If your website has a high bounce rate or few sales, there is little point in working on SEO, creating and publishing quality content, or spending money on PPC and AdWords advertising.
Regardless of the nature of your industry, area, expertise, or aspirations, the primary goal of your website should always be to increase sales. But this is only the beginning of a company’s aim to transform customers into:
- Customers
- Readers
- Buyers
- Subscribers
- Contacts
- Followers
It would be best if you concentrated on your website’s second goal, getting visitors to engage with your site. This unique strategy is known as conversion rate optimization (CRO). Although Google Analytics may tell you a lot, the numbers combined with the experience of conversion psychology can put together a full plan for you. Furthermore, ongoing optimization is also key to keeping up with changing trends and increasing the effectiveness of your website’s results.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) – what is it?
One of the acronyms specific to the realm of digital marketing is CRO. Other typical examples include ROI, PPC, SEM, SEO, etc. Likewise, conversion rate optimization is referred to as CRO. A consultant in conversion rate optimization works to increase a business’s conversion rates on their website, mobile application, or any other tool used for marketing purposes. All of your marketing channels and companies have conversions as their ultimate objective. There are many ways for people to access your website:
- Search Engines
- Emails
- Internet Marketing
- PPC
- Directories of social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest
- Outside hyperlinks
However, even with these strategies for increasing traffic, you will only achieve your goals once you turn your web visitors into paying clients. We do this via digital marketing and your website structure, design, and content adjustments. Failure to convert leads to a waste of marketing dollars, and you are potentially changing your business in a way that isn’t valid based on facts. Conversion optimization is a genuine philosophy rather than just a method to increase revenue. Not everything is about cookies or pretty photographs. It is a method for organizing a company’s overall marketing strategy and achieving success.
Quick Checklist for Easy Conversion Fixes
- They can’t find the information easily
- FAQ is missing
- Out-of-stock issues
- Poor product presentation
- Lack of essential information
- Excessively high prices
- Overly complicated process to purchase
- Too many choices
- No CTA on Heroes
SEO is improved with conversion rate optimization.
Search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) are sometimes seen as distinct or even antagonistic fields.
A CRO strategy expert could choose a landing page with shorter, more concise text and larger, more eye-catching graphics instead of one with longer content and lighter images, as an SEO specialist might. Their responsibilities differ: CRO experts concentrate on getting people to make purchases, whereas SEO specialists focus on getting visitors to the site.
The two disciplines cannot function independently in real-world situations. Search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization must work together for a website to succeed. Although a search engine optimization effort will increase your visibility, it will only sometimes result in more clients.
The key distinction between SEO and CRO is as follows: CRO experts convert the leads that SEO experts generate for you. Various objectives, combined efficiency, and outcomes you can predict for growth and sustainability.
For your company, the quality of the traffic is more important than the quantity.
One of the essential ingredients for a company’s online success is providing excellent customer service. Even though tools like Google Analytics make it possible to analyze user activity in valuable ways, the data they offer could be more frequently sufficient for you to interact properly with your audience.
Indeed, Internet users’ behavior on your website or blog does not always represent who they are as people. Therefore, you need to have a solid understanding of the various customer personalities and desires to communicate better the benefits of what you are offering and the problems you solve. In this case, A|B testing can be very beneficial to let the analytics tell us where we should make the changes.
The value of website design
Here are five statistics that demonstrate why the look of your website is as vital to the content you share or the goods or services you’re selling before we get into what defines a “good” web design:
1) 75% of people judge a company’s legitimacy based on the appearance of its website
According to a Stanford study, 75% of respondents base their opinion of a firm on its website. This affects how they feel and where they are in the user journey.
2) 94% of individuals claim that a website’s web design is the reason they don’t trust it.
Customers will only trust you if your website is easy to navigate. This affects everything, including website traffic and sales—especially when customers avoid dealing with companies they don’t trust.
3) Initial perceptions are also 94% tied to design.
A first impression is something you can never get back.
Those initial impressions could determine the success of your website. You only have a little time, though, to convert website visitors.
First impressions of a website are 94% design-related, according to research. Unfortunately, they will only stay on your website for a short time if it is attractive, which is why a subpar website design frequently costs you credibility and confidence.
4) It takes website visitors roughly 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about it.
In seconds, that is 0.05.
If your design doesn’t impress them in that brief amount of time, they’ll judge your website negatively and may click the “Exit” button. (Frequently in favor of a rival with a more attractive website.)
5) 60% of consumers state that they place a high value on website usability.
Online buying is unquestionably becoming more and more popular.
