In a related article about signs for small businesses, it was mentioned how your business’s signage is the first thing the customer sees before entering the store or premises. Often times, customers choose to walk in because they find the signage interesting, which you can get at Trade Sign Shop. Yes, first impressions do matter, especially in today’s competitive market.
The same principles apply to your online presence. The first impression customers get upon visiting your website or online store will greatly influence their decisions. This is why having a nice, enjoyable website is a must. Simple optimizations can actually help increase your online store’s conversion rate and improving friction points on user’s entry into your website can make all the difference. We are going to review some of those entry page optimizations in this article.
An obvious starting point, but one so often ignored. One of the most important aspects to keep in mind when you’re trying to improve user experience is speed. More specifically, the time required to load your site and its content in its entirety. You want a user to experience your website how you imagine it. Elements loading slowly can impact this significantly. It is easy to get carried away and start adding large non-compressed pictures and other design elements to the landing page. You want to make it as attractive as it can be. However, having a landing page that takes too long to load perfectly will substantially hurt your conversion rate and increase bounce rate.
The average attention span of today’s internet users is between 5 to 8 seconds. A site that still doesn’t load after 8 seconds often gets abandoned; users simply don’t like waiting, especially online. The best way to optimize your conversion rate is by optimising your site’s speed.
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Improving page loading time is an easy challenge to tackle. You have plenty of resources to help you, including Google’s own PageSpeed checker. The tool will review your site as a whole and provide you with tips on how to further optimize the tested page. Other resources such as Pingdom give you a more in-depth look at the things you can do to improve.
Fast site speed also has a small positive impact on SEO as well. So start here!
A lot of people think that if your website is responsive then you have done the work. Not true. Responsive changes can mean that important information and CTA’s are pushed down your mobile page.
Make sure you take time out to audit your entry pages across all devices and browsers.
The next factor to look into is the design of the site itself. It is a key factor to review when you’re trying to increase conversion. Colors, for example, can either make users love the site instantly or feel uncomfortable from the start.
A bad color pallet can make information difficult to read or to divert the eye away from important information. The use of too many colors must be avoided. Stick to a maximum of three to four colors and try to utilize colors that represent your brand perfectly. Don’t forget to take into consideration the messages and feelings different colors may ignite and try to construct the right message from the start.
The same can be said for fonts, images and other design elements. Focus more on creating a good, positive vibe than looking cool. You’ll be surprised by how much these elements influence your conversion.
This last optimisation is something that many site owners still neglect to do: eliminating clutter. Have you ever visited a website and instantly think the layout is too complicated and very cluttered? This can happen to any site, even when the right colours and design elements are used. Layout is a big part of conversion rate optimisation.
The simplest way to make a site appear clean and well-organized is through careful use of white space. Try increasing the line height on paragraphs and you will instantly notice how much cleaner the site appears.
Again, it’s all about making subtle changes that greatly enhances the overall user experience. These three tips will help you get started with optimizing your site.
