The Key to a Conversion Based Website Design is How It Works
January 3, 2018
Your business website design needs to be more functional than you think. Probably a lot more.
Let’s say you have a lead-generation website. You want leads to call you. Here’s a mobile site like this from a landscaper:
This is what I see on my phone screen. So what’s missing?
How about their phone number (or a click to call button)? This is a lead-generation website with no contact form and no phone number. I have to click on a contact page link on the hamburger menu (which they entitle “Get In Touch”, confusing, unconventional page title) to find any contact info or even learn where they work.
Incredibly, on the desktop version, there is no place to find contact information above the fold. The navigation is in the footer, and the “Get in Touch” page is so easy to overlook it’s almost invisible. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a phone number, email, and address.
There is no call to action on this website.
It’s a pretty website that serves as a nice gallery of their work. But they are making all kinds of assumptions about how people will navigate through their content. Because they are so far off the standard practice for having contact info on a business website, virtually everyone who visits this website will be confused. No doubt they lose a lot of people who never scroll to the footer of the site.
These are rudimentary mistakes. They’d be simple to fix. It’s just a matter of design.
Design is How it Works
There is a quote from Steve Jobs on design that should be the first commandment of small business website design.
“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that designers are handed this box and told ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.”
In Jobs’ view, a website design is built to facilitate the user’s experience. To help the business achieve a particular goal.
Yet we see websites like the landscaper’s all the time. Designs that are more about the look of the site or trying to create a unique brand image than functioning as a lead generation or sales tool.
These websites invariably do a poor job of communication. They sacrifice clarity for the sake of being clever and pretty.
But there is nothing uglier on a website than confusion. Nothing that kills conversions more than ambiguity.
The good news is for local business websites doing lead generation via phone calls and contact forms, this is an easy problem to solve. It simply requires that you prioritize the task the visitor needs to complete ahead of the purely aesthetic elements of the design.
In other words, make sure it works before you worry about how it looks.
For example, take a look at this dental website design on the UXI® platform:
The first thing you notice on this website is their location and phone number. It’s dead-center in the top middle of the design.
They have two call to action buttons (free consultation, contact us) that lead to a page with a map of their location, all contact info including email, and a form you can fill out to request an appointment. The three content boxes below provide important information.
As you scroll down you have links to their main services where the messaging is aided by images:
This homepage looks good. The design is clean and attractive. But it doesn’t sacrifice clarity to be pretty. The design serves the content instead of the other way around. This makes a huge difference in how well it converts.
When someone arrives on a homepage for a local business, they want to know three things right away:
- Where I am? (Does the content make it clear where the business is and what its service areas are?)
- What can I do here? (Does the content funnel towards a call to action so it is clear what the visitor should do?)
- Why should I do it? (Does the content communicate value that makes it unlikely the visitor will look for an alternative?)
These three things should be crystal clear. So simple a 5-year-old could figure them out.
It is better to err on the side of clarity with these three content elements even if it makes your design less cool.
Because cool designs don’t convert. Clear content that communicates value with a strong call to action and super simple navigation is what converts.
Design does matter, but it must serve the the goals of the content. It’s good to create a memorable brand image, but only if people understand what you do and why it’s of value to them.
A beautiful website nobody can figure out is ultimately useless.
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