Don’t make mistakes on your website design, you’ll lose customers

So you think you have considered everything when building your new website, but have you considered the human elements of things?

Navigation

Don’t make things confusing, as your potential customers will just go elsewhere. Website navigation should be simple, intuitive and easy to understand. Why hide things away when they could be easy to find? Making things hard for site visitors just means that they will go elsewhere. Aim for 2 or 3 clicks to find what they want or they will go elsewhere. Consider a search facility for ecommerce, but that’s not essential for brochure websites.

Images

The visual message that your website gives off is very important, if your images look cheap then so does your business. Either invest in a good photographer or licence for stock images from companies such as bigstock or istock. The few pounds that it will cost you are well worth spending.

The immediate impact of images on your visitors is also important; after all they don’t want to see a boring text heavy site. They want to see something that looks nice! Text is very important on a website though, so make sure the balance is correct – Keep customers interested with short, snappy content and images.

Call to action

If you are selling something then the checkout process needs to be simple and quick. Don’t overcomplicate things and don’t ask for information that you don’t really need. If you look at Amazon their 1 click order process is brilliant and has reduced the number of abandoned orders significantly. Also keep charges transparent and don’t add on any unexpected ones at the end!

If your website simply has a contact call to action, then don’t hide it away or be scared to use it! Add contact forms where necessary and give customers the choice to either email or call you. And make the telephone number PROMINENT!  Also when you are collecting information from customers don’t ask for every small bit of personal info, you only need the basics – email, name, telephone and notes. You don’t need their inside leg measurement or what they had for dinner last Thursday!

Reassurance and Trust

You are looking to reassure your customers at every step of the way until they either purchase or contact you. Don’t be scared to show off your accreditations, achievements, associations, trust seals or security badges. After all the people visiting your site may not know you from Adam and could be a little sceptical about passing over their details.

Be proud of your reputation and show off reviews and testimonials, just don’t make them up. Ever.

If you would like more information on how to create the perfect new website, contact DBWD.