Do you know that the design of your website plays a very important role in your conversion rate? Even if you apply all known tactics to accelerate site traffic and conversion, it won’t amount to much without a website design that is optimized to support conversion.

Effective web design is not just something you do because you want to, the design is a huge part of your marketing technique and to a large extent, can determine the success of your online venture.

If you are looking to boost the conversion rate on your website, this article contains essential and important website design principles that will help make your website conversion friendly.

Minimalist design

One of your top priorities when designing for the web is user experience. User experience is practically the most important part of any web design. This is what will determine how a visitor to your site enjoys their time on your site, and whether they will want to visit again.

There are several ways you can go about ensuring optimal user experience with your web design, and the most popular is by opting for a minimalist design.

A simple and minimalist design is the best way to go when considering accessibility and usability. Because a minimalist design contains fewer elements and lots of white spaces, the user is able to locate the information they need quickly, and with minimal hassles. 

When creating a minimalist web design, you should focus on three core aspects: 

• Colour: The color combination on your website plays an important role in communicating messages and evoking emotional responses. Therefore, you should research the right combination of colors for your business and niche that will make the user feel welcome and help increase customer engagement.
• Typography: Typography also plays an important role on your website. The type and style of font you use in web design will determine how catchy your messages are, and help to give the visitor the right visual interpretation. Endeavor to use legible typefaces and not more than three font types on your website.
• Visual content: Images, videos, tables, infographics and all other forms of media plays a huge role in user engagement. Website users find it easy to assimilate and recall visual content than regular text content, so you should endeavor to use a lot of relevant visual content on your website.

Because it is easy to make a mistake during web design, especially if you don’t have enough hands-on experience in designing for the web, you should consider hiring a professional website design company for your web projects, while you improve your skills working on non-productive sites.

Site navigation

It is not enough to make a straightforward and uncomplicated website. You also have to make sure that users can find what they want without stress. This means that your website navigation must be clear, simple, and straightforward.

Website navigation is one of the important keys to customer retention because if a user has a difficult experience navigating through your site, chances are he or she will not return. Avoid complex navigation that contains too many menu elements, instead, use a simple menu system and clearly defined call to actions to let users know the next thing to do on each page.

Website content

Content is king is one of the oldest mantras on the web. It implies that poor content can kill a website regardless of how attractive its design. When creating content for the web, ensure to use compelling language that will resonate with the intended user. This is the fastest way to convert visitors into customers.

If you are unable to come up with the kind of content that will attract and keep users on your website, you should consider engaging the services of a content writer. This way, you can be sure of the right style, language, and grammar for your target audience.

Check website errors

Any web design expert will tell you that the smallest error on your website can completely destroy all your design efforts and cause you to lose customers. In fact, research has shown that the financial cost of website errors runs into millions every year, and if not handled, can result in total business failure.

After designing your website and before making it public, you should take some time to carry out essential tests on your site. Some of the tests you should carry out include:

• Test for speed.
• Browser compatibility test.
• Mobile responsiveness test.
• Link testing.
• Search optimization test.
• Compatibility testing.

Failure to carry out these tests can make you miss performance issues that can affect your site in the future.

Conclusion

Effective web design is important if you are to succeed in your online venture because if your website is not designed to suit your users, they will leave your business for the competition.

There are dozens of principles for effective web design, but hopefully, the few covered in this article will make for a good starting point.