There are so many different aspects you must consider, and various strategies that you must come up with on a regular basis. You’ll be worried about growth plans, product creation, and marketing strategies altogether. When you’re handling so many ongoing tasks at the same time, it can be easy to forget about optimizing the digital presence of your business. However, that would be a big mistake on your part.
Be Trustworthy
A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review, on what motivates people to buy something from a website revealed that the most important thing to customers is ‘trustworthiness’. When consumers feel at ease, safe, and comfortable when they visit your online business, you have a greater chance of not only convincing them to buy from your website but also encourage them to become longtime customers of your business.
How?
So, how do you create trustworthiness? The easiest way to do that is through strong website design. When you present a website that is easy to navigate and straightforward, users are going to have more positive experiences on your website, which will also improve their chances to buy from you.
One of the most obvious ways to ingrain familiarity in potential customers is through solid products, company transparency, and great testimonials, but when it comes to determining trustworthiness, the website design ranks highest. So, if you’re looking to stand out from the crowd, there are some tried-and-tested elements that will help convert visitors to your website into loyal customers.
Don’t worry.
We’re not going to cover basic elements like ‘responsive designs’, since they are pretty obvious. So, without further ado, let’s check out some of the top web design and UX trends that will help grow your business exponentially.
BUSINESS WEB DESIGN TIPS AND TRICKS
1. Parallax scrolling
Even though digital experiences have improved different aspects of the daily lives of people, they have also had a negative impact. People have become lazy, so much so, that even clicking a button takes too much effort for some of them. That’s where parallax scrolling comes into the picture. This uneven scrolling effect has helped overcome the general laziness of consumers while remaining visually appealing and engaging. Users have gotten used to consuming information with a simple swipe as they browse through the page.
It’s Popular
Parallax scrolling has increased in popularity and it has led to the introduction of single-page website designs, deeper scrolling, and rendering what information is less necessary. This makes it easier for users to prioritize content and increases their likelihood of seeing everything.
A fine example of parallax scrolling is depicted by Make Your Money Matter, which created an illustrated timeline that goes both vertically and horizontally to captivate users.
2. Video landing page
It’s a no-brainer to incorporate video in your web design since 78% of users on the internet watch online videos every week. However, this doesn’t mean you should start embedding all types of YouTube videos, but you can transform your web design by making a video landing page. This can be done by including a direct call-to-action in the video, or you could create an immersive video, which will auto-play on the homepage.
Build a User Experience
Either approach will drive the brand’s identity or provide information, but incorporation both will enhance the UX and the impression of users about your company. Not convinced about the impact of video? Maybe a study will drive home the point.
It Converts
A study on The State of Video Marketing by Vidyard and Demand Metric surveyed entrepreneurs and B2C and B2B professionals and entrepreneurs. It was predicted that 69% of all traffic on websites will be drawn by video, and 70% of the participants stated that video is better at converting than other forms of content and information.
3. Custom Typography
All websites must have text, but the days of basic stock fonts or boring Arial, and Times New Roman are well and truly over. If you want your message to make an impact on consumers, you should think about implementing unique typography that matches your brand identity and communicates your message properly to users.
You have complete freedom to use this unique typography, in different parts of your web design. Most brands tend to use this in their logo design, while other businesses will use a custom font on their entire design to highlight important content and information. Ultimately, you have complete freedom on how and where you should use this trend.
4. Animated calls to action
All website designs must have calls-to-action because consumers won’t know what they are supposed to do unless you tell them explicitly, repeatedly. However, it’s not enough to just tell your consumers what they must do. They’re coming across instructions from every corner of the internet, so you must give them something extra if you want to stand out.
One way you can grab their attention is by adding a little animation to your call-to-action. It could be a simple effect to catch the eye of users or a micro-mini interaction. Consumers are more likely to do what you want them to do if the call-to-action grabs their attention and offers confirmation of completion.
5. Artificial intelligence (Buzz Word I know!)
Despite an increase in e-commerce sales in recent times, people are still craving connections, which is one of the main reasons why artificial intelligence is so popular in all its forms. Artificial intelligence in website design can be in different shapes, but the most popular examples include chatbots, personalization, and machine learning. Personalization and machine learning are very similar and provide users with the feeling of being special, which translates into brand loyalty.
