Getting users to your website is only half the battle. Once you have potential customers on your landing page, they need to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter or otherwise perform a valuable action. How can you encourage these conversions? Here are a few ways.
Use Line-of-Sight Cues
People tend to look at certain spaces on a webpage because that’s where their gaze naturally falls. You can take advantage of this by putting the most important information within line-of-sight. For example, you can encourage users to explore your content by putting the search bar at eye level.
Try Explicit Directional Cues
Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to put important buttons within line-of-sight. For example, placing a “buy” button in the middle of the page can be annoying. Instead, you can put the link or button in an out-of-the-way place, such as the upper right-hand corner, and use explicit directional cues to send customers there when they’re ready. A good, simple cue is an arrow.
Utilize Whitespace Effectively
Did you know the space between graphics can be just as useful as the graphics themselves? The same goes for content; whitespace is a natural break that let’s site visitors know there’s a change in information. The best web designers can use this whitespace to naturally guide users to important links, offering direction so subtly that visitors may not even realize it’s happening.
Test for User Friendliness
Whatever changes you make, test them before going live. Testing allows you to see if a change has the effect you’re hoping for and ensures there are no unintended consequences. Instead of rushing changes, create a timeline that allows for both testing and feedback. You may need to go through several rounds to achieve your desired effects.
Minimize Loading Times
While your website’s appearance is important to increasing conversions, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. The other factor you need to consider is how well your pages actually work. This includes loading times.
Site visitors spend an average of 15 seconds on a website before deciding whether or not to move on. If your webpage takes 15 seconds to load, that means you missed out on a sales opportunity.
Now that you have these tips, you can optimize your landing page. With just a few tweaks, you can decrease bounce rates and increase conversions, leading to more profit and efficiency. While it takes some work, it’s well worth the investment.