Do This, Not That – 3 Design Mistakes That Hurt Conversions
Your website doesn’t come with an instruction manual. The layout and design should guide your visitors through the conversion process. If you are going to convert visitors, you will need to avoid these three web design mistakes.
Confusing Navigation
Your website’s navigation is arguably the most important part of your site for an end user. The navigation will guide them through the website. Your visitors should be able to find information quickly and efficiently. Web users have come to expect certain things from navigation:
- The navigation should be consistent throughout the website
- It is located horizontally above or below the header or vertically on the left side of the page
- Larger sites should have a search function for quicker navigating
There are plenty of places on your site where your creativity can shine through. Plenty of opportunities to experiment and try new things. Your navigation is not one of those places. When it comes to site navigation, stick to the rules or your conversions will suffer.
Excessive Animation
There is a definite “cool factor” for websites with motion. Flash animation adds excitement to the page and immediately attracts the visitors attention. There lies problem #1 with flash animation, it’s distracting. The focus of virtually all business websites should be conversions. Anything that pulls your visitors’ eyes away from your calls-to-action should be avoided. Flash will increase your page load times and is not search engine friendly. It is best to avoid flash unless it is proven through testing and analytics to increase end user experience and conversions for your site.
Missing Calls-to-action
If you read this blog on a regular basis you will have heard this before. The #1 reason sales reps fail is they don’t ask for the order. The same is true for your website. A website that has well thought out and placed calls-to-action will convert better than a site whose only call-to-action is a contact us link in the navigation. Offer valuable content to your visitors throughout the site in exchange for their contact information. Guide your visitors into the sales funnel.
Avoid these 3 design mistakes and boost your conversion rate today.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know by posting a comment below.
