What is Page Design Optimization?
Page design optimization is designing a website so that it's visual presentation influences users to become conversions. Along with copywriting, page design is one of the most important features that visitors use to evaluate a business and ultimately has a large impact on their decision making process. Websites that are visually constructed well have a clear path through a conversion funnel. However, there are no absolute formulas for page design that are guaranteed to work for everyone; different elements of design must constantly be tested and evaluated to determine which formula of on-page elements drives the highest amount of conversions.
Types of Design Elements
There are a variety of design elements you can test and optimize to influence conversions. When implementing these elements, you should also ask a few questions listed below. These include:
- Images - How well do images correlate to the content copy, headline copy, or brand persona?
- Testimonials - Are the testimonials reassuring? Are they located in optimal places? How do they reinforce trust in your website?
- Distractions - Are there too man links that distract users from completing CTA's? Are other media sources getting in the way?
- Calls-to-action - Are they noticeable? Do they occur too frequently or infrequently? Are they visually compelling?
- Spacing - Is the page too cluttered? Are you using blank or negative space well?
- Multimedia Sources - Are the video or audio sources on the page necessary? Do they provide value for the user or are they distracting?
- Style - How do different color variations work for your product, services, or brand persona? Is the font of the copywriting too flashy or bland?
There are a variety of elements to optimize and split test. Finding the most beneficial variations of these elements for the users to streamline their goals and yours will increase conversion rates and their satisfaction.
Why is Page Design Important?
Well optimized page design is one of the most important components for any website's conversion goals. It helps in a wide range of aspects such as:
Separating Your Website From Your Competitors via UI and UX
User Interface (UI)
People are extremely visual and rely on aesthetics when making decisions about almost anything. Whether it's the food they eat, the people they date, or the places they live; these choices are often times dependent on how appealing something is visually. Websites that are designed to fit their needs in an attractive or even elegant way can make all the difference when they're making decisions between you and your competitor. Design your website in an aesthetic way, but remember that it's usability is just as important as it's visual appearance.
User Experience (UX)
A website might have all the attractive qualities, but if it's difficult to use it can result in a poor user experience that can significantly hurt conversion rates. Having a website with clear CTAs, easily located content or products, and simplistic interactive features that are based on consumer needs can be the difference between a consumer choosing to do business with one business over another. Poor UX design can lead to user frustrations which means abandoning your website in favor of another. Having a good UX design throughout every page on your website can help reduce holes in your conversion funnel and keep your bounce rate low.
Distinguishing Your Brand's Persona:
Having the design of your website coincide with market expectations is also crucial to a websites credibility. Factors like demographics and target audience should play a role when deciding what the website should look like. For example, a website focused on wedding albums would be expected to target a generally female audience within a certain age range; thus stylistic choices like colors, original images, and testimonials are vital components that should be optimized to fit this demographic and ultimately your brand persona. How people perceive your business as a whole can be instrumental when it comes to purchasing decisions.
How Do I Optimize My Page Design?
A/B or split testing all of the above mentioned elements will allow you to get actionable data on just how efficient your design optimization is. Using heatmaps, session replay, form analytics, and cohort analysis will give you quantifiable results that you can use to evaluate the success of one feature over another. Conversion rate optimization means constantly conducting these tests and implementing successful solutions from conclusive results. Test always and often to find the highest converting variations of your page designs to maximize your customer acquisition efforts.