Killer Website Design Tips That Can Improve Your Reputation and Conversion Rate

Creating a professional website for any business is one of the key areas which should be considered to improve your conversions and your reputation. When designing a company website, many developers and designers have a major challenge to not only create a website which mimics the brand accurately, but to also drive home the leads and conversions the business needs and is looking for.

The website represents the face of the business online; so it needs to show the visitors they can place trust in the company. Its job is to convert traffic into email requests for more information, phone calls and eventual sales which lead to more ROI and profits for the business.

When you look at it, it’s probably one of the most important marketing tools companies can use overall to boost their conversions and reputation. But with the increase in online competition you need to make the website stand out. This expert guide will give you insight into the top killer website design tips which can improve a business’s reputation and conversion rate.

Design Elements That Should Be Considered In Your Website

Color Combination

Did you know the colors you choose to have on your website can help dictate whether or not you will make a conversion or be taken seriously as a vying competitor for visitor interaction? The colors of your website play a significant role in the overall success of your website. While it’s such a small element, it holds great power with many different colors holding a different meaning. The basic sense of each color includes:

• Purple – Purple is used quite a lot in skincare and beauty products because it soothes and calms.
• Black – Black is used for luxury market selling and is seen as a powerful, sleek and sophisticated color.
• Pink – Pink is mostly used for targeting women and is considered to be a feminine and romantic color.
• Blue – Blue has a tendency to create a calming and trustworthy effect that helps visitors relax more when buying from your business.
• Yellow – Yellow is often used by marketers to grab the attention of your audience. It resembles a youthful and optimistic appearance.
• Green – Green is often used by finance and money based businesses as it signals financial security, money and overall wealth.
• Red – Red has been known to increase the heart rate and creates a high sense of urgency when used for certain marketing of sales.
• Orange – These days most call to actions are colored in orange and it offers an intriguing yet inviting feel.

When deciding on the colors your website should be, it comes down to a few things:

• What your company is about, offers, or brings to the business world. Example: Accountant, Digital Marketing Agency, Bank, Baby Store.
• The type of voice you’re looking to achieve: Fun, professional, casual, or funky.
• The position of your colors: headlines, borders, background, etc.

When choosing colors, you should stick to a basic 2 to 3 color scheme for the best results. Unless you’re selling rainbows, there’s no need to use all the colors of the spectrum on your website. Choose colors that best represent what you’re trying to achieve overall. Is it trust, professionalism, financial security? Working with black, blue and or green may be the best option. However, also take into consideration color matching. While black, blue and green may be the colors you’re looking to use, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll all match. If this is the case, try a few variations to see the best combination. You can also use A/B testing on your color scheme when your website is live to get accurate feedback on the colors your visitors prefer.

Example Color 1: As you can see with the image below, this website appears to offer a calm medical like effect with the use of blue and orange colors.

Example Colors 2: For this website below you get a sense of power and professionalism with the use of the black and white colors.

User-Friendly Navigation

The navigation of your website is also something that will affect your business’s reputation and your conversions. What many business or website owners don’t realise is that a bad navigation layout can decrease your brand's popularity and cause frustration for your visitors. This frustration will lead in more and more people abandoning their search of your website to find a more user-friendly one. There are some key elements of a user-friendly navigation that should be considered when creating and designing this area. These include:

• Making It Stand Out – When you have your navigation points integrated into your website use a contrasting color to highlight these points, so they’re more distinct and visually stand out for your visitors to see. Also avoid making your navigation points the same size, color and font as the rest of the website and body of text.
• Keep It Simple – When designing your navigation points try to keep it as straightforward and straightforward as possible. Visitors need to find what they’re looking for in the shortest amount of time possible. This can be difficult if you have tier after tier of different categories and pages to search through. A good rule of thumb is to try and keep around three navigation levels for the best user experience. The main, the sub, and the product visitors are looking for. Complicating the search process can lead to frustration and website abandonment. Always keep it simple and straightforward.
• Descriptive – When naming your navigation points try to be as descriptive and clear as possible. The key is to communicate to your visitors what the navigation point is about in one or two words. For example:

• About Us could be Our Company Journey
• Services could be What We Offer
• Contact Us could be Get In Touch

As you can see being descriptive but clear as to what each category is, can not only give you an original edge but make you more creative in this competitive world of online business.

• Avoid Distraction Points – When developing your navigation areas, it’s also important to keep in mind areas where not to place your navigation. One major area where many businesses should avoid placing a navigation point is in the checkout process. Throughout the checkout process, you need to avoid distracting your visitors from the goal of converting into a sale. Remove all navigation points once the process has started. This will help to boost your conversion rate. If you use heat mapping, you’ll find that a large percentage of why a visitor abandons the shopping cart is due to navigation points located on the page. For better conversions only use navigation areas where needed.

• Structure – The structure and layout of your navigation are also important. The best areas to place your main navigation points is along the top from your page or down the left-hand side. Your search bar should also be positioned to the top right or the left-hand column of the page, along with your left side navigation for the best results. You can play around with your navigation by A/B testing different versions to find the best one that works for your visitors.

• Responsive – Lastly, your navigation should be a responsive design that can be viewed on multiple devices. With the increase in smartphone, tablet and iPad use, it’s important to cater to all your visitors who use these devices to ensure you reach the highest possible conversion potential available.

Navigation Image 1: This website has a great navigation layout with clear and easy to find areas which make it easier for customers to search through it.

Navigation Image 2 – This website below gives an excellent example of image + navigation placed together. You get to see the type of product you’re going to click into.

Overall

When designing a website for your business, it’s important to know which web design elements should be focused on to maximize indeed the potential of not only interacting with your visitors but also producing the conversions you’re looking for while increasing your reputation. Have you carefully thought about these two areas of your website design?