“If you don’t have a website, you don’t exist but if you have a bad one your existence is on the wrong side”
I was in the bookshop earlier today and bought three books. Two of them, I bought them for its cover, and the other was a recommendation, but I would have never bought it as it looked a bit amateur. This last book is great, but I would have never bought it for its cover.
With websites happens a similar thing. If someone googles ‘accountants near me’ you get 3,240,000 results, so you have 7 seconds to grab the potential client’s attention. So if you wondered why your website doesn’t get any visitors and you can’t find where the problem lays here is a checklist to improve conversions.
One image is worth a thousand words
The imagery and photography are one of the most important elements. If you use cheesy photographs and or poorly designed graphics, you will lose the attention of your visitors. See the example above, on the left, there is a very low-quality photography which makes the site look amateur, while in the right one simple image that has been customised with the brand looks professional.
Don’t be afraid of space
As designers, we get a lot of requests to fill up the white gaps. We have to explain that whitespace is actually very a very helpful resource as it gives focus and order to the website. Avoid filling up the gaps just because there is white space that is not being used; it is actually in use. See the examples: which of these makes your eyes focus and which makes your eyes water?
Hierarchy
If you don’t help the user with their journey, they will last two nanoseconds in your website. Hierarchy is necessary to layer and order the importance of the information you try to display. If your site is all in one reading level your user won’t know where to look at and will close your site. Look at the examples we’ve put above: two e-commerce sites one is trying to sell all in one page the other is guiding the user with highlighted products and sections. Which website looks more inviting?
Make it your type and legible
Use fonts that are easy to read. Don’t make the website text-heavy and be careful with the backgrounds! If you want to make an impact which of the above would you choose? Going to the point and make it easy to ready will get your potential customer to stay longer on your site.
Buttons at the top
Let your visitor what you want them to do, don’t hope that they will find out by themselves. Put a beautiful and bright button with “Shop Now!” or give them a search bar if that is what you want them to do. When the call to action is hidden or missing, your visitors will struggle to interact with your website.
Brag about trust
If you are to be trusted, you have to show it. Use trust logos, social media or testimonials to assure your visitors. The Internet is still a dark place for some people that will avoid to put their card details anywhere near the cloud.