Boost your website conversions with user-focused design
Are you looking for ways to boost your website's conversion rate?
Well, your best bet to fixing your sales or newsletter opt-in conversions is to actually step back and consider how well you’re actually connecting with, supporting & nurturing the real humans visiting your website.
User-focused design is one of the most effective (and simplest!) methods for achieving this goal. The goal of user-focused design is to ensure that visitors to your website experience a smooth and enjoyable journey through your website - ultimately towards your free and paid offers! So by focusing on what matters to users, you’re cultivating an environment that encourages them to take action aka convert!
In this blog, I’m sharing the key strategies you’ll need to boost your website conversion rates through strategic user-focused design.
What is User Experience and why does it matter for your website?
User Experience is the art & technical craft of creating enjoyable, compelling digital experiences. This basically boils down into making sure your website is clear, well laid out and easy to use for your ideal clients.
At its core, your website is a tool to help your ideal clients find you, decide if your business has the solution they’re looking for, and make it as easy as possible for them to take the next steps.
So by shifting your perspective on your website from being an obligatory asset for your business, like a modern-day business card, to it being a powerful medium that helps you support your future clients as they learn about your business and your offers. By crafting your website from this place of service, you’re also positioning yourself, and your business, as a trusted expert for your ideal clients who are actively looking for help.
And ultimately, the way your website makes its users feel directly impacts your conversions because we all prefer to buy from businesses we like and trust.
How your user experience impacts conversions
Your website visitors have likely landed on your website in the first place because they are looking for answers to a problem or want to learn more about a potential solution to something they’re seeking to solve.
So the better you’re able to help them find what they’re looking for, the more likely they are to stick around!
Crafting a user-focused website ultimately helps you nurture your audience at their own pace and build that oh-so-important know / like / trust factor that’s critical for sales
So ultimately, crafting a clear, intentional journey through your website helps users navigate your site easily, and thus drives more sales because you’re getting more interested people into your sales pages.
Now, this might sound complex and a little abstract, but ultimately a simple, clear, well-designed website will serve you just fine, In fact, simple is usually best since a confused mind rarely buys!
Learn more about how your website affects user experience right here.
How to build your website with user experience in mind
User experience design comes down to finding the simplest, clearest, and most enjoyable design solution for your website visitors to find what they’re looking for & engage with the valuable content on your website.
By taking the extra effort to ensure that your website is usable for ALL people, you’re not only improving your chances of getting your offers in front of more people but the very act of providing an inclusive experience on your website will likely win a lot of points in the eyes of those who rely on those efforts.
Here are 3 easy ways to improve your website’s user experience:
Write copy that’s focused on your user’s experience using their own language
Review your website copy - aka text - to see how well you’re connecting with your reader.
Often business owners write our websites from our perspectives, saying things like “I am a website strategist who loves working with low-capacity entrepreneurs” but those sorts of phrases put the focus on US and not on our readers.
Simply rewording a sentence like this to put the focus onto your reader can make it a lot easier for them to connect with what you're sharing. So my example above could be rewritten as “Are you a low-capacity entrepreneur looking to get more out of your website? I’m a website strategist and I love working with people just like you because x,y,z.”
2. Share the next steps before asking your users to take them
This is a simple but very effective trick to help prepare your eager future customers & clients to move forward AND make it easier for them to actually take that action!
Instead of jumping straight into asking for the sale or wanting them to book a sales call, you can ease them into that decision by telling them specifically what will happen when they do hit the “buy now” or “book a call” button. This catches them up with what you already know about your sales process, but it also removes some of the anxiety & fear around the purchase decision since they now know what to expect.
In fact, you can use this same process for any action you want people to take on your website, not just sales. Telling your website visitor what will happen next when they sign up for your email newsletter can vastly improve your email engagement and retention rates since they’re aware of what to expect once on your email list BEFORE signing up.
3. Make sure your page is accessible for all users
Ensuring that your website is accessible for people of all abilities and disabilities is actually a legal requirement for you as a website owner, and is important so you aren’t accidentally excluding people from using your website.
Accessibility is a complex topic, and while I’m not a lawyer I have built a lot of websites with accessibility best practices in mind. And my biggest takeaways for you are to check that your website follows these 4 main requirements.
Your website must be:
Perceivable
Robust
Understandable
Operable
It’s also important to make sure your website is usable on all devices, so checking your website is mobile responsive and set up for screen readers & assistive technology will also be important steps towards accessibility.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, taking care to craft an easy, enjoyable experience for your website visitors as they get to know you, your business & your offers is not only good for your customer service but also your bottom line! If you’re interested in diving into redesigning with user experience & website strategy in mind, check out my Work Your Website course where you’ll walk through the exact process I use to optimize clients’ websites to boost their traffic, conversions & usability.
