Our Nashville web design team can’t tell you how many times people come up to us and say, “We need a new website.” Sometimes, this is the case. But most of the time? Their website can improve drastically without shelling out the cash for a total redesign. Often, we’ll visit the website and see something we would grade as B minus or a C plus. They key usually lies in the content of the website.
With over 10 years of experience in website development, our Nashville web design team knows there are many ways to improve your website’s functionality and conversion rate before ditching the old design completely. You will hear us harp on clear messaging and solving your customer’s problem over and over. With ecommerce, the website structure and usability matters and may warrant some greater design work but often the messaging simply needs to be considered.
Let’s take a look at some of the simple improvements that can be made:
Pass the grunt test
From our training and experience, our Nashville web design team knows the three questions that your customer wants to know when they visit your website. In five seconds or less, your website needs to answer these questions. We call it the grunt test because it should be so clear a caveman could hit the website and grunt back what you do.
Don’t use clever marketing speak or imagery that doesn’t make it clear for your customers. They are visiting your website to know if you can solve their problem. Our Nashville web design group addresses this by making sure our websites address what you sell, how it will make the life of your customers better, and how to buy it.
Make the call to action clear
This is one of the most important aspects of your website’s homepage. What do you want people to actually do when they come to your website? And is it really easy to find? Your call to action, or CTA, is usually a button that should be repeated twice in the website header. Once in the top right corner of the page and once below the content inside your website header. Our Nashville website design team advises to use the accent color to make it stand out.
A CTA button that is highly visible (and tempting to click!) is a great step to giving your website a facelift because it shifts to action mode. This means instead of advising your customer to learn more and feel their way around your site, we create a clear plan to solve their problem – by taking action.
Hint: The upper right-hand corner of your website is prime real estate on any web page. Place your CTA button here for better results.
Tell your story (quickly)
Nashville web design has been in business for over 20 years with iterations… NO. That’s not what we mean. That isn’t solving anyone’s problem. We want to use clear messaging that tells your customer you understand the issue they have, you have the solution to making their life better, and it’s really easy to buy. From you.
When people first visit your website, you want to make sure they know what you’re about. Do they know what service or product you offer? Are you presenting this in a way that directly addresses their needs?
Think of your home page as a first impression. A few lines of text about what you do serves as a great intro for your business.
Once you’ve drawn people into your story, you want to then lead them to the next action step. This is where that strong CTA comes in.
Cut down on excess text and images
You don’t want to scare visitors away with a ton of content when they stop by your site. A key part of communicating your brand’s story is cutting down on unnecessary images and text. You also don’t want to slow down the site unnecessarily. Our Nashville web design blog has tons of articles about the importance of speeding up a website and how it directly impacts customer conversions.
While many people think they need a total website redesign, they sometimes just need to streamline the content on their page. It really does make a huge difference!
We often come up with a three-step plan to lead site visitors to the desired action on your site. It’s important to make sure that every piece of content ties into this final goal. You’d be surprised at how simple your website can be when this is your focus.
Optimize top-performing pages
If there’s a certain webpage that’s driving a majority of your traffic, are you making good use of it? When we sit down with clients, we assess which site pages get the most clicks by looking at Google Analytics. From there, we know what to optimize.
For example, does a high percentage of your visitors go to the “Resources” page? You’ll want to take some time to make sure the content on that page ties into your site’s end-goal.
On the other hand, you may have certain tabs or buttons that aren’t getting any clicks. You can optimize these by switching up the language, button color and placement. Be sure to A/B test different elements until the page gains more traction.
All roads lead to more conversions
In the end, you want to make sure that every improvement leads your customers to your final goal. This could be leading your customer to sign up for an email list, make a purchase or give a donation.
Our clients are often surprised at how simple changes can lead to a big increase in their conversion rate. Don’t be afraid to deviate from a total website redesign and try out some of these more cost-effective options.If you’d like to know about other ways that your business can save money, download our 10 Ways Businesses Waste Thousands on Their Website & Marketing eBook here.