Almost every sector has high stakes, but if you work in eCommerce (in particular), your website design may not be cutting it if you want to capture a piece of the $29 trillion pie.
According to Statista, 6 out of 10 consumers feel that a website’s usability is vital when shopping online.
Web design statistics for the page
Therefore, you are aware of how important website design is for both big and small enterprises.
However, what should you consider when creating your website? And are you making any terrible errors that could ruin your company’s credibility, reputation, or sales?
If a company’s website lacks contact details, 44% of internet visitors will depart.
Most likely, your website has a contact page. Given that nearly half (44%) of visitors would leave if they couldn’t discover your company’s contact information, it is imperative to make sure that it is simple for them to access.
(Things like your phone number, email address, or physical address fall under this.)
Furthermore, according to KOMarketing’s research, 54% of consumers believe that the absence of contact information diminishes a brand’s trustworthiness. As a result, they would leave the website they are browsing because of this (lack of) design aspect.
The brain receives 90% of its information visually.
We briefly mentioned the significance of site design before. That’s because visual information is transmitted to the brain almost exclusively.
(In actuality, the brain processes pictures 60,000 times faster than words.)
This may be why first impressions are heavily influenced by design and how visitors perceive your website. We can grasp a website more quickly (and easily) by looking at it rather than by reading it.
The visual dimension is cited as the primary influence on purchasing decisions by 92.6% of respondents.
Speaking of design, a study indicated that over 92% of users rank a website’s visual appeal as the most important element in determining whether or not to make a purchase.
It should go without saying that for e-commerce sites to remain competitive, this web design statistic is essential. Awesome website design and product images will win them over. The easiest approach to increase your conversion rate is to do it!
70% of websites for small businesses need a call to action.
A call to action is a component that urges readers to take action. They may be in the shape of a button or text and typically direct people to:
- Fill out their order
- Add an item to the shopping cart
- Download some material.
- Send a form in
- subscribe to you on social media
7 out of 10 small firms, according to research, don’t employ calls to action (CTA) on their homepages or elsewhere on their websites. They are making a mistake by thinking that website visitors will successfully achieve the website’s objectives on their own.
Naturally, things sometimes go differently than planned, but that’s life.
The largest error in website design is a packed layout.
It’s exciting to design a website. You can choose the images you want to use, the colors you want, and your site’s general design. On-page elements’ “free for all” mentality can be doing more harm than good.
According to GoodFirms, about 85% of small firms overload their websites with on-page components:
The most typical error in web design is cluttered web design.
(That error occurs significantly more frequently than leaving out a call to action or concealing your primary navigation menu.)
Only 1% of website visitors use carousels or sliders.
Sliders dominated the market some decades ago. Every contemporary website has a carousel of photos that flow across the screen. However, it appears that their use is diminishing for photos alone but are now using different functionality options that allow visitors to interact on the small amount of screen.
But what if your website already makes use of image carousels? You could use a heatmap tool to determine whether your slider is above the 1% threshold. If not, replace it with a different on-page component (such as a standalone photo.)
Responsive and Mobile Design
You probably know that Google has changed to a mobile-first indexing strategy if you work in the SEO industry.
This indicates that search engine crawlers will access a website’s mobile version rather than its desktop one, proving the value of having an adaptable website design.
But if you’re still not convinced that you need a mobile-friendly website, consider these facts regarding responsive web design:
Smartphones accounted for 63% of all visits to business websites.
Are you considering a website redesign? It’s crucial to consider the audience it will draw. They are almost certainly utilizing a mobile device.
A significant portion (63%) of all visits to eCommerce websites were made on smartphones.
Mobile devices generate 50% of all eCommerce sales revenue.
Smartphones account for a significant portion of website traffic, and users of mobile devices who access eCommerce websites also divulge their credit card information.
In fact, a typical eCommerce store generates half of its sales from mobile.
Your prospective consumers, clients, and business partners are undoubtedly browsing your website while waiting for their next Uber, even if you don’t operate an e-commerce business.
25% of customers say they would stop interacting with information that didn’t look good on their device.
You might be persuaded to design your website following Google’s mobile-first idea now that you know how people use mobile phones.
According to a study by Adobe, 25% of users would stop engaging with information that doesn’t look good on their device.
How does that affect the design of your website? For example, mobile visitors will leave your website if it was designed for desktop users but is difficult to view on their smaller devices.
No more customers means no more sales.
If a search result is not mobile-friendly, 40% of users will move on to another one.
Most likely, SEO is being used as a marketing tactic for your website. As we mentioned previously, your design is crucial in this situation. Google rewards sites that are simple for mobile consumers to access with higher ranks.
