Alright, so here’s the scenario. You’re a marketing manager in charge of ensuring certain goals are accomplished for your organization.
There’s a problem, though. You don’t have either the time or the budget to do a complete website redesign.
What do you do?
There are a ton of ways one can go about improving a website, but we’ve taken the liberty to narrow them down to the 10 things we feel will make the BIGGEST impact on your website WITHOUT having to redesign the entire thing from the ground up. So how do you improve your website? Get ready to ways to improve your website design!
Make It Faster
User experience is greatly influenced by the speed of a website. According to Google, increasing loading times from one to three seconds raises the likelihood of a visitor abandoning the website by 32%.
Site speed also plays a vital role in conversion rates. In fact, research by Google reveals that conversions might drop by up to 20% for every second that a mobile page takes to load. Furthermore, faster websites can lift conversion rates by up to 40%.
In many cases, speeding up your website and website design can be relatively easy to do. Here are some quick fixes that can make your site load faster:
- Compress and optimize your images and videos
- Limit the amount that loads on a single page
- Enable caching
- Use a CDN
Improving website overall page speed is critical for attracting visitors and keeping them interested.
Make It Consistent
Design is all about consistency. The consistency of your website’s design and content is critical if you want to give your visitors a pleasant online experience. It can make the difference between a good and bad user experience.
Even if you’re not in love with your visual design, it may be made worse by being inconsistent. Make sure that fonts, font sizes, font weights, colors, treatments to elements such as corner rounding, and borders are consistent across all pages. This will improve how professional the website appears regardless of whether or not the web design is the best it can be.
Improve Your Opening Statement
The copy on your homepage has a significant impact on its success. It’ll be the first thing visitors see when they come to your website and can be used as a brief “elevator pitch” to explain the purpose of your site. As a result, your website’s opening statement must be engaging.
You should have a clear opening statement that makes it obvious what you do, who you do it for, and why you do it. If you don’t, then you’re starting off on the wrong foot with your potential customers. Improving this statement will immediately help prospective customers connect with your company.
For instance, Kaber Tech features an excellent opening statement on their website. They have a catchy headline and a statement that illustrates what makes their products different.
Re-organize Your Website Navigation
One of the most crucial aspects of a website is its navigation. It helps visitors quickly and effortlessly discover the content they’re looking for, such as a blog post or a product page.
To make your website navigation effective, make sure all of your key pages are being represented. What are those key pages? These are areas of your site that are popular with visitors. You can use Google Analytics to help you understand what those pages are. Using the Navigation Summary Report feature, you’ll learn which pages people go to the most. This also ensures that the navigation is intuitive to how your customers would browse the website.
Another crucial factor is to make sure the navigation isn’t overwhelming. The navigation menu on your website is not the place for amusing gimmicks. Use the cleanest design and wording possible to ensure that your audience understands what you’re trying to convey. In addition, the adage “less is more” applies. Don’t bombard guests with too many items on your menu.
Over time websites grow, but often navigation systems don’t grow with them. As such, it’s essential to update your website navigation regularly for the best possible user experience.
An example of a website that has excellent navigation is Other Stories. The site features clear navigation options that allow users to easily find different product categories.
Add Social Proof
Your website will soar if you provide social proof. Social proof is a marketing approach based on the premise that if people witness others doing something, they are more inclined to do it themselves. If a shopper is undecided about what you’re offering, they will frequently look or ask around to see what others say about it before making a purchase. Potential buyers get the impression that they’re not by themselves. Social proof lets them know that many people believe in the brand and use it to their advantage. As a result, they have many good reasons to put it to use for themselves as well.
One way to show social proof on your website is to add testimonials or reviews. This can help you gain a lot of new customers. In fact, 91% of customers read internet reviews before purchasing something. Furthermore, testimonials can boost sales page conversions by 34%.