ASM Development - taking websites beyond design

Web Design Can Affect Your Conversion Rates

It is pretty obvious that web design is an important aspect of any online presence. In fact, most website owners look for a design or template that has some sort of ‘wow’ factor. Put simply, they want it to look great.

That is all understandable. Your web design is an insight to the business. A poorly designed web site can indicate a poorly run business – or at least the perception of a poorly run business. A well designed web site indicates a level of professionalism – and that is the message we want to send out.

However, a website that has the ‘wow’ factor is not necessarily a well designed website. In fact, if there is a lot of Flash, for example, it may not be easily crawled by the search engines. A website can have a real ‘wow’ factor in looks, but be almost impossible to navigate by a new visitor.

Much has been said about page speed and what effect it may have in determining search rankings. As a  variable in the search ranking algorithm, very little is the message coming out of Google. However, I was interested to read one sentence from Maile Ohye, Senior Developer Programs Engineer for Google in a post at WebProNews:

it does enhance the user experience, and she refers to a study that found that an optimized site actually increased conversions by 16%

By “optimized” she is referring to speed and usability. If you stop for a moment and think about it, it is commonsense. If a visitor finds your site attractive, easy to navigate and contains information that they have been searching for, you will have filled the requirements of providing a valuable experience for the user. While there, your visitor may even convert.

A poorly designed website has the opposite effect. The visitor arrives, doesn’t like what they see and find it hard to find the information they want – off they will go to another website. You have lost any chance of a conversion. Website design is a crucial component of a successful online business.