Why? The reason could be that if a search result isn’t mobile-friendly, 40% of users will move on to another one. The user experience on your site as well as SEO metrics like dwell time and bounce rate are sure to suffer as a result.
A firm with a poorly designed mobile website won’t get any recommendations from 57% of internet users.
If you’re still unsure whether you should create a mobile-friendly website, think about the effect it will have on sales.
More than half of internet users won’t endorse a company with a subpar mobile website. As a result, you’re passing up the opportunity to increase sales through the network of your current clients, and we all know that word-of-mouth advertising is the most trustworthy.
How does site design affect page speed?
A stunning website serves little purpose if no one visits it. However, other factors could reduce the number of people that see your design.
Since designers, developers, marketers, and consultants (that’s me!) collaborate on every project from discovery to launch, we at Rohring Results give this a lot of thought.
Like every other designer or developer at Rohring Results, I pay close attention to page performance if a client’s website needs to perform well in search or generate new revenue.
According to the following facts, page speed should be a top priority if you’re considering a redesign:
83% of website visitors anticipate a page to load in under three seconds.
You are already aware of the significance of page speed. Although it’s important for SEO, slow-loading websites are annoying. The user experience on your website may suffer significantly as a result.
When assessing your page speed, you must fall under the three-second mark because 83% of users anticipate a page to load in under three seconds.
However, if your website is slow, the issue goes deeper than simply not meeting customer expectations. For example, Google estimates that 53% of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load.
44% of visitors will form a bad opinion of businesses with websites that take too long to load.
We briefly discussed how a bad website design could harm your business’s reputation. Unfortunately, your reputation is still at risk even if you have the most attractively designed website since it will take too long to load.
Nearly half (44%) of website visitors acknowledge that if the site crashes or takes too long to load, they will form a bad opinion of the business.
If photos take less time to load, 39% of visitors will abandon the page.
The research paper by Adobe shows that a slow website risks visitor engagement.
If photos load or take less time to appear on their screen, 39% of users will abandon the site altogether. If you reduce load times, that’s a sizable portion of people could gain out on your graphic design.
A site performance improvement from 8 to 2 seconds can enhance conversion rates by 74%.
You’ll see more visitors staying on your website if you increase page speed. Additionally, there’s a risk that your revenue will double or triple.
According to research, reducing side speed from 8 to 2 seconds can increase conversion rates by up to 74%.
What could you buy if your income increased by 74%?
Each year, retailers lose $2.6 billion in sales due to slow websites.
You know that slow-loading websites negatively affect a company’s reputation, site traffic, and user experience. However, the cost of a slow website outweighs statistics from Google Analytics that are below average.
According to a recent Econsultancy study, merchants lose $2.6 billion in sales annually due to slow-loading websites.
Your slow website may hurt much more if you don’t engage in commodity e-commerce and instead use it to secure high-end partnerships or transactions.
If you want to take advantage of those sales, you must address it.
cost statistics for websites
Less than $500 is spent on websites by 28% of small firms.
Considering that we just mentioned that a professional agency might charge thousands of dollars for a design, that statistic could be a shock.
But it’s accurate to say that more than 25% of small firms have modest website spending plans. They invest less than $500, typically using freelancers or do-it-yourself website builders.
What’s also true is that your competitors’ websites probably cost them less than $500, and they’re still paying for them (whether they know it or not).
Weebly has 18.73% of the market for website builders in the United States.
Speaking of DIY website builders, you may create a website using a variety of tools, including:
Weebly|Wix
WordPress|Squarespace
According to Statista, the top, Weebly, has an 18% market share for website builders. Weebly is never (ever) recommended for use by businesses, as you might expect. One thing to remember WordPress powers 40% of ALL websites on the internet.
Monthly costs for normal website upkeep range from $35 to $5,000.
Your work doesn’t finish once your website is operational. You must frequently alter your website’s design to reflect new consumer trends and preferences, changes in what you offer, update the plugins, update the server and update the base code to keep it secure and working. The monthly cost of that ranges from $85+.
These web design statistics show that the field is always evolving.
As you can see, web design is constantly evolving and developing. It’s difficult to forecast how websites will look in the future because some aspects that were popular years ago (like picture sliders) are out of style.
No matter what “best practices” you adhere to, keep in mind that a website isn’t “done” after the initial design. Users give websites with fresh updates or reviews higher credibility.
Commit to looking at web design data and keeping trends in the foreground of your thoughts. Then, use them to show that you’re on top when redesigning your website.