Chatbots & Automated Replies
Chatbots have a direct influence on user experience, and even though they offer an engaging element, the main reason you should integrate chatbots in your web design is mainly down to providing effective customer service. It allows users to ask questions in real-time and get answers, which allows them to acquire information efficiently.
Grow your business with Web Design Tips that Will Improve Conversion Rates
It’s important to have an appealing website design, but you shouldn’t forget about what the main goal of your website is, which is to convert traffic into phone calls, submissions of contact-forms and lead-forms, physical-location visits, and sales. Your business won’t generate any revenue without these actions. It’s obvious that the most conversions produced by your website, the more revenue is going to be generated by your business.
There are numerous ways you can go about improving the web design for your business, so that it leads to higher conversions. However, most businesses tend to go about it in the wrong manner and end up with a web design that doesn’t convert into more sales. Therefore, to help you out, we are going to share some web design tips that will improve your conversion rates.
1. A Simple Design Will Work All the Time
Web design trends where all over the place a couple of years ago, and it was trendy to use flash and animation in the designs. Currently, the most popular designs are those that are simple and clean. Brands had started to do too much to impress visitors with unique features, but consumers nowadays prefer a clean and nice layout.
If you’re looking to impress your visitors, you should do that through your offerings and content. There’s no point in filling up your website with animation and flash, which will only annoy them, and most importantly, lead to slower load times for your website.
2. Simple Navigation is the Way to Go
It shouldn’t take more than 2 seconds for consumers to find what they are looking for when they land on your website. They’re going to get frustrated and will head on to another website if they are searching for longer than that. That’s why you must ensure that the navigation menu of your website is as simple as possible. Giving too many options for your visitors will only overwhelm them.
You should create a clear path for visitors for any action you want them to complete, whether it’s going to a specific destination page or filling a submission form. Simplifying your navigation will also allow you to condense several pages of your website into a single page. That will make it easier for visitors since they will have a simple path towards the conversion goal of your business.
3. Get Rid of Social Media Feeds
Everyone was putting social feeds on their websites when social media was fresh and new. Nowadays, consumers understand how they can connect with brands on social media as they have become familiar with the method. There’s no benefit of putting Twitter and Facebook feeds on the website. They’ll just distract visitors away from your main goal.
You should instead place social icons in the sidebar or footer and link it to your account. That way, if a visitor wants to connect or follow you on social media they will. Your main goal should be to get people to read content on your website, make purchases, and complete forms, and not to scroll through your previous posts and tweets.
4. Optimize Your Contact Page
It’s important that you don’t make it difficult for customers to contact you. Adding a phone number is a good idea, but most consumers want to contact businesses through their websites, especially when they want to inquire about a service. The consumer just wants information, not to be sold to and pitched on the contact page. Therefore, you should make it easier for your consumer by optimizing your contact page. The best way to do this is by offering them fewer choices to make here.
5. Don’t Use Stock Photos
Stock photos are great when they are used for blog posts on your website. However, you shouldn’t be using stock images on the main pages of your website, like the ‘About Us’ page. It doesn’t matter if you’re using high-quality stock images, the fact remains that customers can see through phony stock images. You should book studio time and hire a professional photographer if you’re thinking about including images of your team.
Visitors to your website aren’t going to have much confidence in your business if you’re conveying your professionalism and expertise by using stock photos.
6. Select a Responsive Design
ComScore’s 2015 US Digital Future in Focus study revealed that around 31% of all traffic to the leading digital properties had come from mobile devices. This is a significant number, and it is one that is only going to increase with time. If your website isn’t delivering an exceptional mobile experience, you’re going to miss out on a lot of consumers.
The solution is opting for a responsive website design, which will adapt to fit any screen, whether it is for tablets, smartphones, laptops, and desktops. It will ensure that all actions, features, and pages are accessible to users irrespective of what device the user is browsing on. You’re not going to sit and manipulate the mobile screen to access an offer or read content, and your customers aren’t going to do it as well.
Conclusion
You can cultivate a dedicated and broad consumer base, who will use your products and services repeatedly, by investing in website design. There are several design elements, you can choose to incorporate in your web design, but your choice should reflect the following:
- Represent your brand
- Divert attention to important calls-to-action
- Provide users with information to help them make an informed choice
- Make your users feel comfortable
So, there you have it, some of the best web design tricks that will help grow your business exponentially.