A strong web presence is vital for businesses in our digital age, and web design has a profound impact on users and their choices. Every business owner wants a secure, professional-looking website that encourages conversions – that’s the ultimate goal. Here’s how to increase sales through web design with these 10 amazing tips.

Trust Is Everything

 Most first-time visitors to your website are researching options and comparing you with similar businesses. They aren’t ready to take the next step of purchasing or making contact. The big question is what drives that next step? A recent study by the Harvard Business Review came to a compelling conclusion: trust.

Consumers use their intuition when making purchasing decisions online. If a website makes visitors feel safe and comfortable with clear prompts and relevant content, they are far more inclined to follow through with the purchase, not to mention, become a loyal customer.

Excellent web design is crucial for fostering this trust. By creating the best possible user experience, this greatly influences a consumer’s opinion of the trustworthiness of a brand.

An excellent way to further instill a sense of trustworthiness in your business and brand is including trust symbols and testimonials in your web design. Awards or certificates should be prominent on the homepage, as should testimonials from satisfied customers.

Colour Is Key

 Selecting the right colours for your website is far more important than some may think. Increasingly, the concept of “colour psychology” has become key to marketing brands. Colour psychology is the study of hues as an influencer of human behaviour. Although everyone perceives colours differently, specific colours can influence consumer preference and thus purchasing decisions. Research has shown that consumers formulate decisions about a product within 90 seconds of an initial interaction on a website, and up to 90% of that assessment is solely based upon colour.

Therefore, wise colour selection for your website not only distinguishes your brand from competitors but also influences feelings towards your product. It’s crucial to factor in what your site’s colours are conveying to your target audience. For instance, tones of red often evoke feelings of excitement and convey power, while blue conveys competence, strength, and trust.

 Typography Is Crucial

 Akin to colour, likewise typography is ubiquitous and can subtly create an emotional response in people. Unfortunately, often this powerful tool is overlooked. Typography is vital to conveying the sort of impression you want your website and brand to have on customers.

Of course, there are things to consider when choosing the right fonts for the design of your website. Versatility is important when selecting fonts to communicate different messaging. Depending on the context, font selection should be complimentary of one another on your website.

The choice of custom font on your site will not only set you apart from competitors, but also comprises the identity of your brand. Of course, the extent to which custom typography is used in web design is completely subjective. Some businesses may opt for custom typography in their logo, while others may choose to incorporate it through the design of the website.

Images Boost Engagement

Another important component to instilling an emotional response with web design are images. Research has proven that images can create that coveted sense of trustworthiness in a brand. High-quality images are important contributing factors to the purchasing decisions of consumers.

You should be mindful of the sorts of images that you choose for your website. Be sure to select images that won’t slow your load time. Likewise, use legitimate images of your products, or members of your business – never resort to stock images.

Include Video

 Increasingly, people are more inclined to watch a video than read an article online. From year to year, video content has occupies a larger percentage of web traffic. Obviously written content is essential on your website, but to reach more potential customers, consider making a video highlighting the product or service that your company provides. It’s an amazing way to convey information and foster your brand’s identity. Moreover, it has the potential to increase conversions and sales. However, embrace brevity, and keep videos to only a couple minutes in length.

 Clear Call-To-Action

 People have short attention spans in our digital age, and ultimately, customers want a clear path when navigating a website. It’s essential to know precisely what your customers’ needs are when they arrive on your site and to not overwhelm them with choices. The call-to-action should be relevant and immediately answer that need. When a customer visits your site, they immediately should know what to do. Have a prominent and clear call-to-action (CTA), which lets people know why they should click.

The Rise of AI and Chatbots

People crave a personalized connection, and are expecting a fantastic user experience when visiting a website. The major emerging technology that is driving this desire for personalization is Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI can take many forms in web design. One of the most prominent examples of AI in web design as of late is chatbots. This customer experience application is powered by AI automation. Chatbots allow customers to ask and receive questions in real time. Not only do they provide excellent customer service, but chatbots can also further foster a sense of trust and brand loyalty.

Chatbots first became integrated into websites in 2016, designed to provide seamless customer service by answering FAQs using NLP (natural language processing) and machine learning technology. Because they can answer queries and fulfill requests quickly, it’s unsurprising that customer service helpers have rapidly grown in popularity and are expected to become even more popular.

According to a report by Grand View Research, the chatbot market is expected to reach $1.25 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 24.3 percent each year. Because chatbots help visitors easily navigate websites and provide such exceptional customer service experiences, more businesses are integrating them into web design throughout a variety of industries.

Consider the Free Give-Away

 No one turns down something free, so if possible, consider the free give-away. Whether it’s free shipping, free trials, et al., free offers are a good way to increase conversions.

 White Space

“White space” refers to all the area between the different components of your website. The goal is to create a website that flows seamlessly. You want web design that is uncluttered and allows visitors to focus on the most important elements, such as call-to-action or a main image. Too many elements become busy and confusing, and will potentially turn people away from your website.

Mobile-Friendly Is Essential

 In March 2018, Google began migrating sites to a mobile-first index – Meaning, they rank the mobile version of a website to establish its search engine ranking, before moving onto desktop websites. Considering that nearly 58.99% of all web traffic worldwide now comes from mobile devices, it’s understandable why Google is making a hard lean towards mobile-friendly.

In order to compete, it is essential for a business to ensure that its website is mobile-friendly in order to engage customers on mobile devices. Yet, equally as important, is a responsive website with pages that load quickly. In July 2018, Google introduced its Speed Update, thus making page speed a factor for ranking mobile searches. Although it’s still early days for mobile-first indexing, having a mobile-friendly website is essential for a business, lest it drops in the rankings.

Another important thing to consider regarding the ranking of your business’ website is the emerging trend of voice search. The voice search trend is increasing so rapidly, that research has shown that 41% of American adults now utilize voice search on a daily basis.

Seeing as voice search usage is beginning to dominate, a different optimization strategy is needed. A voice search is going to be completely different from the way a user types it out – Spoken questions are different from typed questions. A business now needs to make sure that the content on its site is optimized for a more conversational feel, and what it sounds like out loud. If the content on your website is quick, to the point, easy to read and understand, then you’re on the right track.

How to Increase Sales Through Web Design

Good web design can be a challenge. As a business owner, you want your website to instill a sense of trust and make users feel comfortable, which will boost sales. In addition, your site should be easy to navigate and provide customers with the information they need, communicating the value you offer, so they can make an informed choice. Incorporating other aspects including effective SEO services and content marketing techniques, combined with a stellar brand strategy will further ensure that your business grows and flourishes into the future.

Sarah Bauder

Sarah Bauder is a senior content specialist at Little Dragon Media. Sarah has a degree in journalism and has a decade of experience writing content at numerous renowned publications. She enjoys writing about digital marketing, business, entrepreneurship and more.