There have been tests and studies that show certain color schemes and combinations will lead to improved sales conversions or higher click-through rates, though the overall impact on conversions and clicks from color choices is typically rather small, however there is also a little talked about secret that many web professionals know which can make a major difference to the bottom line of your web site.
Actually, there are a lot of ways design can affect your bottom line that have nothing to do with colors. For example, just ensuring that your pages load fast will lead to less visitors leaving your page (bouncing off) within a few seconds, and of course having more visitors spend longer amounts of time on your pages can increase conversion rates or advertising revenues.
But the little spoken of secret I wanted to focus on is simply offering your visitors an ugly design.
That’s right, despite conventional wisdom which suggests the more impressive your design the better your site will do, the truth is visitors who land on your site pages are looking for what they’re supposed to do next even before your page is finished loading.
It’s just human nature, and the eyes and brain are faster than the browser. Even before a page has finished loading the surfer is scanning it from top to bottom and left to right looking for some “call to action”. Some form or link or whatever that they expect to be expected of them to act on.
Pretty and impressive site designs line the pockets of web designers who create them, and those designers are usually worth every penny they charge, but they don’t always help the site owner increase revenue for one simple reason, the more bells and whistles and media/graphics your page holds, the less likely your visitors are to read your sales copy or find your advertising links that you want them to follow.
All of the bells and whistles just distract the visitor from quickly finding that “call to action” you want them to use, whether it’s reading your sales copy and placing an order, or clicking on the Google AdSense ads… if you distract your visitors with an impressive design or lots of media then they’re more likely to leave your page without following your desired path.
Image Source: sxc.hu user fishmonk
Now, I’ve used the term “ugly”, but what I’m really talking about is “plain”. In other words, less bells and whistles and more attention for your revenue stream path on the page.
A great example of this being done well (and not really ugly by any means) is www.ezinearticles.com - if you look at any inner page there from a design perspective, you’ll see right away that the advertising units are the primary draw for a visitor’s eyes as the page loads. The actual design and page structure is pleasing and functional, but nothing on the page really stands out to attract the attention of scanning eyes other than the advertising links. Google AdSense even did a case study of eZineArticles because they were so effective with the program.
And that’s really what I’m talking about here, not so much “make your page ugly”, but rather prevent your design and content from distracting visitors away from your revenue stream.
The same is true if you’re selling a product or service on the page, but in this case instead of advertising units you want to draw your visitor’s attention to your sales copy, which is easily done by making sure it stands out right away from the overall design by using in-text images, different fonts or etc.–anything that just gets your visitors eyes focused where you want them on the page right away.
So, there you have it. If you want to improve or increase the income from your site, start working on making your site a little less pretty and turn your “calls to action” into the eye candy that grabs your visitors first.
Tags: advertising, conversions, design
[...] Design Secrets That Increase Revenue | BuildTheDotCom | Web … Tags: advertising, browser, conversions, html-image-code, retail, sales, traffic, visitors, web-design [...]