exactly what it is that Jill Konrath does; it’s straightforward and to the point (and how she can help your business).
- For Jill to develop her credibility as a keynote speaker, it also provides quick access to her thought leadership materials.
- Subscribing to the newsletter and getting in touch with her are two of her key calls to action, and they couldn’t be simpler.
This allows the user to explore the site and obtain additional details about the topic that piques their interest. However, if Jill were to explain every aspect of its services in such a little space, visitors would become distracted and overwhelmed.
Not to mention that her website’s homepage utilizes achromatic colors to make it easy to see what’s written.
You need to choose the right color scheme for your website if you want to keep it simple. As a result, your conversion rates will increase.
Focus on speed
Conversion rates are greatly affected by how quickly something loads. You will lose potential customers due to a slow-loading website. In today’s society, patience is a rare commodity. Nowadays, people want information instantly because of the internet. Websites with longer loading times have higher bounce rates.
How long it takes for your page to load is directly related to the issue I just raised. Websites that keep things simple load quicker.
Your website won’t load very quickly if it has a lot of images, long blocks of text, complicated menus, lots of colors, flashing lights, and other things that aren’t necessary.
Use quality images
Without pictures, a website can come out as uninteresting and unprofessional. However, this does not mean that you should overload your homepage with visuals.
You should know by now that having too many photos can slow down a website’s load time. Google analytics data also shows that sites with fewer images have a greater conversion rate.
Do not overdo it with the number of pictures you use. Maintain a consistent level of quality throughout all of your photos. If the pictures were taken in low quality, they won’t help.
It’s not that you shouldn’t include as many visuals as you think are necessary on your website, but rather that you shouldn’t cram them all onto the home page.
If your website serves as an online photography portfolio, for instance, every subject in your work should be represented by many, high-quality photographs.
However, such images should be held for when a visitor actually clicks on that subject.
If you only want to show off your top five pieces of work on your site, then all you need is one photograph for each. Any time a viewer selects one of these images, they’ll be taken to a new page displaying other examples of your work.
Run A/B tests
Even if you’ve followed the first three we’ve discussed and your conversion rate grows, you can’t be sure if it’s at its maximum potential. Keep trying to improve your website.
A/B testing is one of the finest techniques to determine if your homepage’s design is the best possible.
With A/B testing, sometimes called split testing, you can compare two designs on the same page to discover which one results in a better conversion rate.
When running these tests, it is crucial that you do not modify too many things between the two versions. If not, you won’t be able to tell which factor caused the results.
It’s best to focus on tweaking just one thing at a time, such as the call-to-action button’s language, color, or placement.
You can run countless variations of A/B tests. Once you’ve tested one part, change something else and test it again.
If you have already tried out several versions of the wording for your CTA button, you can move on to trying out different colors. The next step is to try other sizes or locations. As an added bonus, you may try out different photos to determine which ones have the greatest impact on sales.
In other words, A/B testing is something that never ends.
Keep in mind that you shouldn’t let these tests prevent you from making additional changes to your homepage, like streamlining the design or speeding it up. But if you need to decide between two options and just can’t figure it out, an A/B test is a great tool.
Create a stellar headline
People will not click on your headline if it is boring.
You can bet that more people will click if your headline is surprising, intriguing, and captivating. Your headline is your only opportunity to communicate value in an instant. You only have two-tenths of a second to convey value before someone forms an opinion about your website. And it only takes 2.6 seconds after that first impression for them to confirm or refute it.
Look at Click A Tree’s homepage headlines:
It’s effective because
- It describes their process in detail and,
- It alludes to how easy it is.
Also, it makes us wonder: How can you plant a real tree with just one click?
According to this study, your headline is one of the easiest methods to attract your visitor’s attention and keep them on your site. It may also drive them away. People will not know they need your service unless you tell them they do.
Still confused? Let’s create a template from Colibri’s homepage headline as inspiration for your own work.
Headline 1 should be like this:
*[1] your product/service* is a *[2] common usage of product/service* that will *[3] value proposition*.
“[1] WordPress [2] page builder that [3] gives you design superpowers”
Headline 2 should focus on the end value. It should provide them with the information they’re looking for. Dump all the extra bells and whistles. Ideally, it would resemble this.
“If you weren’t a designer before, now you will be”
Clearly state the benefit your product/service provides to customers. Describe the key issue that your product helps people with. The point is to keep things straightforward by highlighting the most common benefit your product or service provides.
Make sure your call to action is clear
Your CTA is so crucial that even though I’ve discussed it a few times in this tutorial, it deserves a more thorough explanation.
Not making your call to action (CTA) prominent on the homepage will result in low conversion rates. While it’s crucial, many websites fail to properly implement calls to action.
People that go to your website probably won’t spend much time trying to find the button that generates revenue for you. They won’t bother if they have to wonder.
For this reason, I cannot stress enough the value of keeping things simple. Keep your website simple so that people can focus on your call to action.
Try Jill Konrath’s webpage again. In a single glance, you can spot the button that prompts action. If you’re having a hard time thinking of what to write on your CTA, you can reach out to me.
Take a look at Khan Academy‘s homepage CTA. It tells visitors that they can start learning at Khan Academy with just one click. Instead of “new users” or “guests,” the term “learners” is used, making it clear that anybody can join the academy.
In addition, here’s something else to remember. There should be no more than one call to action on your homepage. Sure, you can expect internal links to various sections of your site. However, the CTA button needs to stand out for conversions to happen:
- Subscribe now
- Sign up and save!
- Click here to learn more
- Give us a try.
These are all great calls to action for a homepage. But none of these will work if you use them all at the same time. Visitors won’t know which button to click, reducing your conversion rate.
Pay attention to the course of action that will bring you the greatest return.
Optimize your website for mobile devices
You should optimize for mobile devices as well as desktops if you want to maximize conversion rates. Your homepage needs to be set up so that it works well on phones and tablets.
When users wait too long for a website to load, they move on to another option.
This will obviously kill your conversion rates. About half of all people who use the internet anticipate that your mobile page will load in fewer than two seconds.
Every business, no matter how small, should have a mobile-friendly website. However, this is of paramount significance for online retailers.
This is because most people who shop online do so on their phones.
Conclusion
If your conversion rates aren’t what you want, look at your homepage. Using your homepage to get people to convert is a common practice in marketing.
They’re an effective conversion driver and a great way to give first-time site visitors a thorough rundown of what your product can do for them.
Start by streamlining the overall layout. Keeping your homepage concise will help people get to the point where they convert faster.
Instead of being bogged down by text, they can get a concise description of your brand.
Use a compelling headline. Having a catchy headline will help you get your message across quickly. It will draw attention to your call-to-action.
As a bonus, simpler designs load quicker. Make sure you’re using a dependable web host.
If you’re going to include images on your site, make sure they’re of good quality. Use these with caution, though. Your conversion rate may drop if you use too many photos.
See which aspects of your homepage may be altered to increase conversion rates with the help of A/B testing.
It’s crucial that you make your homepage and the remainder of your site mobile-friendly.
With these tips, you should see an immediate improvement in your conversion rates.
Need more help? Schedule a call and let’s make some magic happen!